July 17, 2025 • 41 mins
Set sail with The Vinyl Curriculum as Jim takes Logan aboard the smoothest genre of them all—Yacht Rock. It's all about tight harmonies, slick production, and breezy vibes from the late ’70s and early ’80s. Think soft rock with a captain’s hat.
This week, we drift through hits from Toto, Michael McDonald, Steely Dan, and more. Logan tries to figure out what actually qualifies as Yacht Rock, while Jim defends the genre’s unsinkable cool.
🛥️ Is this smooth ride a vibe or a snooze? Logan weighs in.
🎧 Featuring classics that go down easy with a cold drink in hand.
Listen to the Spotify Playlist
Listen to the Apple Music Playlist
Visit the Vinyl Curriculum Landing Page: Visit the Vinyl Curriculum Landing Page
#VinylCurriculum #YachtRock #SmoothRock #SteelyDan #MichaelMcDonald #Podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently I don't know very much about anything.
Somebody calls her Tay Tay. Hey slogan.
(00:23):
Just a quick heads up before we get into it.
This episode was originally recorded live on WLRA radio
where we are able to play all the songs that we talked about.
Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions, we can't include
the music here on the podcast. So anytime you hear this sound,
that means we're skipping over asong that we originally played
(00:44):
on air. But don't worry, Jim's put
together a playlist with all thetracks from the episode so you
can still follow along. Just check the link in the show
notes. All right, now on to the
episode. Welcome back to the Vinyl
Curriculum live here on WLR 88.1FM in Romeoville.
Logan and Jim here in the studio.
(01:06):
Jim, how we doing today? I'm amazing today, actually.
You're amazing. Amazing.
That's pretty good. Why you so amazing?
I'm about to head off for a wedding this weekend in
Nashville A. Wedding.
My daughter's getting married. Shout out to Grace.
Oh, congratulations, Grace. But that, that reminds me, next
week we're not going to be here live in the studio because you
will be absent from class. That's true.
(01:29):
You like that? It's excuse absence.
It's, well, that's debatable. Excuse absence for next week,
but don't worry, we'll have another podcast drop next
Thursday just like this one willdrop this Thursday on Spotify
and Apple Music this week. We've got a great episode for
you today. What is the topic?
Yacht rock? Yacht rock.
(01:50):
What is Yacht Rock? Yacht Rock is designated by the
hat you're wearing. You can't see it, but Logan's
got his nice little sailor hat on.
It's a captain's hat. Thank you.
And I am the captain of this show.
Thank you very much. No.
Well, I'm the teacher. That's all right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yacht rock is this like, you know, it's soft rock, very
clean, is the California vibes, has jazz and R&B influence, just
(02:18):
it's got a sound to it. And I I'm worried you're worried
because you don't like slow songs.
And so I told you about this last week.
So I'm hoping that you are prepared for this, because just
because it's not fast doesn't mean it can't be amazing.
When it's yon rock I can I can buy with yacht rock.
(02:39):
I've got my hat on for Yacht Rock.
That is your limit of that terrible impersonation.
It's not terrible. It's pretty terrible, but yeah,
so that's what we're doing. Yacht rock.
I'm so excited. I love this music.
I'm excited too. Another shout out.
By the way, we've got our pickleball friends that are
listening over in the field house.
So shout out pickleball friends.That's right.
(03:02):
Ryan, Harold, Joe. Little yacht rock?
Well, pickleball what? What better music to play while
you're playing pickleball than yacht rock?
Oh, there's probably better. There's probably better music to
play than this. But anyway.
That's all right, but if you're not playing pickleball and you
want to be part of the show, whydon't we part of the show?
Call or text us 815-733-8517. Tell us your favorite album,
(03:27):
your hottest take or just share one of those memories that you
have about the music. You never know, you might just
hear yourself in the next episode again.
That number is 815-733-8517. I trust Jen's music taste way
more. Let's hear what you have to say.
(03:48):
See, I don't know if I trust your music taste, but that's OK.
815, what is the number? 815-733-8517?
I did. I totally forgot what the number
was, but I'll be monitoring the text.
Also long if you want to call, you might just hear yourself
record a message. You might just hear yourself
next week on the show and give us some thoughts on what you
think about Yacht Rock. We'd love your feedback.
(04:10):
I'll be sure to give my thoughtsall up so long because that's
how this works. If you haven't heard the vinyl
curriculum before, Jim has brought a playlist, Yacht Rock
this week that we're going to listen to.
We've got a, what is it, 11 songs, 12 songs that we're going
to try and get through. We're shooting for 11.
We're. Shooting for 11 this hour, and
after each song we're going to talk about a little bit.
I'm going to get assign it a grade, an impartial grade.
(04:31):
And by the way, we're going to talk about that in a second.
That was brought to my attentionthat I wasn't impartial, but
I'll assign it a grade. Then at the end of the episode,
I'll assign the whole genre of grade and Jim will give back me
a grade, right? That's right.
OK. My grade last week was getting
better. I would have, I think I had an A
last week, which is very proud, very impressive.
(04:53):
But back to this impartial thing.
It was brought to my attention that my grading is not
impartial. Yeah, that is false.
False. That is a the in the true, false
section of the test. That is a false right there.
OK, My grading is impartial. It can't be impartial because
you're coming in saying I don't like slow music.
(05:15):
So if you don't like slow music and then your excuse of not
liking some of the songs is I can't dance to it.
That is by definition not impartial.
Now you're biased coming in and and then hopefully you're trying
to give as partial of an advice as grading as you can, but
obviously you're coming in with some biases.
(05:36):
So this is something we're goingto work on.
First of all, a migrating has gotten better.
You've admitted that migrating has gotten better.
I have played fast songs to date.
This isn't, this is going to be your test, OK, Because these are
not going to be fast songs. These are smooth yacht rock
songs, chill. And so we're going to see how
impartial you are. This is a test.
(05:56):
This is a pop quiz right now. OK, well, I I'm ready.
I'm I'm liking life on the boat.I've got my captain hat on for
this non visual medium. It's just me and Jim in the
studio by the way. I just wore it just for Jim.
But we What's the first song forYacht Rock?
We're going to start off with a song called Peg.
It was 1977. And just so you know, like yacht
(06:17):
rock is kind of late 70s, early 80s.
Is it only on a boat? Can it only be played on a boat?
Because we're not on a boat right now.
No, in fact, the the reason it came about is we'll talk about
that later on, but Staley Dan isthe group that did peg.
That's a group, not a, not a person.
That is correct. OK, and it's Steely Dan.
(06:38):
Peg is the first song for yacht rock and another episode of the
Vinyl curriculum. We're a little smooth jazz for
episode 1. Episode is this #5 I don't even
know 5 it's Steely Dan. I seen your.
Picture. I don't know what you're talking
(07:00):
about. That is the perfect song to play
pickleball to. I tell you what, that is some
high energy. Stuff that was good, you told
you. I remember I start off upbeat
and I want to end up beat. Yeah, no, that was that's good.
I like that. Another strong start.
Since the first episode we've really improved the start.
Yeah, which I think has an influence on my attitude for the
(07:23):
entire episode. So I'm glad we we started off
with that. I guess I didn't know Steely Dam
was a group. I thought Steely Dan was a was
just Dan no and played the steeldrums or something.
There's no Dan or Steely. Oh, Dan, Donald Fagan and Walter
Becker. They were kind of no.
All right. So first you're great and then
we'll talk about it. I'm going to go I, I think I'm
(07:46):
going to go with solid. A.
That's that. That was the right answer.
I mean, it, it's it's giving major hotel lobby vibes, but I
still liked it. I still liked it.
Hotel lobby. Yeah.
You're in a hotel lobby. You're kind of yeah.
Oh my God, You know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, no, so that was #11 is howhigh that one went.
(08:07):
And that really, did you hear that, that high voice going the
in the in the background? You know who that was?
No, Michael McDonald. Remember that?
Like The Doobie Brothers. Oh, I thought that was Old
McDonald. You know he had a farm.
Stop it. Yeah.
So this is like quintessential yacht rock sound to me.
(08:28):
But the thing about Steely Dan, they didn't really like to tour.
And so they would hire session musicians to come in, and you'll
play in there. And they were different songs.
They would have different guitarists and stuff like that.
And a lot of the members of Totowere session, remember session
(08:49):
members. You know who Toto was?
Remember reigns in Africa. Well, they were pretty big in
this time. And so they all played on this
album, this Asia album that Peg was on.
And there's a tie in because then they form a group and then
they also do background music onother.
(09:09):
And so a lot of they played on alot of these things and it has a
similar sound. I love that song too.
You love? Yeah, yeah, little Toto action.
Well, I love Toto too, and we'regoing to play them later.
I didn't have this one though. I didn't.
My sisters did not. This was I was 12, so you know I
would like I said, it was hard for me to buy stuff, but I
(09:30):
always like that song. And if you ever there's a Sirius
FXM has a yacht rock channel, which is amazing radio.
We're we've limited that remember you've you've reached
your limit of that I did. Terrible impersonation.
I cashed in all my tokens, but Ihave a foot.
Did you ever see, you know who Pete Davidson is?
Yeah. So Pete Davidson and John, you
(09:50):
know, John Mulaney, too, from SNL.
So Pete Davidson and John Mulaney are friends outside of,
you know, work or whatever. And Pete Davidson, well, how we
say is not a yacht rock or doesn't strike me as someone who
would like yacht rock, right. And so John Mulaney is he's big
yacht rock fan. He went to he was going to a
Steely Dan concert and he asked Pete Davidson, do you want to
(10:13):
come to a Steely Dan concert? Pete Davidson and said, yes, He
didn't know who Steven Dan was, thought it was a stand up
comedian. So they go to the Steely Dan
concert. And what does Pete Davidson do
this? I mean, they're this is a
concert in a theater. This is not a let's stand up
kind of concert. This is like everybody's sitting
down, Pete Davidson and John Mulaney said on the front row.
(10:34):
They got everybody in the theater to stand up and start
moving and grooving to the music.
So to tell me that I can't danceto yacht rock is a blatant lie.
Well, we'll see if You Can Danceto this one, this next one.
What is this one called? This is sailing sailing by
Christopher Cross. An appropriate song for yacht
(10:55):
rock. 1979 I had this 45 love it.
OK, I mean, do we any other information about this song?
I want to. I can't wait to hear what you
say about this one. Is it really that bad?
It's amazing. All right, this is Christopher
Cross sailing here on the vinyl curriculum.
(11:23):
That's not bad, I like it. It's not bad at all.
It's amazing. Well, you like all these songs,
so you want to talk about bias. I never said I was unbiased.
I never said I was unbiased, I said I was impartial.
I never said I was impartial. I love them all.
I'm going to go, I think I'm going to go a solid B on that
(11:44):
one. I like it.
It would be something I could listen to.
You have to be in the right moodfor it.
I was sailing by Christopher Cross.
Let me tell you about this album, Record of the Year Let.
Me tell you about this. Album, album of the year, song
of the year, and best new artistof the year.
(12:06):
OK, first time that ever happened.
And you know, the second time that ever happened was in 2020.
Really. Who would have done that in
2020? Taylor Swift?
No, he she wasn't new in 2020. Who was in 2020?
(12:26):
Billie Eilish. Billie Eilish.
See, I know things. So that's the second time that's
ever happened. Wow, yeah.
So was that was that the the most popular song on that album?
Was that the the the premier that Creme de la Creme of that
it? Had Rod like the wind, you would
know that one too. You.
I can't believe you said you hadnever heard that song.
(12:48):
No, you've never listened to 70son 7.
Apparently not. Or Yacht Rock Radio on SiriusXM.
I have never listened to SiriusXM at all.
Oh, OK, but I'm. Going to have to listen to yacht
rock radio. I just want to hear the the DJ.
I think they even say you'd be mine was an there was three hits
(13:08):
on that album. I think Say You'll be mine
sailing and then ride like the wind.
OK, OK, anyway, great. OK, You know, B is respectable.
I get it. It's slow, but that's you
talking about chill and you're riding in the car and you're
just it's just that's just a a great flowing song.
I love it. That's a summer song.
And by the way, we got a text message from one of our
(13:29):
listeners. Quinn texted us in.
He said before he listened to the playlist, he listened to the
whole playlist that you put out.Could you put the playlist out
in advance for people to listen to on Apple Music and on
Spotify? He listened to the whole thing.
He said before he listened, he would have given AB minus to
this to yacht rock as his genre,but because it he felt that it
(13:49):
could only be listened to in thesummertime, right?
And, and I feel like that song fits that description.
That's a summertime song in the car.
That is not a you don't listen to that at Christmas time, OK?
Well, that's about the dumbest thing you've ever said.
Of course you're not going to listen to that Christmas time.
We're going to listen to Christmas music, all right.
But I could listen to it on November, in January.
(14:11):
Yes, OK, maybe I could see that as long as the sun's in the sky.
But Quinn said after he listenedto the playlist, yeah, he
changed his grade to an A because it it does it, it fills
that void of year round music. So that's exactly kind of what
you're talking about. So see see how Quinn I would
give him an A+ because he listened OK, unbiased and
(14:36):
changed his mind. OK, well, thank you, Quinn.
If you have any thoughts 815-733-8517 you can text us and
I'll be taking a look at it all hour long.
What's the next song? Toto Toto, this was their first
album. Let's see, what year was it?
It was 78. My sister had this one.
OK, loved it. And again, I know some of this
(14:59):
stuff about yacht rock because Iwatched the yacht rock
documentary on HBO Max, whateverthey call it now.
Rockumentary instead of documentary.
Oh no, I'm sorry, it's documentary, but it's DOCK
documentary. Get it?
Like like it's a. Boat like it's a boat.
Anyway, it's pretty good. Stop it There is a good it's
(15:23):
it's really I thought it was very interesting.
My wife and I both liked it. But Toto, apparently they were
just session players that would just play like for Steely Dan
and for other groups. And then they went on tour with
Boz Skaggs, one who's also stopping.
Stop it. Who is that by the Skaggs?
We're gonna play him in a minute.
(15:44):
You'll like him. What?
But anyway, he went on tour withhim.
And then afterwards, they formedtheir group, and this was their
first album. OK.
And this one's called Hold the Line.
Hold the line by Toto. See, when I when I think of
Toto, I only think of in a land down under, right in Africa,
right, Because that's their song, right?
Come from the land or no, That'smy word.
(16:05):
No, no, no. I.
Don't know this is Toto. Thank you.
On the vinyl curriculum. Good thing we were on time so I
could hear that. Excellent song.
That was fantastic. I like that a lot.
I have heard that one before. Yeah.
So I know I've did I say that I haven't heard one of these
(16:28):
songs. Maybe I didn't say it on air,
but I think I told you beforehand some of these songs I
haven't heard, but this is this has to be one of the more
popular ones of the group. Yes, no.
Maybe I. Mean this was the popular win on
that album, but. Did it chart?
Yeah, it went to five. Oh, I would have thought it went
higher because they play this one a lot on the radio.
(16:50):
Yeah, but you know, this is their first album.
It's hard to break in sometimes.That's true.
A another a good ABA little by action here.
So anyway, I recommend you watchthat documentary I thought it
was if you like documentaries. I liked it a lot.
I learned a lot actually. One of the things that's
(17:12):
interesting is the the term yacht rock did not come about
till 2000s. Two thought like.
Early 2000s, two thousand hip hop.
There were three comedians, I don't even know who they were,
Hunter, JD and David. And they started this little web
series called Yacht Rock. And they were kind of humorously
(17:36):
making fun of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins and people
like that. And what they would do is they
were going into album stores andgetting like Dollar Ben albums
from this time, you know, And then they were looking at the
liner notes and like who played on what?
They noticed Hey, Michael McDonald sing on this one and
hey, this guy from Toto played on that.
(17:59):
And they would make up little stories about them and it was
kind of like a spoof thing. And it they called it Yacht
Rock. A spoof A.
What, like a spoof? It was like they were it was a
like a Saturday Night Live skit type making fun of it.
But they would just make stuff up.
They wouldn't say. They would review, they would
review the albums and then they came up with these videos of
(18:20):
these fake stories about about them.
You know, they all had mustachesand leisure suits.
I mean, that was kind of the, ifyou look at the album covers,
it's kind of crazy. OK.
Anyway, and they were kind of the, the font, the name kind of
poke fun at the smooth, breezy sound it says that evoked the
image of a wealthy couple sipping cocktails aboard a
(18:41):
yacht. So they just started calling it
yacht Rock. And this many years later, 20
something years later, we call it yacht rock now.
So it's kind of weird. Back then, it was just called
soft rock. Soft rock, Yeah.
So soft rock and yacht rock are the same.
Yeah, OK. And it what they say is all
yacht rock is soft rock, but allsoft rock is not yacht rock.
(19:05):
OK. Because before you started
talking about all this yacht rock business, I've never, I
don't think I've ever heard of yacht rock.
What? I've heard of soft rock.
Soft rock? Yeah, you know, again in the
garage working on the car. Soft rock, but not yacht rock.
Yeah. And it's kind of interesting
because that the only other, I mean, like when Beethoven was
writing, I don't think he would say, hey, I write classical
(19:27):
music. We call it classical music now,
but at the time it was just whathe wrote and it's just music.
So The funny thing about this documentary is people, they
interviewed Michael McDonald andthey interviewed Christopher
Cross and they kind of bought into it eventually.
But that Donald Fagen guy from Seeley Dan, at the very, very
end, they call him and they say,hey, you know, we're doing a
(19:50):
documentary on yacht rock. And he's like, on your genre.
And he said, what genre? And he said, oh boy, he said
yacht rock. And he said a nice explicit,
explicitive thing and hung up onhim.
So obviously the guy from SteelyDan is not bought into it.
All right, that's OK. You don't have to buy into it.
(20:12):
That's the wonderful thing aboutmusic and opinions.
Everybody has their own right? That's true.
That means you have to respect my opinion when I assign a
grade. No.
So this next guy, I'm going to say yacht rock, but I'm going to
put a little asterisk by it because I don't know if it
really qualifies because these guys are from Philly and they
have this, They had the sound, they had the smooth, they have
(20:34):
the R&B influence, but they're not from the California, so they
weren't in that same area. So I guess they sound like Yacht
rock, but I don't know if it would officially called Qualify
DO. They have to be.
You have to be from California. I don't.
Think you do, but that's kind ofwhat that vibe was.
There's also a funny website called Yacht or Not and it's
(20:54):
not. It's spelled like NACHT and they
list all these songs and they tell you how high they are
either toward the yacht rock scale or away from the yacht
rock scale. Interesting.
But this one is Hall and Oates. You've heard of them?
I have. And this was called Sarah Smile.
Isn't it Daryl Hall and some John Oates?
(21:16):
John Oates? Yeah.
OK, this is called Sarah Smile. This is a maybe.
Is this a well known Hall and Oates?
I think so. Well, we're going to find out
here on the vinyl curriculum right now.
I'm smiling after that one Sarahsmile by Hall and Oates.
(21:39):
This is a huge test for you right now.
That's really slow. Yeah.
But I I feel like it's a different kind of slow.
Does that make sense? Very soulful.
They they have that that sound. That's why I think I would
classify this as Yacht Rock. It it's different than the other
songs, though I can see why there was.
(22:01):
There's some debate. It's a hot button issue here on
the final curriculum. Is this yacht rock or not?
But I don't know. Sarah Smile Hall and Oates,
we're going to go B minus. We're going to go B minus.
When you start throwing in the minuses, that's when you start
upsetting me. That's just being extra.
(22:22):
What about the A minus? You like the A minus?
It should have been an A. OK, Yeah.
I don't know, but I while we were listening to that, I looked
up yacht or not. You can you can look it up too.
Yacht or not. YNY A/C T OK, that's how you
spell not. And there's a whole list of all
(22:42):
these songs that are are signed essentially a great percentage
on how much yacht rocky they are.
It's called the yacht ski. That's what it says.
The only song to score a 100 on this whole list.
There's I, I don't even know howmany songs.
A whole bunch. What do you think the only song
(23:02):
is that? What is the most iconic
quintessential Young Rod song inyour opinion?
What if Who believes? Would you know it?
That's it, yeah. You've mentioned it to me as
long as I know. You're not supposed to tell the
people. That is the magic of radio.
They don't hear what happens in the during the song.
(23:23):
That's OK. I'm authentic.
You're going to get what you get.
All right, well, you just ruin the fun for me, but that's OK.
All right, the next one is Boz Scaggs.
Remember that guy we were talking about?
Who Boz, Boz Scaggs? That's.
A person. His name is Boz.
I don't know if it's his real name, but that's what he went
by. Yeah.
Boz. OK, Bosley, maybe.
I don't know. Anyway, this is called Lido
(23:44):
Shuffle. Lido shuffle.
And I know you've heard this, 1977.
Lido this. Is where the Toto Players were
on this album and then they toured with him before they
formed. OK, is this, I mean, I guess we
let's just take a listen. We'll take a listen to Boz
Skangs right here on the vinyl curriculum.
(24:07):
That's the Lido Shuffle on the mono curriculum.
I have heard that one. I didn't think so at first.
We don't like that. We don't like you.
Don't like me singing? A simple yes I have heard that
would have done. I just wanted to, I wanted to
show that I knew what it was. But for the people listening,
just as an FYI, we're cutting some of these songs sort because
(24:31):
on the podcast version, we can'tplay the entire song.
So if you hear us talking over it, that's why we love the
music. We want to listen to it, we just
can't play the whole thing on the podcast.
So again, if you haven't heard the podcast, it's streaming now
on Apples Music and Spotify. First couple episodes are on
there. Go in there, catch up, see a
cartoon picture me and Jim, but just want to get that piece of
(24:54):
information. Little shuffle, though, pretty
good. Yeah, a minus.
Also, if you want to listen to the playlist, those are
available on Spotify and on Apple Music.
That's where you can listen to all these songs.
Correct. And I lied to you, Logan.
I said I was authentic. I'm going to admit when I make a
mistake, I had said this was ourfifth episode.
It's only our fourth. Wow.
(25:14):
OK, See, All right, the next song, we're going to have to do
this because my wife, this is her favorite group ever.
OK, Well, almost. This is her face.
Favorite pop group. This is England.
Dan and John Ford Coley, I'd really love to see you tonight.
And this is slow and I want you to listen to the chorus, he
says. I'm not talking about something,
(25:36):
and I want you to tell me what he's not talking about.
OK, I will. I will let you know that your
wife just texted me and said that she's listening and
streaming at work. Shout out Karen.
Oh good. And that she's that I'm making
her feel very old based on how much I don't know.
I'm sorry. I don't know a whole lot.
OK, that's not it then. Lie.
(25:57):
Lie and tell her you know this song, it'll make her feel better
'cause she. I told you I knew that last one
Lino shuffle. I knew it.
I just didn't know the name. So see, I know some things.
OK, so listen, listen to this England, Dan and John Ford
Coley. OK, England, Dan and John Ford
Coley, can we come up with a? Stuttering.
Yes, that's the Can we? Come up with a longer title for
(26:18):
a song. Oh my goodness.
This is. I'd really love to see you
tonight. All right, let's take a listen.
I'm not talking about what? I'm asking you, what is he not
talking about? I don't know, I I can barely
(26:39):
when you are in the same room asme, I have trouble understanding
what you're saying, let alone. Stop it.
Over a song that came out. However what?
What year did the song come out?That one was 76.
He's saying I'm not talking about moving in.
Oh. Oh, And I don't want to change
your mind. Yeah.
Oh. So what do you think?
(26:59):
And listen, remember my wife is listening to this so you better.
It's not bad. That's little B Plus, I think,
you know, my dad's also listening.
Shout out, Big Mike. Hey, thanks for texting.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting.
Yeah, but I'm really love to seeyou tonight, England, Dan and
John Ford Coley. Yeah.
(27:21):
It's mouthful. England.
Dan ended up becoming Dan Sales and he went country and then we
saw. Steals.
That's not steely. Dan Seals and then we saw John
for Coley a couple of years ago in in Waukegan.
All right. All right, next one, Pablo Cruz.
That's a great, another great yacht rock name.
Pablo Cruz. Look at their album covers.
(27:41):
They're all very like Californiaesque boat themed.
Yeah. Love will find a way from 78.
I had this album. OK, the what?
Any other songs on this album? Was this a single?
We don't know. I haven't listened to it in so
long, I wouldn't even. I'd have to look while we're
playing. I'll look.
That's OK, Pablo Cruz. Love will find a way.
(28:03):
And then, of course, another impartial grade because that's
what I'm doing here all hour long.
We've got time for just a couplemore songs after this.
You listen to the vinyl curriculum.
I'll find a way to like this song, I guess.
OK. It's not bad.
(28:23):
It shouldn't be hard. No.
No. Pablo Cruz.
I mean, I know I'm not a big fanof the name, but I feel like
Pablo Cruz for Yacht Rock has tohave some sort of a influence on
my how I think. Oh wow, because his name is
Cruz. I didn't think you all did that.
Remember, that's called lore. OK.
(28:43):
What do you think? We'll just go solid BI think for
that one that's respectable. That's respectable.
Yeah, respectable. Respectable.
Couldn't say it. Yeah.
All right. We're kind of running a little
short on time, unfortunately. So there's two songs on the
playlist that we're not going toplay here.
Cool In the gang. You know them, right?
(29:04):
Yeah, cool. In the game with AK.
Too hot, too slow song, kind of slow beat.
I don't know if they would qualify as Jot Rock, I think
they would, but the song definitely is OK.
And then the other one is LittleRiver Band Reminiscing, which is
a really, really good song. We saw them a couple of years
ago and. By the river.
(29:26):
You saw them in a van down by the river, no?
Why did you? You don't know that.
Yeah, but it has nothing to do with their Little River.
Band. I mean, maybe they're jamming
outside their van down by the. River no, they were pretty
popular in the seven late 70s and reminiscing is one of my
favorite songs. So go listen to the the playlist
and listen to both of those songs.
I think you're going to like on both.
(29:47):
OK. But next we're going to start
with next is Doobie Brothers. OK, so you've heard of them,
right? I have based on again, we we
looked at the Yon or not list earlier and according to that,
this there's one of their songs is the most quintessential yacht
rock song. So I feel like if they're number
one on the list, they've got to be.
(30:08):
Yeah. Yeah, the the people, right, The
band for Yacht Rock. Well, we're not doing what a
fool believes, which was the topof the list.
I have a funny story about that.My, my wife had that 45 as a
child. And she would play it over and
over and over. And her older brother almost had
a nervous breakdown and was screaming to her because she
kept playing that same song overand over.
But it's kind of, it is kind of addictive.
(30:29):
It's a really good song. But the one we're going to play
here is minute by minute, OK. And this was the name of their
album. Minute by minute. 1978.
And was that was there, It was that other song on the same
album. Yeah, I think it was.
I'll double check. OK, this is Minute by minute by
The Doobie Brothers. Again, we're getting a lot of
(30:50):
text today. This is great.
If you want to be part of the conversation, you can go ahead
and text into US 815-733-8517 minute by minute on the vinyl
curriculum. That's not how I pictured that
song to sound in my head. Minute by minute.
(31:11):
I feel like a clock beat or something.
That was Pink Floyd's time. Yeah, well, anytime anything to
do with a clock, I feel like youhave to have a clock beat or
something. Not bad, though.
I think I'm giving another B. Solid B.
You can't be mad at that. Don't give me that face.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.
Yeah, so are my parents, but that's OK.
(31:33):
Well, I understand. I'm in about a minute by The
Doobie Brothers. We've got another bonus song
now. Yeah, you know, I said we
weren't going to play Little River Band, and I got a angry
text from my son. I think he likes this song.
He and his little girlfriend Jenna.
We're just literally just talking about this the other
day. So we're going to play a little
snippet of reminiscing by LittleRiver Band.
(31:55):
OK. And do you want to say anything
else about them before we start or no?
I love this song. It's it's seems like it'd be a
great song. They played it in concert, it
was great. I can't say I'd ever heard of
the Little River Band. Maybe they were living in the
van down by the river. That's why I didn't hear him.
But let's take a listen right now.
Let's do it. It's final curriculum.
It's full of like piano, like 70s keyboard action there.
(32:27):
Yeah. You know what I mean?
Ray Charles or something? Yeah, that's a good song.
I sing that in car. If that's everyone in the car, I
sing it. That's what you just said.
You sing every word. Can we get a little bit of
rendition of that right now? You cannot.
Why you embarrassed? No, I don't need it documented.
Just like you. There's no documentation in my
Mohawk. Remember how I told you that?
We're going to find that, Karen.No Doc, we need to find that
(32:49):
picture of that please. I need my wife hears me.
That's good enough. OK, so when Nicole hears me
sing, she just, she sticks her head out the window.
She doesn't have to hear it. I bet.
What do you think? Little.
River Band Uh oh B minus. I think I have heard it but it's
(33:11):
just it's not my vibe. OK, that's that's legit.
I mean, I have to. You have to accept my impartial.
Grading. No, it's not.
It's not impartial. I think we've already decided
that. All right, we got one more song,
Logan. This one is.
I have a little back story aboutthis.
OK, so this is Kenny Loggins andhe was an opening act for
(33:35):
Fleetwood Mac where they were going around.
Yes, and I remember Fleetwood Mac last week.
We talked about them and Stevie Nicks and all that stuff.
So he became good friends with them all.
And I think it was the Rumors tour is when he, I think he said
that he that's when he was touring with them and he became
good friends with everybody. And Stevie Nicks said if you
(33:56):
ever need a female voice on something, just give me a call.
That's dangerous in the music industry, I feel like.
He wrote this song and called her and said, can you, will you
sing this song with me? And she did, and she killed it.
OK. Listen to this and tell you, and
I remember I said we're going toend up on upbeat, on an upbeat
note. I think you're going to know
(34:16):
this one. And so Kenny Lodgins is the
dangerous. What did you just say?
What? Kenny Logins.
Logins, not lodgings. That's when you're going to the
hotel. This is logins.
Like you're logging into a computer.
Kinda it was Logins and Messina they had.
They were a group and then they split up and then he kind of
(34:37):
went out on his own and I think I forgot the Messina's first
name, he went on his own as well.
But obviously Kenny Loggins was much more successful.
And then he he, because that waspart of that documentary.
I started watching that documentary.
I never actually finished it, but he was in that documentary.
I'm like, isn't that the Danger Zone guy?
Yes. And I mean, his music evolved
(34:58):
quite well dramatically. They all did, because remember
how MTV kind of affected the Second British Invasion?
MTV kind of put a squash to yacht rock radio as well because
you had these kind of chill people and all of a sudden now
we have to do videos and that's a whole nother.
(35:19):
And a lot of them just didn't adjust well.
And you know, they're these guysare competing against Michael
Jackson and Madonna and all thatstuff.
So a lot of them faded out, but several of them kind of made had
successful soundtracks like Kenny Loggins did several, he
did Footloose and he did Top Gun.
Christopher Cross did. There was a movie called Arthur
with Dudley Moore. Seems like I'm missing.
(35:44):
Not Arthur the Aardvark. Michael McDonald from Doobie
Brothers did Sweet Freedom was amovie, so they kind of found
some success that way. And and then, you know, Michael
McDonald's been around forever, so still going.
So was he was Kenny successful done before the danger zone?
Because obviously that was like,yeah.
This is this is this is 1978, this song right here.
(36:05):
And this is what I think this was like his solo started.
And yeah, he's had several success, yeah.
Yeah, and so he OK. All right, well, let's take a
listen and see how it sounds. Kenny Log, Kenny Loggins.
See Caught Myself There and Stevie Nicks on the vinyl
(36:25):
curriculum and we'll talk about it a little bit more.
That's an appropriate note to end on, if you like.
That is another another one thatI can visualize listening to.
(36:48):
Well, on a boat. This is Yacht Rock on the Bottle
curriculum. Whenever I call you friend.
Yeah, is the name of that one. I call you a friend sometimes.
Let's not go there, OK? We're we're coworkers, OK?
Let's say a minus for that one. That was a good one.
(37:09):
Good. That was a good one.
Upbeat. Upbeat.
Stevie Nicks is amazing. Yeah, I think in that
documentary you were talking about that is like the quote UN
quote theme song. No, is it?
I don't know. I felt like I I've heard it
before and I think it was from there.
Like I I want to say I there wasa video of Kenny and Stevie
(37:30):
doing something like singing on the stage together.
I don't know if I remember that.I think though, that you
probably have just heard that song because that is a if you've
ever listened to a 70s Station, that was a big hit.
I would say most of these are hits that you if you ever
listened to 70s Station, you'd hear them, whether it's yacht
Rock or not. OK.
(37:51):
Like light FM would probably play something like this.
I don't listen to Light FM for Christmas music.
That's two Christmas references in one episode.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with that.
All right, so let's review the grades of all the songs for the
hour and then I will give my impartial grade for the entire
(38:12):
genre. I would ask everyone who's
listening live or to the podcastlater on, please let us know if
you think he's truly impartial because the vast majority of the
people that I've talked talking to are saying no he's not.
But I'd love your input. Text in 815-733-8517.
(38:33):
So here are your grades. ABAB minus A-B plus BBB minus A
minus. See, there's a lot of BS there.
You know what there were There was also a lot of texts and
chatter online about how wonderful they everybody loves
Yacht Rock, so you better be careful with this one.
Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of BS there.
(38:55):
We had a good start, good on, which is which is solid.
Had a lot of as I think overall as is genre for this week's
episode of the Vinyl Curriculum A minus.
OK, I will give you an A minus for being.
Impartial. Yes.
No, I'll give you a minus for being.
(39:18):
I don't even know what you were.I think it was fair.
I think that's fair. That is fair.
Yeah, I'm nothing if not. Fair.
And I have to be honest, you know, some of these songs I'll
absolutely love when I when theycame out and sometimes I'll
listen to them and they're not my all time favourites anymore.
You know, kind of it's like you were in the moment.
But many of these do hold up very well.
(39:40):
You weren't talking about. Did you have a lot of these
albums like you? Yeah, you talked about last
week, like almost every song. You're like, oh, we had the 45.
My sister had this song. This.
We had this song. Yeah, no, I had my friend Chris
Kloss had The Doobie Brothers album, Kool and the Gang.
I had the 45 Too Hot, which we didn't play.
(40:00):
Pablo Cruz, we had the album I think I had the 45 for.
I'd really love to see you tonight.
I did not have Boz gags. Holla Notes I did not have Hold
the Line. We had the album.
I had Christopher Cross's album,and I didn't have Steely Dan and
I didn't have Kenny Loggins. So I had maybe, you know, maybe
half. Yeah, But you'd hear him on the
radio. And then and over the years,
(40:22):
I've been listening to rock radio and I hear them, you know,
they'll play these all the time.Yeah, well, another solid
episode this week, The Vinyl Curriculum, if you haven't heard
the previous ones, they're streaming now on Spotify and
Apple Podcast. We don't have a live show next
week because Jim will be out of town attending his daughter's
wedding. Congratulations again to her.
(40:44):
That'll be a lot of fun. But we will have a podcast next
week. And the topic for that is.
Mistakes mistakes. Logan complaining.
Remember early on he was talkingabout history and how the only
reason you do history is just tolearn not to do it again?
Well, these are songs that should never be repeated, but
they were all hits. Well, I'm looking forward to
that hearing some of those songs.
(41:05):
That playlist will drop as well on Apple Music and on Spotify.
Thank you all so much for listening and we'll catch you on
the next one.
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently I don't know very much about anything.
Somebody calls her Tay Tay. Hey slogan.
(00:23):
Just a quick heads up before we get into it.
This episode was originally recorded live on WLRA radio
where we are able to play all the songs that we talked about.
Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions, we can't include
the music here on the podcast. So anytime you hear this sound,
that means we're skipping over asong that we originally played
(00:44):
on air. But don't worry, Jim's put
together a playlist with all thetracks from the episode so you
can still follow along. Just check the link in the show
notes. All right, now on to the
episode. Welcome back to the Vinyl
Curriculum live here on WLR 88.1FM in Romeoville.
Logan and Jim here in the studio.
(01:06):
Jim, how we doing today? I'm amazing today, actually.
You're amazing. Amazing.
That's pretty good. Why you so amazing?
I'm about to head off for a wedding this weekend in
Nashville A. Wedding.
My daughter's getting married. Shout out to Grace.
Oh, congratulations, Grace. But that, that reminds me, next
week we're not going to be here live in the studio because you
will be absent from class. That's true.
(01:29):
You like that? It's excuse absence.
It's, well, that's debatable. Excuse absence for next week,
but don't worry, we'll have another podcast drop next
Thursday just like this one willdrop this Thursday on Spotify
and Apple Music this week. We've got a great episode for
you today. What is the topic?
Yacht rock? Yacht rock.
(01:50):
What is Yacht Rock? Yacht Rock is designated by the
hat you're wearing. You can't see it, but Logan's
got his nice little sailor hat on.
It's a captain's hat. Thank you.
And I am the captain of this show.
Thank you very much. No.
Well, I'm the teacher. That's all right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yacht rock is this like, you know, it's soft rock, very
clean, is the California vibes, has jazz and R&B influence, just
(02:18):
it's got a sound to it. And I I'm worried you're worried
because you don't like slow songs.
And so I told you about this last week.
So I'm hoping that you are prepared for this, because just
because it's not fast doesn't mean it can't be amazing.
When it's yon rock I can I can buy with yacht rock.
(02:39):
I've got my hat on for Yacht Rock.
That is your limit of that terrible impersonation.
It's not terrible. It's pretty terrible, but yeah,
so that's what we're doing. Yacht rock.
I'm so excited. I love this music.
I'm excited too. Another shout out.
By the way, we've got our pickleball friends that are
listening over in the field house.
So shout out pickleball friends.That's right.
(03:02):
Ryan, Harold, Joe. Little yacht rock?
Well, pickleball what? What better music to play while
you're playing pickleball than yacht rock?
Oh, there's probably better. There's probably better music to
play than this. But anyway.
That's all right, but if you're not playing pickleball and you
want to be part of the show, whydon't we part of the show?
Call or text us 815-733-8517. Tell us your favorite album,
(03:27):
your hottest take or just share one of those memories that you
have about the music. You never know, you might just
hear yourself in the next episode again.
That number is 815-733-8517. I trust Jen's music taste way
more. Let's hear what you have to say.
(03:48):
See, I don't know if I trust your music taste, but that's OK.
815, what is the number? 815-733-8517?
I did. I totally forgot what the number
was, but I'll be monitoring the text.
Also long if you want to call, you might just hear yourself
record a message. You might just hear yourself
next week on the show and give us some thoughts on what you
think about Yacht Rock. We'd love your feedback.
(04:10):
I'll be sure to give my thoughtsall up so long because that's
how this works. If you haven't heard the vinyl
curriculum before, Jim has brought a playlist, Yacht Rock
this week that we're going to listen to.
We've got a, what is it, 11 songs, 12 songs that we're going
to try and get through. We're shooting for 11.
We're. Shooting for 11 this hour, and
after each song we're going to talk about a little bit.
I'm going to get assign it a grade, an impartial grade.
(04:31):
And by the way, we're going to talk about that in a second.
That was brought to my attentionthat I wasn't impartial, but
I'll assign it a grade. Then at the end of the episode,
I'll assign the whole genre of grade and Jim will give back me
a grade, right? That's right.
OK. My grade last week was getting
better. I would have, I think I had an A
last week, which is very proud, very impressive.
(04:53):
But back to this impartial thing.
It was brought to my attention that my grading is not
impartial. Yeah, that is false.
False. That is a the in the true, false
section of the test. That is a false right there.
OK, My grading is impartial. It can't be impartial because
you're coming in saying I don't like slow music.
(05:15):
So if you don't like slow music and then your excuse of not
liking some of the songs is I can't dance to it.
That is by definition not impartial.
Now you're biased coming in and and then hopefully you're trying
to give as partial of an advice as grading as you can, but
obviously you're coming in with some biases.
(05:36):
So this is something we're goingto work on.
First of all, a migrating has gotten better.
You've admitted that migrating has gotten better.
I have played fast songs to date.
This isn't, this is going to be your test, OK, Because these are
not going to be fast songs. These are smooth yacht rock
songs, chill. And so we're going to see how
impartial you are. This is a test.
(05:56):
This is a pop quiz right now. OK, well, I I'm ready.
I'm I'm liking life on the boat.I've got my captain hat on for
this non visual medium. It's just me and Jim in the
studio by the way. I just wore it just for Jim.
But we What's the first song forYacht Rock?
We're going to start off with a song called Peg.
It was 1977. And just so you know, like yacht
(06:17):
rock is kind of late 70s, early 80s.
Is it only on a boat? Can it only be played on a boat?
Because we're not on a boat right now.
No, in fact, the the reason it came about is we'll talk about
that later on, but Staley Dan isthe group that did peg.
That's a group, not a, not a person.
That is correct. OK, and it's Steely Dan.
(06:38):
Peg is the first song for yacht rock and another episode of the
Vinyl curriculum. We're a little smooth jazz for
episode 1. Episode is this #5 I don't even
know 5 it's Steely Dan. I seen your.
Picture. I don't know what you're talking
(07:00):
about. That is the perfect song to play
pickleball to. I tell you what, that is some
high energy. Stuff that was good, you told
you. I remember I start off upbeat
and I want to end up beat. Yeah, no, that was that's good.
I like that. Another strong start.
Since the first episode we've really improved the start.
Yeah, which I think has an influence on my attitude for the
(07:23):
entire episode. So I'm glad we we started off
with that. I guess I didn't know Steely Dam
was a group. I thought Steely Dan was a was
just Dan no and played the steeldrums or something.
There's no Dan or Steely. Oh, Dan, Donald Fagan and Walter
Becker. They were kind of no.
All right. So first you're great and then
we'll talk about it. I'm going to go I, I think I'm
(07:46):
going to go with solid. A.
That's that. That was the right answer.
I mean, it, it's it's giving major hotel lobby vibes, but I
still liked it. I still liked it.
Hotel lobby. Yeah.
You're in a hotel lobby. You're kind of yeah.
Oh my God, You know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, no, so that was #11 is howhigh that one went.
(08:07):
And that really, did you hear that, that high voice going the
in the in the background? You know who that was?
No, Michael McDonald. Remember that?
Like The Doobie Brothers. Oh, I thought that was Old
McDonald. You know he had a farm.
Stop it. Yeah.
So this is like quintessential yacht rock sound to me.
(08:28):
But the thing about Steely Dan, they didn't really like to tour.
And so they would hire session musicians to come in, and you'll
play in there. And they were different songs.
They would have different guitarists and stuff like that.
And a lot of the members of Totowere session, remember session
(08:49):
members. You know who Toto was?
Remember reigns in Africa. Well, they were pretty big in
this time. And so they all played on this
album, this Asia album that Peg was on.
And there's a tie in because then they form a group and then
they also do background music onother.
(09:09):
And so a lot of they played on alot of these things and it has a
similar sound. I love that song too.
You love? Yeah, yeah, little Toto action.
Well, I love Toto too, and we'regoing to play them later.
I didn't have this one though. I didn't.
My sisters did not. This was I was 12, so you know I
would like I said, it was hard for me to buy stuff, but I
(09:30):
always like that song. And if you ever there's a Sirius
FXM has a yacht rock channel, which is amazing radio.
We're we've limited that remember you've you've reached
your limit of that I did. Terrible impersonation.
I cashed in all my tokens, but Ihave a foot.
Did you ever see, you know who Pete Davidson is?
Yeah. So Pete Davidson and John, you
(09:50):
know, John Mulaney, too, from SNL.
So Pete Davidson and John Mulaney are friends outside of,
you know, work or whatever. And Pete Davidson, well, how we
say is not a yacht rock or doesn't strike me as someone who
would like yacht rock, right. And so John Mulaney is he's big
yacht rock fan. He went to he was going to a
Steely Dan concert and he asked Pete Davidson, do you want to
(10:13):
come to a Steely Dan concert? Pete Davidson and said, yes, He
didn't know who Steven Dan was, thought it was a stand up
comedian. So they go to the Steely Dan
concert. And what does Pete Davidson do
this? I mean, they're this is a
concert in a theater. This is not a let's stand up
kind of concert. This is like everybody's sitting
down, Pete Davidson and John Mulaney said on the front row.
(10:34):
They got everybody in the theater to stand up and start
moving and grooving to the music.
So to tell me that I can't danceto yacht rock is a blatant lie.
Well, we'll see if You Can Danceto this one, this next one.
What is this one called? This is sailing sailing by
Christopher Cross. An appropriate song for yacht
(10:55):
rock. 1979 I had this 45 love it.
OK, I mean, do we any other information about this song?
I want to. I can't wait to hear what you
say about this one. Is it really that bad?
It's amazing. All right, this is Christopher
Cross sailing here on the vinyl curriculum.
(11:23):
That's not bad, I like it. It's not bad at all.
It's amazing. Well, you like all these songs,
so you want to talk about bias. I never said I was unbiased.
I never said I was unbiased, I said I was impartial.
I never said I was impartial. I love them all.
I'm going to go, I think I'm going to go a solid B on that
(11:44):
one. I like it.
It would be something I could listen to.
You have to be in the right moodfor it.
I was sailing by Christopher Cross.
Let me tell you about this album, Record of the Year Let.
Me tell you about this. Album, album of the year, song
of the year, and best new artistof the year.
(12:06):
OK, first time that ever happened.
And you know, the second time that ever happened was in 2020.
Really. Who would have done that in
2020? Taylor Swift?
No, he she wasn't new in 2020. Who was in 2020?
(12:26):
Billie Eilish. Billie Eilish.
See, I know things. So that's the second time that's
ever happened. Wow, yeah.
So was that was that the the most popular song on that album?
Was that the the the premier that Creme de la Creme of that
it? Had Rod like the wind, you would
know that one too. You.
I can't believe you said you hadnever heard that song.
(12:48):
No, you've never listened to 70son 7.
Apparently not. Or Yacht Rock Radio on SiriusXM.
I have never listened to SiriusXM at all.
Oh, OK, but I'm. Going to have to listen to yacht
rock radio. I just want to hear the the DJ.
I think they even say you'd be mine was an there was three hits
(13:08):
on that album. I think Say You'll be mine
sailing and then ride like the wind.
OK, OK, anyway, great. OK, You know, B is respectable.
I get it. It's slow, but that's you
talking about chill and you're riding in the car and you're
just it's just that's just a a great flowing song.
I love it. That's a summer song.
And by the way, we got a text message from one of our
(13:29):
listeners. Quinn texted us in.
He said before he listened to the playlist, he listened to the
whole playlist that you put out.Could you put the playlist out
in advance for people to listen to on Apple Music and on
Spotify? He listened to the whole thing.
He said before he listened, he would have given AB minus to
this to yacht rock as his genre,but because it he felt that it
(13:49):
could only be listened to in thesummertime, right?
And, and I feel like that song fits that description.
That's a summertime song in the car.
That is not a you don't listen to that at Christmas time, OK?
Well, that's about the dumbest thing you've ever said.
Of course you're not going to listen to that Christmas time.
We're going to listen to Christmas music, all right.
But I could listen to it on November, in January.
(14:11):
Yes, OK, maybe I could see that as long as the sun's in the sky.
But Quinn said after he listenedto the playlist, yeah, he
changed his grade to an A because it it does it, it fills
that void of year round music. So that's exactly kind of what
you're talking about. So see see how Quinn I would
give him an A+ because he listened OK, unbiased and
(14:36):
changed his mind. OK, well, thank you, Quinn.
If you have any thoughts 815-733-8517 you can text us and
I'll be taking a look at it all hour long.
What's the next song? Toto Toto, this was their first
album. Let's see, what year was it?
It was 78. My sister had this one.
OK, loved it. And again, I know some of this
(14:59):
stuff about yacht rock because Iwatched the yacht rock
documentary on HBO Max, whateverthey call it now.
Rockumentary instead of documentary.
Oh no, I'm sorry, it's documentary, but it's DOCK
documentary. Get it?
Like like it's a. Boat like it's a boat.
Anyway, it's pretty good. Stop it There is a good it's
(15:23):
it's really I thought it was very interesting.
My wife and I both liked it. But Toto, apparently they were
just session players that would just play like for Steely Dan
and for other groups. And then they went on tour with
Boz Skaggs, one who's also stopping.
Stop it. Who is that by the Skaggs?
We're gonna play him in a minute.
(15:44):
You'll like him. What?
But anyway, he went on tour withhim.
And then afterwards, they formedtheir group, and this was their
first album. OK.
And this one's called Hold the Line.
Hold the line by Toto. See, when I when I think of
Toto, I only think of in a land down under, right in Africa,
right, Because that's their song, right?
Come from the land or no, That'smy word.
(16:05):
No, no, no. I.
Don't know this is Toto. Thank you.
On the vinyl curriculum. Good thing we were on time so I
could hear that. Excellent song.
That was fantastic. I like that a lot.
I have heard that one before. Yeah.
So I know I've did I say that I haven't heard one of these
(16:28):
songs. Maybe I didn't say it on air,
but I think I told you beforehand some of these songs I
haven't heard, but this is this has to be one of the more
popular ones of the group. Yes, no.
Maybe I. Mean this was the popular win on
that album, but. Did it chart?
Yeah, it went to five. Oh, I would have thought it went
higher because they play this one a lot on the radio.
(16:50):
Yeah, but you know, this is their first album.
It's hard to break in sometimes.That's true.
A another a good ABA little by action here.
So anyway, I recommend you watchthat documentary I thought it
was if you like documentaries. I liked it a lot.
I learned a lot actually. One of the things that's
(17:12):
interesting is the the term yacht rock did not come about
till 2000s. Two thought like.
Early 2000s, two thousand hip hop.
There were three comedians, I don't even know who they were,
Hunter, JD and David. And they started this little web
series called Yacht Rock. And they were kind of humorously
(17:36):
making fun of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins and people
like that. And what they would do is they
were going into album stores andgetting like Dollar Ben albums
from this time, you know, And then they were looking at the
liner notes and like who played on what?
They noticed Hey, Michael McDonald sing on this one and
hey, this guy from Toto played on that.
(17:59):
And they would make up little stories about them and it was
kind of like a spoof thing. And it they called it Yacht
Rock. A spoof A.
What, like a spoof? It was like they were it was a
like a Saturday Night Live skit type making fun of it.
But they would just make stuff up.
They wouldn't say. They would review, they would
review the albums and then they came up with these videos of
(18:20):
these fake stories about about them.
You know, they all had mustachesand leisure suits.
I mean, that was kind of the, ifyou look at the album covers,
it's kind of crazy. OK.
Anyway, and they were kind of the, the font, the name kind of
poke fun at the smooth, breezy sound it says that evoked the
image of a wealthy couple sipping cocktails aboard a
(18:41):
yacht. So they just started calling it
yacht Rock. And this many years later, 20
something years later, we call it yacht rock now.
So it's kind of weird. Back then, it was just called
soft rock. Soft rock, Yeah.
So soft rock and yacht rock are the same.
Yeah, OK. And it what they say is all
yacht rock is soft rock, but allsoft rock is not yacht rock.
(19:05):
OK. Because before you started
talking about all this yacht rock business, I've never, I
don't think I've ever heard of yacht rock.
What? I've heard of soft rock.
Soft rock? Yeah, you know, again in the
garage working on the car. Soft rock, but not yacht rock.
Yeah. And it's kind of interesting
because that the only other, I mean, like when Beethoven was
writing, I don't think he would say, hey, I write classical
(19:27):
music. We call it classical music now,
but at the time it was just whathe wrote and it's just music.
So The funny thing about this documentary is people, they
interviewed Michael McDonald andthey interviewed Christopher
Cross and they kind of bought into it eventually.
But that Donald Fagen guy from Seeley Dan, at the very, very
end, they call him and they say,hey, you know, we're doing a
(19:50):
documentary on yacht rock. And he's like, on your genre.
And he said, what genre? And he said, oh boy, he said
yacht rock. And he said a nice explicit,
explicitive thing and hung up onhim.
So obviously the guy from SteelyDan is not bought into it.
All right, that's OK. You don't have to buy into it.
(20:12):
That's the wonderful thing aboutmusic and opinions.
Everybody has their own right? That's true.
That means you have to respect my opinion when I assign a
grade. No.
So this next guy, I'm going to say yacht rock, but I'm going to
put a little asterisk by it because I don't know if it
really qualifies because these guys are from Philly and they
have this, They had the sound, they had the smooth, they have
(20:34):
the R&B influence, but they're not from the California, so they
weren't in that same area. So I guess they sound like Yacht
rock, but I don't know if it would officially called Qualify
DO. They have to be.
You have to be from California. I don't.
Think you do, but that's kind ofwhat that vibe was.
There's also a funny website called Yacht or Not and it's
(20:54):
not. It's spelled like NACHT and they
list all these songs and they tell you how high they are
either toward the yacht rock scale or away from the yacht
rock scale. Interesting.
But this one is Hall and Oates. You've heard of them?
I have. And this was called Sarah Smile.
Isn't it Daryl Hall and some John Oates?
(21:16):
John Oates? Yeah.
OK, this is called Sarah Smile. This is a maybe.
Is this a well known Hall and Oates?
I think so. Well, we're going to find out
here on the vinyl curriculum right now.
I'm smiling after that one Sarahsmile by Hall and Oates.
(21:39):
This is a huge test for you right now.
That's really slow. Yeah.
But I I feel like it's a different kind of slow.
Does that make sense? Very soulful.
They they have that that sound. That's why I think I would
classify this as Yacht Rock. It it's different than the other
songs, though I can see why there was.
(22:01):
There's some debate. It's a hot button issue here on
the final curriculum. Is this yacht rock or not?
But I don't know. Sarah Smile Hall and Oates,
we're going to go B minus. We're going to go B minus.
When you start throwing in the minuses, that's when you start
upsetting me. That's just being extra.
(22:22):
What about the A minus? You like the A minus?
It should have been an A. OK, Yeah.
I don't know, but I while we were listening to that, I looked
up yacht or not. You can you can look it up too.
Yacht or not. YNY A/C T OK, that's how you
spell not. And there's a whole list of all
(22:42):
these songs that are are signed essentially a great percentage
on how much yacht rocky they are.
It's called the yacht ski. That's what it says.
The only song to score a 100 on this whole list.
There's I, I don't even know howmany songs.
A whole bunch. What do you think the only song
(23:02):
is that? What is the most iconic
quintessential Young Rod song inyour opinion?
What if Who believes? Would you know it?
That's it, yeah. You've mentioned it to me as
long as I know. You're not supposed to tell the
people. That is the magic of radio.
They don't hear what happens in the during the song.
(23:23):
That's OK. I'm authentic.
You're going to get what you get.
All right, well, you just ruin the fun for me, but that's OK.
All right, the next one is Boz Scaggs.
Remember that guy we were talking about?
Who Boz, Boz Scaggs? That's.
A person. His name is Boz.
I don't know if it's his real name, but that's what he went
by. Yeah.
Boz. OK, Bosley, maybe.
I don't know. Anyway, this is called Lido
(23:44):
Shuffle. Lido shuffle.
And I know you've heard this, 1977.
Lido this. Is where the Toto Players were
on this album and then they toured with him before they
formed. OK, is this, I mean, I guess we
let's just take a listen. We'll take a listen to Boz
Skangs right here on the vinyl curriculum.
(24:07):
That's the Lido Shuffle on the mono curriculum.
I have heard that one. I didn't think so at first.
We don't like that. We don't like you.
Don't like me singing? A simple yes I have heard that
would have done. I just wanted to, I wanted to
show that I knew what it was. But for the people listening,
just as an FYI, we're cutting some of these songs sort because
(24:31):
on the podcast version, we can'tplay the entire song.
So if you hear us talking over it, that's why we love the
music. We want to listen to it, we just
can't play the whole thing on the podcast.
So again, if you haven't heard the podcast, it's streaming now
on Apples Music and Spotify. First couple episodes are on
there. Go in there, catch up, see a
cartoon picture me and Jim, but just want to get that piece of
(24:54):
information. Little shuffle, though, pretty
good. Yeah, a minus.
Also, if you want to listen to the playlist, those are
available on Spotify and on Apple Music.
That's where you can listen to all these songs.
Correct. And I lied to you, Logan.
I said I was authentic. I'm going to admit when I make a
mistake, I had said this was ourfifth episode.
It's only our fourth. Wow.
(25:14):
OK, See, All right, the next song, we're going to have to do
this because my wife, this is her favorite group ever.
OK, Well, almost. This is her face.
Favorite pop group. This is England.
Dan and John Ford Coley, I'd really love to see you tonight.
And this is slow and I want you to listen to the chorus, he
says. I'm not talking about something,
(25:36):
and I want you to tell me what he's not talking about.
OK, I will. I will let you know that your
wife just texted me and said that she's listening and
streaming at work. Shout out Karen.
Oh good. And that she's that I'm making
her feel very old based on how much I don't know.
I'm sorry. I don't know a whole lot.
OK, that's not it then. Lie.
(25:57):
Lie and tell her you know this song, it'll make her feel better
'cause she. I told you I knew that last one
Lino shuffle. I knew it.
I just didn't know the name. So see, I know some things.
OK, so listen, listen to this England, Dan and John Ford
Coley. OK, England, Dan and John Ford
Coley, can we come up with a? Stuttering.
Yes, that's the Can we? Come up with a longer title for
(26:18):
a song. Oh my goodness.
This is. I'd really love to see you
tonight. All right, let's take a listen.
I'm not talking about what? I'm asking you, what is he not
talking about? I don't know, I I can barely
(26:39):
when you are in the same room asme, I have trouble understanding
what you're saying, let alone. Stop it.
Over a song that came out. However what?
What year did the song come out?That one was 76.
He's saying I'm not talking about moving in.
Oh. Oh, And I don't want to change
your mind. Yeah.
Oh. So what do you think?
(26:59):
And listen, remember my wife is listening to this so you better.
It's not bad. That's little B Plus, I think,
you know, my dad's also listening.
Shout out, Big Mike. Hey, thanks for texting.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting.
Yeah, but I'm really love to seeyou tonight, England, Dan and
John Ford Coley. Yeah.
(27:21):
It's mouthful. England.
Dan ended up becoming Dan Sales and he went country and then we
saw. Steals.
That's not steely. Dan Seals and then we saw John
for Coley a couple of years ago in in Waukegan.
All right. All right, next one, Pablo Cruz.
That's a great, another great yacht rock name.
Pablo Cruz. Look at their album covers.
(27:41):
They're all very like Californiaesque boat themed.
Yeah. Love will find a way from 78.
I had this album. OK, the what?
Any other songs on this album? Was this a single?
We don't know. I haven't listened to it in so
long, I wouldn't even. I'd have to look while we're
playing. I'll look.
That's OK, Pablo Cruz. Love will find a way.
(28:03):
And then, of course, another impartial grade because that's
what I'm doing here all hour long.
We've got time for just a couplemore songs after this.
You listen to the vinyl curriculum.
I'll find a way to like this song, I guess.
OK. It's not bad.
(28:23):
It shouldn't be hard. No.
No. Pablo Cruz.
I mean, I know I'm not a big fanof the name, but I feel like
Pablo Cruz for Yacht Rock has tohave some sort of a influence on
my how I think. Oh wow, because his name is
Cruz. I didn't think you all did that.
Remember, that's called lore. OK.
(28:43):
What do you think? We'll just go solid BI think for
that one that's respectable. That's respectable.
Yeah, respectable. Respectable.
Couldn't say it. Yeah.
All right. We're kind of running a little
short on time, unfortunately. So there's two songs on the
playlist that we're not going toplay here.
Cool In the gang. You know them, right?
(29:04):
Yeah, cool. In the game with AK.
Too hot, too slow song, kind of slow beat.
I don't know if they would qualify as Jot Rock, I think
they would, but the song definitely is OK.
And then the other one is LittleRiver Band Reminiscing, which is
a really, really good song. We saw them a couple of years
ago and. By the river.
(29:26):
You saw them in a van down by the river, no?
Why did you? You don't know that.
Yeah, but it has nothing to do with their Little River.
Band. I mean, maybe they're jamming
outside their van down by the. River no, they were pretty
popular in the seven late 70s and reminiscing is one of my
favorite songs. So go listen to the the playlist
and listen to both of those songs.
I think you're going to like on both.
(29:47):
OK. But next we're going to start
with next is Doobie Brothers. OK, so you've heard of them,
right? I have based on again, we we
looked at the Yon or not list earlier and according to that,
this there's one of their songs is the most quintessential yacht
rock song. So I feel like if they're number
one on the list, they've got to be.
(30:08):
Yeah. Yeah, the the people, right, The
band for Yacht Rock. Well, we're not doing what a
fool believes, which was the topof the list.
I have a funny story about that.My, my wife had that 45 as a
child. And she would play it over and
over and over. And her older brother almost had
a nervous breakdown and was screaming to her because she
kept playing that same song overand over.
But it's kind of, it is kind of addictive.
(30:29):
It's a really good song. But the one we're going to play
here is minute by minute, OK. And this was the name of their
album. Minute by minute. 1978.
And was that was there, It was that other song on the same
album. Yeah, I think it was.
I'll double check. OK, this is Minute by minute by
The Doobie Brothers. Again, we're getting a lot of
(30:50):
text today. This is great.
If you want to be part of the conversation, you can go ahead
and text into US 815-733-8517 minute by minute on the vinyl
curriculum. That's not how I pictured that
song to sound in my head. Minute by minute.
(31:11):
I feel like a clock beat or something.
That was Pink Floyd's time. Yeah, well, anytime anything to
do with a clock, I feel like youhave to have a clock beat or
something. Not bad, though.
I think I'm giving another B. Solid B.
You can't be mad at that. Don't give me that face.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.
Yeah, so are my parents, but that's OK.
(31:33):
Well, I understand. I'm in about a minute by The
Doobie Brothers. We've got another bonus song
now. Yeah, you know, I said we
weren't going to play Little River Band, and I got a angry
text from my son. I think he likes this song.
He and his little girlfriend Jenna.
We're just literally just talking about this the other
day. So we're going to play a little
snippet of reminiscing by LittleRiver Band.
(31:55):
OK. And do you want to say anything
else about them before we start or no?
I love this song. It's it's seems like it'd be a
great song. They played it in concert, it
was great. I can't say I'd ever heard of
the Little River Band. Maybe they were living in the
van down by the river. That's why I didn't hear him.
But let's take a listen right now.
Let's do it. It's final curriculum.
It's full of like piano, like 70s keyboard action there.
(32:27):
Yeah. You know what I mean?
Ray Charles or something? Yeah, that's a good song.
I sing that in car. If that's everyone in the car, I
sing it. That's what you just said.
You sing every word. Can we get a little bit of
rendition of that right now? You cannot.
Why you embarrassed? No, I don't need it documented.
Just like you. There's no documentation in my
Mohawk. Remember how I told you that?
We're going to find that, Karen.No Doc, we need to find that
(32:49):
picture of that please. I need my wife hears me.
That's good enough. OK, so when Nicole hears me
sing, she just, she sticks her head out the window.
She doesn't have to hear it. I bet.
What do you think? Little.
River Band Uh oh B minus. I think I have heard it but it's
(33:11):
just it's not my vibe. OK, that's that's legit.
I mean, I have to. You have to accept my impartial.
Grading. No, it's not.
It's not impartial. I think we've already decided
that. All right, we got one more song,
Logan. This one is.
I have a little back story aboutthis.
OK, so this is Kenny Loggins andhe was an opening act for
(33:35):
Fleetwood Mac where they were going around.
Yes, and I remember Fleetwood Mac last week.
We talked about them and Stevie Nicks and all that stuff.
So he became good friends with them all.
And I think it was the Rumors tour is when he, I think he said
that he that's when he was touring with them and he became
good friends with everybody. And Stevie Nicks said if you
(33:56):
ever need a female voice on something, just give me a call.
That's dangerous in the music industry, I feel like.
He wrote this song and called her and said, can you, will you
sing this song with me? And she did, and she killed it.
OK. Listen to this and tell you, and
I remember I said we're going toend up on upbeat, on an upbeat
note. I think you're going to know
(34:16):
this one. And so Kenny Lodgins is the
dangerous. What did you just say?
What? Kenny Logins.
Logins, not lodgings. That's when you're going to the
hotel. This is logins.
Like you're logging into a computer.
Kinda it was Logins and Messina they had.
They were a group and then they split up and then he kind of
(34:37):
went out on his own and I think I forgot the Messina's first
name, he went on his own as well.
But obviously Kenny Loggins was much more successful.
And then he he, because that waspart of that documentary.
I started watching that documentary.
I never actually finished it, but he was in that documentary.
I'm like, isn't that the Danger Zone guy?
Yes. And I mean, his music evolved
(34:58):
quite well dramatically. They all did, because remember
how MTV kind of affected the Second British Invasion?
MTV kind of put a squash to yacht rock radio as well because
you had these kind of chill people and all of a sudden now
we have to do videos and that's a whole nother.
(35:19):
And a lot of them just didn't adjust well.
And you know, they're these guysare competing against Michael
Jackson and Madonna and all thatstuff.
So a lot of them faded out, but several of them kind of made had
successful soundtracks like Kenny Loggins did several, he
did Footloose and he did Top Gun.
Christopher Cross did. There was a movie called Arthur
with Dudley Moore. Seems like I'm missing.
(35:44):
Not Arthur the Aardvark. Michael McDonald from Doobie
Brothers did Sweet Freedom was amovie, so they kind of found
some success that way. And and then, you know, Michael
McDonald's been around forever, so still going.
So was he was Kenny successful done before the danger zone?
Because obviously that was like,yeah.
This is this is this is 1978, this song right here.
(36:05):
And this is what I think this was like his solo started.
And yeah, he's had several success, yeah.
Yeah, and so he OK. All right, well, let's take a
listen and see how it sounds. Kenny Log, Kenny Loggins.
See Caught Myself There and Stevie Nicks on the vinyl
(36:25):
curriculum and we'll talk about it a little bit more.
That's an appropriate note to end on, if you like.
That is another another one thatI can visualize listening to.
(36:48):
Well, on a boat. This is Yacht Rock on the Bottle
curriculum. Whenever I call you friend.
Yeah, is the name of that one. I call you a friend sometimes.
Let's not go there, OK? We're we're coworkers, OK?
Let's say a minus for that one. That was a good one.
(37:09):
Good. That was a good one.
Upbeat. Upbeat.
Stevie Nicks is amazing. Yeah, I think in that
documentary you were talking about that is like the quote UN
quote theme song. No, is it?
I don't know. I felt like I I've heard it
before and I think it was from there.
Like I I want to say I there wasa video of Kenny and Stevie
(37:30):
doing something like singing on the stage together.
I don't know if I remember that.I think though, that you
probably have just heard that song because that is a if you've
ever listened to a 70s Station, that was a big hit.
I would say most of these are hits that you if you ever
listened to 70s Station, you'd hear them, whether it's yacht
Rock or not. OK.
(37:51):
Like light FM would probably play something like this.
I don't listen to Light FM for Christmas music.
That's two Christmas references in one episode.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with that.
All right, so let's review the grades of all the songs for the
hour and then I will give my impartial grade for the entire
(38:12):
genre. I would ask everyone who's
listening live or to the podcastlater on, please let us know if
you think he's truly impartial because the vast majority of the
people that I've talked talking to are saying no he's not.
But I'd love your input. Text in 815-733-8517.
(38:33):
So here are your grades. ABAB minus A-B plus BBB minus A
minus. See, there's a lot of BS there.
You know what there were There was also a lot of texts and
chatter online about how wonderful they everybody loves
Yacht Rock, so you better be careful with this one.
Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of BS there.
(38:55):
We had a good start, good on, which is which is solid.
Had a lot of as I think overall as is genre for this week's
episode of the Vinyl Curriculum A minus.
OK, I will give you an A minus for being.
Impartial. Yes.
No, I'll give you a minus for being.
(39:18):
I don't even know what you were.I think it was fair.
I think that's fair. That is fair.
Yeah, I'm nothing if not. Fair.
And I have to be honest, you know, some of these songs I'll
absolutely love when I when theycame out and sometimes I'll
listen to them and they're not my all time favourites anymore.
You know, kind of it's like you were in the moment.
But many of these do hold up very well.
(39:40):
You weren't talking about. Did you have a lot of these
albums like you? Yeah, you talked about last
week, like almost every song. You're like, oh, we had the 45.
My sister had this song. This.
We had this song. Yeah, no, I had my friend Chris
Kloss had The Doobie Brothers album, Kool and the Gang.
I had the 45 Too Hot, which we didn't play.
(40:00):
Pablo Cruz, we had the album I think I had the 45 for.
I'd really love to see you tonight.
I did not have Boz gags. Holla Notes I did not have Hold
the Line. We had the album.
I had Christopher Cross's album,and I didn't have Steely Dan and
I didn't have Kenny Loggins. So I had maybe, you know, maybe
half. Yeah, But you'd hear him on the
radio. And then and over the years,
(40:22):
I've been listening to rock radio and I hear them, you know,
they'll play these all the time.Yeah, well, another solid
episode this week, The Vinyl Curriculum, if you haven't heard
the previous ones, they're streaming now on Spotify and
Apple Podcast. We don't have a live show next
week because Jim will be out of town attending his daughter's
wedding. Congratulations again to her.
(40:44):
That'll be a lot of fun. But we will have a podcast next
week. And the topic for that is.
Mistakes mistakes. Logan complaining.
Remember early on he was talkingabout history and how the only
reason you do history is just tolearn not to do it again?
Well, these are songs that should never be repeated, but
they were all hits. Well, I'm looking forward to
that hearing some of those songs.
(41:05):
That playlist will drop as well on Apple Music and on Spotify.
Thank you all so much for listening and we'll catch you on
the next one.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.