As some of you may know, my day job as Hollywood finance exec includes positions as CFO of National Lampoon and other film companies. For the past 15 years I’ve been running the largest independent film distribution company for inflight entertainment. If you see an indy film on an international flight and certain domestic flights, odds are we released it.

One of the greatest joys of this job is indy producers telling us their films wouldn’t have been seen without our airline licensing.

Having watched many movies on flights that I may not otherwise have seen, I am also grateful for the opportunities. Which brings me to one of my favorite new films, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary. I watched it on a recent flight to Ft. Lauderdale, and twice more on the flight home, taking notes to write this Substack post!

This movie was like wrapping myself in a big therapy blanket. Although the “Dockumentary” might ostensibly target Boomers and GenX, it crosses generations and genres. It takes the viewer through the trajectory of “Yacht Rock” from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, detailing how jazz studio musicians were key to the high quality music of the era, despite it being pop rock, or “jazzy pop.”

Covering groundbreaking songwriters from Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Toto, Al Jareau, George Benson, Quincy Jones, George Duke, Stanley Clark, and Burt Bacharach, to G-Funk creators generations later Warren G, Thundercat, De La Soul, Dr. Dre, this movie vindicates my obsession for the genre.

Grammy winning What A Fool Believes ranks #1 on the Yachtski meter, and is considered the birth of “The Doobie Bounce” that changed music of the era.

The genre “Yacht Rock” was “Retroactively named” with the documentary producers adding that “Yacht Rock” is like “Forensic labeling.” Most of the musicians interviewed in the documentary seemed to embrace the spirit of the newly-dubbed genre.

Everyone, that is, except Donald Fagen.

The founding and only remaining original member of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen is a known fan-hating bully. Although the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan albums were my soundtrack through middle school and high school, I had never been to a Steely Dan concert until just before COVID in September 2019.

That show at the Allstate Arena (formerly Rosemont Horizon), had a strictly-enforced rule: PHONES OFF. My guess, Fagen was either afraid of music copyright issues with the estate of the band’s co-founder, the late Walter Becker, or he’s just a jerk.

But, rebel that I am, it didn’t stop me from sneaking photos.

At the end of Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, the producer calls Donald Fagen on the phone to ask him what he thinks of the new name “Yacht Rock.”

The reply is unexpected (to me) and classic Fagen.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching this hilarious and heart-warming “Dockumentary” for the sheer joy of music.

Floofles finally came back after 10 days away, sassy and chatty as ever! 😻

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