FTV: The Doobie Brothers
When The Doobie Brothers The Captain and Me album was released in March of 1973, it was hard to miss. Propelled by the singles Long Train Running (March 28, 1973) and China Grove (July 25, 1973), it climbed to No.7 on the US Billboard 200 chart. I am sure these tunes helped me keep awake on my late night drives from band gigs in Marquette to my dishwasher summer day job at the Huron Mountain Club northwest of Big Bay. Knockdown, my band at the time, had a pretty vast catalog of songs to draw from. With me commuting to gigs while living nearly 60 miles from the Queen City, we had very little free time to learn new songs the last ten months we were together. It isn’t a surprise to me now that The Doobies slipped between the cracks and did not appear in our set list before we broke up in the spring of 1974.
When Barry Seymour and I began jamming together in August of 1974, one of the first new songs he introduced me to was Without You. This happened to be the flip side of the Doobie’s Long Train Runnin’ single from the summer before. When I told Barry I wasn’t very familiar with the band beyond their radio friendly singles, he said, “Well, you better get The Captain and Me because I want to do a bunch of their songs.” With the album in hand, the first thing I noticed was how good we were able to make Without You sound with just guitar, drums, and vocals. As fast as Barry could work them up, we were soon added Long Train Running, and China Grove to the songs we were assembling for our playlist.
When Mike (bass) and Lindsay (second guitar) joined Sledgehammer, we dipped into the Brothers’ Toulouse Street album (1972) to learn Listen to the Music, Rockin’ Down the Highway, and Jesus Is Just Alright. We now had the advantage of having two more vocalists and stage monitors. Mike designed and built them to go along with our new PA (also made by Mike). Nothing compares to singing harmonies when one can hear the other voices clearly. There wasn’t a gig that went by where people did not hear the whole gamut of our Doobie Brothers offerings. Listen to the Music and China Grove carried over to my next band, Easy Money and every time we played them, my mind went back to those early days jamming with Barry.
The Doobie Brothers first formed in San Jose, California in 1970 but they weren’t known by that name at the time. The first nucleus of the band was assembled in 1969 when drummer John Hartman came to the Golden State. He arrived intent on meeting Skip Spence in hopes of getting on board a Moby Grape reunion that never happened. Spence did introduce Hartman to Tom Johnston (a guitarist, singer, and songwriter) and the proto-Doobies group started out under the name ‘Pud’. They began as a power trio, tried a line up with horns for a short while, and took a major step forward when they hooked up with another singer, songwriter, and guitarist named Patrick Simmons. Simmons’ fingerstyle playing complimented Johnston’s rhythmic R&B playing style. The bass player in Simmons’ folk trio (Tiran Porter) would also join down the road.
A friend of the band suggested the name ‘Doobie Brothers’ (“Because you’re always smoking pot!”) but the band thought it was a ‘dumb and stupid name’. They fully intended to use it as a placeholder until they came up with something better. The Doobies played extensively around Northern California in 1970 and became a favorite among the local chapter of the Hells Angels. When their demos reached former Harpers Bizarre member Ted Templeman (who was working as an A&R representative for Warner Brothers), he got them signed to the label before the end of 1970. Their first album failed to chart. They added a second drummer (Michael Hossack) as well as the aforementioned bassist Tiran Porter late in 1971. The band’s fortunes began to turn with the release of Toulouse Street and then The Captain and Me. The song Without You is credited to the whole band as it began life as a long jam to which Johnston would ad-lib lyrics. One of the first notable appearances of the song was on the debut episode of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert series in 1973 (a performance that I remember seeing later as a rerun on TV).
During the recording of their next album (What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits) in the fall of 1973, Hossack left the band citing burnout. He was replaced by former Lee Michaels (You Know What I Mean) stickman Keith Knudsen who was pressed into immediate service when their next major tour started in September of 1973. As the tour stretched into 1974, Steely Dan guitarist Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter was added as a third guitar player. Baxter had previously worked with the Doobies in the studio adding pedal steel guitar to tracks on both the Captain and Vices albums. When Baxter learned Steely Dan was retiring from the road and intended to record with session musicians, Skunk was all too happy to join the Doobies, even in the middle of a tour.
The Vices album earned the Doobie Brothers their first No. 1 hit, Black Water, a Simmons’ tune featuring his fingerpicking. The Memphis Horns from the Stax Records studio toured off and on with the band and worked with them as session players in the studio. Johnston’s health took a turn for the worst as the rigors of touring wore him down. He missed an appearance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve at the end of 1974. By the time their 1975 release Stampede hit the airwaves with the single Take Me In Your Arms, Johnston had to opt out of the spring tour as he was undergoing treatment for bleeding ulcers. Baxter suggested his fellow Steel Dan singer, songwriter, keyboard player Michael McDonald to fill out the touring band.
Tom’s vocal parts were shared by the other band members. Hearing Take Me In Your Arms blasting out of the radio was one of my fondest memories of my post college graduation trip to visit my old buddy Mitch who was living in Lake Oswego, Oregon outside of Portland.
The addition of McDonald made an immediate impact when Johnston was still not available for the recording of their next album, Taking It To The Streets. The Doobies’ hard rocking guitar based songs gave way to more of a soft rock, blue-eyed soul sound. Though nobody dubbed them ‘Doobie Dan’ or ‘The Steely Brothers’, the music definitely leaned heavily toward the Steely Dan side of the ledger with two Dan alums on board. As he began to recover, Johnston was able to make some contributions to Streets and their next LP, Living On The Fault Line. Tom was even able to make a few live appearances with the band before exhaustion sidelined him again. Their next two albums were less successful, but the Doobie Brothers continued to be a solid live band.
In January of 1978, they made an uncharacteristic move by appearing as themselves in two episodes of the ABC sitcom What’s Happening!! Rather than lip synching, the band performed Black Water, Takin It To The Streets, and Take Me in Your Arms live during the taping. In a Guitar World interview with Joe Bosso, (Vol 7, No 8), Simmons recalled that he was ‘all in’ to do the show but it took some convincing to get the rest of the band on board. The plot involved Simmons bringing the band back to his (fictional) old high school to perform. The plot added a twist when one of the cast members was forced to illegally tape the gig and got caught. Simmons told Bosso, “I watched the show and loved it, so I wanted to do it immediately. The rest of the band weren’t familiar with the show, so they were nervous about doing it.”
Once they got together with the production team, things fell together so well that the Doobie, Not Doobie episode was expanded into a two parter. The bootlegging angle wasn’t a big concern as it was going on all the time – it only bugged the band when poor quality recordings were offered for sale. The thing that sold the rest of the band on doing it was the exposure: “The people on the show were really nice to us,” Simmons said. “We were always doing benefits in those days, and we got some of the people to come and do shows. They’d come and speak and help raise money for the United Way. We were a white rock and roll band and [because of the show] more people of color began coming to our shows. There were so many rewards for doing it.”
They recorded the Minute by Minute album (1978) and it produced their second No. 1 hit, McDonald’s What A Fool Believes. Friction between Baxter and his ex-Steely Dan mate would see Skunk exit the band. After the Minute By Minute tour, the band briefly broke up in 1979, however, they changed their minds after seeing how successful the Minute album was. Seeking to capitalize on the momentum from Minute By Minute, the remaining Doobies decided to carry on without Baxter. The line up was augmented with the inclusion of John McFee (a member of Huey Lewis’s pre- News band, Clover), session drummer Chet McKraken, and keys/sax man Cornelius Bumpus. Band founding drummer Hartman was now gone and with the departure of Simmons in 1981, there were no original members in the band. They decided to call it a day and, as McDonald said at that point, “They could not have gotten further away from the Doobie’s sound if they tried.” A 1982 final farewell concert was held at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles with a live album of that show (Farewell Tour) put out the next year. The Doobie Brothers looked to be done, but their music would find a permanent home with the emergence of Classic Rock Radio.
McFee and Knudson formed a successful band called Southern Pacific in 1983 with Jerry Scheff on bass, Tim Goodman on vocals and Glen Hardin on keys. When Scheff left after their first album, former CCR bassist Stu Cook and guitarist David Jenkins of Pablo Cruise joined. They produced four albums and Knudson set off a chain of events that would ‘accidentally’ trigger a Doobie Brothers reunion. After getting himself clean during a stint in rehab, Knudson’s work on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation led him to get 11 former Brothers together for a one off charity show. It was so successful that it was expanded to a mini 12 cities tour beginning in May of 1987. In the wake of this reunion, they decided to replicate the Toulouse Street / Captain and Me era band and give it another go. An album of new material soon followed (Cycles (1989)) and it produced their first hit single in many years (The Doctor). This configuration again found itself drawing interest from promoters and attrac;ting big crowds on tour. Once the Doobies got back into a regular touring cycle, they never stopped. Johnston, Simmons and McFee sat down with GW’s Joe Bosso as a prelude to their 2026 summer tour with Carlos Santana.
One can tell when a band has entered the ‘legendary’ tier when tribute bands pop up. Bosso began the session asking if they were aware of bands like Doobie Others, Listen to the Music, Brothers Doobie and the Doobie Doubles (the last one will only play the uptempo stuff – no ballads for them). “I guess I am missing out,” Johnston said with a laugh. Simmons added, “They have some great musicians. It’s great that musicians would take the time to learn those songs and perform them. I can’t fault people for trying to make a living and coming up with a novelty idea, and if they enjoy the music, that’s flattering for the rest of us.”
As far as the history of the band throughout the various hiatuses, Simmons commented, “We have disagreements like anybody else. We’ve certainly had our moments when we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves, especially at the end of a tour when it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, is he gonna keep snoring when I’m trying to sleep?’ But we’ve been lucky enough to sustain our relationships, and really, it’s all about the music. We’ve got great writers and players, and people love what we do.” Johnston added, “We had our conflicts in the seventies. As time goes by, you learn what to do and what not to do. We all get along now, and we just want to keep on moving forward and if you keep moving forward, things have a way of fixing themselves.”
With the new album they have just recorded with Michael McDonald back on board, Bossa asked if they feel like they have the two biggest eras of the band covered. All three weighed in on this idea: Johnston said, “I think it’s a good idea to look at it that way, because that’s what we’re doing, whether it’s on record or live. All the eras of the band are represented, and the people love it.” McFee added, “I think the music integrates from all the different eras. I love it.” Simmons wrapped it up with, “It’s more than two eras, I think. The biggest influences, of course, are Tommy and Mike. They’re both prolific writers and great singers. You’re going to feel their influence over and above everybody else just by virtue of their…what’s the word? Their energy.”
The Doobie Brothers music has transcended decades as one of those bands that just seem to be universally loved. The second fund raising Hootenanny I was involved in back in the late 1970s is a good example of how people can agree on the band’s lasting legacy. At the first rehearsal, we were tossing around ideas of what would be a good opener for the show. Mark Bobula, Jim Brogan, and I all had the same idea and in unison blurted out, Listen To The Music! “That’s the one! Great song, “ Jim said as we all laughed at the common thought we shared in that moment.
Top Piece Video: Take Me In Your Arms from the 2013 Wildlife Concerts – this album marked the transition from the original Doobie Brothers to the Blue Eyed Soul version that featured Michael McDonald and Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter – a fond memory of my graduation trip to Oregon in 1975.