Qobuz: Doobie Brothers Primer playlist: bit.ly/3CaLa1G
(I include the Spotify playlist because the company has a free tier, and has the largest market share. I include the Qobuz playlist because Qobuz has the best audio quality and every track on the playlist other than "World Gone Crazy" is in hi-res. You can try Qobuz for free, and see. The difference between hi-res and CD quality is palpable, anybody could tell. However, the listening experience is greatly enhanced by an external DAC, i.e. "digital to analog converter." Once again, I spotlight the DragonFly Cobalt. That is a $329 product and worth every penny: amzn.to/3ygooUX However, you could also use the THX Onyx, which is much less costly and almost equally good, presently 11% off at $178.90, and whose purchase includes three months of Qobuz: amzn.to/3RwhcuF The Onyx goes all the way to 192 kHz, whereas the Cobalt only goes to 96 kHz. The creator of the Cobalt intentionally limited the device to 96 kHz because 192 kHz uses more power, which matters on a portable device. Also, the Onyx gets pretty warm, and has a cable, which the Cobalt does not (however the two are very small devices). But both provide an astounding listening experience. If your speakers are mediocre, use headphones. Both of these devices can be used with a desktop computer or an iPhone or iPad. You need the $29 Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter amzn.to/3SXclUq to connect to your iPhone, and unless your iPad is a recent one with a USB-C connector, you'll need an Apple Camera adapter to connect to it also.)
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So you WERE there?!
I was about halfway through the first chorus of "Another Park" when I wondered (having read before how much you dig that tune).…."I wonder if Lefsetz is here?"
Glad you enjoyed it
Ed Toth
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I say this as a person who is often and high and I might be right now: I think if the Doobie Brothers (my first concert) had less doobie-ish name, they'd be regularly included on the list of the top few rock bands. The range, the re-invention, amazing.
Dave Pell
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Thanks for the great article on the Doobies. You summed up exactly how I've always felt about them.
I came onboard about the same time you did, around the third LP. They were and are one of the best bands ever, and they don't get their due and probably never will, especially Pat Simmons (who is to the Doobies what Christine is to Fleetwood Mac when it comes to recognition). I hope the great results they're getting from their tour helps them know just how awesome they are.
Mike Blakesley
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I have to agree with you that the Doobies 50th Concert was quite enjoyable! I was able to see them at The Chicago Theatre a couple of weeks ago. My first Doobies concert dates back to College 73" in Des Moines, IA where I saw the Doobies coupled with Fleetwood Mac. Those were the days when you had 2- 3 acts of the time bundled!
Yes, The Doobs conjured up songs that were not necessarily hits, but die hard fans recognize and enjoy like myself. Yes, fan got the pallet of Hits to sing along to.
Tom, Pat and John McFee's vocals and guitar playing were as fresh as 1972. How many bands this age can claim that? Michael McDonald's playing was excellent and struggled to hit those high notes but overall really good. Will the Doobies sustain another 50? Probably not, but it takes our sons and daughter to enjoy and carry on 70" Rock.
Thanks for you great review!
Marc R/Chicago
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Hello Bob. For the longest time I had the sleeve with the roach from the Doobies album on my wall in a frame. I put it back on the album recently. I always thought it was beautiful. I would work to emulate that artifact but could never keep any of them for long. I can still remember the dealer singing falsetto when I told him I was on my way to hear the boys do their thing. Whoa, listen to the music!!!! Peace, rwhake.
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Awesome review Bob!
They were my mainstay music in the early 70s. As a guitar player, there was no mystery in learning to play their songs.
It was indeed a glorious time with my Ric 12-string amplified through my modified 251 Leslie.
Will Eggleston
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I love the Doobies. Only thing I didn't agree with Funkadelic about, hell yeah I need some Doobie in my funk!!!
Kenneth Williams
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Bob, saw them in Chicago and your comments nailed it. Such a great show and with Johnston and McDonald it was the best of both worlds. The walkers lined up in the lobby looked like we were boarding a flight to Florida!
Thanks,
Neal Berz
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I recall the time I saw them hanging out in a trailer in Uniontown PA in the 1970's when we trekked there from Pittsburgh to buy some blonde hash. Skunk was sitting on the floor in the living room - there was like one chair - and all these hot babes sitting there hanging on every word he said. He was telling them about some prof that made him go to the back of the room 'cause his feet stunk so bad.
My buddies older brother and the guy that lived in the trailer left us there to go score (they never did), leaving me and my friend standing there like Beavis and Butthead.
So from around the partition wall for the kitchen I see this guy with long brown hair motion for us to come into the kitchen. Him and Tiran were smoking a bowl of some killer black hash. Gave me and my friend a hit and both of us almost passed out. They laughed. So we go back in to the living room all stoned out and continued listening to Skunk talk to these women sitting on the floor.
I had no idea who you they were. Not a clue. Then about a year later I recall seeing pic's in Circus Magazine or something. I freaked. I called my friend. "Dude - was that the Doobie Brothers?" "Yep..." I recently talked to him again after all these years - thinking maybe I dreamt it.
"Nope, that really happened. We smoked a doobie with the Doobies..."
wam
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Another Park & South City Midnight Lady are my two favorites of theirs
bfletcher28
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Spot on as usual, Bob. "Whoa oh ohhhhhhhh, listen to the music...all the time".
Blaine Leeds
Nashville
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Great band.
Harold Love
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I love that band and thankful that I got to promote them back in the day. Hopefully they make it back to to Australia next year…if they do I will be there front & centre!
Tom Johnston is THE Man & Another park, another Sunday is THE Song
Don Elford
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Caught them at Shoreline last week and jumped out of my skin to hear "South City Midnight Lady" live, followed by "Clear as the Driven Snow," my personal #2 and #1 favorites respectively, with "Another Park, Another Sunday" following close behind at #3.
Scott Kauffman
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It's likely you didn't see anyone you know at the gig because -- despite the temporary "anomaly" of Michael McDonald's brilliant tenure in the band and the more upscale-sounding, female-appeal hits it delivered -- the Doobie Brothers as a going concern (with Johnston and Simmons at its center) were initially, and remain, a band "owned," and still supported, by the working class rock fan: tradespersons, service sector personnel, hourly wage earners, bikers (literally bikers). Growing up in the Bronx, we loved the Doobies, while the kids we knew from "downtown" (our generic term for the entirety of Manhattan), whose parents all seemed to be professionals, hated them. Probably not many to the manor born "coastal elites" in the hall last night.
Sure sounds like they missed some great music, though.
Best,
Rick Alexander
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Great write up Bob. I saw them exactly a year ago at the forum and thought they were terrific.
Kyle J. Ferraro
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I've got a great personal story. I had opened my first club Tulagi in Boulder and when agent Fred Bohlander sent me their second album Toulouse Street (their first album didn't do much) I heard Listen To the Music which was coming out as the first single and I smelled a big hit and took a chance and booked them for 10 shows in 5 nights.($500 a night plus percentage) By the time the date came around Listen to Music was top 5 single and if my memory is correct they ended up on the cover of The Rolling Stone the week they played for me. I was such a rookie I wouldn't take Fred's call right before the dates because I thought he would cancel it because they got so big and wouldn't want to play a small club with a low guarantee. But they never cancelled and I think they made $10,000 in percentage (turning away a ton of fans for all the sold out shows) and the band told me it was the biggest payday in their career (up till then). Have remained best friends with Fred and band since then. Realized what type of class guy Fred and his partner Dan Weiner were. They both became 2 of my best and oldest friends. (FYI they were at IFA agency then)
Chuck Morris - Chairman Emeritus
AEG PRESENTS
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Thanks Bob, the You Tube review is much appreciated!
Tom Johnston
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