The Captain and Me

There was pressure on the band to move quickly and to save time they began reworking old tunes.{{cite web|first = Mark|last = Leviton|title = The Doobie Brothers' 'The Captain and Me': Polishing a Diamond|others = The Doobie Brothers|url = https://bestclassicbands.com/doobie-brothers-captain-and-me-review-1-31-21/|access-date = November 6, 2021|type = REVIEWS: ALBUM REWINDS|publisher = BEST CLASSIC BANDS}} One of Tom Johnston's songs, "Osborn", had been an improvisational piece that the band played live. After laying down the track, according to producer Ted Templeman, "We still really didn't have it, and I said, 'Make it about a train, since you have this thing about 'Miss Lucy down along the track.' So he came up with "Long Train Runnin'."

Synthesizers and strings were brought in to record The Captain and Me. Synth programmers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff were brought in to engineer the opening track, "Natural Thing". Striving for a synthesized sound like that of The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", they would overdub individual notes to create chords for the song's bridge.

"Dark Eyed Cajun Woman" was a bluesy track (one of the band's earliest) and seen by Johnston as a tribute to the blues and B.B. King.

"Clear as the Driven Snow", according to Johnston, is a warning about recreational chemical abuse, which reflected the band members' lifestyles at that time.

The second side of the album opens with the rocker "Without You". This song, like many others, had begun as a jam. "That song had both drummers playing at the same time," Johnston stated. "It was kind of a tribute to The Who. We did it in concert for quite a while."

"South City Midnight Lady", while being about South San Francisco, is not about any woman in particular. Jeff Baxter of Steely Dan played pedal steel guitar on the track. He would become an official Doobie Brother in 1974. Cecil and Margouleff also added the synthesized effect of a woman whispering at the end.

Patrick Simmons' short solo guitar piece "Busted Down Around O'Connelly Corners" is followed by "Ukiah", which Johnston wrote in tribute to the area. Johnston said, "We played a few shows in Ukiah, and I used to camp out a lot in the area when I was going to college." The song's back-to-the-land sentiments also reflected some of his feelings at the time, although he admitted he probably couldn't make it as a farmer. This track segues into the album closer and title track, "The Captain and Me". According to Johnston, the captain is no one in particular and the lyrics were written at the last minute and have no real meaning. The song was released as a single in the Netherlands and received some airplay there. Ron Blomberg recalled he and Yankee captain Thurman Munson liking the song for its positive message "about people coming together to change things for the better," describing the song as having "pretty cosmic" words, and named his book about Munson after this song.{{cite book|title=The Captain and Me|author1=Blomberg, Ron |author1-link=Ron Blomberg |author2=Epstein, Dan|pages=133–134|year=2021|publisher=Triumph Books|isbn=9781629378541}}

The album was originally released in Quadraphonic sound on the CD-4 Quadradisc system and also on Quadraphonic 8-track tape. The album was also released in 2002 remixed into 5.1 multichannel DVD-Audio,[http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/5410/doobie-brothers-the-captain-and-me-the/ dvdtalk.com review of The Doobie Brothers’ The Captain and Me DVD-Audio] and on 14 September 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel Super Audio CD by Warner Japan in their Warner Premium Sound series.{{in lang|ja}} [http://wmg.jp/sacdcd/?icid=top110810#header Warner Premium Sound 14 September releases] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813061646/http://wmg.jp/sacdcd/?icid=top110810 |date=2011-08-13 }}. Retrieved 2011-11-03.

The artwork found on the front and back of the album features the band, including manager Bruce Cohn, dressed in 19th century western garments and riding a horse-drawn stagecoach beneath an incomplete freeway overpass. "All that stuff came from the Warner Bros. film studios lot," Tom Johnston said. "It must've been a lot of work for the guys who brought up the horse team and the carriage and the clothes. It was fun to do—they had coffins out there, all kinds of crazy stuff." The photography was done by Michael and Jill Maggid. The setting for the cover was located at the Newhall Pass interchange of the Interstate 5 and California State Route 14 freeways near Sylmar, California, the incomplete bridge featured being one that partially collapsed during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. This same section of freeway would collapse again during the 1994 Northridge earthquake.{{cite AV media notes |title=Long Train Runnin': The Doobie Brothers 1970–2000 |year=1999 |chapter=Old Black Water Keep on Rollin': 30 Years of the Doobie Brothers |page=20 |type=CD Booklet |publisher=Warner Bros. Records |id=75876}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| extra_column = Vocals

| title1 = Natural Thing

| writer1 = Tom Johnston

| length1 = 3:17

| extra1 = Tom Johnston

| title2 = Long Train Runnin{{'-}}

| writer2 = Johnston

| length2 = 3:25

| extra2 = Johnston

| title3 = China Grove

| writer3 = Johnston

| length3 = 3:14

| extra3 = Johnston

| title4 = Dark-Eyed Cajun Woman

| writer4 = Johnston

| length4 = 4:12

| extra4 = Johnston

| title5 = Clear as the Driven Snow

| writer5 = Patrick Simmons

| length5 = 5:18

| extra5 = Patrick Simmons

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| extra_column = Vocals

| title6 = Without You

| writer6 = John Hartman, Michael Hossack, Johnston, Tiran Porter, Simmons{{refn|group=nb|The album package credits this song to "The Doobie Brothers" rather than to the individual band members. This group credit is also used for the song on Best of The Doobies even though the band's lineup had changed by that time. The live album Rockin' Down the Highway: The Wildlife Concert credits the song to Johnston only.}}

| length6 = 4:58

| extra6 = Johnston, Simmons

| title7 = South City Midnight Lady

| writer7 = Simmons

| length7 = 5:27

| extra7 = Simmons

| title8 = Evil Woman

| writer8 = Simmons{{refn|group=nb|Early LP copies credit this song to "The Doobie Brothers." This is corrected on later copies of the album.}}

| length8 = 3:17

| extra8 = Simmons

| title9 = Busted Down Around O'Connelly Corners

| writer9 = James Earl Luft

| length9 = 0:48

| extra9 = Instrumental

| title10 = Ukiah

| writer10 = Johnston

| length10 = 3:04

| extra10 = Johnston

| title11 = The Captain and Me

| writer11 = Johnston

| length11 = 4:53

| extra11 = Johnston

}}

The Doobie Brothers:

• Tom Johnston – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, ARP synthesizer, harmonica on "Long Train Runnin'"
• Patrick Simmons – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, ARP synthesizer, banjo on "The Captain and Me"
• Tiran Porter – backing vocals, bass
• John Hartman – backing vocals, drums, percussion
• Michael Hossack – drums, congas, timbales

Additional players:

• Bill Payne – piano on "China Grove", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah", organ on "Without You", electric piano on "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman"{{cite web|url=https://www.classicrockreview.com/2013/02/1973-doobie-brothers-captain/|title=The Captain and Me by The Doobie Brothers|date=February 21, 2013|publisher=Classic Rock Review|access-date=August 12, 2020}}
• Jeffrey 'Skunk' Baxter – pedal steel guitar on "South City Midnight Lady"
• Ted Templeman – percussion, backing vocals on "Without You"{{cite book|first1=Ted |last1=Templeman|first2=Greg |last2=Renoff|title=Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music|publisher= ECW Press|year= 2020|page=178|isbn=978-1770414839 }}
• Nick DeCaro – string arrangements on "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Evil Woman"
• Malcolm Cecil, Robert Margouleff – ARP synthesizer programming on "Natural Thing", "Clear as the Driven Snow", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah"

• Producer: Ted Templeman
• Production Coordination: Benita Brazier
• Engineer: Donn Landee
• Design: John Casado, Barbara Casado
• Photography: Michael Maggid, Jill Maggid
• Art Direction: Ed Thrasher

{{certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|title=Toulouse Street|artist=The Captain and Me|type=album|relyear=1973|certyear=1976|region=Australia|award=Gold|certref={{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1976/Cash-Box-1976-02-28.pdf|title=Was It Any of These Men?|magazine=Cash Box|via=World Radio History|page=51|date=February 28, 1974|access-date= November 15, 2021}}}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

{{Reflist}}

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{{The Doobie Brothers}}

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Category:1973 albums

Category:The Doobie Brothers albums

Category:Albums produced by Ted Templeman

Category:Warner Records albums

Category:South San Francisco, California in fiction