Trim up the outboard engines and just drift around for a bit — you’ve charted a course to the calm waters of yacht rock.
HBO’s original documentary “Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” (not a typo there — though we don’t love the dual colons), directed by Garret Price (“Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage”) and executive produced by Bill Simmons (“Andre The Giant”), debuts Friday, November 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It will be available to stream on Max.
The dock doc goes behind the music on the West Coast soft rock popularized by late-1970s and early-1980s musicians like Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, and Kenny Loggins. Their tunes were retroactively dubbed “Yacht Rock” — by a comedy website series of all things.
“Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” brings forward the musicians and producers of the scene, and details “the genesis, evolution, and downfall of the sound, which was appreciated for its high-quality production, soulful vocals, and breezy, emo lyrics,” the official synopsis reads.
Ultimately it was MTV that did in the genre, which may have been forgotten to music history had it not been for the comedians who would later mock it. Yacht rock also got some new life in the 1990s when some of its tunes were sampled by hip-hop artists. “Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” features the music, of course, but also what HBO calls “incredible archival footage of recording sessions and performances, and humorous, self-reflective interviews.”
The film got Loggins, Cross, and McDonald to participate, as well as Steve Porcaro (Toto), Steve Lukather (Toto), David Paich (Toto), Prince Paul (De La Soul), Brian Robert Jones (Vampire Weekend), Thundercat, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (The Roots), Mac DeMarco, and more. The “Yacht Rock” web series creator J.D. Ryznar is also a part of the doc, as is Fred Armisen.
“Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” is a Ringer Films production in association with Margot Station. It is produced and directed by Garret Price, produced by Adam Gibbs and Madison Cross, executive produced by Jody Gerson, Marc Cimino, and Bill Simmons, and co-executive produced by Geoff Chow and Sean Fennessey. For HBO, the executive producers are Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Tina Nguyen.
“Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary” premieres November 29 on HBO. Watch the trailer here.
