The History of the Doobie Brothers On Westwood One

The History of the Doobie Brothers On Westwood One

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Westwood One began syndicating concerts in the spring of 1981 with the "In Concert" series.  The Doobie Brothers broke up in the summer of 1982 without recording anything for syndication by Westwood One.  The Doobies were absent from Westwood One from 1981 to 1990, with no appearances on either the Superstar Concert or In Concert, or any of the various Isle of Dreams faux-concerts. 

The band reformed and released a new album in May 1989. A new album put them back on the road on tour, and Westwood One was there to record and syndicate them.

In 1990, their January 25, 1990 show from the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu was broadcast twice on Westwood One's Superstar Concert Series as 90-04 and 90-27 / 90-39.  The second of the two shows has two identifying numbers as Westwood One changed their numbering system mid-year.  The first number is on the record labels, the second is on the cue sheets. Both shows have identical set lists. The numbering issue for 90-27 / 90-39 makes it look there are three syndications for this Waikiki show, but there are only two boxes.

A show from Nevada in 1991 was broadcast twice as shows 91-51, and 92-24. While there's no attribution of the source by the announcer, the band references the "Nevada moon" during Black Water. A portion of this show was later rebroadcast in a compilation show, and this later version includs an introduction identifying the city as Las Vegas. A quick look at the Interne reveals the venue is the Celebrity Showroom at Bally's Las Vegas.

During the tour for the 1991 album, Bobby LaKind was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and left the band.  This led to McDonald and Jeff Baxter rejoining the band for two shows to benefit LaKind and his family.  Three shows were sourced from the benefit concert at the Concord Pavilion in 1992. Tracks from this show were used for 90-05, 93-35, and 94-37, with each show using a slightly different set list. 

90-35 drops "Dangerous" from the set used for 90-05, but adds "Listen To The Music."  94-37 adds "Dangerous" back to the set list, keeps "Listen To The Music," and drops "Black Water."

In 1995, the September 8, 1995 from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA was broadcast as 95-51.

After this, Westwood One assembled a compilation show from the 1991 Las Vegas, 1992 Concord, and 1995 Mountain View concerts.  This adds a unique version of "Slack Key Soquel Rag" from Shoreline not on the original broadcast, and an introduction from the Nevada show that proves the source was Las Vegas.

This three source compilation show was broadcast four times as 99-40, 00-20, 01-31, and 02-45.
After Westwood One reduced the Superstar Concert from a 2-cd 90 minute show to a 1 cd one hour show, the compilation show was reworked so that it was sourced from two years instead of three.  Five tracks from the 1991 Las Vegas show were dropped, but four of them were replaced versions from the 1992 Concord show.  "Rockin' Down the Highway," "Jesus Is Just Alright," "The Doctor" and "Black Water" are the tracks that were swapped out for 1992 versions. 

I think this reworked compilation was broadcast as 05-28, 06-33, and 08-38.  I've only got the 08-38 version, but the track list running order matches 05-38 and 06-33, so it's likely that all the tracks are from '92 and '95.

I have ten of the fifteen shows I've identified, and I'll be posting them this week. There may be a few more out there, as the later years of Westwood One are harder to document.  They transitioned from CD-R media to downloads ("call your Westwood One Affiliate Sales Rep for your user name and password"), so the number of copies they pressed up on physical media got smaller and smaller.

Do you need all of these versions?  Probably not, but there are slight variations in the mixing.

When you play the same take from different shows, you can hear that Westwood One edits in the crowd noise at different volumes and for differing lengths of time.  And it's not the same crowd noise.  There are various hoots, whistles, and yells that are different, even though the underlying music is the same.  
A good example of this is the version of "Long Train Runnin'" from the 1995 Shoreline show.  As the song starts, they introduce Steve Miller as a guest.  On 00-20, there's a swell of applause after they say Miller's name that's absent on the other three sources.