DOOBIE BROS., THE.

LIVIN' ON THE FAULT LINE

1977


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THIS RECORD IS THE CHIEF BLUEPRINT FOR MODERN R&b/SMOOTH JAZZ FOR THE 80S AND 90S. BUT THATS NOT TO DISCREDIT ITS SOUND. ITS ONE OF THE BEST MOST SOULFUL RELEASES FROM THE LATE 70S PERIOD. GOOD FOR ROCK FANS BUT ESPICALLY IF U LIKE JAZZ.

OH I FORGOT TO ADD- PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS---


ILL START:


WHAT DO U THINK ABOUT THE DISTINCT MELTING OF BOODISAVA + dO IT AGAIN NEAR THE END OF SIDE 2. MICAHEL MICDONALD REALLY STAYS TRUE TO THE SD SPIRIT

As an old Doobies fan, let me chime in here for a second.

Livin' on the Fault Line is certainly one of the more controversial Doobies albums, maybe even the Doobies' most difficult one. Many people didn't get it, and those who were looking for the old Doobies sound (Tom Johnston), were hugely disappointed.

I have to agree with Aric, somewhat. This album has so much going for it that it is one of the few I still pull out once in a while (the Doobies bug doesn't bite me much anymore nowadays). It's jazzy, it's VERY soulful and it's got some very stylish stuff .... but that is clearly Steely Dan's influence, which you can hear right and left. The sound is also top-notch, by the way.

Michael McDonald took the Doobies down a very different road, but I think on Livin' you can clearly hear that he didn't really know himself what he wanted and where the road was supposed to lead to (I think that is the one reason that prevented Michael McDonald from becoming more successful ... also his solo career shows that he turned first that way, then the other, and then a third one, confusing everyone as he went along). Livin' is a hodgepodge of styles and sounds at times, and that might also be its biggest problem for the casual listener.

I like this album very much, and it's even got one of my all-time favourite solos (the harmonica on "There's a Light", played by Norton Buffalo) ... don't laugh.

Excellent album for people who like their stuff a bit more varied and interesting. And yes, in my collection of several thousand CDs, I would consider this one to be one of the cornerstones.

Cheers!

P.S.:

Aric's on to someting, I think. The McDonald-era Doobies (which actually began w/TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS and reached full maturity on MINUTE BY MINUTE, so I'm not sure that this one is THE album...) very much played into the whole L.A. rock/soul/jazz/studio/session players mix that was going on at the time. Besides them and Steely Dan (and too many others to mention), Joni Mitchell ca. MILES OF ISLES was perhaps the actual precursor/precipitator of all this stuff. Joni got over/through it and took it to the next phase before everybody else got hip to the trip.

Viewed in this light, those very early 70s Crusaders albums, all of them L.A.-based and all of them bearing musical elements that would dissemenate/reverberate throught this whole scene, bear reconsideration for their imapct on pop as well as funk-jazz. This is an element in the mix that I think has gone under-recognized, if it's been recognized at all.

Yo Clem - have YOU seen the BB episode of "Full House"?

No Brian, and not as surreal as the DB "What's Happening" (not too much could be), but every bit as tragicomic.

And fwiw, I think you gotta look at Skunk Baxter's role in all this. "Old Doobies" fans tend to hate/blame McDonald, but Baxter was more than able to go into the "smooth-jazzy-pop" thing, and probably more than willing as well. He's a guy who turns up in a lot of places in that bag in those days.

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT 'WHATS HAPPENEING' IS. PLEASE EXPLAIN. AND YES IVE SEEN THE BEACH BOYS EPISODE OF FULL HOUSE. UNCLE JESSE WAS THEIR BACKUP PERCUSSIONIST IN THE LATE 80S/EARLY 90S AND THATS WHY THEY WERE ON

Wasn't "Tramp" one of those L.A. sides?

I wondered what you waz thinkin'...

oh my god that sounds so funny- is it on dvd?? what about tape. do any of you have it. that sounds sooooooooooo funny

It's a great one, for sure Aric. You'd love it. I remember seeing it "back in the day."

I guess this proves that you have to be "of a certain age" to know about What's Happening let alone know that the Doobie's appeared on an episode.

Leaves me wondering whether Aric knows that Bob Newhart played a psychologist before he was an inn keeper.

hey, i'm an old fart. i can remember:

frank zappa on the monkeys
lowell george on f troop
chad and jeremy on the dick van dyke show
the beau brummells on the flintstones
the seeds on the mothers-in-law

rock on, wayne (newton)!

Gads. I've seen both the DB What's Happenin', and the BB Full House. Even better was the Jermaine Jackson episode of The Facts of Life.

Ah yes, now I remember... (found this googlin'):

THE REDCOATS ARE COMING (episode #113) - A pair of British rock stars stay at Rob's house to avoid being mobbed by their fans. (Chad and Jeremy guest star.)

Those guys were also on Batman, and Laredo.

just in case you didn't believe me, in a 1968 episode entitled monkees blow their minds, zappa appears as "mike" and mike nesmith as "frank." this scenario recalled a similar role reversal in the monkees 1967 movie head.

from head

what did lowell george do on F troop. was the rest of little feat there

Fuuny thing is that by the time TBB was a hit, Davey Jones & The Monkees were serious "has-beens" w/no resect at all. So it was a totally unhip thing to focus on. As was the show itself in those days.

Wait long enough, and everything gets hip, I guess.

Did somebody just admit to watching the Brady Bunch?

Too bad Art Pepper couldn't have ducked into the Brady household while he was chilling at Synanon. Now that would've been an episode to remember!

"Mom always said, 'Don't do smack in the house!'"

Not to mention the possibilities of "Greg Gets Into Electric Miles"...

Mr. and Mrs. Brady become concerned after Greg begins to spend all of his free time in his "pad," neglecting his homework and listening to Miles Davis' ON THE CORNER at fullblast. Matters are resolved when Miles, an old friend of Mr. Brady's boss, pays Greg a visit and tells him that he's "an ofay motherf#*#er who should stop calling my s*%t 'fusion.'"

Mom always said, 'Don't play LIVE/EVIL in the house!'"

From "Back to the Future, or Greg vs. Greg":

Greg is troubled after a visitor from the future named Greg M. accosts him and derides his hi-fi system at great length, all the time preaching the joys of a new audio format called SACD. Tranquility is restored when Mr. Brady's old friend Buddy Rich shows up and hurls Greg M. into a drumkit.

little feat are the greatest...perhaps they should be next installment's IF U DONT HAVE IT....

and how do they make music on electric instruments that aren't plugged into an amplifier? only les paul decked out in a buckskin outfit could answer that one to my satisfaction!

btw, while we're on the subject of premodern rock ensembles, don't forget the beau brummels rocking out with the cavemen. of course, on the flintstones, they were called the beau brummelrocks! just like ann margarock's (ann margaret) appearance. she was drawn very well, but i still couldn't stand her singing!

JSngry,Rocknroll bands in the old west were more common than you think, cf the Crackers in the Western movie Zachariah! Actually The Fish incognito...
And I would prefer if this thread moved on to the Feat who blew the Doobies away on their joint first visit to England.

And lets not forget that the peerless Tim Buckley appeared on a Monkees episode singing Song to the Siren.