LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 2, 2020…ON THIS DATE IN 1973 THE DOOBIE BROTHERS CAME OUT WITH ONE OF THEIR BEST ALBUMS ‘THE CAPTAIN AND ME’
THIS WAS THE 7TH BIGGEST ALBUM OF 1973, AND WENT DOUBLE PLATINUM FOR THE BAND. ONE OF THE BIG SONGS FROM THE RECORD WAS ‘LONG TRAIN RUNNIN’. DOOBIE BROTHERS GUITARIST AND LEAD SINGER TOM JOHNSON WROTE THIS SONG, AND SAID THE GROUP PLAYED IT FOR 3 YEARS BEFORE RECORDING IT. GENERALLY HE WRITES THE MUSIC FIRST, AND SOMETIMES HAS A “DEVIL OF A TIME COMING UP WITH LYRICS.” SO THE BAND WOULD PLAY THE SONG AT GIGS FOR 3 YEARS AS A THROW AWAY SONG, AND IT WAS CALLED SEVERAL DIFFERENT NAMES, AND MOST OF THE TIME HE WOULD JUST MAKE UP WORDS AS THEY WERE PLAYING THE SONG. BTW, ‘THE CAPTAIN AND ME’ WENT DOUBLE PLATINUM AND WAS POWERED BY 3 HIT SINGLES ‘LONG TRAIN RUNNIN’ ‘CHINA GROVE’ AND ‘WITHOUT YOU’
HERE’S THE DOOBIES OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘LONG TRAIN RUNNIN’