NEW YORK (AP) — The stress of Thanksgiving is over. Now it’s time to heat up leftovers, relax on the couch and enjoy the smooth sounds of a wrongly mocked music genre: yacht rock.
The late-'70s songs of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross take center stage Friday in the well-crafted Max documentary “Music Box: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary.”
Director Garret Price marries interviews with yacht rock artists, current musicians who are fans and the creators of the parody web series who coined the genre’s name in 2005.
“This music is the soundtrack to our lives, whether we want it or not. It’s playing in grocery stores, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, elevators, our parents’ cars our whole life,” says Price. “I kind of took it for granted because it’s just there. I think a lot of people have abandoned this music and I’m hoping those people rediscover it.”
Kenny Loggins, the Doobie Brothers, Cross and Steely Dan — described as “the primordial ooze from which yacht rock sprang.” Think songs like “Ride Like the Wind” by Cross, “Reelin’ In the Years” by Steely Dan and “Rosanna” by Toto.
What’s not yacht rock — at least according to the filmmakers — is the Eagles, Hall & Oates, Jimmy Buffett or Fleetwood Mac, who don’t perfectly fit the definition: elevated pop music infused with jazz and R&B.
Cross, McDonald, Loggins and Toto’s David Paich and Steve Porcaro discuss the music and how they handled the label. Donald Fagen of Steely Dan only had a short phone call with Price, but allowed the band’s music to be used.
“I had this film basically done except for the Steely Dan music syncs and it was sitting idle for months and was like, ‘I don’t know how to tell this story unless I get this music.’ Lo and behold, we finally hear from Donald Fagen,” says Price. “We have this moment that I don’t even know if I could beat if I had a sit-down interview with him.”