The Doobie Brothers Album: “Takin' To The Streets”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.