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Doobie Brothers- What Were Once Vices…/Stampede 50th- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons

The surprise success from "Black Water" afforded the Doobie Brothers some creative license on their next album, "Stampede", released in April 1975. But as you will hear from Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston, and the late Doobie drummer Mike Hossack, the non-stop grind of five years of one-nighters, stopping only long enough to record the next album, was starting to create stress fractures in the foundation of the band which  would sideline Tom Johnston with a bleeding ulcer and, ultimately, alter the sound of the Doobie Brothers for the next decade.

Doobie Brothers- Stampede 50th- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons 4-28

Even a half-century after its April 1975 release, the two things I recall most about "Stampede", the fifth album from San Jose's Doobie Brothers, was the duality evident in the band's emerging sound. There was the noticeable sophistication in the sweeping symphonic "I Cheat the Hangman", but in stark contrast to the Doobie Brothers' big hit with the Motown cover of "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me for a Little While)". Band co-founders Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons join me In the Studio for the golden anniversary of "Stampede" by the Doobie Brothers the week of April 28.