http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STHngjtmTMs The Doobie Brothers might be the most underrated musical group of the 1970s - after all, how many bands produce one perfect album, let alone two? Not only did the Doobies produce two perfect albums, but they did it one right after another (the albums, by the way, are 1972's Toulouse Street and 1973's The Captain And Me). There's something in the band's body of work to appeal to everyone, for they dabbled in genres as diverse as roots rock ("Black Water"), hard rock ("China Grove"), funk rock ("Long Train Runnin'"), and soft rock ("What A Fool Believes"). It's hard to pick a favourite Doobie song, but if you were to press, I'd probably pick "Nobody," from the group's self-titled debut album. The tune is country-rock, but don't let that dissuade you if you're not a country fan, because the country music that "Nobody" takes its inspiration from is outlaw country, the hard-edged kissing cousin to rock-n-roll. In "Nobody," the Doobies take all the elements of outlaw country and take them to the next level. The acoustic guitar solos will melt your face with sheer awesomeness, and the Doobies have never sounded more soulful than they do here. Now, you may ask, "Okay, if 'Nobody' is so great, why is it so little-known?" There's a simple answer to that: it had the misfortune of being on an album that didn't sell well. You see, the Doobie Brothers started out as a Hells-Angels-esque biker band, and their debut album still had a heavy biker flavor to it, perhaps too much to appeal to a mass audience. As a result, most of the tunes on the album have disappeared without a trace. That's a particular tragedy when it comes to a song like "Nobody."
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).