I know people who to this day refuse to listen to any DB from the McDonald years.
Count me in...
I can’t think of anything he did with the Doobies that was worth listening to. When I first heard “Takin it to the Streets” I was amazed it was even the same band. Couldn’t stand McDonald or anything he did, at least with that band. The Doobies were a ROCK band, not a ballad band...plenty others did a good job of the drippy top 40 sell albums to 12 year old stuff. Maybe McDonald did some good work elsewhere, but I thought he was a very bad fit for the Doobies. Not one song I know of I liked.
My favorites were the 1st 3 albums, especially “Captain and Me”. The band I’m in is doing 2 or 3 from that album, we finally dropped “Ukiah/Captain and Me” because I wasn’t able topo handle tjhem well any more. My voice was going downjhill and doing those two took boatloads of energy, which was causing me to start into coughing fits halfway through the songs.
We still do Listen to the Music, Long Train Running, Dark Eyed Cajun Woman, had China Grove pretty much ready and left it behind for some reason, and Rockin Down the Highway is still on the list, with Captain and Me by itself as a now and then tune. NOt easy to put together, Ukiah is electric, Captain and Me is acoustic, and I have to allso tune the acoustic to Drop D before we start, then swap to acoustic guitar while the other 2 guys end Ukiah...yeah just 3 of us and we also do Black Water...
That one was fun to put together. The Doobies did it with a 6 piece band and plenty studio overdubs, we had to figure out what to keep and what to drop to be able to make it work with just 3 guys. We all 3 switch vocal parts here and there to make it work. Same for some of the Eagles tunes we do, they had at least 4 singers most of the time and plenty overdubs. Not to mention a 6 or 7 piece band onstage.
I’m about 98% retired from gigging now due to COPD, although we played last weekend and had fun, they got a short notice booking at a local micro brewery, their 1st weekend open in 5 months. They called me and I said OK. Outdoor thing, worked pretty well but got overheated about halfway through set 2 and the usual coughing fit set in, from there on it was a rough night. But we got in Black Water before that happened so it went very well...and audiences love that song. We usually get them clapping and singing along during he A-Capella section.
Seems like I’m forgetting...oh yeah, “Another Park Another Sunday” is also on the set list.
That's a great song! My favorite DB tune is "Neal's Fandango."
I prefer the Johnston music but listen to it all. I guess having NO musical ability gets me off the hook here.
What I liked about the Doobies was it WAS straight up, in your face rock and roll. I once described being a Doobie fan as being a masochist who had found their ultimate sadist. :)
Then came McDonald.
Took some getting used to but Johnston was gone. :(
Sorry to hear about your COPD.
I am jealous of your musical ability. I couldn’t carry a tune with a front end loader.
At church the pastor specifically requests that I NOT sing. :0)