I came to the Doobie Brothers late.  I couldn’t like them.  I was in college, they made hits.  But what sealed it was that month in Mammoth when I heard "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" along with "Physical Graffiti" every day.  That’s what’s great about people who buy music who aren’t addicted.  They’re not worried how they look, they don’t worry what others will think when they see a record in their collection, they just buy what sounds GOOD to them.  And, without the same baggage we true believers carry, they latch on to some truly phenomenal acts, ones we overlook not only unfairly, but to our detriment.  You can talk about all the innovation of Sonic Youth, but listening to their music just doesn’t touch your heart, just doesn’t generate the pure JOY of listening to a Doobie Brothers record.

The Doobie Brothers don’t use loops, they don’t employ wild time signatures, they just take the basic form and mold it to fit their identities.  There are acoustic guitars, a fiddle, and this chunka-chunka guitar sound that Elton John ripped off to such great effect on "Philadelphia Freedom".  Actually, there were two distinct periods, the early one with Tom Johnston, and the latter-day one with Michael McDonald.  Both were good, and both featured some Patrick Simmons specialties, but they were each very different.  But, as good as the McDonald era was, it’s really the work with Tom Johnston as the lead singer and main songwriter that endures in our brain.  You see, the songs don’t sound quite like anything else.  It’s kind of like the bar band you go to see every Tuesday night, that you don’t have to know the material of to enjoy.  The changes just feel right, and Tom’s voice is like smoked barbecue sauce, pouring all over you.  Unfortunately, Tom had some…health problems, and had to retire from the band.  And when they ultimately re-formed around him, YEARS LATER, which all bands do that don’t have the best financial advisors of all time, who don’t know how to do anything but play, they went back to the early sound.  They actually had a hit or two on Capitol in this re-formed incarnation, but then they became an oldies act.  They were divorced from the present.  They were just the secret pleasure of aging baby boomers.  But rather than fade into the woodwork, rather than just go through the motions playing "Long Train Runnin’" in casinos, they went into the studio and cut a new album, 2000’s "Sibling Rivalry".

It was the equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  All these years later, finding the pure essence of what existed YEARS before.  Yes, there are tracks on "Sibling Rivalry" every bit as good as those from the Doobies’ heyday.  There’s the signature sound, the harmonious vocals, the searing electric guitar, the powerful riffs, it’s just amazing.  But I think very few people have ever heard "Sibling Rivalry".  Because it didn’t get the major label push.  And today’s radio bears no resemblance to 1975.  Top Forty doesn’t want music created on real instruments, it wants people who look better than they play, it wants URBAN MUSIC!  And in order to be spun on AAA, you’ve got to be an outsider, someone sensitive making music that’s never hit, and probably never will.  If you’re a rocker of yore, and you’re still vital, there’s NOWHERE for your music to be heard.

Walking around London last fall, I was confronted with posters for Bryan Adams’ new album, "Room Service".  It was like being in an episode of "The Twilight Zone".  There was no hype on the record in the States, I didn’t even know it existed and I’m FRIENDS with Bryan and his one man dynamo manager Bruce Allen.

Now Bryan Adams is the Doobie Brothers ten years later.  Someone who had hits based not on image, but pure talent.  Actually, Bryan was more talented than the Doobies.  He had this weird way with a melody/riff, he’d employ these weird twists and changes that just FELT RIGHT!  Ones you could never expect.  And his voice…when he sang, you got the impression he MEANT IT!

Now although I heard "Lonely Nights" on the radio, it seemed almost too catchy, I didn’t buy "You Want It, You Got It" when it was released.  But when I heard "Straight From The Heart" back in ’83, I purchased "Cuts Like A Knife" immediately.  And, of course, after getting hooked on that record, went back and purchased "You Want It, You Got It".  And became enamored of album tracks like "Fits Ya Good" and "Tonight".

If you don’t know Bryan’s eighties canon, I feel sorry for you.  You’re just too hip, wearing too much black.  Come down from the mountain and ENJOY YOURSELF!  Listening to this material is like penetration.  You know the rush, when it feels so good, so right.

Not that this was the end of Bryan’s success.  His first album with Mutt Lange was a monster.  But his image changed, with the "Robin Hood" song.  Oh, he was the only artist from the long-lamented AOR who survived.  The rest of the acts were wiped clean by Nirvana.  If you were a pure rocker, even a HAIR METAL BAND, you were done.  But, as the decade wore on, as grunge turned to boy band pop, the spotlight no longer shined on Bryan Adams.  Like the Doobie Brothers before him, he was just too old, the system had no place for him, it was convinced that only YOUNG people bought albums, and old people wouldn’t purchase anything with a bite, anything that rocked.  So, Bryan stopped making records.  His last album, released back in 1998, had a magical track, with those exquisite changes he was famous for, but radio ignored the title cut of "On A Day Like Today", it was like it barely came out.

But I still play Bryan’s last solo album.  Because it contains a track that the mortals can’t write, that the amateurs in the garage can’t concoct.  "Getaway" is the kind of driving song that we used to live to hear on the radio.  Back when hearing sounds in your car wasn’t about making your automobile jump up and down on hydraulics, but mashing the pedal, accelerating to top speed!!  Not relaxing, but pressing to the LIMIT!  I guess that’s the difference between generations.  In the sixties we believed in OPPORTUNITY!  Whereas today’s music is purely accompaniment to a sedentary lifestyle.  Kids can’t leave the house unattended, they don’t play baseball, there’s no physical contact, they’re RESTRICTED whereas we were set LOOSE!

That’s what the music did…set you loose.  And that’s an experience you can’t forget, that you can’t deny.  Like when they’re waterskiing to the tunes in "Apocalypse Now", it’s pure JOY!

And when I fired up Rhapsody to hear the new Bryan Adams album "Room Service" two nights ago, I heard such a song.

Actually, in typical PC fashion, my upgrade of the Rhapsody software didn’t take, the program worked spottily, if at all.  But I got an urge to HEAR this album.  So, I uninstalled Rhapsody, and then reinstalled it.  And it worked.

It was so strange.  Out of the speakers came a familiar sound.  It was like visiting an old friend.  I had to HAVE these tracks.

I downloaded them P2P, transferred them to my iPod, and waited for them to penetrate…

And now I can’t get "Open Road" out of my head.  When I’m hiking in the mountains, when I lie awake at night, when I get up in the morning, "life is an open road to me" goes through my brain.

Oh, Bryan’s almost gushing.  Like a high school boy showing up at your doorstep wearing a shiteating grin begging you to come along, to ride shotgun with his LIFE!

There’s this twinkly guitar.  There’s that production that only pros know how to create, an entire ATMOSPHERE.

And then there’s that chorus.

Life is an open road
It’s the best story never told
It’s an endless sky
It’s the deepest sea
Life is an open road to me
Life is an open road to me

It’s like she asked me while we were lying in the hammock in Malibu…in my wildest dreams did I ever picture myself HERE, with HER?

No.

And that’s just the point.  Life truly is a highway.  You’ve got to get on and drive.  Doesn’t matter if you don’t have a destination, you’ve just got to go.  It’ll come clear as the miles pile up.  Oh, you’ll make some false turns, some mistakes, at times you’ll even run out of gas.  But you’ve got to keep going.  You’ve got to listen to the music, you’ve got to use it as fuel to keep you going.

It’s tough being a musician when the infrastructure ignores you.

If you’re a pop idol, the day radio stops playing your songs is the day you retire.  But if you can really play, you take to the highway, you take your songs to your fans.

And that’s what Bryan Adams is doing.  Barnstorming across America with Def Leppard.  Playing ballparks, eschewing the Clear Channel paradigm entirely.  Creating their own world, akin to a motorcyclist ripping down the highway without a helmet.  It’s not about restrictions, but freedom.

If "Sibling Rivalry" was released in 1975, "Leave My Heartache Behind" would have been all over the radio.  People would have purchased the album just to hear it in their own homes.

If it were 1985, a video for "Open Road" would be on MTV, FM rock stations would be banging it.

But it’s 2005.  There’s no place for these tracks.  Let’s hope that their makers don’t cease to produce, feeling there’s no place for them.  There’s always room for their productions in the hearts of their fans.  And, who knows, if you stay on the highway, if you don’t give up, shit happens, change occurs, new avenues open up, if you’ve got it, if you’re talented, and very few people are, you just might reach the masses again.