The Captain and Me

There was pressure on the band to move quickly and to save time they began reworking old tunes. One of Tom Johnston's songs, "Osborn", had been an improvisational piece that the band played live. After laying down the track, according to producer Ted Templeman, "We still really didn't have it, and I said, 'Make it about a train, since you have this thing about 'Miss Lucy down along the track.' So he came up with "Long Train Runnin'." Synthesizers and strings were brought in to record The Captain and Me. Synth programmers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff were brought in to engineer the opening track, "Natural Thing". Striving for a synthesized sound like that of The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", they would overdub individual notes to create chords for the song's bridge. He would become an official Doobie Brother in 1974. Cecil and Margouleff also added the synthesized effect of a woman whispering at the end. ==Surround releases==

The album was originally released in Quadraphonic sound on the CD-4 Quadradisc system and also on Quadraphonic 8-track tape. The album was also released in 2002 remixed into 5.1 multichannel DVD-Audio, and on 14 September 2011, on hybrid stereo-multichannel Super Audio CD by Warner Japan in their Warner Premium Sound series. ==Artwork==

The artwork found on the front and back of the album features the band, including manager Bruce Cohn, dressed in 19th-century western garments and riding a horse-drawn stagecoach beneath an incomplete freeway overpass. "All that stuff came from the Warner Bros. film studios lot," Tom Johnston said. "It must've been a lot of work for the guys who brought up the horse team and the carriage and the clothes. It was fun to do—they had coffins out there, all kinds of crazy stuff." The photography was done by Michael and Jill Maggid. The setting for the cover was located at the Newhall Pass interchange of the Interstate 5 and California State Route 14 freeways near Sylmar, California, the incomplete bridge featured being one that partially collapsed during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. This same section of freeway would collapse again during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. ==Track listing==

The Doobie Brothers: • Tom Johnston – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, ARP synthesizer, harmonica on "Long Train Runnin' • Patrick Simmons – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, ARP synthesizer, banjo on "The Captain and Me" • Tiran Porter – backing vocals, bass • John Hartman – backing vocals, drums, percussion • Michael Hossack – drums, congas, timbales Additional players: • Bill Payne – piano on "China Grove", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah", organ on "Without You", electric piano on "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman" • Jeffrey 'Skunk' Baxter – pedal steel guitar on "South City Midnight Lady" • Ted Templeman – percussion, backing vocals on "Without You" • Nick DeCaro – string arrangements on "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Evil Woman" • Malcolm Cecil, Robert Margouleff – ARP synthesizer programming on "Natural Thing", "Clear as the Driven Snow", "South City Midnight Lady" and "Ukiah" ==Production==

• Producer: Ted Templeman • Production Coordination: Benita Brazier • Engineer: Donn Landee • Design: John Casado, Barbara Casado • Photography: Michael Maggid, Jill Maggid • Art Direction: Ed Thrasher ==Charts==