Dedicated to a Brother

You know what this blog needs? Some in-depth discussion of the Doobie Brothers and the deep-yet-mind-boggling lyrics of Mr. Michael McDonald. Not being able to understand Michael McDonald's songs - or simply Michael McDonald - is an inevitability I've just learned to accept, but one thing about him can't be denied: The man knows how to write catchy songs that will never leave your head. He channels his black magic powers through pleasant synthesizer backbeats that have you singing along to lyrics that sound like he's talking about something important, but when you actually think about them ultimately make no sense. 

Before he became a Doobie Brother, Michael McDonald was a keyboardist/background vocalist in Steely Dan, which is entirely appropriate because Steely Dan is just like the Doobie Brothers, only they're more the Doobie Brothers if they went to college. And as a slightly bitter aside, Steely Dan is also responsible for totally bastardizing my name with such stunning lyrics as: "We're gonna break out the hats and hooters/when Josie comes home" and "Strike at the stroke of midnight/dance on the bones till the girls say when/Pick up what's left by daylight/when Josie comes home". Anyway...in 1975, one of the Doobie Brothers started bleeding internally and was dying or something so he had to leave the band, and when they invited Michael McDonald to come in to fill his spot, he took over the whole sound of the band and made such an impact that, in the wikipedia entry for the Doobie Brothers, the time period after he became a member is referred to as "the Michael McDonald years".

Michael McDonald didn't really change the Doobie Brothers' sound all that much. Actually, he more just focused the band on doing more of what they were already good at: Excelling in ambiguity. Seriously, the Doobie Brothers are the most non-committal band ever. Have you ever noticed that the Doobie Brothers music can be playing in virtually any environment and somehow still be acceptable? It might not be what everyone wants to hear, but I can't imagine anyone ever having a strong reaction to expend the energy to stop it from playing. Their music doesn't demand very much from you at all. It isn't too much of anything. The tempo of their songs always lingers in some kind of musical limbo between easy listenin' and hard rockin', and the lyrics are all slightly interesting but ultimately mundane. It's like they're always right about to take a stand on something, but they hold back to avoid the risk of alienating anyone in their audience. It's true, check this out from their official website where even they don't know how to describe themselves:

Doobies defined

The “dictionary definitions” below represent some of the ways we’ve heard people try to describe our music, and show some pretty good reasons why someone once said simply - “listen to the music.” It’s hard for us as the Doobie Brothers to define our music, and as a matter of fact one of the things that has kept the band going through the years is an approach that isn’t self-limited stylistically.

Doobie Brothers n. [’Hind. dub; Sans. durva, a kind of pasture grass; L. frater; G. bruder, Sans. bhratar; AS. brothor, male sibling’]

• Music group known for blues based songs with a rock edge, often with lush vocal harmonies (see also rock ‘n’ soul).
  
• Assemblage of musicians specializing in country based rock featuring instrumentation such as violin and finger-picked acoustic guitar combined with electrical instruments and drums.
  
• Musical entity recognized for incorporating sophisticated jazz stylings into “popular hit” songs.
  
• “Rock” band, origins circa 1970, with reputation for exciting live performances and skillful musicianship.
  

Poor Doobie Brothers. There are tons of examples from their songs I could give as evidence to support this theory, but I'll keep it down to my two favorite examples:

"Listen To The Music". This is the song that introduced the world to the Doobie Brothers, and it's pretty much the quintessential Doobie Brothers song in all its neutral, affable glory. This is the song Goldilocks was listening to while she was eating baby bear's porridge. There is not one single occurrence of a definitive statement in this entire song, not even about what kind of music we're going to be listening to. One thing you can be sure of, though: Whatever kind of music it is, you know it's going to be just alright with us.

"Takin' It To The Streets". This is the best example I can think of for this whole thing I've been talking about, not just because it fits all of the criteria for your typical Doobie Brothers song, but it also ushered in the "Michael McDonald years", being the first song he contributed as a Doobie Brother. This is one of those songs that feels like it's saying something really deep and important and introspective, but closer examination of the lyrics shows that it, in fact, isn't.

You don't know me but I'm your brother

I was raised here in this living hell

You don't know my kind in your world

Fairly soon the time will tell

The most I can gather from this is that it sounds like whoever he's talking to is being threatened, but I don't know what the threat is. Maybe if there were one or two qualifying nouns, like what "kind" he was, or where the "here" was that he was raised in. "Fairly soon the time will tell" - man, I sure hope so.

You, telling me the things you're gonna do for me

He's going to say something important now, I just know it.

I ain't blind and I don't like what I think I see.   

WHAT

He doesn't like what he thinks he sees? So he's either not sure that what he sees is really there, or he's not sure whether he even sees anything at all, but whatever it is he doesn't like it and now we're the ones who are supposed to be "takin' it to the streets" based on his half-assed assessment of the situation. Wait a second, though: Takin' what to the streets? Exactly, he's not sayin'. Just "it". Whatever you think is important enough to be takin' to the streets. He's not even going far enough to say what you do once you get to the streets, that's for you to figure out. Doobie Brothers aren't going to overstep their bounds to tell you what to take to the streets or what to do with it in the streets, what if you disagree with what they say, or what if you don't feel like doing anything at all? You might get mad at the Doobie Brothers for trying to solicit some kind of specific action from you, and you might not want to listen to the music anymore, which is already something they have clearly expressed they would really like for us to do all the time.

I think the best way to end now is to showcase some pieces of original Michael McDonald art I found on his official website. It's really something. I'm not sure what exactly, but it certainly is, um, right here, you can't argue with that:

Nice. Hey, Michael: Don't quit your day job, buddy.