Going on Vacation

Swedish Pop Music Break

rocky needs to get to Gothenburg to see Sambassadeur live

Listening Session: The Doobie Brothers, The Captain and Me. . .

. . . or how rocky learns how to accept what he once hated.

I can't think of a song I hated more back in the 70s than "Takin' It to the Streets" by the Doobie Brothers. Listening to that song was like swallowing steel wool. 1976 was torture because that song was everywhere.

In a strange twist of fate I find myself living in Doobie Brothers country, about 30 miles from where the band got its start. Strange things happen with changes of scenery. Like one gets an urge to listen to "China Grove", which is on The Captain and Me album. So I plucked it out of the dollar bin and recently gave it a spin with my critical filters off.

I'll put it this way: If you were in a bar and the Doobie Brothers were the bar band and they played this album as their set and you had a light buzz going after a couple tumblers of whiskey, you'd think "Damn, this is one fine-sounding band". That is, if you could ignore the few folks who'd inevitably get up in front of the stage to impose their dancing skills (or lack thereof) on the rest of us. Yeah, it makes white people want to boogie. I now accept that as not such a bad thing.