Polifonía ROCK...solo el mejor Rock...The Michael McDonald years Under contract to release another album in 1976, the Doobies were at a crossroads. Their primary songwriter and singer remained unavailable, so they turned to McDonald and Porter for material to supplement that of Simmons. The resulting LP, Takin It to the Streets, debuted a radical change in their sound. Their electric-guitar-based rock and roll gave way to a more soft rock and blue-eyed soul sound, emphasizing keyboards and horns and subtler, more syncopated rhythms. Baxter contributed jazz-inflected guitar stylings reminiscent of Steely Dan (as he had played with that group), along with more emphasis on compound chords and unusual, complex chords and sophisticated progressions with key changes and longer, more developed melody lines. Above all, McDonalds voice became the bands new signature sound. Takin It to the Streets featured McDonalds title track and It Keeps You Runnin, both hits. (a second version of It Keeps You Runnin, performed by co-writer Carly Simon, appeared on her album Another Passenger, with the Doobies backing her). Bassist Porter wrote and sang a tribute to the absent Johnston, entitled For Someone Special. A greatest hits compilation, Best of the Doobies, followed before years end. In 1996 the Recording Industry Association of America certified Best of the Doobies Diamond for sales in excess of 10 million units. Their new sound was further refined and McDonalds dominant role cemented with 1977s Livin on the Fault Line. It featured a cover of the Motown classic Little Darling (I Need You), Echoes Of Love (written for, but not recorded by, Al Green by James Mitchell, then of the Memphis Horns, and Earl Randle, both of whom had worked with Green a good bit, to which Simmons added some music and lyrics co-writing the finished version with Mitchell and Randle; the song was later covered by the Pointer Sisters and ex-New Seekers vocalist Lyn Paul), and You Belong To Me (co-written by McDonald and Carly Simon, who had a hit with her own version of the tune). To help promote Fault Line, the band performed live on the PBS show Soundstage. Jeff Baxter used an early type of guitar synthesizer (made by Roland) on many of the tracks (it is heavily featured in his solo on the title track, as well as on Chinatown). The combination of McDonalds cerebral approach to harmony, funkier beats and R&B vocal flavor, along with Baxters guitar pyrotechnics, pushed the band away from the more proletarian biker-bong-boogie style that made them popular originally. Fortuitously, however, the new sound made them a crossover pop-R&B-rock sensation, bringing them even more fans and chart presence. The use of complex jazz chords, built on McDonalds thoroughly composed keyboard parts, tempered by strong pop hooks, resulted in an album that, though not really jazz, had a distinctly urban contemporary finish, adding the flavor of the cool jazz era to a pop setting. The Doobie Brothers with the addition of Michael McDonald in 1976 Both Streets and Fault Line reflected Tom Johnstons diminished role in the group following his illness. Restored to fitness and briefly back in the fold, he contributed one original song to Streets, (Turn It Loose), and also added a vocal cameo to Simmons tune Wheels of Fortune. He also made live appearances with the band in 1976 (documented in a concert filmed that year at the Winterland in San Francisco, excerpts from which appear occasionally on VH1 Classic), but was sidelined once again in the fall due to exhaustion. None of Johnstons songs appeared on Fault Line, though he had written and the band had recorded five of his compositions for the album. Finally, before Fault Line was released, Johnston had his songs removed and he left the band that he co-founded (though he received credit for guitars and vocals and was pictured on the albums inner sleeve band photo). He embarked on a solo career that eventually yielded one modestly successful Warner Brothers album Everything Youve Heard is True (1979) and the less successful Still Feels Good (1981)....Fuente: Wikipedia...JC
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 22:40:08 +0000
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