Doobie, Or Not Doobie

Well, the Illinois central
And the Southern Central Freight
Got to keep on pushin' mama
You know they're runnin' late

I first heard of the Doobie Brothers when Michael Douglas picked up a copy of Rolling Stone magazine in a crashed drug plane in Colombia in Romancing The Stone and was bummed that they’d split up. A mere 8 years later I picked up a copy of the dance remixed version of Long Train Runnin’*, flipped it over to the original version side and I was off and runnin’.

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The Captain And Me is the Doobies third LP, for my money their best by far. Warner Brothers were pushing the band to work fast and in Ted Templeman they had a great judge of what worked and didn’t work in all their revisiting of old tunes and jams.

The primo exemplar of which is an instrumental jam they had called variously ‘Osborn’ or ‘Rosie Pig Moseley’, which Templeman persuaded a reluctant Tom Johnston to write lyrics for. From that we got ‘Long Train Runnin’ and its sublime mix of ease, drive and slight melancholy. Without love Ted where would you be now?

The LP opens with ‘Natural Thing’ which swings in gently alongside you like an old friend, subtle synth parping underscoring the guitar and harmonies reminiscent of CSN+Y. It’s like feeling the sun on your skin after a long stint indoors.

After that train thing I love, the Doobies proffer the ringing guitar tones of ‘China Grove’ and the perfect opening lines ‘When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town / Down around San Antone’. The way Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston’s guitars fall into boogie lockstep is a delight, Tiran Porter’s bass and the twin drummers** Michael Hossack and John Hartman just meld perfectly on this and every track. I love the way the Doobies rock, they always sound so light on their feet doing it.

The rootsier ‘Dark Eyed Cajun Woman’ is a slinky excursion into the Californian night, I love the way the guitar flickers at the end of each sung line like a dark flame. She’s beautiful and evil by the way, in that manner Doobie Sisters always are. The folksy drug warning from Patrick Simmons ‘Clear As The Driven Snow’ follows, but certain of the brethren in this band were not listening^.

We’re rocking it up on the FM-radiotastic ‘Without You’, all guitar crunch and angelic harmonies. It is just fantastic. The countryfied glide of ‘South City Midnight Lady’ follows, it’s too slick for my tastes but Jeffrey ‘Skunk’ Baxter does add some nice slide guitar.

Well, the devil she's a woman with coal black hair
Don't you look her in her eye when she starts to stare

We’re firmly in Flight Of The Conchords bailiwick with regards to the lyrics of ‘Evil Woman’ but the tune is a neon-lit delight, albeit undercut by the overly dramatic vocal chorus. Like all the very best Doobie tracks it absolutely slinks and rolls its lithe hips invitingly towards you.

I’m less keen on ‘Ukiah’ which is far too sugary for me, with sprinkles on top. ‘The Captain And Me’ is much better, punchier and more country rockified, in fact the tune is a little reminiscent of Free. I’m also a sucker for a song that speeds up as it nears the end too.

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I really enjoy The Captain And Me, from its cover on in, it is a class act. The band’s harmonies and playing are superb, time and time again I am drawn back to that imperiously good, light stepping rhythm section. Once upon a brash old time I would have been impervious to the Doobie’s laid-back charms but right now, in amidst all the sham drudgery and broken dreams of life, I’m right here for it.

Doobie, or not Doobie? no question at all, man.

1218 Down.

PS: It has taken every ounce of my willpower not to scream ‘It should be ‘The Captain And I’!!!’ every time I have ever looked at the title of this record. Just saying.

*which I still quite like:

**or drummer and percussionist, it’s difficult to tell on the rockier cuts.

^the sad consequence of which was Michael McDonald’s tenure in the band. Not a fan.