Best Doobie Brothers stuff

Despite the fact that I really like them, I only have a couple CDs. Listen to the Music, Rockin Down the Highway, Jesus is Just Alright and China Grove on the 2001 Warner/Rhino CD could sound much better than it does. This is my impression anyway. I just picked up a 2007 Warner/Rhino "The Very Best Of" in hopes it'll be better. Haven't had time to listen to it yet.

I'm open to CD, SACD or DVD-A.. I just want to pick up some albums on any media that sounds the best. Any thoughts here?

 

actually the doobie brothers can be thought of as 2 distinct bands:

without michael mcdonald

and

with michael mcdonald

without:

first 5 albums s/t - stampede

then the 4 albums w/mcdonald - takin it to the streets - one step closer

then 4 more without - cylces - world gone crazy

each incarnation had a live album.

the greatest hits CD's out there span both bands.

without, is basically the guitar driven (simmons and johnston) and with, is more keyboard/blue eyed soul driven (mcdonald) johnston did leave for a while to pursue a (failed) solo career

both had their share of hits, although the biggest hits arguably came with mcdonald.

a band that should, without question, be in the rock and roll hall of fame.

and other than the live album,with mcdonald, a band that you should be able to find most all of their albums in the used bins quite cheaply.

mcdonald had the most successful solo career by far. easy to find, also in the used bins, but not as readily available as doobie albums.

simmons has a couple or three solo albums and johnston has 2. simmons and johnston solo records are very difficult to find whether it be the original japanese versions or the more recent but OOP wounded bird versions.

 

I much prefer the band before Michael MacDonald. The Captain and Me is an outstanding album and one of my all time top ten albums. It's a little pricey right now, but in view of the price of current SACDs maybe not so bad.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Doobie-Brot...?pt=US_DVD_HD_DVD_Blu_ray&hash=item4625404456

Toulouse Street is also exceptional and is available as an SACD

http://www.amazon.com/Toulouse-Street-The-Doobie-Brothers/dp/B001Q89FAG

Doobies were one of the first concerts I ever went to, at Summerfest in Milwaukee.

 

Their debut album/cd is a must have.
They still deliver live as well!!

 

AF did Minute by Minute and MFSL did a bunch, DCC did a Best Of......all winners IMO. Check out few existing threads on the topic. Enjoy.

 

One of my favorite bands. I much prefer the post-McDonald era, but Michael definitely didn't ruin the band, he just gave them a different "sound"

Almost all there albums are must haves.

 

The Captain and Me

 

I agree 100% with rjp.
The brief history is correct from my standpoint. Still like them but they are "2 distinct bands". Each great in their own way.

 

All the albums up to and including Takin' It To The Streets are great. After that it starts to get really inconsistent, IMO, though Minute By Minute is really enjoyable overall.

 

There's a good documentary, Let The Music Play, that made me feel like getting the rest of their albums. Haven't yet but have seen a few of the original LP pressings cheap and in NM condition.

 

What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits is still my favorite. Most of the early Doobies stuff done by Ted Templeman were all recorded well. I have the albums because I have been a fan forever. I don't think you can go wrong with the regular CD's.
Sibling Rivalry is an album even the most die hard Doobies fans have forgotten. It is excellent. As far as I'm concerned, there was only one Doobies album that fell short for me and that is One Step Closer.

 

'one step closer' has its moments, but you can tell that it wasn't the same. mcdonald wanted out to pursue his solo career and they followed up with that live album (probably a contractual obligation) and then mcdonald was gone.

 

McDonald's first solo album If That's What it Takes was better than One Step Closer. Agree?

 

Stampede remains my favorite.

 

I always thought that the Doobies had some of the best recorded music in rock (Ted Templeman and Donn Landee) I played Toulouse St and Capt and Me over and over as a kid back in the early 70's. I learned a lot of guitar playing along with the records.

I was fortunate to have bought the DVD-A of Capt and Me for around $20 back when it first came out. (Today its $129 on Amazon!)

The 5.1 mix is incredible, the dynamic range is used to its fullest and it is a treat to listen to from the sonics alone.

It goes without saying that these guys wrote great songs and played them at the highest level. Tiran Porter the bass player really shines in the DVD mixes. I understand that there's a Warners SACD version as well.

Highly recommended.

 

I listened to this for the first time a few years ago after having been a virtual life long devotee of the Minute By Minute album. Sadly I was disappointed first up. I don't really dig what John McFee brought to the band, and think they lost something without Skunk Baxter. It seems like Real Love was a case of McDonald offering a top shelf track just to justify the album. It feels like he was withholding his other goodstuff for his imminent solo career. If McDonald and Baxter didn't get along, then the tension must have been good creatively because they made some prime stuff while both were in the band together. You can really see how things became more stadium rock with McFee on some of the live footage.

 

Totally.

 

My shorthand version of a Doobie's best of would be four albums.
Toulouse Street
The Captain And Me
Takin' It To The Streets
Minute By Minute

Imo those are the best four albums by the band and they conveniently bifurcate the band into the first two phases.
I still haven't heard the first one though I run across copies pretty regularly (vinyl) and in fact all of their lps are pretty easy to find in good condition and cheap.

 

Funny, as I have a major dislike for what McDonald did to the band, "Takin it to the Streets" is my favorite. IT just sounds phenomenal, and has more variety than the others. All the pre-MM albums are great and I love that each has a distinct and different feel from the others, though I do love how "Captain" flows right into "Vices". I think the string of five albums from Toulouse St to Streets is as good a string of output as any band has done. Love them all!!!

For some reason I don't own the S/T....I'll have to remedy that!

 

The earlier the better. The Captain and Me is likely their best album, most rocking.

If you prefer very tasteful and well performed hard edged rock music you want albums that have a lot of Tom Johnston on them, if you prefer light poppy jazz you want albums that do not have Tom Johnston on them, as a general rule. The Doobies were really two different bands, the one that was fronted by Tom Johnston and the one that was fronted by Micheal McDonald.

Their first album leaned toward being an acoustic heavy country rock album, everything after turned into some pretty badass rock music with great vocals that had an R&B and country tinge to it until Tom Johnston bailed they went jazzpop.

No matter what albums you get, if you like badass rock you gotta find the songs Evil Woman and Without You if you like a good solid rock sound.

Also, the Doobies originally got popular mostly on the basis of Tom Johnstons songwriting and he great guitar hooks. The guy has a very unique rhythm guitar style that was their signiture sound on their early hit songs. He is also the most recognizable singer in the band and fronted them early on.
If there is one album I would suggest to avoid it would be Sibling Rivalry, which sounds like an almost entirely different band.

The great thing about the Doobies is that their albums were loaded with great songs and often the hit songs were not even the best songs on the albums. I don't think either Evil Woman or Without You were released as hits but both are great.
They also always had some of the best production of rock era bands.

 

Yep, good thing about Doobies, is if you want to build the collection on vinyl, you'll be able to do it fast and cheap - and probably all as close to mint or near mint as you could want.

 

You know, I like a lot of the McDonald stuff, and I don't so much have a dislike for what he did for the band as I do what the band no longer was when he showed up.

It would have been great if the albums were still at least half written by Tom Johnston while Mr McDonald was with them and there was more of him on McDonald songs.

But it wasn't the presence of McDonald that made the change hard to swallow, it was the absence of Tom Johnston.

 

Actually I think that Tom Johnston was just as responsible for the move towards blue eyed soul as anyone. Listen To The Music and Long Train Running are cowboy blue eyed soul. His wonderful rhythm guitar and minor chord hammer ons are very R&B. McDonald just pushed further towards Motown Blue eyed soul with the falsetto and electric keys. Then you've got Patrick Simmons in the mix as well. What a great legacy.

 

Yes. That is it.

 

Are you certain? I doubt their first few albums would be cheap in any kind of condition. I seldom see them at flea markets or yard sales period, in any condition.
And that first album they did that is mostly acoustic is not at all easy to find. I don't know if it was even ever released on CD.
That first album has a song on it called Nobody that I think was released just before their greatest hits album was. I remember it was released as a single well after the Doobies gained popularity.

I think from the second album on all of TJs stuff had a bit of a motown edge to it, what Mr McDonald brought was those great jazz licks on the piano and those jazz chord progressions.
If you have never heard a Tom Johnston solo album his solo stuff is very R&B and sounds very Doobies. I think that was his main influence all along.