Cruise Control: How Yacht Rock Sailed Back into Fashion

The Guardian ^ | April 20, 2016 | Jennifer Otter Bickerdike

[SamAdams76]

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s I worked in the music industry, doing marketing for record labels including Sony, Universal and Interscope Geffen A&M. My love for all things smooth, granted as a birthright to all born within the Santa Cruz county lines, never waned. I was often teased for being an aficionado of the soft-rock genre by colleagues at the office and bands I toured with. It was completely uncool to admit to being a fan of glossily produced songs in the era of indie rock, grunge and riot grrrls.

[xp38]

Well as you said this is a new term and that is how it was labeled back in the 70s. How it is exactly defined now as Yacht Rock and what that means is up to the current music scene people. This is the first time I’ve ever heard the term.

[John Milner]

That’s pretty much how I define Mannheim Steamroller. There’s no there there.

[John Milner]

“Is there gas in the car?”
“Yes there’s gas in the car.”

[CaptainPhilFan]

I beg to differ. Steely Dan is far and away from these other mentioned bands. Steely Dan may be enjoyed by Yacht Rockers but Steely Dan is not Yacht Rock.

[Cecily]

Donald Fagen is too cool and funky to be boring.

[sheana]

Yeah, that’s how everyone on my dock looks. 😂😂

[HonkyTonkMan]

Listeners are going back 50+ years for good music because today’s commercial hip pop is so bad.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

The SiriusXM Yacht Rock channel has the shortest playlist I have ever heard. It seems like a 6-hour repeat cycle.

Either this is all the music that qualifies, or the program director is very lazy. If they had a deep catalog, it would be a much better channel.

IMHO, the deepest catalog is on Channel 27, “Deep Tracks”, although you never know what is coming up next and some of it is awful, “immediate skip” pseudo-music from the past.

Usually, they move Yacht Rock down to channel 70 between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The Buffet channel is a little better with “Buffet-style” music tossed in and some occasional Carribian steel drum songs that add some texture to their otherwise fawning playlist.

If you want the Beach experience, try SiriusXM Channel 701, “Carolina Shag” or listen directly at the source at 949thesurf.com

[SamAdams76]

Fern bars...I haven't heard that in a while. Now I'm going to have to dig up an article on them to post here.

For those who are not old enough to remember, "fern bars" were where the pretentious people went to socialize (before they were called yuppies in the 1980s).

Typically fern bars would feature natural light (which only day drinkers would notice), a lot of wood panelling, thick rugs, stained glass lamps and yes, fern plants hanging all about. Nobody went into those places to order a beer and a shot. No, you typically would order a complicated "foo-foo" cocktail with about 7 ingredients and a lot of fruit like cherries, squares of pineapple and slices of citrus.

On the jukebox would be a lot of Neil Diamond, Lobo, Bread, Carly Simon, James Taylor and yes, Steely Dan.

It was a place where singles would hangout as well as younger married couples who managed to find a babysitter for the night. The men looked like Mr. Kotter (from "Welcome Back Kotter") and the women looked like Mindy (from "Mork & Mindy").

A fern bar was considered "classy" at the time. Leisure suits were very much in!

[SamAdams76]

Check out my post #49 - I echo the same thoughts. I was coming of age in the late 1970s and got in on the “fern bar” scene just as it was ending. But I remember when men used to blow dry their air just like the girls, drink daiquiris and even some of us wore platform shoes and such (with our leisure suits). I mention that only because I see so many comments here about how sissified boys are these days. Back in my high school in the 1970s, you had a much harder time telling the boys apart from the girls, especially from behind.

[SamAdams76]

Steely Dan’s lyrics are full of drug addicts and dealers, alcoholics, street gangs, Caribbean slum-life, homosexual prostitutes, teen delinquents, third-world loser expats, and all night DJ’s.

I honestly don't know how you got all that from their lyrics. I mostly hear stuff like "drink your big black cow (a classic fern bar cocktail) and get out of here"; "I'm never going back to my old school"; and "Are you reeling in the years...stowing away the time."

Now admittedly I'm not a big lyrics guy. For me, it's more about the musicianship and Steely Dan was all about that. I guess Beethoven could have written bawdy lyrics for his 7th Symphony but I would always just focus on the music .

[SamAdams76]

Yeah, that’s how everyone on my dock looks. 😂😂

You mean if I showed up on your boat dressed like this, I would be out of place?

[Rebelbase]

Real Yachties know how to relax.

[a fool in paradise]

Commonly found in the atrium at the Hyatt Regency...

[SamAdams76]

That’s pretty much how I define Mannheim Steamroller. There’s no there there.

Their first three Christmas albums however are essential and they get played every Christmas in my house (at least they are in my shuffle Christmas playlist).

Everything released after that is basically those first three albums re-recorded. Total rip-off for anybody who already owned those first three albums. Really disappointed that they would take that approach.

I also paid good money to take my family to a Mannheim Steamroller concert about 15 years back. Turns out they were not the actual Chip Davis band you hear on the recordings but an imitation band. I guess around Christmas, there can be as many as three "Mannheim Steamroller" outfits doing concerts around the country and Chip Davis himself is pretty much retired (and counting his money).

It was a fine performance and all but I felt a little ripped off.

[SamAdams76]

"Ya know, it's the Radisson, so it's pretty good!"

[nascarnation]

We had that same thing with the “Contours” an old Motown band.
There’s three versions out there, there’s only one original member still around, and he’s on one of the three bands.

[Mermaid Girl]

Yes!!

I wasn’t sure how I came up with the term fern bar, I know I heard my older sibs use it as a sort of an insult. My oldest brother was a punk rocker artist (now hard core right winger, as I think a lot of original punks became) and my sister was just a weirdo. I went from metal head/new waver to hard core rightie as well (runs in the family.)

But even as New wave as I was, I go nuts when I hear Boz Scaggs and The Eagles.

[SamAdams76]

The SiriusXM Yacht Rock channel has the shortest playlist I have ever heard. It seems like a 6-hour repeat cycle.

That is true but they have been working in some deeper cuts from acts like Rickie Lee Jones and Joe Jackson. Still, they have to play the standards. People tune in expecting to hear something from Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald at least every three hours.

It's like The Beatles channel. How many times do they have to play "I Want To Hold Your Hand"? But it is The Beatles channel after all and that was the big hit that introduced them to America. Just so long as they don't play "I Am The Walrus" too often, I'm okay with it.

Like you, I listen to many other SiriusXM channels and have gone down rabbit holes like "Bakersfield Beat", "Indie 1.0", "Red White & Booze" and "Underground Garage."

There is an abundance of musical riches on SiriusXM - just wish I could get an "a la carte" plan where I could make it impossible for any of those hundreds of rap, news and sports stations to come up when spinning the dial. I only subscribe for the music and that's all I want to hear.

My car only has 18 presets which is annoying because there are way more than 18 stations on SiriusXM I would like to have in my rotation.

[Pennsyltucky Boy]

Hey, I like Bakersfield Beat. They play both types of music, country and western.