Stampede (The Doobie Brothers album)

Stampede is the fifth studio album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers. The album was released on April 25, 1975, by Warner Bros. Records. It was the final album by the band before Michael McDonald replaced Tom Johnston as lead vocalist and primary songwriter. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA.

Recording and content
Stampede showed the band diversifying elements of their sound more than ever before, combining elements of their old sound as well as country-rock, funk and folk music. Many guest musicians contributed on the album including Maria Muldaur, Ry Cooder and Curtis Mayfield.

The first and most successful single released from this album was "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" on April 23, 1975, a classic Motown tune written by the legendary songwriting trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland. Tom Johnston had wanted to record the song for several years. "I thought that would be a killer track to cover," he said. "It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time. I thought our version came out great."

The next single, released on July 8, 1975, was "Sweet Maxine" which was more akin to the Doobie Brothers' earlier hits style-wise. "Pat wrote the music to this and I wrote the words, " Johnston recalled. "And Billy Payne had a lot to do with the sound of the song, because of his incredible keyboard playing." The track stalled at #40 on the Billboard charts.

The third and final single was Patrick Simmons' "I Cheat the Hangman", released November 12, 1975. It is a somber outlaw ballad that was inspired by the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. "It's about a ghost returning to his home after the Civil War and not realizing he's dead," said Simmons about the song. The album version of the song is a progressive rock-style composition ending in a twisted collage of strings, horns and synthesizers made to sound like ghostly wails. "We'd cut the track, and we kicked around how to develop the ending-I thought about synthesizers and guitar solos. Ted [Templeman] got to thinking about it, and he ran it past [arranger] Nick DeCaro for some orchestration ideas. 'Night on Bald Mountain' by Mussorgsky really inspired the wildness of the strings, and Nick came up with the chorale thing at the end." The ambitious "I Cheat the Hangman" only managed to reach #60 on the music charts.

"Neal's Fandango" was inspired by the Santa Cruz mountains and was an homage to Neal Cassady, Merry Prankster bus driver and former Jack Kerouac sidekick in On The Road. It was occasionally played on San Francisco Bay Area classic rock station KFOX "K-FOX" (that means KUFX) because of the Doobie Brothers' South Bay roots.

Personnel
The Doobie Brothers:
 * Tom Johnston – guitars, vocals
 * Patrick Simmons – guitars, vocals
 * Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – guitar, Pedal Steel guitar
 * Tiran Porter – bass guitar, vocals
 * John Hartman – drums
 * Keith Knudsen – drums, vocals

Additional Musicians:
 * Bill Payne – keyboards
 * Ry Cooder – bottleneck guitar on "Rainy Day Crossroad Blues"
 * Maria Muldaur – vocals on "I Cheat The Hangman"
 * Karl Himmel – drums and percussion on "I Been Workin' On You"
 * Conte and Pete Candoli – trumpets on "I Cheat The Hangman"
 * Bobbye Hall Porter – congas on "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)"
 * Victor Feldman – marimba, percussion
 * Sherlie Matthews, Venetta Fields and Jessica Smith – vocals on "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" and "I Been Workin' On You"
 * Ted Templeman – percussion

Production

 * Producer: Ted Templeman
 * Engineer: Donn Landee, Travis Turk
 * Concert Master: Harry Bluestone on "Rainy Day Crossroad Blues"
 * String Arrangements:
 * Nick DeCaro on "Texas Lullaby", "I Cheat the Hangman" and "Rainy Day Crossroad Blues"
 * Curtis Mayfield on "Music Man"
 * Paul Riser on "Take Me in Your Arm (Rock Me a Little While)"
 * Horn Arrangements:
 * Curtis Mayfield on "Music Man"
 * Paul Riser on "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)", "Sweet Maxine" and "Double Dealin' Four Flusher"
 * Orchestration: Richard Tufo on "Music Man"
 * Design: Barbara Casado, John Casado
 * Photography: Jill Maggid, Michael Maggid
 * Art Direction: Ed Thrasher

Charts
Album

Singles