When Michael McDonald joined The Doobie Brothers in 1975, he thought it was just to help them finish their tour after Tom Johnston took ill.
So, needless to say, he was surprised when they asked him to stick around and be part of the recording sessions for their next album.
That album, Takin’ it To the Streets, their sixth disc, was released 45 years ago — on March 19th, 1971.
McDonald contributed three songs — the title track, “It Keeps You Runnin’,” and “Losin’ End” — and he co-wrote a fourth, “Carry Me Away,” with singer-guitarist Patrick Simmons and guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter.
The album peaked at number-eight and the title track landed at 13.
Here is Former Doobie Brothers singer-keyboardist Michael McDonald on how a conversation with his sister inspired his lyrics for ‘Takin’ It To the Streets.
“I always loved gospel music and I more or less was writing some kind of a gospel musical phrase in my head. But the lyric idea really stemmed from a conversation I had with Maureen about the state of society in terms of the inner city and all the hundreds of thousands of kids that grow up in that environment who have to somehow look at the world and glean some kind of a hopeful attitude from what they’re exposed to and how impossible, really, that must be if you walk in their shoes and see the world that they see day in and day out.”
The Doobies, with McDonald, are scheduled to hit the road this summer on their rescheduled 50th anniversary tour, but chances are it will be postponed again.
REUTERS PHOTO
