The Doobie Brothers: Let the Music Play (Video 2012)

The Doobie Brothers: Let the Music Play: Directed by Barry Ehrmann. With Jeffrey Baxter, Bruce R. Cohn, Lara Johnston, Tom Johnston. “Let The Music Play” is the authorized story of The Doobie Brothers from their beginnings as a biker band in California in 1970, through their breakthrough with “Listen To The Music” in 1972, sustained success and line-up changes in the mid-seventies and their change of musical direction and further success following the arrival of Michael McDonald in 1976. Worn out by non-stop touring and internal disagreements the band broke up after a “farewell” concert in 1982. There were sporadic reunions in the eighties before the band reformed permanently in the early nineties and have continued touring and recording ever since. This new film features contributions from all the surviving key band members, their manager Bruce Cohn and long term producer Ted Templeman to tell the full story of the band’s highs and lows through four decades of musical evolution.

“This documentary is a methodical step-by-step chronicle of the remarkable story of The Doobie Brothers, one of the most popular rock groups of all-time, selling over 40 million albums and still going strong today. It contains the customary interviews with present and former band members, associates including their 40-year manager Bruce Cohn, music critics, as well as some family members. Additionally, you get to hear lots of music clips from some of their performances, with instantly recognizable songs, many of which have now become classics.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor me, the parts of the film that I found particularly interesting were how they got their name (you probably guessed right), and in the beginning, in the early 1970u0026#39;s, that the band were favorites of the Hells Angels bikers.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAdditionally, their constant metamorphosis over the years is rather amazing, with various band members leaving and others joining over a span of five decades (with some gaps of long inactivity). This included the time that their lead singer Tommy Johnston left the group due to illness and some burnout. The group then plucked an unknown, at the time, Michael McDonald from the group Steely Dan, and once his incredible voice and songwriting abilities were discovered, he became an instant sensation and stayed with The Doobie Brothers for six years.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne criticism of the movie that I had was that the filmmakers waited till quite late in the film to highlight some of the memberu0026#39;s families and the great amount of charity work they engage in. I felt this livened up the documentary considerably, as it had to that point been somewhat of a staid and dry presentation, in my opinion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film was directed by Barry Ehrmann, who also co-wrote the movie with Rachel Benson.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, I found this documentary to be quite interesting as I was only partially familiar with the group, which has played such an integral part in rock and music history.”