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

 

Moby Grape

Columbia Records promotional photo, 1967.
L-R: Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, Bob Mosley, Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson

Moby Grape is an American rock band founded in 1966 as part of San Francisco's psychedelic music scene. The band actually had elements of rock, folk music, pop, blues, and country music.

Their name came from a joke that played off Herman Melville's Moby Dick: What's big and purple and lives in the sea? Moby Grape. member Don Stevenson says that it was a time of rather silly, nonsensical band names like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Electric Prunes, and 13th Floor Elevator.

They were one of the few groups in which all members were lead vocalists and songwriters. Before they had recorded, they had played many club gigs with all original songs. 

A trivia bit about the 1967 debut album is that the band photo has Don Stevenson making a middle finger gesture over a washboard. It is airbrushed off later cover and poster photos making the original album quite collectible.

There are several collections of their "best of" songs and reissues of their original albums.

In 2018 a detailed biography - What's Big And Purple And Lives In The Ocean?: The Moby Grape Story by Cam Cobb was published.

In the podcast below, host Mike Stax talks to drummer/songwriter Don Stevenson and Moby Grape biographer Cam Cobb about the band’s formation, name and the making of their 967 debut album.

Electric Prunes

 

Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Incorporating psychedelia and elements of early electronic rock, the band's sound was marked by innovative recording techniques with fuzz-toned guitars and oscillating sound effects. 

Guitarist Ken Williams' and singer James Lowe's called the sound "free-form garage music" that set them apart from many of their contemporaries.

According to Lowe, the name Electric Prunes started off as a joke, but he eventually convinced other band members to keep it, saying, "It's the one thing everyone will remember. It's not attractive, and there's nothing sexy about it, but people won't forget it."

The band was signed to Reprise Records in 1966 and released their first single, "Ain't It Hard", in the latter part of the year. Their first album, The Electric Prunes, included the band's two nationally charting songs, "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" and "Get Me to the World on Time". With the appearance of their second album, Underground, the band was more free to create their own material. However, the original group disbanded by 1968 when they proved unable to record the innovative and complex arrangements by David Axelrod on the albums Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath. Both albums were released under the band's name, the rights to which were owned by their record producer David Hassinger, but were largely performed by other musicians. Several of the original band members reconvened in 1999 and began recording again. The band still performs occasionally, although the only remaining original member is lead singer James Lowe.

They produced albums and got FM airplay but did not really have hit singles.

Mass in F Minor is their third studio album and explains pretty well why they were not a mainstream rock band. Released in 1968, it consists of a musical setting of the mass sung in Latin and Greek and arranged in the psychedelic style of the band, and was written and arranged by David Axelrod.

King Crimson

 

King Crimson was a rock band founded in Dorset, England in 1969. The band has been labeled as a progressive rock group (prog-rock) but included influences and instrumentation from jazz, folk music, classical and experimental music, psychedelic rock, hard rock, heavy metal, new wave, gamelan, and electronica.

The band has been influential on many contemporary musical artists and has a cult following despite the fact that they had little radio or music video airplay.

Founded by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield, the band initially focused on a dramatic sound layered with Mellotron.

The band's lineup centered on guitarist Robert Fripp, but has changed over the years with 18 musicians and two lyricists. The debut lineup of the band was influential (and well-received by critics) but short-lived, lasting for just over one year. The band was later fronted by Adrian Belew.

In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is their debut studio album released on 10 October 1969 by Island Records. The album is one of the earliest and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band combined the musical influences that rock music was founded upon with elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music. The album reached number five on the UK Albums Chart and number 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Barry Godber, a computer programmer friend of Sinfield's, painted the design for the iconic first album cover (shown above). He used his own face, viewed through a mirror, as the model. Godber died shortly after the album's release and it was his only album cover. The original painting is now owned by Robert Fripp.

Several sources (including the band website at http://www.elephant-talk.com) give the band's name origin as coming from the original lyricist Peter Sinfield. Sinfield says, "The name King Crimson was mine. I wanted something like Led Zeppelin, something with a bit of power to it. Anything better than Giles, Giles, and Fripp. King Crimson had arrogance to it."

King Crimson can be considered a synonym for Beelzebub, the prince of demons, which is an anglicized form of the Arabic phrase B'il Sabab. Fripp has said that the Arabic means "the man with an aim" but it literally means "with a cause".

A more common etymology of "Beelzebub" is that it is Hebrew for "Lord of the Flies." In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Beelzebub was Satan's chief lieutenant among the fallen angels. He is often portrayed as a red (crimson) figure and is the King of the Underworld.

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