The Doobie Brothers - Stampede (1975)

"Stampede" is the fifth studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 1975. It was the final album by the band before Michael McDonald took over from Tom Johnston.  "Stampede" showed the band diversifying elements of their sound more than ever before. Combining elements of their old sound as well as country-rock, Funk and folk music. Many guest musicians contributed on the album including Maria Muldaur, Ry Cooder and Curtis Mayfield. The first single released from this album was "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)", a classic Motown tune written by the legendary songwriting trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Tom Johnston had wanted to record the song for several years. "I thought that would be a killer track to cover," he said. "It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time. I thought our version came out great."

The second single, was "Sweet Maxine" which was more akin to the Doobie Brothers' earlier hits style-wise. "Pat wrote the music to this and I wrote the words, " Johnston recalled. "And Billy Payne had a lot to do with the sound of the song, because of his incredible keyboard playing."  The third and final single was Patrick Simmons' "I Cheat the Hangman". It is a somber outlaw ballad that was inspired by the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. "It's about a ghost returning to his home after the Civil War and not realizing he's dead," said Simmons about the song. The album version of the song is a progressive rock-style composition ending in a twisted collage of strings, horns and synthesizers made to sound like ghostly wails. "We'd cut the track, and we kicked around how to develop the ending-I thought about synthesizers and guitar solos. Ted Templeman got to thinking about it, and he ran it past [arranger] Nick DeCaro for some orchestration ideas. 'Night on Bald Mountain' by Mussorgsky really inspired the wildness of the strings, and Nick came up with the chorale thing at the end." The ambitious "I Cheat the Hangman".

"Neal's Fandango", inspired by the Santa Cruz mountains is occasionally played on San Francisco Bay Area classic rock station KFOX because of the Doobie Brothers' South Bay roots.

Track listing

01.  Sweet Maxine  (Johnston, Simmons) - 4:26

02.  Neal's Fandango  (Simmons)-  3:16

03.  Texas Lullaby  (Johnston) - 5:00

04.  Music Man  (Johnston) - 3:28

05.  Slack Key Soquel Rag  (Simmons) - 1:50

06.  Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)  (Holland-Dozier-Holland) - 3:39

07.  I Cheat the Hangman  (Simmons) - 6:38

08.  Précis  (Baxter) - 0:56

09.  Rainy Day Crossroad Blues  (Johnston) - 3:45

10.  I Been Workin' on You  (Johnston) - 4:22

11.  Double Dealin' Four Flusher  (Simmons)  3:30

Released:  April 25, 1975

Recorded at:  Warner Brothers Studios, North Hollywood, CA, Burbank Studios, Burbank, CA, Curlom Studios, Chicago, IL and The Record Plant, Sausalito, CA., Creative Workshop, Nashville, TN

Genre:  Rock

Length:  40:50

Label:  Warner Bros.

Producer:  Ted Templeman

Personnel

Tom Johnston - guitars, vocals

Patrick Simmons - guitars, vocals

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - guitar, steel guitar

Tiran Porter - bass, vocals

John Hartman - drums

Keith Knudsen - drums, vocals

Bill Payne - keyboards

Ry Cooder - bottleneck guitar

Maria Muldaur - vocals

Karl Himmel - drums and percussion

Conte and Pete Candoli - trumpets

Bobbye Hall Porter - congas

Victor Feldman - marimba, percussion

Sherlie Matthews - vocals on

Venetta Fields - vocals

Jessica Smith – vocals

Ted Templeman - percussion