Music Local Culture

Sailing Away With Yacht Rock Memories

assessing the musical – and local – impact of an often-mocked musical genre

Luc Anthony |

ONE NATION, UNDER YACHT. Thanks to last year's HBO documentary, promo image pictured, yacht rock was top of mind for this local writer.
ONE NATION, UNDER YACHT. Thanks to last year's HBO documentary – which prominently featured Michael McDonald, pictured above in this promo photo – yacht rock has been top of mind for Volume One writer Luc Anthony. (Submitted image)

Yacht rock has had a moment of late. HBO’s Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary was released last year to much chatter and commentary. This feels like a final establishment of the genre as an accepted and appreciated form of American popular music.

Then again, how does one define “yacht rock”? The restrictive version by those who created the term and comedic web series in the 2000s? Accepting all “soft rock” of the 1970s and ’80s? Does a lyrical boat reference automatically qualify as yacht rock? Or is the definition more of a vibe: As one observer quips in the HBO doc (which UW-Eau Claire alum Steven Hyden helped produce), “It rocks, but it doesn’t rock too hard.” 

Perhaps you are too young to have lived when any of yacht rock’s core artists were first popular; you may wonder about experiencing the sound as new, hit music.

My first tangible radio memories are as a 1 year old in 1979, as most “classic” yacht rock songs were arriving. In the turn to the 1980s, one of the stations my parents had on their radio was WEAQ, then at 790 AM. Behind the mic were DJs like George House and Mike Cook; selecting the playlist was fellow DJ Rick Roberts. Along with Z100, they were two of the only local stations to play pop music at the time.

“I had to make sure I programmed music that didn’t include two Michael McDonald vocals back-to-back whether he was on the record label or not.” –former Eau Claire DJ Jay Bouley

To those DJs, they were simply playing the hits of the era. “It was just really breakout music that usually included a soulful rhythm track, tasty horns, and smooth, relatable vocals,” House says. “It also competed with disco in the late ’70s which wasn’t always universally loved by pop music fans.” Roberts was aware of the quality of that music, which he says was “written and produced well without being over-the-top ‘cheesy.’ ” He adds, “The songs had enough tempo, catchy lyrics, and strong melodies to be interesting and became popular.”

Jay Bouley joined Z100 in the late-1980s; at the start of the decade, he worked at stations in Minnesota and North Dakota. “This music could fit easily fit on a Top 40 station, as well as an Adult Contemporary music station, and was a nice alternative to the older-style country music at the time,” he says.  Also, as the HBO documentary explains, Michael McDonald was quite ubiquitous. “I had to make sure I programmed music that didn’t include two Michael McDonald vocals back-to-back whether he was on the record label or not,” Bouley recalls.

NAME THAT BAND. The disc jockeys at Eau Claire’s WEAQ-AM circa 1980 included Mike Cook (bottom left), Rick Roberts (top left), and George House (top center). Photo courtesy Mike Cook
NAME THAT BAND. The disc jockeys at Eau Claire’s WEAQ-AM circa 1980 included Mike Cook (bottom left), Rick Roberts (top left), and George House (top right). Photo courtesy Mike Cook

While acts like Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, Toto, and Ambrosia had national hits, the Chippewa Valley demographics of 45 years ago may have made that music particularly amenable. Mike Cook arrived from Ohio in 1976; at the time, he saw local radio as “very vanilla.” Bouley noted the predominant Scandinavian and German heritage in the cities where he worked, similar then in makeup to Eau Claire. “The predominantly white yacht rock fit right in with our intended format for middle class and wide-ranging age demographics,” he says.

Cook adds that despite Eau Claire disco clubs, “there was still a large group of people who wanted to hear something – ANYTHING – else, and soft rock songs better fit their tastes.” Says House, “Of course the hard rock fans thought it was too soft for their tastes, but the real magic in any successful hit song is that it delivers universal appeal to both male and female audiences. The yacht rock vibe had it in spades.”

If you went to an Eau Claire-area bar around 1980, you wouldn’t necessarily find lots of yacht rock performed by local bands. Rick Anderson played in the group First Impression; he observed audiences wanting higher energy. “The slower yacht rock-type stuff would have laid there a bit.” he says. “If we learned something slower because it was really popular, we typically wouldn’t do it very long.”

The complexity of yacht rock arrangements and recordings also made re-creating it here more of a challenge. “It was tough as a local band to have the players to do that music, especially all the vocals,” Anderson says.

What Sank Yacht Rock?

Since the term “yacht rock” hadn’t even been coined in the 1980s, there also was never a pronouncement of the genre’s decline. If Billboard magazine were in the racks at Cassidy’s in the autumn of 1983, you couldn’t have read a front-page headline like “Yacht Rock Dwindles At Radio As ‘MTV’ Bands Explode.” Yet the effect was happening.

“With the introduction of MTV in the early ’80s, we know ‘Video Killed The Radio Star,’ but it also killed the yacht rock star too, I’m sorry to say,” House says. Bouley observes that as a result, “We saw the personality artist with a higher profile and more visual appeal.” Meanwhile, adds Roberts, “Yacht rock started losing steam in 1982 from over-exposure and ‘copycat’ quality.”

“I’ll wear my captain’s hat on a yacht rock cruise ship in a heartbeat!” –longtime Eau Claire radio DJ George House

Of course, DJs still played whatever was nationally popular. According to Cook, “I didn't even notice anything more than new music replacing old music ... but that was always the case with me during my career.”

Fast-forward to this century, and in the wake of the 2005 premiere of the Yacht Rock web series, the music has gradually regained a cool cachet. This seems logical to Roberts. “Good music will always be good music,” he says. “It makes sense that it has returned and is being recycled into new music.” When people ask Bouley about the Sirius XM channel devoted to the genre, “I tell them ‘It’s the kind of music you’d like to hear on a pontoon on a Sunday afternoon.’ ” House is glad that these acts are finally getting favorable, non-mocking recognition. “I’ll wear my captain’s hat on a yacht rock cruise ship in a heartbeat!”

HONING THEIR KRAFT. Dave Roll, far left, with Eau Claire’s AirKraft in 1981. Photo courtesy Dave Roll
HONING THEIR KRAFT. Dave Roll, far left, with Eau Claire’s AirKraft in 1981. Photo courtesy Dave Roll

Yet the local musicians of that era do not necessarily look back on what we now call “yacht rock” being reductive to one label. Dave Roll was the first keyboardist in local band AirKraft, starting in 1981.  "Yacht rock, as I understand the term, has an issue with being too narrowly focused, and it really misses the big picture,” he says. “I don't think you should look back 40 years at an artist or band and cherry-pick one or two pieces and believe that such a small sample represents their entire body of work.”

In fact, some of the musicians with whom I spoke had not heard of the term “yacht rock” – people who, nevertheless, were very well-versed in the music and artists associated with that phrase. 

Today, I am now the one selecting yacht rock songs and artists for a local radio playlist: the Classic Hits format of Greatest Hits 98.1. Toto and Cross and McDonald once dominated Chippewa Valley radio, then disappeared; now they are core acts on that station. For some listeners, yacht rock is the soundtrack of their youth; for others, they learned these songs from older family. Cook observes: “Keep in mind the fact the kids almost always love their parents’ music to a certain extent.”

Anderson has a thirtysomething son strongly interested in music, but not familiar with the term “yacht rock.” What is the best way to describe whatever one deems as part of that genre? “Music that doesn't demand that you listen to it, but if you do, it should be interesting and possibly satisfying,” he says. Nearly half a century later, music – and yacht rock – fans of the Chippewa Valley continue to be satisfied.

Thanks to Peter Phippen and George House for providing connections with several of the people interviewed for this story.

Valley DJs’ Yackt Rock Faves

The DJs interviewed played dozens of “yacht rock” songs; what were their favorites? Here are their top fives:

George House:

  1. "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan

  2. "Biggest Part Of Me" by Ambrosia

  3. "Rosanna" by Toto

  4. "What You Won’t Do For Love" by Bobby Caldwell

  5. "Ride Like The Wind" by Christopher Cross

Mike Cook:

  1. "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" by Chicago

  2. "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire

  3. "It's a Miracle" by Barry Manilow

  4. "Your Mama Don't Dance" by Loggins & Messina

  5. "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry

Rick Roberts:

  1. "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty

  2. "Reminiscing" by The Little River Band

  3. "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight" by England Dan & John Ford Coley

  4. "Heart To Heart" by Kenny Loggins

  5. "Biggest Part Of Me" by Ambrosia

Jay Bouley:

  1. “Sailing” by Christopher Cross

  2. “Africa” by Toto

  3. “Whenever I Call You 'Friend'” by Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks

  4. “What A Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers

  5. "Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan