DECEMBER 1980 99 0000000000000000000000000Records0000000000000000000000000

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The Doobies: Bumpus, Simmons, Porter, McDonald,McFee,Knudsen. McCracken The Doobie Brothers: Surf 'n' Turf Music

The Doobie Brothers: used mainly for textural embellishment, Still, in opting for security he has One Step Closer and the studied arrangements permit very opted for mediocrity on "One Step Warner Bros. HS 3452 little rifling. All nide cuts on "One Step Closer." He sings lead vocals on only four Ted Ternpleman. producer Closer" are studio set pieces character- cuts, and only one of his songs-a collabo- ized by florid electric keyboards, contra- ration with outside keyboardist Patrick The Doobie Brothers' tenth album puntal vocals, pointillist syncopation, and Henderson called Real Love-is first-rate. finds them settling firmly into the showy percussion. The LP periously A passionate swinger's lament in the same Latin -inflected pop/jazz/soul groove that treads the thin line between taut, Latinized vein as You Belong to Me and What a singer and keyboardist Michael McDonald pop/rock in the mode of Steely Dan's Do Fool Believes. Real Love is a stunning introduced on the group's album of four It Again and dance studio practice music. exercise in tonal contrasts. McDonald's years back. "Takin' It to the Streets." Its nadir is a six -minute mambo, Thank slurred, pop; blues legato glides sensually Gone are any allusions to the Doobies' You Love. whose sole raison d'etre seems over the song's edgy chromaticism and earlier incarnation as a full -tilt boogie to have been to give Bumpus a lucrative nervous rhythms. If the melodic idiom band with a Hell's Angels following. Gone writing credit. suggests cool jazz, he sings it like a gospel too are founder -drummer John Hartman The division of labor and writer's song. and the contrast is emotionally ex- and ace guitarist Jeff Baxter. Replacing royalties among musicians with unequal plosive. Keep This Train a -Rollin' is an up- them are saxist /keyboardist Cornelius talents is a problem many rock bands beat pop/ funk anthem with a dumb mes- Bumpus, who played in a late -'70s edition face, but with the Doobies it's an unusu- sage ("All you need's a song to survive") of Moby Grape: jazz drummer Chet ally touchy issue. Patrick Simmons, the that is saved only by McDonald's powerful McCracken; and John McFee, multi -in- one founding member to remain through singing. His collaboration with Paul Anka, strumentalist and ex -member of Clover. ten years of personnel changes, is a com- Dedicate This Heart, is an even slighter All apparently were chosen not for their petent guitarist and boogie -rock tenor. tune. Yet again his velvet timbre encases it strong musical personalities but for their But McDonald is the only significant tal- like a diamond. The only unredeemable general competence and ability to fit into ent. and there are six other musicians to song. written with Bobby LaKind. is One producer Ted Templeman's concept of pay. I suspect what deters him from leav- by One. a numbing cha-cha filled with up- the Doobie Brothers. ing the band for an adventurous solo ca- beat truisms. One Step Closer and the in- Templeman's vision of the group as reer is the box-office security of the strumental South Bay Strut offer bland, a grade -school pop version of Steely Dan Doobie Brothers brand name. It's doubt- horn -inflected blue-eyed soul. The Sim- places them almost totally outside the ful that he could command as wide an au- mons -McDonald -Christopher Thompson context of a rock band. Indeed, they dience on his own since he lacks the kine- collaboration, No Stoppin' Us Now, fea- sound more like a high -schlock lounge tic showmanship of superstars like Billy tures a choppy duet between Simmons combo. With Baxter gone, the guitar is Joel and Bruce Springsteen. and McDonald and boasts the album's