Customer Reviews

Takin' It to the Streets

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm not going to go over the same ground as the other reviewers... Gavin Wilson's notes for this album are pretty accurate so you may want to read this first. I'd just like to take up a couple of point he makes which are not accurate for all you history buffs out there. At the end I give you my opinion of the album if you just want to skip down to that.

QUOTE "McDonald needed a vehicle to establish himself before going on to a solo career"

This statement is misleading in that it suggests that Mike only joined the Doobie Brothers to further his solo career - at the time in '73/'74 Mike McDonald would have needed a crystal ball to have had this in mind. He joined the Doobies because he was asked by Pat Simmons over the telephone and he was not just 'using the band' as a stepping stone to a solo gig. Mike had been gigging around the West Coast for a couple of years - most notably with Steely Dan (which was on/off as anyone who knows Dan will understand - they went through more musicians that I've had hot dinners... approx' 52 on Aja alone!). At the time he had had an abortive solo album released through a producer friend Rick Jarrard and he was living in a garage apartment surviving on oatmeal. He had pretty much given up on the idea of a solo career and was really looking for work as a session musician. Jeff Baxter, another Dan session man recommended him to Pat and that was that.

The whole idea of Mike going solo didn't come until the Doobies fell apart around 79/80 and then it was out of necessity... it was either a solo gig or go look for more session work. Mike's never planned anything in his life.. and he still believes to this day in syncronicity - fate leading him forward.

QUOTE "However much the band's manager might want to thrust Simmons as the band's new leader it seems that he needed a co-leader to bring out the best of his playing."

The truth of this is that Pat is a very nice guy and a great musician but was not a leader in '74. He was a hippy in the true sense of the word and this was not even his band remember - he came in a year or two after Tom Johnston had formed the band. Tom Johnston was the driving force behind the Doobs in the early days both in terms of direction, leadership and song writing. Following his well documented drug and health issues (he collapsed on tour with bleeding stomach ulcers that nearly killed him and spent 12 months recovering) the Doobies were in serious free fall.

You have to understand that these guys were all stoned half the time and all they could focus on was getting to the next gig to play a live set. They weren't really a studio band at all so the idea of them all sitting down round a table and working out which musical direction to go after Tom's sudden exit is frankly.... laughable.

Jeff Baxter, however, is a leader and has very strong ideas about what he wants to do. It was really his decision to employ Mike McDonald and it was part of his (later admitted) plan to take over Tom's spot as leader of the Doobies. He realised that the Doobs had potential and with Tom gone were ripe for the taking. By bringing in his buddy from Steely Dan (McD) he gave his corner more strength. What is really ironic is that through the Doobies, Mike McDonald blossomed and developed a close bond with Pat Simmons and Tiran Porter which pushed Baxter out of the band a couple of years later. Baxter has commented on this power struggle and admits that once he realised he couldn't lead the band he decided to quit

QUOTE "The only problem with those two classic tracks was they are both pretty much solo efforts".

'Takin It To The Streets' WAS written before Mike joined the Doobies, in fact the words were part written by Mike's sister as part of a college paper on Martin Luther King and social unrest in the U.S. It is no surprise that Mike's musical inspiration for this track was Marvin Gaye and the album 'What's Goin' On' which pre-dated this album by 3 years. 'It Keeps You Runnin' and 'Losin End' were also pretty much written solo by Mike and these three songs really began a new direction for the band which would see them rise to chart success and Grammy awards with the next three albums, Fault Line, Minute By Minute and One Step Closer.

This album is a real mish mash of styles and rhyhms which done' really knit for me. You have remnants of the past (Turn It Lose - Tom Johnstons rescued studio dub from Stampede), Mikes solo tracks over dubbed by the band, a kind of odd song 'For Someone Special' from bass player Tiran Porter that whilst OK doesn't fit with anything, an attempt at a 'pop' song in 'Rio', Pat's bluegrass influenced '8th Avenue Shuffle' and a pre-psychodelia 'Wheels oF Fortune'.

If you know the history of the band at this point in their career, it is glaringly obvious why the album should be this way. It is an attempt to tread water, an albums of bits and pieces put out under pressure from the record company whilst the band tried to come to terms with losing its core (Tom Johnston).

Having said that, it is also a remarkable album in that it marks a turn in the bands direction. It is historical in that it certainly resued the faltering career of the Doobie Brothers. It's worth buying just because it features the fledgling inspirational work of Michael McDonald and the truly great song 'Takin' It To The Streets'. This is THE album that began a major shift in popular Rock music away from the hard blues of Cream and Jimi Hendrix to the Ray Charles and Motown influenced Soul. Just a few years later Michael McDonald's chords and vocal dubs would be copied across the board for nearly a decade from Christoper Cross, Toto and David Pack in the early 80's to band like Go West in the 90's. This album is where it began and you owe it to yourself to check it out.

I remember the shock that many of us felt when we first heard this album previewed on FM radio back in 1976. It bombed so badly in the UK that the follow-up, LIVIN ON THE FAULT LINE, was never released here on LP. There are few traumas in the history of rock music which have led to a band re-inventing itself so successfully.

The cause was Tom Johnston's departure, a possibility which had been foreseen with the recruitment of third guitarist Jeff Baxter. But Baxter was neither a vocalist nor a volume songwriter. When Johnston finally left, the band was thrown into upheaval. None of them seemed to have a solo career ahead of them, so they had to stick together. But only one track was in the can -- 'Turn It Loose', a leftover from the wonderful STAMPEDE period that hadn't made it onto the album. However much the band's manager might want to thrust Simmons as the band's new leader -- that's why his photo is on the front of this album -- it seems that he needed a co-leader to bring out the best of his glorious writing, singing and guitar playing.

It might have seemed strange to their fans but the Doobies could have continued with much the same sound if they had picked Maria Muldaur, who had sung on a number of their earlier albums, as their new lead singer. Bonnie Raitt would also have enabled them to continue with their blend of West Coast and Southern boogie. Instead they chose someone who had never worked with the Doobies before. But he had a wonderful voice and he had worked on the classic Steely Dan album KATY LIED. It turned out that he also had a gift for composition too, as exemplified on 'Losin' End' and the stand-out track 'It Keeps You Runnin''.

The only problem with those two classic tracks was they are both pretty much solo efforts, keyboard and drum machine tunes that I suspect McDonald had mapped out before he joined the Doobies. McDonald needed a vehicle to establish himself before going on to a solo career, and the traumatised Doobies became that vehicle. McDonald's arrival as a reasonable keyboardsman meant that the Doobies no longer had a need for brilliant pianist Bill Payne, so out went another link to Southern boogie.

So we get an LP of three parts: the tracks such as 'Turn it Loose' where there is frankly no evidence of McDonald, except perhaps as a post-production background vocal overdub, the tracks McDonald virtually recorded on his own, and the ensemble tracks such as 'Rio' and 'For Someone Special', where there is no evidence of Johnston.

And the amazing thing is that it all works magnificently. The original LP was a very thin piece of vinyl -- part of Warners Brothers' cost-saving regime of the time -- and I found it very difficult to find a copy that wasn't warped. With the CD we get at last a robust medium, although this is the earliest Doobie Brothers album for which there is no mention of Lee Herschberg doing the CD remastering. Maybe it isn't remastered. Who cares anyway? It's a marvellous mid-70s recording.

I am a huge fan of the Doobie Brothers, I like every album they ever made (some more than others, some less), but this is definitely their best one. The first track is pretty good jazz/rock. The next is the classic title track. The third track is the only one I'm not crazy about. All the rest of the tunes have great melodies, great group sound, a variety of moods, yet cohesive as a whole. Turn it Loose and It Keeps You Runnin' (which used to be KRTH's backup song to their ads) are my favorites from side 2 but "It's All Good." Do yourself a favor and buy this CD!

Lately Mobile Fidelity has been hitting a lot of home runs with their releases and this remaster of "Takin' It To the Streets" is no exception. Sharp, well defined with great dynamic range and a warm analog sound, this dual layer (CD Redbook layer and SACD layer for higher definition playback)remaster proves that Mofi hasn't lost any of their magic. How does this compare to the original CD edition mastered by Lee Herschberg? That one still sounds quite nice but the sound stage, depth, detail and warmth of this version beats it.

From the opening notes of "Wheel of Fortune" to the closing notes of "Carry Me Away" this was very much a transitional album for the band in terms of their sound; Tom Johnston was easing back on his contribution to the band after a major illness and Michael McDonald a session player who had performed with Steely Dan stepped in to fill Johnston's shoes. McDonald's warm, gruff tenor, songwriting chops and keyboard playing moved the band further into a mixture of jazz/rock and blue eyed soul territory particularly with the addition of Jeff Baxter (another Steely Dan alum and session player who had joined with the previous album). Guitarist/vocalist Patrick Simmons stepped up his contribution along with McDonald to make up for the songwriting/singing void left when Johnston stepped back from the forefront in the band.

The title track, "It Keeps You Runnin'", "Rio"(with guest vocalist Maria Muldaur), "Wheel of Fortune" (with Simmons and Johnston trading vocals) all are top notch make this an essential Doobie Brothers album to have. Bassist Tiran Porter steps in with a song written in tribute to Johnston ("To Someone Special")to help pick up the songwriting slack as well.

A minor issue that I contacted Mobile Fidelity about for the completist; this comes in a miniature replica gatefold sleeve similar to the original vinyl release. For those who are sticklers about such things be aware, however, that the interior gatefold picture is reproduced in black and white (and it's a bit muddy looking on my copy) while the original was in color. Evidently the digital artwork for the interior that Warner forwarded to Mobile Fidelity was for the CD booklet NOT the original color graphics. It's a minor hiccup that Mofi didn't catch (they're usually pretty good at catching these errors before issuing the album). It doesn't effect my rating simply because Mofi did a terrific job with the remaster. This edition also includes a small booklet like the previously issued Doobie titles ("Toulouse Street", "The Captain and Me")that Mofi has issued. It's a pity that they won't be able to do "Stampede" or "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" both strong albums from the band. The regular CD copies of those titles sound quite nice but I'd love for Mofi to upgrade them.

While the band was changing directions with this release, they still managed to carve out a unique sound for themselves and create a bestselling album in the process. Recommended.

Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons have outstanding vocal talents and gave us compositions that, even after 30 years, still sound fresh. But you won't get to that conclusion by listening to this CD. While the vocal efforts here are strong, the rythms driving, and the tunes catchy, this CD sounds as if a sonic veil has been thrown over the music. Think of what you hear when listening to a recording that is being played back on speakers in another room, or the sound you would hear using the tiny speakers on, say, a 13" TV set, and you will get an idea of how badly this CD captures the band's perfomance. If you enjoy the Doobie Brothers, avoid this recording: it will only cause disappointment over a lost opportunity to appreciate some great tunes played by fine musicians.

Takin' It To The Streets is Michael McDonald's debut with the Doobie Brothers. It is with this album that the band moved away from the party-hard rockin' sound of their previous albums to a more R&B soul type of sound.

But as another reviewer pointed out, it is a combination of both styles that is incorporated in this album. Tom Johnston's final effort with the band shows the old style perfectly (Turn It Loose), while the rest of the record tends to lean toward the R&B sound that Michael McDonald brought to the band on tracks like the title track and It Keeps You Runnin'.

Other Highlights include Wheels of Fortune, Rio, and Carry me Away. I also dig Tiran Porter's For Someone Special.

Bottom Line: A great album to get into.

On Takin' It To The Streets, the Doobies started their transition from a rock-oriented to pop-soul oriented sound. Michael McDonald makes his Doobie's recording debut while original leader Tom Johnston makes his departure. What makes this album great is that both elements of the band sound show up and isn't exclusively one or the other. The album kicks off with the rocking "Wheels Of Fortune" and then rolls into the classic title cut. These two songs perfectly frame the two styles. The former is in the older Doobie vein and the latter is in the new. Patrick Simmons is great on "8th Avenue Shuffle" and bassist Tiran Porter contributes the fine "For Someone Special". Most Doobie fans divide the group into before & after Michael McDonald and tend to favor one era from the other. I think this album bridges the gap and is the best of both Doobie worlds.

Everything before this recording is still classic Doobies, but this was a great recording and deserves a spot in your Doobies collection. Just keep it in perspective as to when it was released. Tom Johnston was apparantly fighting his own demons and was being replaced or phased out of the band because of them, so something had to give (listen to Tiran Porter's song "For someone Special"). Although there was the 1 Johnston rocker (Turn It Loose), it may be the weakest track on the album, though still fun. Bottom line, if only in my opinion, is that this was a fresh start. The band and recording were not yet entirely dominated by Michael McDonald. Patrick Simmons shined and perhaps had some new creative freedom (Wheels of Fortune & 8th Avenue Shuffle). Yes, it was and is a real departure from the "classic" Doobies sound that some of us purists loved. There was the beginning of a touch of the jazz-pop influence, perhaps owing to the 2 ex-Steely Dan mates. But then and now, it still sounds great.

One of the Doobie Brothers' best efforts (after Toulouse Street and The Captain and Me), Takin' It to the Streets shows the initial influence of Michael McDonald, but as a sort of fusion rather than the full-blown takeover in Minute by Minute. MFSL's SACD remaster sounds superb: A must-buy.

I was really looking forward to receiving and playing the SACD version of this, one of my favorite Doobie Brothers CDs. And after reading several reviews, I was drooling. Upon playing the SACD I was disappointed by the low, muddy sound. I questioned whether the disc was SACD, but my Oppo player recognized it as SACD. The disc I got is two-channel, not 5.1 as we might expect of SACD. That's not too terribly unusual, I've heard of this before. I went back and played the original redbook release of 'Streets and it sounded great! This confirmed my disappointment with the sound quality of this disc even though it's a SACD from MoFi. If you're looking for a bright spot, the packaging is great. But that's not really enough.