“What Doobie you be?” If you’re like me — a child
of the 70s — you might recall this question being asked by Rog’s
younger sister, Dee on the popular sitcom, What’s Happening.
On one episode of the show the Doobie Brothers actually appeared and played,
prompting Dee to ask this question and draw a hearty laugh from the audience.
And though I’m sure little Dee didn’t really know it, that’s
about the best question you could ask a band with more personnel changes than
most. Yeah, listening to the The Best Of The Doobie Brothers
brings those kind of memories back. Hey hey hey!
Releasing their self-titled debut album in 1971, Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons
helmed the early DB’s with their mix of songwriting and impressive vocal
harmonies. On the new 2-CD compilation, there is only one song from the first
album — a sorry omission, but understandable when you consider all of
the band’s greatest hits. With the release of their second album, 1972’s
Toulouse Street, the brothers hit their stride — “Listen
to the Music,” “Jesus is Just Alright,” and “Rockin’
Down the Highway” all garnered heavy airplay and paved the way for the
band’s ascent. It’s interesting to note extensive personnel shuffling
was already underway when they released Toulouse Street: they
added a second drummer and replaced original bass player, Dave Shogren.
As will always be the case for me, I’m more interested in the songs that
weren’t the big hits. For example, the first disc includes Simmons’
“South City Midnight Lady,” an obscure song from the DB’s
third album, 1973’s The Captain and Me. That number is a definite
standout as is the horn-punchy “Eyes of Silver” from What Were Once
Vices Are Now Habits, the Doobie’s fourth album. Of course, numbers like
“Black Water,” “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me),” “Takin’
It To The Streets,” and “It Keeps You” Runnin” were
huge hits for the Doobies and they are all included here. “Takin’
It” and “Running” were sung and written by then new ‘Doobie,’
Michael McDonald. This represented a new direction for the brothers with the
songwriting and soulful vocals of McDonald who joined in 1975. I must compliment
the powers that be for the inclusion of three songs from the Stampede
album, especially “I Cheat The Hangman,” which features a great
instrumental coda and was actually played on What’s Happening.
This fifth Doobies album from 1975 saw Jeff “I-am-now-working-in-politics”
Baxter joining the band to add his blistering guitar work.
The second CD of The Best Of The Doobie Brothers opens with
two songs from 1977’s Livin’ On The Fault Line
— a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Little Darling (I Need You)”
and “Echoes Of Love.” Both are treated with the competent Doobie
harmonies and that soft jazz sound the band employed during this period. While
“Echoes” is pure Doobie Brothers, “Little Darling” could
have been easily included on a McDonald solo album, so strong was his influence
at this point in the band’s career. In fact, what comes across as we get
deeper into the mid-to-late 70s portion of the group’s output is what
a strong musical force McDonald truly was (and still is). He sang lead on almost
all of the hits, and if he isn’t the sole writer of the songs, he’s
at least a co-writer of most on what is arguably the band’s most popular
album, 1978’s Minute By Minute.
The liner notes on this compilation boast that Minute By Minute
found the band at “the peak of its powers.” Certainly, this Grammy
award-winning release — four Grammys, in fact — did see the stock
rise. No one can argue that the title track, “What a Fool Believes,”
and “Depending on You” (a great example of a Patrick Simmons and
Michael McDonald collaboration) weren’t wickedly popular FM staples. What
brought the band their fame at this point were polished, lovelorn vocals and
less stand-out guitar work. Unfortunately, these were issues that eventually
lead to more personal changes as Baxter and original drummer John Hartman exited
the very next year. Nevertheless, the band moved forward with replacements and
released One Step Closer in 1980. Three cuts from it made the
grade and are included here.
There’s a nice inclusion of “Wynken, Blynken and Nod” from
the 1980 all-star compilation, In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record.
I always applaud these little nuggets on a greatest hits package. For those
of us who might not have access to these kind of releases, it’s nice to
get something like this thrown into the mix. In 1989, the Toulouse Street
line-up reformed to release Cycles, and three of its tunes
are included on the second disc of this collection — “The Doctor,”
“South of the Border,” and “Need A Little Taste Of Love,”
all grooving rockers with Johnston at the helm of the band once again. Other
than “Doctor,” none of these tracks earned much radio play, but
they aptly represent that pre-McDonald-era Doobie sound.
One of highlights of this entire collection is Simmons’ “Dangerous”
from 1991’s Brotherhood. This one sounds like a band
full of life again, with great guitar playing, horns, dynamics, everything we’ve
come to expect from the Doobie Brothers throughout all their incarnations. “Ordinary
Man,” the final song on the set, is from 2000’s Sibling
Rivalry. It’s a fitting elegy to close this set out — a
mellow rumination on the singer’s limitations and past mistakes, which
says more about this truly American band than a majority of their big hit singles
ever could.
The Best Of The Doobie Brothers is a full package spanning
this very popular band’s career – 30 songs on two CDs! It is filled
with a solid balance of hits (maybe one too many, but what can you do with a
greatest hits package?) and some nice trinkets thrown in for the diehard Doobie
dudes and dudettes out there. All in all, this makes for a very solid retrospective.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
