Doobie Brothers, marijuana and doobies

The Doobie Brothers started when drummer John Hartman went to California in 1969 hoping to meet Skip Spence of Moby Grape. He wanted to join a Moby Grape reunion that never happened.

Spence introduced Hartman to singer, guitarist and songwriter Tom Johnston and the two proceeded to form the nucleus of what would become The Doobie Brothers. They called that early incarnation "Pud," and had a number of lineups and styles. As a "power trio" with bassist Greg Murphy and later with a horn section, they gigged around San Jose. In 1970 they teamed up with bass player Dave Shogren and singer, guitarist and songwriter Patrick Simmons.

Johnston has said that the Doobie Brothers name can be credited to a friend who thought it served the band's fondness for "doobies" - a slang for marijuana cigarettes.

Since this site is more about name etymologies (and not really a music site), let's take a look at the doobie connection.

Marijuana has always had a good number of nicknames. "Joints" is a common one. "Spliffs" is another that refers to cigarettes rolled with a bit of cardboard or a rolled business card in one end to serve as a mouthpiece. These are also known as a "crutch" or "roach." In North America, "roach" usually means the smoked-down butt of a joint.

Where did "joint" as a marijuana cigarette come from?  Ultimately, it's from French where it is an adjective meaning "joined" (past participle of the verb joindre). And that comes from the Latin iunctus, the past participle of iungo meaning "I join."

You might guess it has something to do with joining that spliff filter/mouthpiece, but it seems not.

By 1821, "joint" had become an Anglo-Irish term for an annex, or a side-room that is "joined" to a main room. By 1877, this had developed into U.S. slang for a place, building, or establishment that had a negative or questionable association - like an opium den.

By 1935, "joint" was being used to refer to the hypodermic needles used to inject heroin and other drugs at such establishments.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, its first usage in the sense of "marijuana cigarette" is dated to 1938.

Before we get back to the band, let's just say that for our international readers in Europe, some Commonwealth nations and the Middle-East, joints or "spliffs" are rolled by mixing cannabis or hashish with tobacco.

A more modern usage of the past 20 years in North America is the term "blunt" which is rolled using a cigar skin, from which the filler tobacco has been removed, and replaced by marijuana.

The Doobie Brothers played live all over Northern California in 1970 and attracted enough of a following to get a contract at Warner Bros. Records. Their following was not essentially potheads but leather-jacketed motorcycle fans.

But the band's 1971 self-titled debut album didn't really play to that audience and featured acoustic guitars and some country influences.

Album two was Toulouse Street and had the more rock-oriented hits "Listen to the Music" and  a cover of The Byrds' recording of "Jesus Is Just Alright."

With some changes to the rhythm section, their sound became more of a mashup of R&B,  country, bluegrass, hard rock, roadhouse boogie, and rock and roll.


They had a string of hits in 1973 including two songs that every bar band covered -  "Long Train Runnin" and "China Grove" from the 1973 album The Captain and Me.

Personally, I liked the addition of Steely Dan's (see our post on that band) guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.

They had their first #1 single with "Black Water."

What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits was a multi-platinum album. The album also has the horn-driven funk song "Eyes of Silver" and during this period and for several subsequent tours, the Doobies were often supported on-stage by Stax Records legends The Memphis Horns

The band was under contract to release another album in 1976 and they turned to Michael McDonald to add songs to Simmons and Porter's offerings. The resulting album was Takin' It to the Streets which marked another change to the sound which pleased some listeners and pissed off some of their original followers.

Their harder guitar-based rock gave way to "blue-eyed soul" and soft rock with keyboards and horns.  Baxter and MacDonald had both spent time in Steely Dan and Baxter's playing was more jazz-inflected guitar and McDonald's voice became the voice of the band in this period. His "Takin' It to the Streets," and "It Keeps You Runnin" were both hits.

A greatest hits compilation, Best of the Doobies, also came out that year and it was certified in 1996 by the RIAA as "Diamond" for sales in excess of ten million. The follow-up was a volume two of songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doobie_Brothers

• Very Best Of The Doobie Brothers
• World Gone Crazy
• Captain & Me
• Toulouse Street
• What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
• Minute By Minute
• Takin' It to the Streets
• Doobie Brothers
• Stampede
• Livin' On the Fault Line

 

Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Dire Straits was formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1995. Though there was no real origin story for the band's choice of that name, the idiom "in dire straits" has long been used to mean very serious, bad circumstances. It is commonly used as "in dire economic straits' or dire financial straits.

"To-morrow morning, Juno, if you choose to do so, you will see the son of Saturn destroying large numbers of the Argives, for fierce Hector shall not cease fighting till he has roused the son of Peleus when they are fighting in dire straits at their ships' sterns about the body of Patroclus.' - The Iliad by Homer

"And if we are able thus to attack an inferior force with a superior one, our opponents will be in dire straits." - The Art of War by Sun, Tzu View 

The idiom "in dire straits" originated from the act of sailors having to pass through dangerous waters. Strait is a Middle English word (from the Latin strictus, meaning “to bind tightly.”) that was used by sailors to describe a narrow or tight and difficult-to-maneuver channel of water such as the Straits of Gibraltar or the Bering Strait. "Dire" also has a Latin root and means “terrible” or “fearsome.”

"Money for Nothing" was the very popular single off their 1985 album Brothers in Arms.

The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of a working-class man watching music videos and commenting on what he sees. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking early computer animation music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on 1 August 1987. It was one of Dire Straits' most successful singles, peaking at number one for three weeks in the United States, and it also reached number one for three weeks on the US Top Rock Tracks chart. "Money for Nothing" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1986 at the 28th Annual Grammy Awards.



Band Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

"Dire Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s, and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped down, they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct outgrowth of the roots revivalism of pub rock, but where pub rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy.

Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan.

As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' sixth album, Brothers in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band -- along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood -- become one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international success, they couldn't sustain their stardom, waiting a full six years to deliver a follow-up to Brothers in Arms, by which time their audience had shrunk significantly.

Knopfler (born August 12, 1949) was always the main force behind Dire Straits. The son of an architect, Knopfler studied English literature at Leeds University and worked briefly as a rock critic for the Yorkshire Evening Post while at college. He began teaching English after his graduation, leading a pub rock band called Brewer's Droop at night. By 1977, Mark was playing with his brother David (guitar) and his roommate John Illsley (bass). During the summer of 1977, the trio cut a demo with drummer Pick Withers. A London DJ named Charlie Gillett heard the demo and began playing "Sultans of Swing" on his BBC show Honky Tonkin'. Following a tour opening for Talking Heads, the band began recording their debut for Vertigo Records with producer Muff Winwood in early 1978. By the summer, they had signed with Warner in America, releasing their eponymous debut in the fall. Thanks to the Top Ten hit "Sultans Of Swing," Dire Straits was a major success in both Britain and America, with the single and album climbing into the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic.



Dire Straits established Dire Straits as a major force on album-oriented radio in America, and their second album, Communique (1979), consolidated their audience, selling three million copies worldwide. As the group was recording its third album, Knopfler left the band to pursue a solo career; he was replaced by former Darling member Hal Lindes. Like its predecessor, Making Movies was a sizable hit in America and Britain, even though the band was criticized for musically treading water. Nevertheless, the record went gold on the strength of the radio and MTV hits "Romeo and Juliet" and "Skateaway." Dire Straits followed the album two years later with Love Over Gold, an album filled with long, experimental passages, plus the single "Private Investigations," which became a number two hit in the U.K. The album went gold in America and spent four weeks at number one in Britain. Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, former Rockpile drummer Terry Williams replaced Withers.

During 1982, Knopfler began exploring musical avenues outside of Dire Straits, scoring the Bill Forsyth film Local Hero and playing on Van Morrison's Beautiful Vision. Apart from releasing the Twisting by the Pool EP early in 1983, Dire Straits were quiet for the majority of 1983 and 1984, as Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels, as well as Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille; he also wrote "Private Dancer for Tina Turner's comeback album. In the spring of 1984, the band released the double album Alchemy: Dire Straits Live and by the end of the year, they had begun recording their fifth studio album with their new keyboardist, Guy Fletcher. Released in the summer of 1985, Brothers in Arms was Dire Straits' breakthrough album, making the band international stars. Supported by the groundbreaking computer-animated video for "Money for Nothing," a song which mocked music videos, the album became a blockbuster, spending nine weeks at the top of the American charts and selling over nine million copies; in England, the album became the biggest-selling album of the '80s. "Walk of Life" and "So Far Away" kept Brothers in Arms in the charts through 1986, and Dire Straits played over 200 dates in support of the album. Once the tour was completed, Dire Straits went on hiatus for several years, as Knopfler produced records by Randy Newman and Joan Armatrading, scored films, toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded a duet album with Chet Atkins (Neck and Neck, 1990). In 1989, he formed the country-rock group Notting Hillbillies, whose sole album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time, became a British hit upon its spring 1990 release. During the extended time off, John Illsley recorded his second album; the first appeared in 1984."




In 1990, Knopfler reconvened Dire Straits, which now featured Illsley, Clark, Fletcher, and various session musicians. The band released On Every Street in the fall of 1991 to great anticipation. However, the album failed to meet expectations -- it only went platinum in America and it didn't crack the U.K. Top 40 -- and failed to generate a hit single. Similarly, the tour was a disappointment, with many tickets going unsold in both the U.S. and Europe.

Once the tour was completed, a live album was released in the spring of 1993 and the band again went on hiatus.



In 1996, Knopfler launched his solo career with Golden Heart.
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Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode is an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan (lead vocals, occasional songwriter since 2005), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andy Fletcher (keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980–81). Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, Speak & Spell, and was replaced by Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, occasional songwriter) with Gore taking over songwriting. Wilder left the band in 1995. Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have since continued as a trio.

In 1980, Clarke, Gore and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards and Fletcher on bass, but after a short time, Clarke and Fletcher switched to synthesizers. Dave Gahan joined the band after Clarke heard him perform locally singing David Bowie's "Heroes."


The new band took its name from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode.  The verb to hurry in French is se dépêcher where as dépêcher is to dispatch which is what it would mean in this context (from Old French despesche/despeche as a "news report" though the band also took note of despecher - to hurry) and mode meaning "fashion." Gahan was attending college and studying fashion and knew of the magazine. He brought it to the band and said it meant "hurried fashion" or "fashion dispatch."

They first performed as Depeche Mode in May 1980 and made their recording debut that same year on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", which was later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell.


Best of Depeche Mode