New Wax Wednesday

The days grow short, the nights are gone — but Stampede lives on to spin another day. That’s my way of saying that I am very much looking forward to Mobile Fidelity continuing their most excellent Original Master Recording series revisitations of The Doobie Brothers Warner Bros. catalog with their upcoming 180g 45rpm 2LP edition of April 1975’s Stampede.

While the official release date is still TBD, you can preorder the MoFi OMR Stampede via Music Direct here, and/or via the MD link graphic that appears just ahead of the tracklisting section, for $59.99. (If you’re digitally inclined and/or a Doobies completist, the MoFi SACD version of Stampede is already available now for $34.99, and you can order that disc here.)

Some stats now. For the limited, numbered OMR edition of Stampede, the farm-to-turntable process (so to speak) went as follows: MoFi’s team brought the album’s 1/4" 15ips Dolby A analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe, just as they’ve done all throughout this series. The LPs are being pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in Oxnard, California, and they’ll be housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket.

As you can see from the pic below, the backside of my woeful original 1975 Stampede LP (Warner Bros. BS 2835) is quite chewed up and frayed around its bottom edges. The actual vinyl is playable, but I’m very much in need of the MoFi 2LP upgrade-to-come.

It’s fair to say that the epic, haunting 6 ½-minute “I Cheat the Hangman” (Side II, Track 2) is my second-favorite Doobies track behind only “South City Midnight Lady” (Side 2, Track 2 on March 1973’ The Captain and Me). The back half of “Hangman” features an ascendent, dramatic string arrangement by Nick DeCaro that I totally love — but the volume dynamics have never quite reached their full potential on wax, so here’s hoping the MoFi edition handles that sequence much better.

Other standout tracks are the Side I-opening one-two punch of “Sweet Maxine” and “Neal’s Fandango” (The Doobs’ nod to the eternal Merry Prankster, Neal Cassady); Side II’s “Rainy Day Crossroad Blues”; the Side II-opening hit single “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me),” which got to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart; and the album-closing, hard-driving sneerfest, “Double Dealin’ Four Flusher.”

And though I can’t yet give a Sound rating until I get the 2LP set in hand and in ear, I can rate the Music on Stampede as a solid 9.5. It’s just a tick below the 10 I’d give to the aforementioned The Captain and Me, which itself is also now available as an outstanding MoFi OMR. (Spoiler alert: the MoFi OMR 2LP editions of The Doobies catalog that have been released to date are all, on average, worthy of a collective 9 Sound rating — some of them are higher at 9.5 and even 10, and they’ll all be discussed in a much more detailed review to come.)

Some more Stampede commentary now, as per the official press release with the typical MM additives thrown into the mix. (Since we don’t have the MoFi labels to show just yet, you’ll see the Warner Bros. labels above and below instead.) Stampede is The Doobies’ first LP to feature ex-Steely Dan guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter as an official member. The value of having the band pair with producer Ted Templeman for the fourth consecutive time was key to the album’s consistent feel. Templeman’s inherent understanding of the band’s chemistry, individual strengths, and shared aims is reflected in the ways he was able to bridge such a diverse mix of sounds and personnel. Here on Stampede, those facets include extensions of the orchestrations, horn parts, and variety of other accents the group first began exploring on their sophomore Warner Bros. outing, July 1972’s Toulouse Street. (For additional context, Stampede is The Doobies’ fifth studio release.)

Stampede, which was recorded at five different studio locales, incorporates a roots-based mixture Western-themed rock, Southern blues, R&B, and straight-up boogie. A pair of instrumentals — the intertwined acoustical gem “Slat Key Soquel Rag,” and Baxter’s classically styled solo piece, “Précis” — only add to the full album palette.

As to the litany of Stampede collaborators, Little Feat co-founder Bill Payne was on hand to add piano, organ, keyboards, and electric piano. Additional “assistance” came from the likes of Curtis Mayfield (his brass and string arrangements enhance the funky “Music Man,” replete with get-down grooves, smooth refrains, and Tom Johnston’s lively lead vocals), Ry Cooder (who adds jangling bottleneck guitar on the rollin’ and tumblin’ leadlines of “Rainy Day Crossroad Blues”), Victor Feldman, Maria Muldaur (impassioned vocals on “I Cheat the Hangman”), Bobbye Hall Porter, Harry Bluestone, and Conte and Pete Candoli — a lineup of artists whose collective biographies stretch back to the big-band era and touch on an array of major music movements that all happened in the interim.

Ditto the presence of a handful of Motown legends (Paul Riser, Sherlie Matthews) and a former Ikette in the Ike & Tina Turner revue (Jessie Smith), who team up with The Doobies’ on their above-noted hit take on Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me).” (Note that they shorted the parenthetical portion of the song title by leaving out the final three words, “a Little While,” that had appeared in the full title of its various mid-1960s interpretations.)

“Come and get it,” the Doobies beckon on “Music Man.” I’m ready, willing, and able, lads, so please bring on the 2LP Stampede as soon as you can.

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
STAMPEDE
180g 45rpm 2LP (Warner Bros./Mobile Fidelity)

LP1, Side One
1. Sweet Maxine
2. Neal’s Fandango

LP1, Side Two
1. Texas Lullaby
2. Music Man
3. Slat Key Soquel Rag

LP2, Side Three
1. Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me)
2. I Cheat The Hangman
3. Précis

LP2, Side Four
1. Rainy Day Crossroad Blues
2. I Been Workin’ On You
3. Double Dealin’ Four Flusher