The Doobie Brothers - Best of The Doobies poll

China Grove for the greatest guitar riff, though I do love "Listen to the Music"

i read somewhere recently where Walter Becker was instrumental in getting Michael McDonald to join this band. Becker even toured with them when Steely Dan went to a studio band only? anyways, we have not polled them yet.

The flanged chorus of "Listen to the Music" drew in my vote.

Bee OK, have you confused Jeff "Skunk" Baxter with Walter "Not Skunk" Becker?

"Long Train Runnin'", easy. Three and a half minutes, sounds like it could go 15 without losing momentum.

I just listened to the three songs I like from this. I may be the only vote for "South City Midnight Lady". I also like Mike McDonald's two.
The Tom Johnson songs are completely generic 70s rock (to which someone will undoubtedly reply, "that's what makes them GREAT!").

you're damn right i will!!!

This is a great compilation. Man could they write some killer tunes. “Jesus Is Just Alright” definitely the catchiest, but it needs some goddamn DRUM FILLS!

I have listened to a burnt CDR w/ 'Toulouse Street' paired with 'The Captain and Me' a boodle in the past few years.

It does seem like the LA rock scene of the 70s all hung out and did drugs together.

Doobie Brothers do have their own kinda of groove on some of those tunes. Where CCR choogles, the Doobies got a lot of tunes that have this California 70s righteous mellow version of Iron Maiden's gallop.

I'd figure the Doobies sold a shit load of 8 tracks.

A few years ago I bought their whole catalog as two of those cheapo 5CD "Original Album Series" sets. Was really surprised by how good they were. When they went sideways, though, things got weird; they were willing to do pretty much anything Ted Templeman wanted, so sometimes they'd give, like, tropical sophisto-pop a try and it would go wildly wrong.

It's "listen to the music" or "long train running" for me.. both are equally awesome.

the coda to "black water" is horrific beyond words

Feeling Takin' It To the Streets at the moment over China Grove.

Keeps You Running, no contest

Can I vote for the terrific-beyond-words coda to "black water"?

Actually, it's "China Grove," although I must note that I luuuv their cover of "Take Me in Your Arms."

Bee OK, have you confused Jeff "Skunk" Baxter with Walter "Not Skunk" Becker?

probably, and this is why i asked it as a question as it didn't sound right. i need to figure out where i read that bit at and see where and why i got confused.

Man could they write some killer tunes. “Jesus Is Just Alright” definitely the catchiest

Yeah, but...that's a Byrds cover.

My vote went to Long Train Runnin'. Never ever get tired of it.

I wonder why they didn't include at least one song from the debut. It's a good record!

anyone who votes for Black Water is a criminal

i voted for Listen to the Music bc its pure joy and i love it

they layer the instruments in such a groovy way, love the Doobies

The Doobies are what the Eagles could've been if a) they were capable of ever having fun and b) owned some Dr. John records.

Well, yeah.

Wasn't "Jesus Is..." first done by some contemporary '60s gospel band before the Byrds grabbed it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSzjbYomSWA

Oh wow, The Art Reynolds Singers? I've just always assumed it was a Byrds original, which I guess was dumb because the Byrds lived or died by their fucking cover songs.

good poll idea. my first instinct is "Takin' It to the Streets" but i should throw this thing on, there's a fair number of the early ones that i don't know or don't know well enough.

I only wish there was a track called "Which Doobie Do You Be" that we could vote on.

Does anyone know anything about their connection to Skip Spence? Everything I've read has been pretty vague.

These guys just sound like the '70s. "Listen to the Music." I mean really.

When McDonald joined they should have changed their name to the Boobie Druthers

Woah ooohhhhhhh, we're the Doobies now

I may be the only vote for "South City Midnight Lady".

I don't know if I can vote for it as the best, but I have a lot of love for this track.

i almost want to vote for "Black Water" because of all the hate here. almost.

I'm not going to argue that "Black Water" is good, but I might just vote for it anyway because it's the one that comes to mind most quickly for me.

monster

listened to this album today and am still leaning "Takin' it to the Streets." so many of the earlier songs have great riffs/hooks and a great live rock sound, but kinda ride one idea a little too much for me to get invested. i bet they'd be great to see live, with some beers, just feeling the sound and the groove... like a lighter-on-their-feet Grand Funk Railroad experience.

Watch out for the farty bass on “takin it”- once you hear it you can’t undo

"It Keeps You Running" is kind of an amazing choice for a single and for a "Best of" album - something about its unhurried presentation really screams "album track." But it's such a great statement of McDonald's sensibility and how quickly Templeman locked in with it - so much space and echo, just clearing out room for the keyboard chords and a slow-burn, bob-along experience. I always kind of forget about it and then when it comes on I'm like oh hell yeah.

found it and you can see why i got a bit mixed up and misremembered. From Wikipedia:

In 1974, Steely Dan co-lead guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter learned that his band was retiring from the road and that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker intended to work almost exclusively with session players in the future. In need of a steady gig, he joined the Doobie Brothers as third lead guitarist in the middle of their current tour. He had previously worked with the band in the studio, adding pedal steel guitar to both Captain ("South City Midnight Lady") and Vices ("Black Water", "Tell Me What You Want") and was already playing with the band as a special guest during that year's tour.

By the start of the Spring 1975 promotional tour for Stampede, Johnston's condition was so precarious that he required emergency hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer. With Johnston convalescing and the tour already underway, Baxter proposed recruiting a fellow Steely Dan alum to fill the hole: singer, songwriter and keyboardist Michael McDonald. Simmons, Knudsen, Porter and McDonald divvied up and sang Johnston's parts on tour while Simmons and Baxter shared lead guitar chores.

Mr. Baxter received his nickname due to urinating on a friend's doorstep. Decades in the war business have not erased it!

predictably, both the nearly-goofy groove and the big vocal moments of "It Keeps You Running" have been stuck in my head all fucking day. at lunch i was in the kitchen making a peanut butter sandwich and going "FOR THE RHEST OF YOAAR LAAAAAHF" and probably driving my partner crazy.

hmm "goofy" maybe not quite the right word. just if i booted up an RPG and that was the theme music for the one town that has kind of a quirky weird gimmick, like a magic spell turned everybody into mushroom robots, i would buy it.

These guys just sound like the '70s. "Listen to the Music." I mean really.

― Josefa,

yet few people say OH THIS SOUNDS DATED MAAAHHN b/c no synths

The Doobies are what the Eagles could've been if a) they were capable of ever having fun and b) owned some Dr. John records.

LOL

I'm not really a fan, but this LP (along with volume two) do a pretty fine job. Put both volumes on one disc and it's kind of a perfect Doobies compilation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSEcWbQqHAc

few people say OH THIS SOUNDS DATED MAAAHHN

I don't think this is a very uncommon thing for people to say about the Doobie Brothers?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

We'll discuss it further!

I only wish there was a track called "Which Doobie Do You Be" that we could vote on.

― henry s

When this episode aired my answer was definitely Black Water, so I gotta be true to my adolescent self.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f09mU7uSdfA

I mean, Doobs are about as 70s as it gets

can you imagine doobie in your funk?

'Another Park, Another Sunday.' Where is it? Why is it not on this record? Who did this? I want to speak to their parents. Well, 'China Grove' then. But why?

In the end decided to vote for "Listen To The Music."

didn't realize they were like the hells angels house band for a while. interesting history - kinda confused why i never knew much about them whereas ccr has a lot more visibility. they kind of have a knuckledragger thing going on maybe, their songs are workmanlike. they were given the gift of discovering the best riff of all time with "long train runnin" though...

there's a surprisingly good house version of it that comes up as the first result on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4tJSn0QtME

And lest we forget that one time Bananarama went all Gipsy Kings meets Doobie Brothers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVPqlVOeh8s

lol wow, i had no idea that existed and now i'm considerably richer

To me the Doobies are the McD years. I never need to hear 'Long Train' or 'China Grove' or 'Black Water' again. Those songs are fine blueprints and examples of 70s rock but have none of the emotion that McD brought to the group.

I have distinct memories of my father complaining numerous times about Johnson being replaced by McDonald.
"They don't sound like rock and roll any more."

Your dad otm.

Also if I'm not mistaken he liked C,S,N,Y but not C,S,N

i stand w pj’s dad

sounds like a good dude, where did he stand on Pink Floyd?

THIS IS IMPORTANT

lol Veg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Listen to the f’in music? Srsly?

that's wild wow

it is their best song

now its proven, no need to fight me

eat shit michael mcdonald
jk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRdLWbOAUEY

On the other hand, The 45 Greatest Doobie Brothers Songs of All Time

voted for black water just to be difficult; the objective correct answer is china grove

china grove is cool

black water is the devil

keep on shinin' your light

“Like a lazy flowin’ river” ...zzzzzzzz

Pretty Mama Take Me By The Hand

hai remember their last top ten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8uCryLHnt4

interesting results and a fun poll. i didn't know about a Vol 2, until this thread, so maybe need to do that one in the near future.

I voted China Grove, but in hindsight I feel like the most iconic Doobie hit of the 70s won. I’m at peace with the results.

Listen to the Music would have been my second choice before Long Train Runnin. When I was little I just thought "Doobie" referred to like just a funky music word, like Oooby Dooby Shooby.

When I die, bury me with my dad's copy
of The Captain and Me --
Then watch the skunk weed grow
from the seeds stuck inside the sleeve

very dissatisfied with these results, brb, gonna take it to the streets

it was nice of them to put all the songs people like on side 1

It keeps you runnin' (to the turntable to put the needle at the start of side 1 again)

This album and Best of BTO (so far) were both released in 1976. We should make them battle.

I was just planning to create a Best of BTO poll! I have the CD here to remind me!

I've been thinking about the poll today. Another Park, Another Sunday may be my fave. And I still remember being impressed seeing them live with two drummers. Maybe they were the gateway drug that led me to then go on to listen to the Allman Brothers Band ever since.

It's hard to say if I prefer the Doobie Brothers or Bachman-Turner Overdrive. I do prefer San Jose to Canada, though.

rong

yeah san jose doesnt have much to recommend it

San Jose is good for at least weather, jobs, and Streetlight Records...

I don't think city vs country is a reasonable comparison.

True, B.T.O. only really represent Winnipeg.

Ok, that's fair. If the Bachmans and Burton Cummings are all from Winnipeg, then maybe Winnipeg > San Jose. Well, except for weather.

listening to this again the other night, i was struck for the first time at just HOW lugubrious and aimless the slow blues-rock section of "Jesus is Just Alright" really is. like if i just think of the song, it's the peppy opening section, which is repetitious as hell but at least energetic. then the bottom dropped out and i found myself listening to the absolute dead end of a genre, and possibly the dreariest thing to ever get regular classic rock radio airplay, for what seemed like hours. it was an indescribable relief when the clean, bright, chords of "It Keeps You Running" came parping in afterwards.

had a similar but far less intense reaction to the infamous "Black Water" coda, which has always kind of sailed by me harmlessly. headphone listening really heightens the cheesiness of the effort and especially the dopeyness of the fade out/fade back in of the band.

Take me by the hand (hand)

Probably voted "It Keeps You Runnin" but add me to the pro-"Black Water" contingent

I was in high school marching band and China Grove was a song we’d get out for pep rallies. This was 1987 or 88 and I felt very not cool in the moment. Now I can really appreciate the memory.

Black Water is good

The end of it ain’t

should i poll part 2?