On Track – The Doobie Brothers / Black Sabbath, The Dio Years / Focus 1969 – 1985

Author:Andrew Wild, Chris Sutton, Stephen Lambe

The Doobie Brothers were an FM radio staple in the US in the seventies, and it was something of a surprise to see them barely mentioned in the Raised On Radio book by Paul Rees that was recently reviewed on here. Their career had two distinct phases, the early seventies period that produced classics such as Listen To The Music, China Grove and Long Train Running, and the post 1975 era featuring Michael MacDonald that gave us a rather different smooth sound with the likes of Minute By Minute and What A Fool Believes. They are one of those bands that just seem to keep on going with differing line ups, with their most recent album appearing just last year. This book gives a thorough appraisal of their whole career, as usual taking the albums song by song, but also providing a potted history of the goings in the band over the decades. A very enjoyable read for fans of this band which has shifted over 40 million albums over the years, and is currently touring to celebrate their 50th anniversary..

Black Sabbath were in a hole when Ozzy was fired after the Never Say Die album – some big shoes to fill! Luckily Ronnie James Dio was available after his departure from Rainbow, and he fitted the bill admirably. The two records they created in that initial incarnation, Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, really rejuvenated the band and gave their sound a more contemporary edge, albeit with a marked Rainbow influence. Check out the two title tracks and Neon Knights, or if you prefer the more epic pieces have a listen to Children Of The Sea, Sign Of The Southern Cross and Falling Off The Edge Of The World. After an acrimonious split, the line up eventually reconvened ten yeas later for the disappointing Dehumaniser set, and then after a further gap of seventeen years for the patchy The Devil You Know, released under the Heaven and Hell name, which was to prove Dio’s swansong before he succumbed to cancer in 2010. This is a really good read for fans of this era, covering additionally the live releases and reissues, and the author has done some extensive research to piece together the often murky events in the narrative of this line up. Highly recommended!

It’s not easy to write about what is basically instrumental music, so readers of this book on Dutch prog groundbreakers Focus would be well advised to listen to their extraordinary music alongside reading this excellent précis of their long career. For me, their peak period was 1970 to 1975, which produced the pieces everyone will know, Hocus Pocus, Sylvia and House Of The King, along with what is surely their masterpiece, Eruption. After those years, it was often a case of diminishing returns, but the band members ploughed on regardless, sometimes together, sometimes individually. This potted history understandably focuses (no pun intended!) mainly on the band’s creative, if all too short lived, peak but does its best not to neglect the later fallow years, and as well as looking at each of the seven albums song by song, it also gives an insight into the internal tensions that eventually fractured the band, although a line up is still active on the live circuit today. Fans should also take a look at the superb and rather more in depth Focus In The 1970’s book by the same author.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Fans of these bands.

One thing you’ve learned

There’s always something new to discover.

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