| The Captain and Me | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by The Doobie Brothers | ||||
| Released | March 2, 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1972-3 at Warner Brothers Studios, North Hollywood, CA | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 41:53 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | Ted Templeman | |||
| The Doobie Brothers chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable)[2] |
The Captain and Me is the third studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 1973. It features some of their most popular hits including "Long Train Running", "China Grove" and "Without You". The album is certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.
Contents |
This time around in recording, there was more pressure on the band to move quickly. What the band did to save time was to begin reworking old tunes. One of Tom Johnston's songs' titled "Osborn" had been an improvisational piece that the band always played live. After laying down the track, according to producer Ted Templeman. "We still really didn't have it, and I said, 'Make it about a train, since you have this thing about "Miss Lucy down along the track." So he came up with "Long Train Runnin'."
Several instruments unique to the Doobie Brothers such as synthesizers and strings were brought in to record The Captain and Me. Synth programmers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff were brought in to engineer the opening track, "Natural Thing". Striving for a synthesized sound like that of The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" they would overdub singular notes to create chords for the song's bridge.[3]
"Dark Eyed Cajun Woman" was a very bluesy track (one of the band's earliest) and seen by Tom Johnston as a tribute to the blues and B.B. King. "South City Midnight Lady", while being about San Jose, is not about any woman in particular. Jeff Baxter of Steely Dan played pedal steel guitar on the track. He would become an official Doobie Brother in 1974. Cecil and Margouleff also added the synthesized effect of a woman whispering at the end.[3]
"Clear as the Driven Snow", according to Johnston, is a warning about recreational chemical abuse, which reflected the band members' lifestyles at that time.[3]
The second side of the album opens with the rocker "Without You". This song, like many others had begun as a jam. "That song had both drummers playing at the same time," Johnston stated. "it was kind of a tribute to The Who. We did it in concert for quite a while."
Patrick Simmons' short solo guitar piece "Busted Down Around O'Connelley Corners" segues into "Ukiah", which Johnston wrote in tribute to the area. "We played a few shows in Ukiah, and I used to camp out a lot in the area when I was going to college." He said. The song's back-to-the-land sentiments also reflected some of his feelings at the time, although he admitted he probably couldn't make it as a farmer. This track segues into the album closer and title track, "The Captain and Me". According to Johnston, the captain is no one in particular and the lyrics were written at the last minute and have no real meaning. The song was released as a single in the Netherlands and received some airplay there.
This album has been released in 2002 in multichannel DVD-Audio,[4] and and on 14 September, 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel Super Audio CD by Warner Japan in their Warner Premium Sound series.[5]
The artwork found on the front and back of the album features the band, including manager Bruce Cohn, dressed in 19th century garments and riding a horse-drawn stagecoach on a freeway overpass. "All that stuff came from the Warner Bros. film studios lot," Tom Johnston said. "It must've been a lot of work for the guys who brought up the horse team and the carriage and the clothes. It was fun to do-they had coffins out there, all kinds of crazy stuff." The photography was done by Michael and Jill Maggid. The setting for the cover was located on a part of the Interstate 5 freeway near Sylmar, California that collapsed during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. This same section of freeway would collapse again during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.[3]
The Doobie Brothers:
Additional players:
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Pop Albums | 7 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | "China Grove" | Pop Singles | 15 |
| 1973 | "Long Train Runnin'" | Pop Singles | 8 |
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