Well, it's not far down to paradise At least it's not for me
And if the wind isright, you can sail away andfind tranquility
Oh,the canvas can do miracles Just you wait and see
Believe meSailing Takes meaway to where I'vealways heardit could be Just a dream and the wind to carry me Soon,I willbe free
I didn’t know this at the time he was putting out all those soft rock songs, but I read recently he is a killer guitarist, who once even subbed for a sick Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple.
The Toto stuff is crazy — combined the members of the band Toto have played on more than 5,000 albums. The albums they've played on have sold more than half a billion copies. Add their own 14 albums.
Steve Lukather did all the guitars on 'Beat It' except for the Eddie Van Halen solo. Toto were basically Boz Scaggs' backup band. So many studio sessions.
Here's a pre-Toto, teenage Steve Porcaro playing keyboard bass with the late, great Gary Wright on 'Love is Alive'. These boys are all over the music of the 70s and 80s. 🎧🎹🎵🎤 https://youtu.be/J4P1j-5oGzU?si=BXlxzNKonOgQYvzd&t=105
It's a genre of music featured on the Sirius radio summer channel called "Yacht Rock," but someone else came up with it first for some comedy show I'd never heard of before.
Hey Katrina, Thanks for doing my hw! Lol
Much appreciated!
I will do some more research as to why those tunes were classified as “yacht” rock.
Have a good day.
That was no joke in the 80s. I worked at a business management firm and they employed what we called 'runners' to run errands for clients. The two partners were always coked up which didn't turn out well for their clients, in the end.
On top of their influence on pop music, Toto also gave a start to a young Patrick Swayze, who got his first official credit dancing in the Rosanna video.
one of the things that genuinely warms my heart is how so many rappers and producers — basically kids in their teens and early twenties — gave a new life to the music they grew up with
Interesting experience (and fun) for people close to our age to spend our late adolescence and adulthood being like “oh, this is where that sample came from?!” 24/7
It still happens now, it’s just weird for us to hear Jack Harlow flip something like Glamorous because it doesn’t seem like that song came out too long ago when you’re in your 30s and 40s
I loved that Prince Paul & De La got some shine on their YR sample choices. Those sounds were so much a part of our childhood soundtrack growing up in LI in the 80s.
RIGHT?!? What got me was finding out (not from the doc but last week!) Steve Porcaro wrote the words after his kid came home bullied asking why. Just wrenching! One of my all time favorite songs
No, just a song written by the keyboard player Steve Porcaro. Several Toto band members worked on Thriller as they were part of the LA studio scene at the time (the Porcaro brothers’ dad was a successful drummer who played with Sinatra & lots of records).
Steve Porcaro was a beast of a songwriter, and for us guitar nerds, Steve Lukather was the guitar sound of the 80s--he was the session player for almost everyone.
They both have the absolute most positive attitude about how yacht rock is both beautiful and absurd and it’s fine to like it ironically and unironically.
Imagine parents allowing their daughters to leave for school with a roach clip in their hair. ... It happened every single day in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
You’ve gotta watch the YouTube video of Rick Beato interviewing Christopher Cross…the tidbit about his Sailing intro being a taping mistake was fascinating. That topic starts at spot 26:35.
If I hadn’t heard Danger Zone, I’d have zero right to share any opinion about music whatsoever.
He didn’t write the song (Moroder did) or play guitar (the guy from Giant did) - or even the synth for that matter!
I stand by not a rocker.
I also love Kenny Loggins.
Caught the tail end of the doc & enjoyed immensely. Displays that vestige of the music industry when singers were real musicians. The industry has changed so much I crave listening to these very artists...
All those guys and women (Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Rait, Doobies, Eagles, Elton…) — They are all pretty chill. It was our post-Vietnam culture. “Make Peace, Not War”. It stuck with us. 😂✌🏼
OMG! Thank you! I went looking for this and just watched it. Got to see Steely Dan and Michael McDonald together and a few years later met MM. It's funny because I told him he was literally the soundtrack to my life and that's what they called Yacht Rock in the documentary. So cool!
I was just telling my husband about this documentary after reading this thread. He said, “I started watching that last night.” I told him we have to watch it tonight. We saw the Doobie Brothers way back in the day. Wonderful. Listened to this music all of the time.
Dude has looked the same for 40 years it seems. He was in almost every song in the early 80s as I recall, didn't matter the artist. Half way through it would be like "Oh that's Michael McDonald singing there."
Totally agree - he seems very cool. I just watched it yesterday and loved it! Brought back SO many memories from late 70s early 80s. I'm a big Steely Dan fan so I appreciated that whole aspect.
I had to check it out after seeing this post… I love Michael McDonald so much more than I ever did before, and I’ve always loved his music and iconic voice. Great Documentary…
That's the first thing you notice about him, that he's very humble.
The second thing you will notice after you've seen enough of his interviews (in particular the in depth interview with Rick Beato) is that he's a total goob, like socially awkward goob.
Yeah. Like they talk about in the doc, they were people that weren't expecting to be famous. A lot of them were just workaday session musicians who made really pretty music.
When I was younger, I was one of those, “Michael McDonald ruined the Doobie Brothers” guys. I have drastically changed my opinion in the last few years.
Michael McDonald is the epitome of Yacht Rock. He had just as many hits as a lead or duet vocalist as he did as a backup vocalist, if not more. The guy defined the genre.
It is a great read but his history as a “ grounded personality” is , um, mixed. Buy the book ! Michael McDonald is the greatest living white singer of our time.
Years ago I interviewed Crosby Loggins, Kenny’s son, when he was releasing an album. He mentioned the influence of Michael McDonald, not so much as a musician but as a grounded, calming personality he knew. That’s the guy in the documentary, and boy did that personality shape the sound.
I do to, at least they didn't try to tag Steely Dan as yacht rock, just its forerunner. No wonder Donald Fagen told them to F' off when they tried to interview him for this.
We saw MM at a smallish venue in 2019. At the end of the concert, he spoke about the acrimonious state of things and then had the whole audience sing, What the World Needs Now Is Love. I think of uplifting moments like that when I think about getting through the next four years.
Great documentary, though I did follow Quest Love’s yacht rock playlist and I would argue half of the songs are not actually yacht rock but still a vibe for sure.
Pedantic as hell, but hoping that's chiller on here to do... my theory: having played in a similarly styled, "ever evolving roster" fusion/rock band where I also did a lot of the arranging/directing, you need this "zen" approach to handle the enormous egos on good players and have them listen to you
I hope it comes to some other platforms, I want to see that sh*t. Perhaps y'all would enjoy this, too. Maybe not Hit Parade's very best episode, but was entertaining:
Tremendous and real guy - my aunt produced a great profile of him years ago (for a major network program), and he would leave tickets for her whenever and wherever she asked. And would make his way to say hi.
Have you heard about his 8, 10yr old female fan? The dad (who hilariously is ambivalent about Michael mcdonald) takes her around to all his shows and she’s like independently a huge Michael mcdonhead 😆 it’s the cutest thing ever; I heard about it on #Threedom
One highlight includes her first googling images of Michael McDonald - who had, “the voice of an angel” per her - and then throwing herself onto her bed in sorrow bc be was so old (recreation pictured), and when asked how she overcame her distress, she says, “I just had to deal with it.” [shrug] 😆
Quotes from her parents (pictured): “Huh? What?” “Jeez, that’s kinda odd.” 🤣 I’m dying. It’s so much funnier that they’re not also fans, and also don’t even hate the guy’s music. They’re just like, “yeah, it’s not bad to hear in the grocery store or whatever, but weird call for Paisley.” 💀
I've watched it twice so I could catch everything and yes, Michael McDonald is so chill. I also liked how Christopher Cross said he was ego-free in the studio with him.
But I was not expecting to hear Christopher Cross financed his first studio selling weed or writing 'Ride Like the Wind' on acid.
I haven't watched the documentary yet, but it was decades before I realized that it was Christopher Cross that was playing the insane lead guitar on all his records. I just assumed it was a hot shot session guy. But he was known as a guitar player before he started writing hit songs.
Still is. I had the pleasure of photographing him a few years back at my cousin Eddie Tuduri's benefit for his non-profit, The Rhythmic Arts Project. https://traplearning.org/
Years ago I interviewed Crosby Loggins, Kenny’s son, when he was releasing an album. He mentioned the influence of Michael McDonald, not so much as a musician but as a grounded, calming personality he knew. That’s the guy in the documentary, and boy did that personality shape the sound.
I believe that the music industry discovered years ago that Michael McDonald is the bacon of music. He just makes everything better when he's a part of it.
Comments
And if the wind isright, you can sail away andfind tranquility
Oh,the canvas can do miracles Just you wait and see
Believe meSailing Takes meaway to where I'vealways heardit could be Just a dream and the wind to carry me Soon,I willbe free
https://youtu.be/J4P1j-5oGzU?si=BXlxzNKonOgQYvzd&t=105
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_rock
Much appreciated!
I will do some more research as to why those tunes were classified as “yacht” rock.
Have a good day.
https://youtu.be/UmL94Rysp9k?si=8-ZLgzBugBV5gdKd
The influence!
Anyway, the Human Nature story is great:
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-steely-dan-gaucho-nearly-destroyed-jeff-porcaro/
Please share your HBO log in with fellow yacht rock lovers. 😂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zdIGxOJ4M&pp=ygUbdGh1bmRlcmNhdCBzaG93IHlvdSB0aGUgd2F5
“Lived nine lives gunned down ten.”
Imagine parents allowing their daughters to leave for school with a roach clip in their hair. ... It happened every single day in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
(Kenny Loggins definitely not a rocker but, man he gave it his everything)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E
He didn’t write the song (Moroder did) or play guitar (the guy from Giant did) - or even the synth for that matter!
I stand by not a rocker.
I also love Kenny Loggins.
probably not. just a unique name. so I thought there might be a small chance. plus fluttering about the pnw
(No but fr tho how's that white man grooves so hard)
The second thing you will notice after you've seen enough of his interviews (in particular the in depth interview with Rick Beato) is that he's a total goob, like socially awkward goob.
We used to throw them in SF at this bar called Amber in the early 2000's 🚬🍸
They are obsessed with Hall & Oates! 🛳👱🏼♂️🧑🏻🦱👍🏼
We do listen to yatch rock in the med room.
Yah-mo B there.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/48jcmpk5jpDSuUWjgJUwsZ?si=RMaobNt_SUGqtKj-FUN3CA
"What A Fool Believes" is like an anthem to me.
And....just now it is playing. Seriously.
Good for her, that's actually really cool that it's real.
https://youtu.be/b0HzWMqLeiE?si=2PVL3H9fkrFjS70E
But I was not expecting to hear Christopher Cross financed his first studio selling weed or writing 'Ride Like the Wind' on acid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAcQIfoauQ
Great documentary. Watched it last night. I had no idea Toto was on the Thriller album!