This is about as “inside” of a post as I have ever written on The Nostalgia Blog. I doubt anyone other than me and my buddy Jon have ever heard of this but that’s okay for two reasons.
1. Some of our most popular posts have been things we thought no one would know/care about.
2. Ahhh, maybe there was only one reason…
Now to the post!
Yacht Rock is Nostalgic for me on so many goddamn levels it makes me dizzy. So let’s start off slow. Yacht Rock itself is a form of music from the late 70s and early 80s that was defined by mostly its smooth sound. Popular Yacht Rock artists included acts such as: Toto, Doobie Brothers/Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (before he wrote Danger Zone). Though it was recorded before my time, this type of music dominated E-Z Listening radio stations when I was a child and those were the only radio stations my parents listened to. So without me even knowing it, Yacht Rock became an unofficial soundtrack to a lot of my childhood.
Cut to many years later. I am finishing up my university career and “internet videos” are becoming all the rage. This was the time that YouTube first started coming on the scene. I was blown away by how much “undiscovered comedy” was now available and in one of my searches I stumbled across a site called Channel101.com. The first video I saw was called “The Bu” by a group that was called The Lonely Island. Yes, the very same Lonely Island that would later go on to revolutionize “the short” on Saturday Night Live and launch the careers of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer.
But I digress. The next video I came across was entitled Yacht Rock. This is the next level of Nostalgia for me. My good friend Jon (and occasional contributor to The Nostalgia Blog) and I both grew up in homes where Yacht Rock music was very prevalent. That’s probably why he was the only other person that found these sketches as funny as I did. Thus began a ritual of drinking/getting drunk and watching episodes of Yacht Rock (a ritual that was pretty much nightly).
The premiss was pretty solid. Each episode was introduced by Hollywood Steve, who would set the scene for what was about to take place. What would proceed was comedic actors making up fictional versions of how these iconic Yacht Rock songs were written. Oh and did I mention they almost all took place on a dock? Cause they did. To this day I think this is one of the funniest ongoing sketches I have ever seen and if you have any fond memories for this music give it a watch. Hell, even if you don’t you should because you (like me) might not even know how much you loved music until you hear it again…or until you see Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins have a song battle with Hall and Oates (it’s amazing).
So there you have it. Yacht Rock, whenever I think of you I will be filled with childhood memories of listening to the radio with my parents as well as drunkenly screaming lyrics into a half empty bottle of spiced rum while eating pizza with my buddy Jon. And that’s how you Nostalgia!
Yacht Rock Ep.1
Yacht Rock Ep.2
Yacht Rock Ep.3
Yacht Rock Ep.4
Yacht Rock Ep.5
For more episodes (there are 12 in total) check them out on YouTube or Click here.