The Doobie Brothers Album: “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits”

The Doobie Brothers have always been known, especially throughout the Tom Johnston era, to have strong, catchy beats that hook you in and won't let you go. This 1974 release is full of these classic Doobie songs. Some of the songs sound the same, however, such as "Pursuit on 53rd Street" and "Down in the Track." The similarities here detract from the overall creativity of the album, especially since these two songs are very similar to some of the weaker songs on the Doobies' previous three albums. Even with the inclusion of such similar songs, tracks like "Eyes of Silver," "Road Angel," and the Doobies' first #1 hit, "Black Water" will keep you coming back to this album. The strength of the album's last two songs are really what set this recording apart from previous, as well as future Doobie Brothers albums, however. "Daughters of the Sea" and "Flying Cloud" are a perfect end to this set of songs, particularly because they epitomize the laid-back but explosive style of the Doobies. "Flying Cloud," written by Doobies bassist Tiran Porter, is one of the rare instrumental tracks from the Doobies, and they make the best of the opportunity, with very spacy guitar and a relaxing feel to it.

BEST SONGS: "Daughters of the Sea," "Flying Cloud," "Black Water"

SONGS TO SKIP: "Pursuit on 53rd Street"

Overall, this is an incredible album, full of memorable, upbeat songs. The only better Doobie Brothers album is The Captain and Me, released in 1973. Highly recommended for fans of the Doobie Brothers, or upbeat, catchy classic rock in general.

The Doobie Brothers are one of the greatest American bands of all time. They are awesome-they have always been since their first album came out in 1971. They simply connected by combining elements of jazz, R&B, rock and even gospel into a unique, coherent, energizing musical synthesis with absolutely superb stylistic diversity.

Though not an easy decision, 1974's "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" is my favorite Doobies album. Every single track of this masterpiece - one of the most underrated albums of the 70's - is purely fantastic. They flat out rock with that great combination of excellent songwriting, uninhibited, raw power and sonic polish on gems such as the opener "Song To See You Through" hammering down the line through "Pursuit On 53rd Street", "Eyes Of Silver", "Road Angel", "Spirit", "Down The Track", "You Just Can't Stop It" along with the fine, softer "Tell Me What You Want (And I'll Give You What You Need)", sandwiched inbetween with their first #1 single, "Black Water" as well as simply one of the greatest songs personally of all-time to me, the smooth, gorgeous, breath of fresh air, "Another Park, Another Sunday". Ending this great set is the floating, dreamy combination of "Daughters Of The Sea" and "Flying Cloud". Simply amazing! This album is consistent on excellence. A must have..........

THIS is the Doobie Brothers. (The band should have been renamed when Michael McDonald was added to the line-up in 1976.) Johnston's swamp/blues vocals (even though he was a California biker) and the exquisite Johnston/Simmons/Porter harmonies are one of the defining sounds of the early 70s. This album encases the bands strengths in every way; lyrically and musically. Just because every cut wasn't a Top Ten Hit doesn't mean that the album should be overlooked. It cooks with rockin' guitars and with soul.

This album always bring back great memories for me; the cover photo was shot at Assembly Hall on the campus of Indiana University, where I attended college. My friends and I camped out for days to get front row tickets, and we ended up with seats in the first two rows and our faces on the album cover! I still have the album I bought 25 years ago, and play it every now and then for a little taste of nostalgia. A great concert band, a great example of their work.

The Bay Area of Northern California was, through the latter part of the 60's and into the early 70's, an encampment of musical ideology that utilized "fusion" in the creative spark. And that applies beyond the common genre of fusion jazz. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Country Joe & The Fish, and Big Brother & The Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, were all vanguards of fusion rock in the counter-culture movement. Rock, blues, jazz, folk, gospel, R&B, far-eastern, latin, and other world-wide elements of music were infused into contemporary music and experimentation was the measure of success. In 1971, The Doobie Brothers drew all the best elements of this front line together to make a successful sound that was unique in its own right and polished to a winning accessibility. Their initial album went un-noticed in general, other than by the locals who knew them from live shows and from local chapters of The Hells Angels who had formed a particular strong following of the group. It was 1972's release of TOULOUSE STREET that jettisoned The Doobie Brothers into the hands of soon-to-be admirers like myself. And based upon that wonderful music and the singles tossed out in conjunction with the release of THE CAPTAIN AND ME, the "second" masterpiece gave us even more of the wonder and awe. WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS is properly named! Habits indeed! If you listen to CAPTAIN and then STAMPEDE, you can pretty much figure out what HABITS will sound like as it falls right in between musically as well as chronologically. The habits come into play as the album seems to rely muchly so on what was established with CAPTAIN. Thankfully, however, Simmons and Porter both pulled on Johnston enough to make measured steps to inroads which would be fulfilled on STAMPEDE and you can hear that here on HABITS.

If you are new (LOL) to The Doobie Brothers, the first noticeable feature of this band is the easy blend of acoustic and electric, not just a counter-balance of one to the other but a total homogenization of the two into a sort of Simon & Garfunkel meets Jefferson Airplane and they had twins and named them The Doobie Brothers. The other in-your-face fact is the songwriting is so crafty and elegant whether it is a driving rocker or a soft folk-jazz song. The band has some top of the mountain talent. Two drummers playing off of each other, a bassist with pure busy and punchy bass lines in a distinctive tone with a unique picking style, three part harmony vocals that easily separate into tiger-leads, and two lead guitars! And all that before you notice the Memphis Horns and Little Feat's Bill Payne rocking the pianos! In the same way which TOULOUSE STREET instantly grabbed you, THE CAPTAIN AND ME forged forward with their sound. They added an extra accent on the last syllable, they paid out of work Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter for some canny pedal steel. HABITS introduces more Skunk to the music!

Most Doobie Bros fans fall into one of three camps: the fans of the original Tom Johnston led group, the Michael McDonald influenced outgrowth group (often referred to as "Doobie Dan" by the former fans), and those (like myself) who love all things Doobie from inception to jaded. The Doobie Dan moniker stuck with them from Takin' It To The Streets even though Jeff Baxter had actually joined the group a couple albums earlier and actually began his session playing on a few songs of this album and the CAPTAIN prior, but it mainly came up after Michael began to write songs and sing leads after Tom left. Yes, The Doobie Brothers did gravitate more to R&B influences after that, but the unique "sound", the "it" that made The Doobie Brothers, the Doobie Brothers, that has always been, with or without Tom. You see, if you listen closely to TOULOUSE STREET and this album, and pay particular attention to each song, then go play TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS and do the same again, I assure you, you will notice the thread there. The cosmopolitan Bay Area truth that bares open the San Francisco scene musically, the synthesis that fused elemental musics together to become the "voice" of a generation.

...HABITS released "Another Park Another Sunday as their first single but it was only moderately successful charting to #32, a pleasant enough and pretty song but one of those Doobie Brothers' been der done dat. "Eyes Of Silver" proved an even poorer second single release (#52), and grasping at straws Warner Brothers RE-released a single from their first (failed) eponymous album called "Nobody". By then, radio stations had already discovered "Black Water" and were playing the heck out of it! As soon as it was "officially released" as a single it shot to #1. Due in no small part to the catchiest swamp-water boogie lyrics and beat ever devised by man, Simmons' composition hit pay dirt and along with Skunk, the Doobies figured out which direction to go next! Along with "Black Water" (impossible to "overplay"), "Road Angel", "You Just Can't Stop It", "Tell Me What You Want" and especially "Daughters Of The Sea" and Tiran Porter's "Flying Cloud" save HABITS from being just another CAPTAIN AND ME. And because of this leaning, and a vague similarity to both TOULOOUSE STREET and STAMPEDE, I think HABITS end up being the better album over CAPTAIN. But that's just me... There is absolutely nothing wrong with "Eyes Of Silver" and "Spirit" is a terrific song, I just find the rest of Tom's songs on this album rehash.

The Doobie Brothers did find a formula for success as is apparent with just the first four releases: TOULOUSE STREET charted at #21, THE CAPTAIN AND ME at #7, and WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS went to #4 and STAMPEDE also clocked in at #4.

I still consider TOULOUSE STREET as THE Doobie Brothers album because of the effect it had on me. Read my review of that one there. Critical responses call THE CAPTAIN AND ME or MINUTE BY MINUTE (depending on your camp) their biggest and best, but each and every album has its own independent merits that makes it a great album, so unabashedly I think that the response to judgment of Doobies albums is entirely emotional and based upon the listeners own experience. I usually end up listening to them in this order: TOULOUSE STREET, THE CAPTAIN AND ME, WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS, STAMPEDE, TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS, MINUTE BY MINUTE. Get it? And how do I rate them all? 5 big whopping stars for every one of them. Which one is my favorite? Today it is TOULOUSE STREET, next Tuesday it might be STAMPEDE.