A Couple of Doobies . . . .
. . . really helps pass the time on the road. (smile)
I’ll be finishing up a longish road trip tomorrow. This time I decided to do some Doobies while driving to help pass the time.
No, I’m not talking about the kind of doobies Colorado recently made legal. Geez.
I’m talking the musical Doobies – AKA the Doobie Brothers.
I have to admit I’d forgotten how good those guys were. Before Michael McDonald arrived and turned the group into essentially a backing band for his version of blue-eyed-soul, their music was quite different. Their earlier incarnation could rock with anyone.
Here are two often-overlooked gems from the Doobies. Both are from their “The Captain and Me” release.
The first is a reminder of just how well the band could rock. It’s titled “Without You” – and it’s nothing like the Badfinger tune of the same name made famous by Harry Nillson. You might want to grab a good set of headphones to listen to this one – so you can crank it up.
The second tune which follows is one of my personal favorites by the band. It’s a reminder of how well the guys clicked when they slowed things down and stepped out-of-character as rock-n-rollers. I think most of our male readers will be able to identify with this one.
That’s all for now. I still have a few hundred more miles before this trip ends, but I thought this was apropos today.
Category: Pointless blather, Who knows
You had me going there for a minute, Hondo. I just could NOT wrap my mind around the idea of you and a doobie!
But the Doobie Brothers? Oh, HELL YEAH!
I’ll always remember where I was when Rerun got caught bootlegging Doobie Brothers concert tapes. Until then, I always thought that pirating music was a victimless crime.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n7lwTVyu5sw
Awesome band. One of the best ever in my opinion.
I remember seeing them in concert *COUGH* years ago, they’re still one of my favorite groups!
I saw them on their first breakup tour. That was 34 years ago. How many farewell tours have they had since?
That and “China Grove” are two of my favorite songs of theirs. Ahhh, the Good Old Days of real Rock Music..
I bet Jonn was a do-bee!
Doobie Brothers not so out of place on a Military Blog.
Doobie Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is a military consultant tothe Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He now consults to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community, as well as for defense-oriented manufacturers.
I was a security officer at BMDO (now MDA) when Mr. Baxter (Skunk) was going to visit. He was a consultant analyst for Congressman Curt Weldon studying ballistic missile threats. The chief of the intel division asked me to see what his security clearance was (should have been on file) and I found out that we held nothing on him. I called every agency and command and nobody admitted to holding his tickets. Finally, I got a call from a contractor company that said they’d heard I’d been inquiring about Skunk (his words) and wondered why I was looking for him. Once he understood, he gave me the info I sought and it turned out that he wasn’t cleared for the info he’d been being briefed on for a number of years. That was solved in quick order and Skunk showed up for his briefing a few days later. He looked very much the rocker of years gone by and was a very pleasant fellow. I told him this story (with more detail) and he laughed. Helps to be friends with the Congressman that hired your services.
I thought the mix of bluegrass style chords and phrasings into the 1974 Black Water was pretty amazing. Pat Simmons was great as a writer and singer on this cut:
For me it was always, “China Grove.” I was living in san Antonio and traveling throughout South Texas so I occasionally drove through the little town that supposedly inspired the song.
I simply could not figure out what it was about the very unprepossessing place that could have impressed the band to produce such such a great rock tune.
Then I considered their name and it all came together for me.
I swear for years I thought this song was from another band. Don’t they sound a little like Earth, Wind & Fire?