We have an excellent example of a
perfectly good band performing a perfectly good song, releasing it, getting it airplay,
getting a warm reception from listeners and then having radio programmers pound it and
pound it and pound it and pound it, until nobody wanted to touch it, let alone listen to
it. This was after Patrick Simmons lopped off all his hair, and Michael McDonald's
Happy MealÔ joined the band as backing vocalist and keyboard automaton (somebody else
actually played the keyboards, judging from live videos of the band in that era
and all of Mr. McDonald's Happy MealÔ's later solo work).
I don't know, maybe with this song, it's just me. I think FM rock stations (and now,
kkklassik rokkk stations) have overplayed Jesus is Just Alright and China Grove to about
the same level, but they're simply not as cringeworthy for me, for some reason, as
Black
Water.
Maybe it's the extremely high hook/novelty factor. The Doobies did
nice, quirky southern rock songs that never quite were strange enough to be novelty tunes
(like Dean Friedman's Ariel' for instance), just nicely
different from the rest of the pack. They were largely from the Southeast, not the
Bay Area or LA, so they didn't sound as cheesy as, say, Firefall.
But 'Black Water' was a little hookier; a little 'noveltier' than 'China Grove,' so
maybe it wore less well with me for that reason.
I dig old Doobie Brothers. I don't dig overplayed AM hits and (in case you somehow
managed to duck the ball peen hammer all through the first paragraph) I ain't too fond of
Michael McDonald.
Okay, well, I admit that line about 'funky Dixieland' kind of creeps me out. Not for
its own merit or lack thereof, but because it makes me think of Lowell George.