[Image: cover of The Doobie Brothers’ 1973 album, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. (Click to enlarge.)]
A few days ago, as I walked through the living room, The Weather Channel was on TV. The Missus asked, “Have you seen the weather? In the Philadelphia area, I mean? Black ice.” Preoccupied, I said, “Jeez,” and shook my head, and kept on going. But the damage had been done: the phrase had set a hook in my head, where — of course! — it immediately triggered a skein of associations.
I know, I know — “black ice” simply describes the appearance of the ice, not the ice per se. I know, okay? Black ice does not come from black water.
But that’s where my mind went. And then the mental needle jumped into this song’s groove, where it has stayed.
And did I mention, this was days ago?
—
When The Doobie Brothers first started to record, I had no idea who they were. In fact, I didn’t pay much attention to them at all until ten years later, when they churned out a string of hit singles with Michael McDonald on vocals.
I did like McDonald’s distinctive voice. Plus, practically every woman I knew thought he was the bee’s knees. It had something to do with the white hair (which, sadly, never earned me any groupies of my own).
All of which said, I did know this song. McDonald wasn’t with them yet, but even allowing for the absence of his voice I’d never have guessed it to be the same band. This piece just sort of choogles loosely along, in a softer Creedence Clearwater Revival vein vs. the later “blue-eyed soul” stuff.
And the suddenly a capella refrain, repeated over and over down towards the end, sticks utterly in the head — days, years, decades later…
The album on which it appeared (pictured above) — the Doobies’ third — seems these days to be widely dismissed: not particularly interesting. But “Black Water” was the band’s first #1 hit, and I’ve never heard or read anything to suggest it shouldn’t have been.
Songwriter Patrick Simmons, says Wikipedia, was inspired by New Orleans to write the song:
A lifelong aficionado of Delta blues, Simmons would state: “When I got down there [to New Orleans] it was everything I had hoped it would be… The way of life and vibe really connected with me and the roots of my music.” Having earlier constructed the song’s basic guitar lick, he completed “Black Water” on the basis of the experience of his introduction to New Orleans: the lyrics Well if it rains, I don’t care — Don’t make no difference to me/Just take that street car that’s goin’ uptown specifically reference a streetcar journey Simmons made on a rainy day to the Garden District in Uptown New Orleans to do his laundry.
An alternate theory batted about on the theory-rich Internet asserts that the song pays tribute specifically to Mark Twain, specifically to Huckleberry Finn — sometimes adding that the novel is one of Simmons’s favorites. Romantic, hmm? And convenient. Thanks, Internet, but I’m stickin’ with the rainy-day laundry version. (See the note below for more about Simmons.)
Interestingly, “Black Water” was not at first released as a single, but as the “B” side of a song called “Another Park, Another Sunday.” According to one of the original Doobies, Tom Johnston, airplay of “Another Park” suffered because of a line which said, “Radio brings me down” — leading DJs, out of loyalty to their medium, to simply flip the record over and play the B side instead. This strikes me as (again) convenient, marginally believable 20/20 hindsight, as folklore, almost. I don’t think the song needs any external excuses for its popularity; once played, it almost demands replay. All the ingredients are right there, stuffed inside: a lyric which, while not particularly complex, fits with precision into the melody and the complex, shuffling rhythm; that a capella touch, apparently improvised in the studio; and a couple of kicking solos, especially on the violin.
[Below, click Play button to begin Black Water. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 4:15 long.]
[Lyrics]
Note: “Black Water’s” lyrics were used as a sort of pegboard wall on which those of another band’s other, later, and very different song were hung: 2009’s “I Got You,” by Train:
[Lyrics]
The Doobies’ Patrick Simmons thus received partial songwriting credit for “I Got You,” too.
[back]
Cynth says
Dearest John,
You will never know how this post touched me. When a certain fella and I were determined NOT to get serious with each other, we travelled up to his aunt and uncle’s house in MA. This song would play off and on the radio on the long drive up there and back. Just this year, when this fella and I have been married for 37 years, that aunt and uncle have both recently passed away, reminding that fella and I very vividly of our pasts and that song that played along with our ride to and from. thanks.
John says
Awww. What a great connection to have made!
Sevigne says
The Doobie Brothers’ Listen to the Music was a rites of passage song for me, being released the year I turned twenty-one. I remember dancing to it and playing it often (in between working flights to exotic places). Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
John says
Thanks for stopping by… Memory Lane is one of my favorite addresses — always ready for a trip there!
someone's brudder says
Holy crap! I almost missed this! Sorry for RAMH absence in a while, but this one gets my attention. It is MY favorite Doobies album. I suspect that it has more to do with associations of the times, than for the specific “quality” from a critics point of view, but it’s still a genuinely enjoyable “album” from the days in which AOR meant something. The whole album to me, was a really pleasurable 45 minutes of headphone bliss. Some rock, some swing, some feel like a “black water” river ride.
While I own almost every one of their albums, I never enjoyed the entire albums of the McDonald era, as much as I did the funkier, grittier, pre-McDonald albums. And….take any of the Doobies albums and look at the session musicians, grab a Steely Dan album of the same era – and Voilå! – different strokes for different folks! Whatever they were playing then – they got it right!
John says
That’s a very, very interesting connection — Steely Dan to Doobies — and you may very well be the only person I know who could make it. I just compared their discographies (Steely Dan vs. Doobies) to see if their labels overlapped during that 1970-80 period… nope! Maybe it had something to do with where the albums were recorded???
Although the early Doobie Brothers were more in sync with my natural musical tastes, I actually REMEMBER the McDonald years — at least the ’80s — much better because a young lady with whom I was associated at the time was a huge McDonald fan. (I bet she still is, come to that.)
Sevigne says
I made a connection between Steely Dan with later Doobie Brothers, but I have very specific memories of Steely Dan that are different from those of early Doobie Brothers. There’s also a Van Morrison feel (and of course Creedence Clearwater Revival), just to extend the connections.
someone's brudder says
at the risk of revealing a deterioration of my ’70s/’80s music cred, I just realized the critical connection pre/post McDonald Doobies- one name – Ted Templeman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Templeman. Pre-architecture, (I don’t know if you knew this) I thought I might try to be a recording engineer and my foray at Delaware was a feeble start on that path. Templeman’s name was ALL over a whole bunch of stuff I loved in the late ’70s/early ’80s and would listen to for how fabulously well they were recorded. Doobies, Little Feat, Van Morrison, Captain Beefheart (yes you read that correctly), McDonald (and other solo Doobies), Nicolette Larson, Clapton, even Van Halen, and on and on…
The Dan/Doobies connection was clearly the session men, more than anything else. Early Doobies much more “funky”. Later Doobies much more “smooth”.
John says
It’s interesting how often, these days, I get all confused when reading blog comments and not being able to find a simple “Like” button.