Some things are better not to say. So goes the old adage – and the title of a 1985 hit by Daryl Hall and John Oates. And when you’re working on a passion project about a genre of music that was brazenly created long after the genre stopped being popular, it’s apparently best not to ask for certain things, too.

Director Garret Price learned this in a hilarious way while working on his new HBO Films documentary. Yacht Rock: a documentary, premiered on November 13 at DOC NYC festival.

At one point in the documentary, Price calls Donald Fagen, 76, a surviving full-time member of Steely Dan, the seminal ’70s band behind yacht rock classics like “Ricki Don’t Lose My Number” and “Peg”, to tell him to see if he would like to be interviewed for the documentary. The conversation, heard on audio, does not go well.

After Price introduces himself and politely asks Fagen for an interview about “this genre,” Fagen’s reaction is priceless.

Fagen: “And what kind is it?”

Price: “Uh, yacht rock.”

Fagen: “Oh, yacht rock. Well, I tell you what. Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

Beep, beep, beep.

Price confirms to PEOPLE that the conversation and hang-up are “100% real” and says that despite the phone call’s dramatic ending, Fagen’s manager immediately called him back and granted him permission to use six songs from Steely Dan in the documentary.

“I think it’s a wink,” Price says of Fagen’s colorful reaction. “It’s like, ‘I get it. I understand how important that name (“yacht rock”) is to our music. But I’m going to let you know how I feel about it.’ He’s who he is.”

The documentary explores a genre of music that falls under a rubric that was invented decades after the style of music was replaced on the charts by new wave, hair metal and other emerging sounds of the ’80s on MTV , who Price calls the doc’s “antagonist.”

The term “yacht rock” originated in a 12-episode online video series called Yacht Rock which aired between 2005 and 2010 and lovingly lampooned the late ’70s and early ’80s fusion of soft rock, jazz, and R&B and the (almost exclusively) West Coast-based male musicians who l ‘have shaped.

It was a perfect style of music to listen to while sipping expensive champagne on an expensive boat, hence the nickname. Steely Dan was the godfather of yacht rock. The members of Toto were the architects. Doobie Brothers singer Michael McDonald was his voice. And Kenny Loggins was his poster boy.

“Yacht rock is a very relaxing feeling for me. It’s like the singers are all saying, ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay,'” the comedian said. Fred Armisen said in the documentary.

Some of its other main practitioners were the Doobie Brothers of the post-Tom Johnston era of the mid-to-late ’70s (embodied by the 1979 chart hit, “What a Fool Believes”), Christophe CroixSeals & Croft, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree and Boz Scaggs, as well as black artists including George Benson, Al Jarreau, Grover Washington Jr. and even Michael Jacksonwhose 1983 single “Human Nature” was co-written by Toto’s Steve Porcaro.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, as the doc explains, were mostly blue-eyed soul, but they made the yacht rock list with their 1981 No. 1 single “Kiss on My List.”

The creation of the term “yacht rock” led to the resurgence of the type of music it described and the musicians who played it. “It’s kind of the ultimate comeback,” Price says. “There is a rise, a fall and a resurrection.”

Although Fagen, whose Steely Dan partner Walter Becker died in 2017, declined Price’s invitation, a number of yacht rock practitioners appear in the documentary to reminisce about the music that made them millions , including McDonald, Loggins, Cross, David Pack of Ambrosia and the surviving members of Toto. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson also shows up from time to time to give his opinion.

THE Yacht Rock Web series creator JD Ryznar and host Steve Huey also appear in the documentary to talk about the genre that they, in a sense, helped create and popularize without ever playing a note. “It’s high-class music,” Ryznar says.

Yacht Rock: a documentary will debut November 29 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max, following its premiere November 13 at the DOC NYC festival.