All language subtitles for Sometimes.When.We.Touch.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

-* MTV *

Allow it to move
in a circle with your shoulders.

-America in the '70s
was in need of relief...

and soft rock was there
like a sonic colonic.

**

It was time to love again.

-* Do you want to make love? *

-* If you love me, let me know *

-* Your love keeps lifting me *

* Higher and higher *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-And faster than you could order
another round of piña coladas...

[ Cheers and applause ]

...soft rock was raking in
hard cash.

-Chicago --
We were in 270 countries,

and "If You Leave Me Now"

was number one
in every one of them...

at the same time.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-You start to feel like,
you know, you're bulletproof.

You know, we can't fail.

-But the good times
couldn't go on forever.

-Welcome to the '80s.

-We're here to pump...you up.

-I must break you.

-The world got tired
of silly love songs.

-Soft rock became not cool.

-God damn nerds.
-Nerds!

-Nerds!
-Nerds!
-Nerds!

-It was designed for the masses.

-Nothing got in your soul.

-Soft rock was really schmaltzy,
too poppy.

-Like, funky dentist music.

-It's the only kind of music

that makes me
break out in hives.

-I think of sunburnt
Boomer bellies,

Hawaiian shirts,
old ass and titties hanging out.

-People thought
soft rock is gone, it's dead.

Nobody wants to hear it anymore.

-This sucks.
-Talk about lame.

-It's pointless. It's pointless.
I hate it.

-Pop goes the bubble.

-Could soft rock survive?

**

-* Sometimes when we touch *

**

**

-The Song of the Year is...

"What a Fool Believes"!

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Heading into the 1980s,
soft rock was loving life.

New stars like
Michael McDonald...

-* I got to try *

-...Christopher Cross...

-Christopher,
I'd say you've done pretty well

with these next two songs.

-When I recorded them,
I was hoping they'd be good.

-...and Air Supply looked like
kings of the new decade.

-Please welcome Air Supply.

-Air Supply.

-Here is Air Supply.

-"Solid Gold" was bringing
its sound to millions on TV.

-Welcome to "Solid Gold."

-Its hosts were soft rockers...

-Welcome back for another
great year of "Solid Gold."

-...and its cast performed
interpretive dances

of soft-rock hits.

-* Things will never be
the same again *

* I keep forgetting
how you made that so clear *

-But a shift in music
had been rumbling for years.

Some of the most popular
soft-rock songs

were on shakier ground
than the Top 40 charts revealed.

-* Do that to me one more time *

-* I miss you more than I *

* Missed you before, and I *

-* I'll be in love with you *

-The sound
was still as smooth...

-* Friday night, it was late,
I was walking you home *

* We got down to the gate *

-...but a new generation
was getting bored

with all things mellow.

-In the late 1970s,

soft rock was speaking to people
older than me.

-* Walking through the park
and reminiscing *

-A lot of that soft rock
was definitely not made

for somebody my age.

I needed some angst.

[ Punk music plays ]

I needed punk rock to happen.

**

-And then suddenly...

hippies were out, anger was in.

-* I am an anti-Christ *

* And I am an anarchist *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-In 1977, A&M Records, the label
most associated with soft rock,

decided its future lay
with the most notorious band

in the history
of rock and roll...

the Sex Pistols.

-God save the Queen.

-After EMI
dumped the Sex Pistols,

A&M Records picked them up

and staged
a contract-signing ceremony

in front of Buckingham Palace.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

-Jerry Moss of A&M Records
really had the vision.

I think he had seen
trends shift before

and was ready
to jump on this one.

**

-Daryl and I worked at A&M.

We recorded there.

And after the word came out

about them signing
the Sex Pistols,

Karen and I were standing there,
and she said,

"You know, we were the kind of
music that made this label.

What are they doing?"

And I said, "Karen,
they're trying to stay hip."

And to them, hip was signing
this Sex Pistols thing.

And she said, "Well,
I don't think it's right."

-They are a group called
the Sex Pistols.

-You dirty bastards.

-Again.
-You dirty fucker.

-What a clever boy.
-What a fucking rotter.

-Well, that's it for tonight.

-Well, they went in
and trashed the headquarters

at A&M in England.

I mean, just trashed it,

and they never made an album
for A&M.

So I thought,
"Well, that's what you get."

[ Laughs ]

[ Rock music plays ]

-Punk was gaining momentum.

-During the soft-rock years,

you couldn't get the attention
of the record companies

unless you had that distilled,
manufactured sound.

It was just a very closed shop.
The walls were high.

You couldn't climb over,

so the punk movement
decided to blow up the walls.

-* Born *

* Born in the '50s *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-In the late '70s,
the studio wizardry

that elevated soft rock
was turned against it.

-In The Police,
we didn't have no bang producer.

The first couple of Police
albums cost 20 cents to make,

and we did them
in two or three weeks.

-In 1978, undeterred by its
failure with the Sex Pistols,

A&M signed The Police.

-When we first arrived
in America,

it was certainly our intention
to be a changing of the guard

because who doesn't want
to be revolutionary?

**

-I remember being on the lot,

and one of the guys
from A&M said,

"We just signed this band,"
and it was The Police.

I was like, "We're done."

It was like
Sting was just too great.

-One of the greatest weekends
I ever had,

I go to see The Police
for 2 bucks.

The guy at the ticket counter
was obviously into soft rock.

He goes,
"Hey, this band, The Police?

You guys better enjoy this
while you can

'cause they're going nowhere."

-Let me hear if you are ready
for The Police!

Whoo!

[ Cheers and applause ]

-The Police did
completely change the sound

of what became pop radio.

-* Roxanne *
-* Put on the red light *

-* Roxanne *
-* Put on the red light *

-Were new wavers sentimental?

Let's just say they had
a different approach to love.

-* All by myself *

-While soft rock was about
seduction and sobbing...

-* I ran 20 doors *

* Around the house,
black and blue *

-...the new music
was aggressive...

-* Is she really going out
with him? *

-...edgy...

-* I might like you better *

-...profane.
-* If we slept together *

-* Orgasm addict *

* You're an orgasm addict *

-"Orgasm Addict" is about
being in love with your hand.

-* Your mother wants to know *

* What all those stains
on your jeans *

* You're an orgasm addict *

-Is there any Buzzcocks song
that's just like,

"I love you and you love me,
and this is great

and now I'm gonna love you
for the end of time"?

No.

Like, I don't think Air Supply
ever had a song that was like,

"Fuck you!

You'll be sorry you dumped me."

That's not what "All Out
of Love" was saying, you know?

**

-UK music magazine NME
named post-punk indie classic

"Love Will Tear Us Apart"
the greatest single in history.

-* Love *

* Love will
tear us apart again *

-It defined a new type
of love song for a new decade.

-Joy Division
was a beautiful illustration

of how to take
* love will keep us together *

and kind of, you know,
flip it the bird.

-"Love Will Tear Us Apart" --

it's got this kind of sweet
sway to it,

but it's singing something
incredibly sad.

-* Love will tear us apart *

-And the music video
is very dark.

-"Love, love will tear us apart"

because that is
fucking the truth.

Love ruins you.

Love wrecks you.

"Love Will Keep Us Together"

makes you believe
a beautiful lie,

but in
"Love Will Tear Us Apart,"

the singer is like,
"We're gonna fall in love,

and it's gonna
fucking destroy us."

-Joy Division is great,
but it's kind of a red flag.

If you run across somebody
on Tinder

who is maybe more into
"Love Will Tear Us Apart"

than
"Love Will Keep Us Together,"

you should avoid them.

**

-Punk and new wave began
the assault on balladeering.

Then came the heavy artillery...

a new brand of uber machismo
that defined the 1980s.

-To crush your enemies,
see them driven before you,

and to hear the lamentation
of their women.

-...which had no need
for wimpy soft rockers...

-* Da-da-da *

* Da-da-da *

-...a torrent of parody...

-* Sometimes when we touch *

-...and new technology

that would eviscerate
the soft-rock sound...

-The whole genre started
to cave in on itself from above.

-...and an unexpected force

was set to blast soft rock
into a galaxy far, far away.

**

-Announcing
the latest achievement

in home entertainment --

the power of sight, video,
the power of sound.

MTV -- Music Television.

-MTV launched
a revolution in 1981,

but video didn't kill
all the radio stars --

at least not at first.

**

-Alright. One minute to air.

-First time live.
-Is this the first time live?

-First time live
from the studio ever.

-MTV has never
done anything live?

-Not from the studio ever.

I'm Mark Goodman,

and if you want to talk
to Daryl Hall and John Oates,

all you need is this --
one index finger

to dial one telephone.

Welcome to MTV, you guys.

-Oh, yeah.

-Hall and Oates were the first
group that I really started

looking at their videos.

-* Private eyes *

* They're watching you *

* I want to play that *

* One on one *

* I want to
play that game tonight *

-Their videos really just,
like, jumped out

because they were
really well-shot, well-done.

They had, like, a little bit
of a storyline to them.

-* And you move in close,
a little bit means so much *

-And the songs were so catchy.

-* But I can't go for that, no *

* No can do *

-I loved me some Hall & Oates.

-Following the launch of MTV,
Lionel Richie

broke off from the Commodores
and went solo.

Free to let
his sentimental side lose,

he reeled off
a string of soft-rock classics,

like "Say You, Say Me."

-* Say you, say me *

* Say it together, naturally *

-* Joanna *

* I love you *

**

-The fact that Kool & the Gang
had videos on MTV

and that "Joanna"
was the number-one played song

in the country at the time,

we had a lot more fans
than we did in the '70s.

-* Cherish the love *

* Cherish the life *

-But soon...

[ Music distorts ]

[ Rock music plays ]

...mellow was bumped
to the background.

-MTV -- no slow weekend,
no slow songs.

We're gonna whip you
into a frenzy

with the fastest weekend ever --

with the fastest weekend ever
on MTV.

-The rocking-est, the fastest,

the hardest of rock and roll.

-And unlike Hall, Oates,
and Richie,

most soft rockers
became early casualties.

**

-* I know,
know what's on your mind *

Singing and songwriting --
it's an auditory thing.

It's about the impressions
and stream of consciousness

that the music brings
to your mind, not about...

in my opinion, a video

of someone else's impression
of what the song is.

* 'Cause it's alright,
think we're gonna make it *

**

-Pre-MTV,
Christopher Cross was a star,

despite early resistance
from his record company.

-Christopher Cross in 1980
put out his first album,

which had probably
low expectations,

but he was being groomed
to be a kind of soft-rock guy.

-Warners initially didn't
believe in my material,

and their plan was to give me
other material to record.

-There was a notion
about his talent

that for whatever reason --

maybe we were just
being snobs --

we just didn't have
that feeling about him.

But a junior A&R person
who turned out to be

the head of department
years later, Michael Ostin,

fought for him.

It was an almost mistake
we made, but we didn't.

-You know,
the album came out in 1980,

and "Ride Like the Wind" hit,
and that was it.

* Ride, ride like the wind *

* To be free again *

-And for the Grammys,
he ended up sweeping.

-"Sailing," Christopher Cross.
-Whoo! "Sailing."

-* Sailing *

"Sailing" was really
never supposed to be

released as a single,
but I-I got to say,

I'm really glad it was.

-Christopher Cross
has set a Grammy record

that he would hold for 40 years,
until Billie Eilish came along,

winning Album of the Year,
Best New Artist,

Song of the Year,
and Record of the Year.

-He not only
swept the Grammys --

in 1982, he took home an Oscar
for "Arthur's Theme."

The winners are Burt Bacharach,
Carole Bayer Sager,

Christopher Cross,
and Peter Allen!

-* When you get caught between
the moon and New York City *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-But I don't recall ever seeing
Christopher Cross on MTV...once.

MTV had kind of
made him irrelevant.

It's sad, actually.

-If my career is -- is meant
to be based on sex appeal

or looking like
Leonardo DiCaprio,

well, then, I'm out of luck.

-The failure
of its biggest new star

to make it on MTV
wasn't a good sign.

Soon, soft rockers
on the channel

felt like
awkward party crashers.

**

-I want my MTV!
-MTV.

-* [ Rapping ] The place to be
to see videos of the century *

**

-MTV didn't deliberately
make soft rock uncool,

but when video came along,
people thought

that's what you had to do
to be down,

to belong, to be accepted.

**

-The big setback
for a lot of musicians

was it became all about
the visual

and all about the imaging
of rock-star people.

-Once music videos took over,

we got
survival of the photogenic.

**

-In the early days of MTV,
they'd just get the band

looking handsome somewhere,
and they'd bounce around.

And there's your video.

Certainly, that was our videos.

**

-Even soft rock's
heaviest hitters

gave in to their worst impulses.

Lionel Richie reached the
pinnacle of treacle in 1984...

-* Hello *

-...with a video
that would never be forgotten.

-* Is it me
you're looking for? *

-Lionel Richie's "Hello" video
had a storyline.

He fell in love with
a blind woman and followed her,

and he was just, like,
singing to her.

-* I sometimes see you
pass outside my door *

-What it really is about

if how easy it is
to stalk someone who can't see.

-* Hello *

-While some soft rockers

were getting
their cheesy videos played...

-* Hungry eyes *

-* Baby makes her blue jeans *

* Yeah, she makes
her blue jeans talk *

-* Abracadabra *

* I want to reach out
and grab ya *

**

-MTV was all out of love
for Air Supply,

despite the Australian duo's
eight top-10 records

in the '80s.

-We were like the biggest band
in the world at the time,

but MTV never played
any of our videos

because I don't think
they considered us hip or cool.

-We never
consciously hated soft rock.

Air Supply -- unfortunately,
they think maybe

they were selected to be banned
and never played on MTV.

That never,
ever happened like that.

**

-Air Supply became

the last major band
of the soft-rock era...

**

...and its greatest symbol
of frustration.

**

-When we became famous,
people in the business said,

"These guys are either
one-hit wonders

or three-hit wonders
or five-hit wonders."

To think about where we are now,
it's mind-blowing.

**

-I bought the master
of Air Supply

based on that first song,
"Lost in Love,"

that I thought
would be a hit record

coupled with Russell's
soaring voice.

-* Lost in love,
and I don't know much *

* Was I thinking aloud
and fell out of touch? *

-Air Supply
is classic soft rock.

-* I'm all out of love *

* What am I without you? *

* I can't be too late
to say that I was so wrong *

**

-But what we hate this day

is that our music
was described as soft rock...

because it's not the music,
it's not us, you know?

-Anything that's soft
is kind of not quite there.

**

The reviews were coming in,
and they would always qualify it

by saying something
a little bit negative.

-They'd say it was "candyfloss,"
"insipid,"

and those kind of adjectives.

-And they would say,

"It's not my cup of tea,
but the show was fantastic."

[ Cheers and applause ]

People were coming to the shows,

and the audiences
can't be wrong.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Soft rock never got any love
from the critics.

They got all the love
from the audience.

[ Cheers and applause ]

But then
a really sad thing happened.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Soft rock really
fell out of fashion,

and the audience
began ridiculing them, too.

-Uh, Stephen Bishop.

I have a hit song, "On and On."

-And you saw them made fun of
on "Saturday Night Live."

-* On and on *

* On and on *

-Did you write that song?
-Yeah.

-I hate it. Now get out of here.
[ Laughter ]

-If I had a daughter,

the number-one thing
I'd teach her,

if you're at a party
and some guy starts playing

an acoustic guitar,
stay away from him.

-* I gave my love a cherry *

-John Belushi didn't like
emo crooners, either.

His treatment of Stephen Bishop
in 1978's "Animal House"

showed how,
despite its massive success,

soft rock could also be
really annoying.

-Sorry.

**

-From the beginning,
soft rock was seen

as a betrayal of rock's roots
in the counterculture.

**

But there was so much
more ridicule to come.

-Well, it's goodbye
to the elevator music.

-* Diamond girl *

* You sure do shine *

**

-From Seals and Crofts
to Gino Vannelli,

critics had always treated soft
rock like a musical disease.

-Soft rock, that lame-ass,
weak, non-threatening,

suburban-white-boy junk

played by bands like
Men Without Testicles.

-Why is it we live in a world
where John Lennon was murdered,

yet Barry Manilow continues
to put out fucking albums?

[ Cheers and applause ]

-The vocal is thin,
but it is linear.

-That girl has really got
a sound.

-It's a sound,
but it's not our sound.

-Written by journalist
Robert Lipsyte,

1975's
"That's the Way of the World"

parodied the Carpenters
and starred Harvey Keitel

as an unhappy record producer.

-In the '70s,

when I wrote
"That's the Way of the World,"

to hate the Carpenters
was chic, smart,

a musical...

In the movie, this group,

the Pages,
was everything that was wrong,

contrived, and basically evil.

**

-There's some stigma
associated with being mainstream

because you can't be cool

and be mainstream
at the same time.

You're supposed to be
underground, kind of niche,

and when it becomes mainstream,
it just isn't cool anymore.

-Back then, there was
this notion of selling out.

If you so-called commercial,

which meant the ability
to write a hit song,

which, frankly, is about
the hardest thing

in the world to do,

then you were thought of
as a sellout.

So all these seminal artists
were just getting trashed.

**

-William, this is
Ben Fong-Torres.

I'm the music editor
at Rolling Stone magazine.

-There was a shift in attitude
around the same time

that I joined Rolling Stone,
which is the late '60s.

I knew that Rolling Stone had
a "hipper than thou" attitude

because I had it.

We would say, "Okay,
what about John Denver?"

Or, "What about the Carpenters?"

And there would be an attitude,

"Well, do we really
have to cover --

You know, they're so popular."

So we did, in fact,
cover Top 40,

usually with a sarcastic view.

-The hipsters
may have been arrogant,

but they weren't always wrong.

A lot of soft rock
was hard to take...

and the soft-rock-hosted
variety shows of the late '70s

didn't help the genre's image
as legit rock and roll.

-All those shows
were so sugary sweet

because they had to be popular
for the entire family,

so they would definitely look
for the things that were softer,

more palatable.

-* You'd think that people
would have had enough *

* Of silly love songs *

-So it was the perfect outlet
for really bad songs.

-Donny and Marie Osmond.

[ Applause ]
-Those variety shows told you

that Donny Osmond
could be rock and roll.

And literally...

-* I'm a little bit country *

-* And I'm a little bit
rock and roll *

-And that was just the reality

of what the machine
was going to do.

And there it was each week
on your television set...

-* I don't know
if it's good or bad *

-* But I know I love it so *

-...the de-fanging...
of rock and roll.

-* We're a little bit
rock and roll *

[ Applause ]

-If I walked
through the living room

and somebody was watching them,
I walked out.

I'm like, "Enjoy that, Grandma."

**

-"The Captain and Tennille."

-I loved "Captain and Tennille."

[ Whistle blowing ]
-Alright. Let's go. Come on.

-You don't understand!

-Don't worry. I'm the captain.
I'll bail her out.

[ Laughter ]

-But those shows --
they always soften the punch.

They always soften
the damn blow, man.

-* Hand me down
my walkin' cane *

* Hand me down my hat *

It was hokey.

And they always wanted
to include Daryl, the captain,

even though there was

really nothing for him to do
in that song, "Rubberband Man."

So somebody said, "I know.

He could pretend to play
rubber bands or something."

* Hey, y'all, prepare yourself
for the rubberband man *

I wish he didn't do it.

* Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo *

* Doo-doo! *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Here is one of the truly
great stars of rock music,

the delightful Mr. Leo Sayer,
who makes us feel like dancing.

-* You've got
a cute way of talkin' *

-Truly great rock artist?

-* You make me
feel like dancin' *

-Alright. It was a kids' show,

But moves like this turned
soft rock into laughing stock.

-* I wanna dance my life away *
-* I feel! *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Then there was this.

-* Feelings *

* Nothing more than feelings *

-* I've been to paradise *

* But I've never been to me *

-* I'm in you *

-I was a big fan
of Peter Frampton...

-* You're in me *

...but then he came out with
"I'm in You"...

-* I'm in you *

-...and that album cover of him
looking all -- all --

you know,
with the shirt unbuttoned.

Oh, my God.

Pop goes the bubble.

Goodbye, Peter.

**

-* You light up my life *

-I don't really care for
"You Light Up My Life."

It's a little schmaltzy
and syrupy and saccharine.

-* Carry on *

-"You Light Up My Life"
was number one

for 10 weeks in 1977.

It was at that time the biggest-
selling single of all time.

-You just got to get over it.

That song found its way

to millions of people
who appreciate it.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Give them a break.

Soft rock is entertainment.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Except for
"Sometimes When We Touch."

-* Who am I to judge you *

* On what you say or do? *

-The displays
of naked male emotion

that made soft rock so popular

were also what made it
so easy to ridicule.

-"Sometimes When We Touch,"
the melody's okay...

-* And sometimes when we touch *

-...but the lyrics...

-* The honesty's too much *

-...are so painfully vulnerable
and sincere...

-* I want you to hold you
'til I die *

-...that the only reaction

anyone who is sane
can have to that song

is to want to slap the guy
who's singing it.

-Wow.

* And I have to close my eyes
and hide *

I can't control what I write.

The words kind of
fly out of my mouth.

* I want to hold you
'til I die *

-It's a little
heavy-handed there, dude.

Like, you got to be
okay on your own first

before you put
that much pressure on me.

-* 'Til the fear
in me subsides *

-I really sympathize
with some of these great writers

who achieved
the pinnacle of their careers

just to be ridiculed by some
of these folks in the press.

It sucks.

-* I want to hold you... *

My mom used to say,

"Danny, you just have to cry
all the way to the bank,"

because the more
they smashed me,

the more backlash into
people buying my records.

* 'Til the fear in me subsides *

-I don't like that song at all.

**

-Even proven hitmakers
were seen as uncool

by the record companies
who made millions off them.

-The winner is
Captain and Tennille.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-The Grammys, 1976.

It was exciting.
It was my first Grammy.

And I want to thank A&M Records
for giving us a creative place

to do our thing,
and we appreciate it.

[ Applause ]

So after the show was over,
this young man

that I didn't know
came running up to me and said,

"Oh, oh, Miss Tennille,
we're having an A&M after party.

We want you to come."

And I went, "Really?

And you didn't invite us until
we won Record of the Year."

I understood
the record companies,

including A&M, were trying
to keep their hip edge,

so we didn't go to the party.

You know, I didn't want to go
and be fakey, you know?

"Oh, thank you so much."

[ Laughs ]

**

-Other soft rockers
with serious credentials

were dismissed
as dorks and lightweights,

especially when they wrote songs
that burrowed into your brain.

**

-"If You Like Piña Coladas"
by Rupert Holmes,

which is really called "Escape."

-I try to "escape" the song
as often as possible.

-What's the line? Who's got it?

-* I wasn't happy with my lady *

-Well, that's not right.

-* I was tired of my lady *

* We'd been together too long *

-The use of the word "lady" is
a defining aspect of soft rock

and also something
that makes you cringe a bit.

-* Same old dull routine *

-* If you like piña coladas *

Yeah.

I hate myself just now
for singing it.

[ Laughs ]

-* And the feel of the ocean *

-The kind of tropical fantasy
that it puts forward

is just too hokey,
is too tiki room at Disneyland.

-* Write to me *

* And escape *

-[ Laughs ]
What I think of that song --

I think of sunburnt
Boomer bellies, Hawaiian shirts,

old ass and titties hanging out.

-You can say, "I hate it.

That's a piece of crap.

I hate that bubblegum music,"
but guess what?

You sang it
in the car by yourself.

**

You're lying
if you say you didn't.

There are songs like that.

"Piña Colada"'s
one of those songs.

-* If you like piña coladas *
-You've got to get into it.

-"And getting caught
in the rain."

Like, "Oh, that's so romantic
and sweet."

-It was just a fun song,
and it told a story.

-* I am into champagne *

-Tried to cheat on my wife.

She was trying to cheat on me!

-Oh!
-Oh!

-* And she walked in the place *

-He put an ad in the paper
looking for somebody else,

but the person he meets who has
connected with him is his wife.

-* It was my own lovely lady *

-And she's like, "Oh, it's you."

-* And she says,
"Oh, it's you" *

-And it's like,
"We're stuck together in hell.

Aah!"

-* Come with me and escape *

Believe it or not,

I had never had
a piña colada in my life.

I had no idea what was in it,
how you made it,

but it sounded right.

**

It's happy hour, guys.

Can I get you
something to drink?

Beer, piña colada? Yes.

When I wrote the song, I wrote,

"If you like Humphrey Bogart
and getting caught in the rain."

I looked at the lyric,
and I thought,

"I don't know about
Humphrey Bogart."

-Waiting for a lady.

-And so I decided

10 seconds before I sang it
for the first time

to say "piña colada"
instead of "Humphrey Bogart."

It changed
the course of my life.

-By the time he released
soft rock's national anthem --

and its most
inescapable mega-hit --

Rupert Holmes had been a music-
industry sensation for years.

Trouble was, no one knew it.

Holmes' early-'70s success
ranged from rock and bubblegum

to movie soundtracks and TV.

-* Echo Valley 2-6809 *

-I kept thinking,
"That's Shirley Jones,

and she's lip-syncing
to words that I wrote."

**

-* Don't you know,
don't you know? *

-The Jets would make one
of his songs a top-five hit.

"You Got It All" was later
covered by Britney Spears.

-* Honey, it's true *

* There's just you *

-Holmes' debut album,
"Widescreen,"

was filled with stories
of colorful characters.

The critics took notice.

**

-But the label only printed
10,000 copies.

You can't even have a bomb
with that few copies.

But one copy found its way into
the hands of Barbra Streisand.

-An impressed Streisand
tapped Holmes

to write songs for her new film,
"A Star Is Born."

-My work was getting out
to a larger audience,

and so out of that came
an awful lot of cover versions

of my songs by Barry Manilow,

Dolly Parton,
Dionne Warwick, Mac Davis.

-After four solo albums,

Holmes released
"Partners in Crime."

Its signature song

became the last
number-one single of the 1970s

and the first number-one record
of the '80s.

-It was a song in the
right place at the right time.

**

-Or maybe the right song
at the wrong time.

When "Escape" was released,
soft rock was at its peak,

but so was public fatigue
with sensitive guys and beards.

-One of the things I learned
in doing music research

is you can't predict hits,

but you can determine when
a song's been played too much.

"Piña Colada"
might have had six weeks

when people
were just burned out,

maybe the novelty factor
didn't have the repeatability,

maybe, and they just got
kind of tired of it.

**

[ Doorbell ringing to
the tune of "Escape
(The Piña Colada Song)" ]

-"Escape" eventually became
the emblem

of everything audiences love...

-Campy.

-[ Humming "Escape
(The Piña Colada Song)" ]

-...and love to hate
about soft rock.

-Don't.
I just got it out of my head.

-* If you like piña coladas *

-* And getting caught
in the rain *

-* If you're not into yoga *

-* And you got half a brain *

-* If you like
makin' love at midnight *

-* In the dunes of the cape *

-Wouldn't you get sand
in your butt?

-* Write to me and escape *

-I hate that we all know
the words to this song.

**

-Holmes left pop music behind

to write mystery novels
and stage plays.

-And the winner is...
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood,"

music and lyrics
by Rupert Holmes.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-1986 was supposed to be the
best year for my family's life.

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

I felt pretty much
on top of the world.

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

**

And a few months after that,
with no warning, no diagnosis,

my beautiful
10-year-old daughter,

Wendy Isobel Holmes, died...

**

...from an undiagnosed
brain tumor.

And she was gone.

**

All the grief and...

**

...sadness of that time,
it was just too much to bear.

And so I had to
stop writing music.

-It took a decade
before he could return to music.

-I finally started writing
the TV series

"Remember WENN" for AMC.

-It's no coincidence that
the series is called

"Remember WENN," W-E-N-N.

That's what I called
my daughter, Wendy.

**

-In 1997, the Los Angeles Times

dubbed Rupert Holmes
an American treasure.

The Washington Post
called him a Renaissance man,

but he's still known
for pineapple drinks

and cheating on your lady.

-Is that the song I always
wanted to be remembered for?

No. No, not at all.

But is it nice to have a song
that everybody knows.

It's only what, as a songwriter,
you dream of all your life.

When my daughter died,
basically, from that point on,

my goal in life
was to make people laugh

if I possibly could.

My record label said,
"Can we just call it

'Escape
(The Piña Colada Song)'?"

I said, "Compromise my
artistic integrity?"

[ Laughter ]

So here's "The Piña Colada Song"
for you.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Because everyone
who's coming to the theater

or seeing the TV show
or reading my novel

or listening
to a soft-rock record...

they've all got something
that they're dealing with.

It was my own lovely lady.

She said, "Oh, it's you."

[ Laughter ]

And if I can take them
out of that for five minutes,

that's a lot to do
with one's life,

It really is.

* Write to me and escape *

[ Cheers and applause ]

-In 1980, America was burned out
on weakness abroad

and recession at home.

The country broke up

with soft-rock
President Jimmy Carter...

-Right on, man.
That's great. That's great.

-...and put some Hollywood
swagger in the White House.

-You wanted law and order
in this town.

You've got it.

I, Ronald Reagan, will preserve,
protect, and defend...

**

-The culture had moved on
from guys

who wanted to sit around
doting on the woman they love.

-I don't understand the thinking
that feels that women are

so inferior
that they can't be included.

**

-I'll be back.

-And in the '80s, we were
looking for new male archetypes.

**

-We're not gonna be
that sensitive stuff.

-You're a bitch.
-Wormy little shit.

-I'm new here.

-Just what we need --
another pussy.

-We're gonna be the guy
that jumps out of the car

with the t-shirt and the suit,
like "Miami Vice."

-Freeze! Miami Vice!

-And there's always
a great insurgence

of a new musical style

that replicates
the mood of the times.

-* We're not gonna take it *

-What do you want
to do with your life?!

-I want to rock.

-Oh!

-Back in the '70s
and early '80s,

soft-rock radio programmers

were concerned
about hurting women's ears.

-I was at KOST 103
in Los Angeles.

Hello, and welcome to KOST 103,
the inside story.

-And I understood what soft rock
was all about for a lady,

and I think females
are more sensitive

to that hard-rock sound,
that edge.

I think they don't mind guitars

as long as they're
not raucous and edgy.

**

-But a new wave
of women rockers showed...

they could handle
the hard stuff.

So like their delicate
dude counterparts,

the vulnerable women
of soft rock

had to make room
for the new musical order.

-In the '80s,
there was a shift away

from that
sensitive singer-songwriter

or cabaret-singer type
toward a more rebellious,

differently self-actualized
woman rock star.

-* I love rock 'n' roll *

* So come and take your time
and dance with me *

* Ow! *

-* Heartbreaker *

* Dream maker *

* Love taker, don't you
mess around, no, no, no *

-* Trapped in a world
that they never made *

* But not me, baby,
I'm too precious *

Fuck off!

-The Bangles were certainly
part of this wave

that was crashing in

and sort of decimating the soft,
gentle sounds of soft rock.

There's this, like,
complete revolution in music.

-* The hero takes a fall *

-* Hero takes a fall *

**

-The revolution included
new technologies

that made soft rockers
seem even more out of touch.

-The change was
the drum machine.

There were three different
little boxes.

One of them was called a DMX.

One was Roger Linn, LinnDrum.

And one was the Roland 808.

Those boxes changed the game
because all of a sudden,

you put
the drum track down first,

and that drum track

sort of dictated
what everyone played.

[ Drums playing ]

-That's when it just changed.

And so what you're listening to,
you saying,

"Well, I sort of like this song,
but how come I don't remember?

What's wrong with it?"

Because nothing
got in your soul.

-One of the biggest things
about soft rock was heart.

A lot of heart in those records.

Also a lot of heart
in how they were recorded.

-And now the way we recorded,

the process was
completely different,

and that changed
how soft rock sounded.

-It sounded like
an elephant was playing.

-The snare was like chh,
and I just hated it.

-Along with the new technology,

a new wave of producers
employed digital toys

and a bravado
that matched the decade.

It rendered soft rock
unrecognizable.

-I met David Foster
when I was 19.

This is right as
he's about to produce Chicago,

and that really took him into
a whole new level as a producer.

-* Hold me now *

* It's hard for me
to say I'm sorry *

-I do enjoy working
with established artists.

You know that you're
gonna get the shot.

You know
you're gonna get the shot

at having that record heard.

-When David Foster
starts working with Chicago,

you can start hearing the jazz
and R&B influences

that are present in soft rock
start to slip out.

-* I wanna have you
hear me sayin' *

* No one needs you
more than I -- *

**

-David Foster came in,
and we had a verbal fight.

And he said, "I'm the producer.

I'm gonna produce the record."

But now I think he admits that
he probably overproduced it.

**s

-In 1980s,
soft rock was transitioning

into what would be termed
adult contemporary.

-That transition brought
a new style of love song

that wasn't exactly soft
but wasn't rock, either.

-Once we get to the late 80s,
early '90s,

there's this glut
of power ballads...

-* When a man loves a woman *

-...and that slowly brought
other artists into the pool.

So somebody pissed in the pool,
and it got polluted.

-[ Vocalizing ]

-At least your name
isn't Michael Bolton.

-You know, there's nothing wrong
with that name.

-There was nothing wrong with it
until I was about 12 years old

and that no-talent
ass clown became famous

and started winning Grammys.

-Punk rockers coming of age,

macho culture,
tougher women, MTV,

too much cheese, drum machines,
overproduction,

and the triumph
of adult contemporary

each chipped away at soft rock.

With Chicago and other bands
losing control

of their own direction,

the golden age of soft rock
came to a crashing end.

**

-When you ask
what happened to Pablo Cruise,

it was just kind of like,

this isn't happening
for us anymore.

Dave and I couldn't
write anymore.

**

-It became the different
kind of writing,

everything being
heavy synthesizers,

Pro Tools,
everything being sequenced.

And I just didn't want
to do it anymore.

**

-In Chicago,
Danny was always a fluid player,

but after a while,
it stopped working with Danny

because music had moved on
and Danny didn't move with it.

If he had played along
with those drum machines,

We'd probably still be together.

-A&M had decided that we weren't
gonna have anymore hits,

and so we went on
to Casablanca Records.

And then Casablanca fell apart,
was bought

by some other record company
that didn't care about us,

and we couldn't get
any traction after that.

-Ambrosia went on hiatus
in 1983,

and for about five, six years,
we were no longer in existence.

-For soft rockers,

the new decade was
a desolate wilderness.

As Orleans bassist Lance Hoppen
told journalist Greg Prato,

"The '80s were very unkind
to us.

Depressingly so."

**

-England Dan
and John Ford Coley.

You know, we were on A&M,
but man,

in the '80s, we were suffering.

We couldn't get anything going
for love, money,

chocolate, or marbles.

There was just nobody
that was gonna touch me.

**

-Others couldn't even find
an audience for nostalgia.

Michael McDonald said people
thought listening to his music

became like
eating dish detergent.

**

Personal issues interrupted
other careers.

After reaching
his professional pinnacle

with the "Ghostbusters" theme,

Ray Parker Jr.
faded from the charts.

-My parents got sick.

So I was going through
some real-world problems,

like I'm getting ready
to lose my mother.

I'm getting ready
to lose my father.

And so that later '80s
through the mid-'90s,

I couldn't write a song
to save my life.

**

-Soft rockers
finally had to face it --

if they ever had been,
they just weren't cool anymore.

Between 1990 and 2003,
Hall and Oates released

just one album together.

It peaked at number 95.

The cover depicted
the one-time hit kings

walking into
a bright, existential light,

meekly accepting the inevitable.

The void before soft rockers
appeared vast.

What neither they nor anyone
else could predict

was that
on the other side of that abyss

awaited the most fantastic
reincarnation in music history.

-* Gonna find my baby,
gonna hold her tight *

-As Ron Burgundy
discovered in "Anchorman,"

no matter how hard we tried,
we just couldn't quit soft rock.

-* Afternoon delight *