I came to the Doobie Brothers late.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t like them.\u00c2\u00a0 I was in college, they made hits.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s great about people who buy music who aren’t addicted.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 There are acoustic guitars, a fiddle, and this chunka-chunka guitar sound that Elton John ripped off to such great effect on "Philadelphia Freedom".\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, there were two distinct periods, the early one with Tom Johnston, and the latter-day one with Michael McDonald.\u00c2\u00a0 Both were good, and both featured some Patrick Simmons specialties, but they were each very different.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, the songs don’t sound quite like anything else.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 The changes just feel right, and Tom’s voice is like smoked barbecue sauce, pouring all over you.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, Tom had some…health problems, and had to retire from the band.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 They actually had a hit or two on Capitol in this re-formed incarnation, but then they became an oldies act.\u00c2\u00a0 They were divorced from the present.\u00c2\u00a0 They were just the secret pleasure of aging baby boomers.\u00c2\u00a0 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".<\/p>\n
It was the equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.\u00c2\u00a0 All these years later, finding the pure essence of what existed YEARS before.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, there are tracks on "Sibling Rivalry" every bit as good as those from the Doobies’ heyday.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s the signature sound, the harmonious vocals, the searing electric guitar, the powerful riffs, it’s just amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 But I think very few people have ever heard "Sibling Rivalry".\u00c2\u00a0 Because it didn’t get the major label push.\u00c2\u00a0 And today’s radio bears no resemblance to 1975.\u00c2\u00a0 Top Forty doesn’t want music created on real instruments, it wants people who look better than they play, it wants URBAN MUSIC!\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re a rocker of yore, and you’re still vital, there’s NOWHERE for your music to be heard.<\/p>\n
Walking around London last fall, I was confronted with posters for Bryan Adams’ new album, "Room Service".\u00c2\u00a0 It was like being in an episode of "The Twilight Zone".\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Now Bryan Adams is the Doobie Brothers ten years later.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who had hits based not on image, but pure talent.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, Bryan was more talented than the Doobies.\u00c2\u00a0 He had this weird way with a melody\/riff, he’d employ these weird twists and changes that just FELT RIGHT!\u00c2\u00a0 Ones you could never expect.\u00c2\u00a0 And his voice…when he sang, you got the impression he MEANT IT!<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I heard "Straight From The Heart" back in ’83, I purchased "Cuts Like A Knife" immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 And, of course, after getting hooked on that record, went back and purchased "You Want It, You Got It".\u00c2\u00a0 And became enamored of album tracks like "Fits Ya Good" and "Tonight".<\/p>\n
If you don’t know Bryan’s eighties canon, I feel sorry for you.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re just too hip, wearing too much black.\u00c2\u00a0 Come down from the mountain and ENJOY YOURSELF!\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to this material is like penetration.\u00c2\u00a0 You know the rush, when it feels so good, so right.<\/p>\n
Not that this was the end of Bryan’s success.\u00c2\u00a0 His first album with Mutt Lange was a monster.\u00c2\u00a0 But his image changed, with the "Robin Hood" song.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, he was the only artist from the long-lamented AOR who survived.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the acts were wiped clean by Nirvana.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were a pure rocker, even a HAIR METAL BAND, you were done.\u00c2\u00a0 But, as the decade wore on, as grunge turned to boy band pop, the spotlight no longer shined on Bryan Adams.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 So, Bryan stopped making records.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
But I still play Bryan’s last solo album.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it contains a track that the mortals can’t write, that the amateurs in the garage can’t concoct.\u00c2\u00a0 "Getaway" is the kind of driving song that we used to live to hear on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 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!!\u00c2\u00a0 Not relaxing, but pressing to the LIMIT!\u00c2\u00a0 I guess that’s the difference between generations.\u00c2\u00a0 In the sixties we believed in OPPORTUNITY!\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas today’s music is purely accompaniment to a sedentary lifestyle.\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
That’s what the music did…set you loose.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s an experience you can’t forget, that you can’t deny.\u00c2\u00a0 Like when they’re waterskiing to the tunes in "Apocalypse Now", it’s pure JOY!<\/p>\n
And when I fired up Rhapsody to hear the new Bryan Adams album "Room Service" two nights ago, I heard such a song.<\/p>\n
Actually, in typical PC fashion, my upgrade of the Rhapsody software didn’t take, the program worked spottily, if at all.\u00c2\u00a0 But I got an urge to HEAR this album.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I uninstalled Rhapsody, and then reinstalled it.\u00c2\u00a0 And it worked.<\/p>\n
It was so strange.\u00c2\u00a0 Out of the speakers came a familiar sound.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like visiting an old friend.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to HAVE these tracks.<\/p>\n
I downloaded them P2P, transferred them to my iPod, and waited for them to penetrate…<\/p>\n
And now I can’t get "Open Road" out of my head.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Oh, Bryan’s almost gushing.\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
There’s this twinkly guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s that production that only pros know how to create, an entire ATMOSPHERE.<\/p>\n
And then there’s that chorus.<\/p>\n
Life is an open road 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?<\/p>\n No.<\/p>\n And that’s just the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Life truly is a highway.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to get on and drive.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if you don’t have a destination, you’ve just got to go.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll come clear as the miles pile up.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you’ll make some false turns, some mistakes, at times you’ll even run out of gas.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ve got to keep going.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to listen to the music, you’ve got to use it as fuel to keep you going.<\/p>\n It’s tough being a musician when the infrastructure ignores you.<\/p>\n If you’re a pop idol, the day radio stops playing your songs is the day you retire.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you can really play, you take to the highway, you take your songs to your fans.<\/p>\n And that’s what Bryan Adams is doing.\u00c2\u00a0 Barnstorming across America with Def Leppard.\u00c2\u00a0 Playing ballparks, eschewing the Clear Channel paradigm entirely.\u00c2\u00a0 Creating their own world, akin to a motorcyclist ripping down the highway without a helmet.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about restrictions, but freedom.<\/p>\n If "Sibling Rivalry" was released in 1975, "Leave My Heartache Behind" would have been all over the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 People would have purchased the album just to hear it in their own homes.<\/p>\n If it were 1985, a video for "Open Road" would be on MTV, FM rock stations would be banging it.<\/p>\n But it’s 2005.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no place for these tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s hope that their makers don’t cease to produce, feeling there’s no place for them.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always room for their productions in the hearts of their fans.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I came to the Doobie Brothers late.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t like them.\u00c2\u00a0 I was in college, they made hits.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s great about people who buy music who aren’t addicted.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/em><\/p>\n