The Doobie Brothers - WLIR Tuesday Night Ultrasonic Concert Series, Ultrasonic Recording Studios, West Hempstead, NY, 5-31-1973

The Doobie Brothers have gone through some significant musical shifts during their long musical career. Most of their success came in the 1970s, when they were popular for most of the decade. But in the early 1970s they were more of a rocking band, with Tom Johnston their main singer and songwriter. But he had health issues as the decade went on, and was increasingly sidelined, to the point that he quit the band in 1977. He was gradually replaced by Michael McDonald, who led the band in more of a soft rock and soul direction.

Personally, I'm not a fan of McDonald's music. When I think of him, I think cheesy "yacht rock." I much prefer the band's sound before he took the band over. Therefore, when it comes to looking for a concert bootleg of the band from the 1970s, I'd want something from, oh, about 1973 to 1975, after the band had some hits but before Johnston was sidelined by McDonald. But for whatever reason, there's slim pickings when it comes to bootlegs from that time period. It turns out there's really just one recording that fits the bill with excellent sound quality, and that's this one.

This show sounds pretty good because it was broadcast live on the radio at the time. I've posted a few other shows from this same "Ultrasonic" series. That said, I could tell there were some problems, especially with the bass sounding way too loud. So I sent the recording to musical associate MZ. He told me that the recording "was missing frequencies 15000-17000 Hz, and boosting volume on these frequencies made the sound clearly and not so bass-heavy." He also added some more stereo image. I think it sounds significantly better now.

There still is one other problem. The tape ran out while recording the song "Without You." Whoever bootlegged it adjusted it so it fades out instead of coming to a sudden halt. Luckily, the song had been going seven minutes at that point, so I think nearly all of it was recorded. It's possible there were more songs after that, but maybe not because one would think they would want to end on a high note, and they played all their hits by that point in the show.

At this point, the Doobie Brothers were more rocking than they would be later. You might be surprised.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 talk (Doobie Brothers)
02 South City Midnight Lady (Doobie Brothers)
03 talk (Doobie Brothers)
04 Clear as the Driven Snow (Doobie Brothers)
05 talk (Doobie Brothers)
06 Long Train Running (Doobie Brothers)
07 talk (Doobie Brothers)
08 Listen to the Music (Doobie Brothers)
09 talk (Doobie Brothers)
10 China Grove (Doobie Brothers)
11 Rockin' Down the Highway (Doobie Brothers)
12 talk (Doobie Brothers)
13 Disciple (Doobie Brothers)
14 Jesus Is Just Alright - Disciple (Doobie Brothers)
15 Without You (Doobie Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15193699/TDoobieBrs_1973_WLRTuesdyNightUltrasonicConcrtSeriesWestHmpsteadNY__5-31-1973_atse.zip.html 

The cover is a promo photo taken in New York City in April 1973. The lettering of the band name at the top comes from one of their albums.