LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-NOV 15 2019…DOOBIE BROTHER HISTORY HAPPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1974 WHEN THE DOOBIE BROTHERS RELEASED ‘BLACK WATER’. THIS WAS ACTUALLY THE FOURTH SINGLE TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM ‘WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS’ AND BECAME THE DOOBIE BROTHERS FIRST # 1 HIT. THE DOOBIE’S GUITARIST PATRICK SIMMONS WROTE THIS SONG AND SANG LEAD. THE FUNNY THING IS ‘BLACK WATER’ WASN’T SEEN AS HAVING HIT POTENTIAL. THE RECORD COMPANY MADE IT THE “B” SIDE OF ‘ANOTHER PARK,ANOTHER SUNDAY.’
TOM JOHNSTON EXPLAINED THE UNLIKELY SUCCESS: “That’s a story that could have happened back then, but would never ever happen now: Roanoke, Virginia picked that tune up and started playing it in heavy rotation, and somebody in Minneapolis who I guess knew somebody in Roanoke heard the song and decided to follow suit, and it ended up becoming our first #1 single. That was Pat’s first single. And oddly enough, it was never looked at as a single by the record company. I remember when I first heard it was #1, we were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and we were just getting ready to go on stage, and then I guess Bruce [their manager Bruce Cohn] must have told us. I think we were already aware of the fact that it was getting airplay, but nobody was really paying a lot of attention. And then all of a sudden it became #1 and we were paying attention. I remember I went in and congratulated Pat backstage, and we’ve been playing it ever since.”
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘BLACK WATER’ FROM THE DOOBIES
the great jim sheehan https://www.facebook.com/jimmyosheehan/
