Fine day. In the middle of a patch of bright sunny weather. Clear blue skies, warm temperatures. Maximum visibility. Yeah, like I said in the previous post, better not to go to extremes...if at all possible. Too low to too high, just aint good. One day sittin' pretty, grinnin' like a Cheshire cat, the next feelin' like yer just about ta join the bleep an' booster brigade. Gotta find the middle ground and be happy with that.
Nice day yeah but I've got a bit of a thick head from the wine we drunk last night. It was strong enough to send Tamdin to bed before 10 and I nearly crashed in the chair in front of the box before snapping myself out of it and finishing off last night's post.
Poddin' it large with the Doobies at the moment. Still playing through in my mind the potential tracks that could go on the Dooberator...my ultimate Doobies playlist. In many ways though it is possible that the Dooberator will never get done because in my mind at least it is hard to imagine how the track listing on the classic Doobies albums like Captain and Me and Stampede could ever be improved in any kinda way. They are as just as perfect pieces of joyful song collections as you can ever wish for. Yeah, picked both these two Doobies albums up on the series of Japanese import re-mastered Doobies which are all available for a tenner each down at the HMV Meg on Oxford St at the moment. Bargain, serious bargain if you know what I mean, and you will only know what I do mean if you are in any way familiar with the Doobies magic. More I listen to them the more fantastic I think they are and quite honestly I don't think I will be holding out that much longer before divin' down there again and stumpin' up the cash for Takin' It to the Streets and Minute by Minute. Another couple for the collection.
There is a big thing with the Doobies as far as I am concerned. Yeah, that's right you've guessed it, the two fact that the group split into two incarnations right slap bang in the middle of the 70s. There was up till '76 the Tom Johnston led Doobies and then post-'76 till early '80s the mega commercially successful Michael McDonald led Doobies. There is a big, big difference between the two in terms of sound. The only Doobies album to straddle both Doobies was the '76 release Takin' It to the Streets which had both Johnston and Macdonald on it although it is unlikely they appeared on the same songs together, as by that time Johnston was on his way out and McDonald on his way in . So for the Johnston period Doobies you have these -
Doobie Brothers / Toulouse Street / Captain and Me / What Were Once Vices are Now Habits / Stampede / Takin' It to the Streets
out of which the best two are Captain and Me and Stampede
and for the Mcdonald period Doobies you have these -
Takin' It to the Streets / Livin' on the Fault Line / Minute by Minute / One Step Closer
out of which the best is Minute by Minute
Like I said, there are big differences in the sound between these two incarnations of the Doobies. The Johnston era is free range guitar driven melodic ecstasy with Johnston and Patrick Simmons writing virtually all the material; the Mcdonald era was soul-funk pop produced to a level of perfection that culminated in the smash hit single What a Fool Believes in '78.
For me at the time, being a teenager before the age of punk and livin' in places such as Plymouth and Lowestoft the Doobies were one of the best if not the best group in the world. But that was all due to the fact that I was into the Tom Johnston Doobies and when things changed so radically with the arrival of Mcdonald and the keyboard drenched sound he brought along with him it was like falling off the edge of a cliff. And if I wanna be truly honest I have to say that it is only now, more or less 30 years later, that I can say that I have truly recovered from the shock. Even though I remember vividly buying Livin' on the Fault Line and Minute by Minute I was listening to them vainly trying to hear sounds of Johnston and drawing a complete and utter blank.
There is no doubt I have to put the recovery down to this superb series of Japanese remasters which spans the period of releases from the Doobie Brothers to One Step Closer. All of them are given the meticulous attention to detail that make the Japanese so famous as a race of people on this planet. All original artwork is restored and the sound is simply fantastic. By the end of the year I can see that I will have probably forked out for the lot of them.
Thurs morn now, another fine day. Bright blue skies, all is gay. Above stuff about the Doobies written the day before. That was then but this is now.
Tamdin and I went up to my parents yesterday for a visit that had been pre-arranged some weeks ago. My parents live in Harpenden, Herts. Gotta admit it can sometimes be difficult with my folks, very difficult indeed. For a number of reasons. Firstly they can come across as quite ignorant of Tamdin and her culture, she being a Tibetan and among a people of refugees with a long history of Buddhism under their belts. Second my parents are not as close to me as they are to my sister with whom they feel a helluva lot more relaxed with. She is far more on their wavelength than I am, always has been. This has especially been the case since she has had a baby who is the apple of their eyes and the Future with a capital fuckin' F to my folks as far as the continuation of the family is concerned. Tamdin and I have no children and we won't be having any either.
My mother, the Bad Onion, can ask Tamdin the same kind of questions again and again, year in year fuckin' out, even though she has been given the same answers a hundred million fuckin' times, or so it feels like at least. All superficial bullshit on the part of my mother. I guess she and my father find it a struggle sometimes meeting up with us, grasping as they do at the things which they think connect us. But they have no real interest in our lives outside what is immediately relatable to them, and as the years go by those things which connect us become less and less. Guess it would be easier for everyone if they dropped the pretence and didn't feel so ashamed about it.
Leaves me out in the cold, but that's OK. In the context of life described on the pages Ghost Eternal it is hardly unfamiliar territory. At the moment my beloved parents are in the process of funding substantial renovations and an extension to my sister's property up in Cumbria. The whole idea behind this being that when my folks go up there they will have their own place to stay in the form of a self-contained flat tagged onto the end of my sister's cottage. Of course in the bargain my sister and her husband who happens to be a third cousin of ours get a massive boost to the price of their place if they ever decided to sell it. That and the fact that when my folks aint around they get the run of the place no questions asked.
All this is going on then, and the other fact to mention is that the person carrying out the renovations is Jonathon, my sister's husband, who is being paid to do it by my dad. Anyway, anyway, last night we went for a meal down in Harpenden. Prezzo, a new Italian that has been built in what was a doctor's surgery. Tamdin and I just had to sit there and listen to my folks excitedly explain to us how the work was progressing. The thing which really stuck in our throats was that the Bad Onion sat there and tried to tell us that it was something that involved us as well and that how when it was all over we were going to benefit from it as well. Well, just how me and Tamdin are going to benefit from Bridget and Jonathan having virtually a new place handed to them is completely beyond me but there you go...when the Bad Onion was going on and on, Tamdin was quiet, very quiet indeed. I think that she barely said a word to the Bad Onion in response and it was clear that if she had have opened her mouth something sharp and nasty would have come out of it. Think it is probably only a question of time before something is said. We are supposed to be going with my parents to spend a couple of nights with them at a pub in Suffolk over Easter and at the moment I am completely and utterly dreading it.
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