Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

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Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 23 Mar 2015, 14:40

The Doobies. Gotta write about The Doobies.

Are The Doobies cool?

ImageImageImage
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I’m sure there’s a hell of a back story – drug abuse, womanizing, mud sharks, etc. But all the truth I need is in the music (cue up “Listen to the Music” if you got it).

The Doobies aren’t terribly flash. They’re heads-down, good-timin’ biker rock. I can see how this sort of thing could be utterly repugnant. Sometimes I hear their cover of “Take Me In Your Arms” in the grocery store and, like Grand Funk’s “The Locomotion”, it just seems so desperate.

This could just be a nostalgia trip – there’s nothing spectacular about “Long Train Running” or “China Grove”. Hell, “Another Park, Another Sunday” could be Chicago. But, the honesty – a true band with vocal chops – it always works. Until it doesn’t, I suppose. The Doobies really had it for a few years there. And they still do.

I’m sure The Doobies are as mystified as anyone as to why it stopped working. Even listening to their first album, it’s all there. Solid. Competent. Sweet finger-pickin’ and harmonies effortlessly carrying on for that CSN dollar. Their albums are a joy - Elvis Costello likely uses them for target practice - but this is AMERICAN ROCK. A bar band that got lucky? That’s kind of how it works in this country. Only in contrast to Lynyrd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers do we see how pop-oriented the Doobies were. Not exactly America-doing-Neil-Young lightweights, but when they started bringing in the synths on The Captain & Me, you realized they were more Northern California than Mississippi black water. They went pro. You would, too.

Tom Johnston could only push the formula so long. One of their ubiquitous hits, “Long Train Running”, had been little more than a playful rehearsal jam for years. It almost never came to be:

"I didn't want to cut it," Johnston confessed. "...I just considered it a bar song without a lot of merit.”


It’s not hard to lose perspective when seemingly everything you do is swallowed willingly by FM radio. God, their hits sound good in the car. But “Nobody”, their cover of “Beehive State”, “Disciple”, “South City Midnight Lady”, “I Cheat the Hangman” – these are some choice deep cuts. I would recommend everything they did from the self-titled debut to Stampede. These fuckers could play.

And then Johnston dropped out.

I think they got some dudes from Steely Dan. You are free to take the thread in that direction.

I’m out.
Last edited by Phenomenal Cat on 24 Mar 2015, 02:35, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Matt Wilson » 23 Mar 2015, 14:47

Didn't like them for years (decades?), then Mobile Fidelity did all of the albums you've posted above (save the debut - which I still haven't heard), along with Taking it to the Streets. And you know, they're not bad at all. Pretty good even. The hits are ace but there's plenty of quality album cuts too. Plus, they're not hip, the idea of which appeals to me more and more these days.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby frimley_greener » 23 Mar 2015, 14:48

Image


I have this bought for its supposed audio quality....it is a half speed mastered Nautilus superdisk....it is,frankly,perhaps the most tedious album in my collection.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby sloopjohnc » 23 Mar 2015, 15:07

A San Jose bar band that played like crazy and became a darling of the local chapter of the Hell's Angels. South City Midnight Lady reminds me of some bar in So. San Francisco, a really blue collar city that has SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO/THE INDUSTRIAL CITY emblazoned on San Bruno Mtn, above the downtown. My dad worked in the Bethlehem Steel plant in So. City, and it's the kind of place that used to have 7 am happy hours for guys getting off swing shift.

There are certain songs associated with your youth - In high school, we used to check out the cheerleaders practicing their high kicking routine to China Grove and Boz Scaggs' Lido.

A band so ingrained with my youth, me and my friends, I can't possibly judge them objectively.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby nathan » 23 Mar 2015, 15:55

I put their 4th album in my recent list of BCB top 20 albums. I love it that much.

You are totally right that they sound great in a car.

Here is a personal favorite:

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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 23 Mar 2015, 16:00

nathan wrote:I put their 4th album in my recent list of BCB top 20 albums. I love it that much.

You are totally right that they sound great in a car.


So, is it just a nostalgia trip or do The Doobie Brothers have true value in 2015? I've only bought the albums in the past couple years, so most of this is an entirely new discovery for me. I got a vinyl copy of Toulouse Street for something like 25 cents and played it for three weeks straight. It just seemed to hit my sweet spot in a way that eluded Fleet Foxes. And I like Fleet Foxes!
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby nathan » 23 Mar 2015, 16:16

Phenomenal Cat wrote:So, is it just a nostalgia trip or do The Doobie Brothers have true value in 2015?

I would unequivocally say yes. If people can still discover and enjoy musty 70's prog records, why not sunshiny and sweet Doobie Brothers records?

As Matt said, no, they aren't cool. But how many successful acts from the 70's are?

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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby sloopjohnc » 23 Mar 2015, 16:19

The intro to Black Water sounded as good as anything I ever listened to when it came on the radio. Perfect song when you're in the mood.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Snarfyguy » 23 Mar 2015, 16:28

sloopjohnc wrote:The intro to Black Water sounded as good as anything I ever listened to when it came on the radio. Perfect song when you're in the mood.

That was the only song everybody could agree was good, one time back in the day. No one disliked it.

Of course, that could never happen here on BCB, but once upon a time that was the only song everyone liked.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 23 Mar 2015, 17:36

Snarfyguy wrote:
sloopjohnc wrote:The intro to Black Water sounded as good as anything I ever listened to when it came on the radio. Perfect song when you're in the mood.

That was the only song everybody could agree was good, one time back in the day. No one disliked it.

Of course, that could never happen here on BCB, but once upon a time that was the only song everyone liked.


Doesn't everyone like "Honky Tonk Women"? You could make a career from a song like that.

It is true that "Black Water" has a blend of voices that is hard to deny.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Snarfyguy » 23 Mar 2015, 17:46

Phenomenal Cat wrote:
Snarfyguy wrote:
sloopjohnc wrote:The intro to Black Water sounded as good as anything I ever listened to when it came on the radio. Perfect song when you're in the mood.

That was the only song everybody could agree was good, one time back in the day. No one disliked it.

Of course, that could never happen here on BCB, but once upon a time that was the only song everyone liked.


Doesn't everyone like "Honky Tonk Women"? You could make a career from a song like that.

It is true that "Black Water" has a blend of voices that is hard to deny.

I think our discussion was limited to what was then currently or recently on top 40 radio. This would have been 1975 or so, I guess.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Flower » 23 Mar 2015, 18:28

Black Water sank into my consciousness for the first time in February 1975 .. I was on a friend's balcony in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras and people were singing it in the street. I can take or leave most of the Doobie Brothers songs but Black Water and China Grove strike a chord with me. I had left my husband and was driving from New Orleans to California. I stopped at a motel in Seguin, Texas as China Grove was playing on the radio .. it struck me that I was in China Grove (sort of) and it really freaked me out at the time.

When I hear the opening of Black Water, it always brings me back to New Orleans.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 23 Mar 2015, 22:13

kath wrote:i will make it my mission to nail you.


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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Charlie O. » 23 Mar 2015, 22:20

Phenomenal Cat wrote:... there’s nothing spectacular about... “China Grove”.

I quite disagree.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 23 Mar 2015, 22:31

Charlie O. wrote:
Phenomenal Cat wrote:... there’s nothing spectacular about... “China Grove”.

I quite disagree.


Maybe Lenny Kravitz will cover it and I'll change my mind.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Charlie O. » 23 Mar 2015, 22:38

You sick.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Matt Wilson » 23 Mar 2015, 22:41

Are we in agreement that The Captain & Me is their best?

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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 24 Mar 2015, 00:24

Matt Wilson wrote:Are we in agreement that The Captain & Me is their best?


I'm a Toulouse Street man, myself. It's a tough call.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Matt Wilson » 24 Mar 2015, 00:31

An excellent album as well. Aside from "Listen to the Music," Rockin' Down the Highway," and "Jesus is Just Alright" (better than the Byrds), there's "Mamaloi," the title track and the cool cover of "Don't Start Me to Talkin."

But...

The Captain and Me has not only "China Grove" and "Long Train Runnin," but also "Natural Thing," "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman," "Without You" "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah!"

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Re: Beyond the 130 - The Doobie Brothers

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 24 Mar 2015, 01:02

Matt Wilson wrote:An excellent album as well. Aside from "Listen to the Music," Rockin' Down the Highway," and "Jesus is Just Alright" (better than the Byrds), there's "Mamaloi," the title track and the cool cover of "Don't Start Me to Talkin."

But...

The Captain and Me has not only "China Grove" and "Long Train Runnin," but also "Natural Thing," "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman," "Without You" "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah!"


My wife and I have spent Sunday afternoons cleaning the house and running through Deja Vu, Songs for Beginners, Toulouse Street, The Captain & Me, Notorious Byrd Brothers and Tea for the Tillerman. This is our music.
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