Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers tabs The Doobie Brothers discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Doobie Brothers guitar tabs

CD reviews

Minute by Minute

The Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute Audio CD

A fair review of the The Doobie Brothers "Minute by Minute" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Doobie Brothers reviews here, or go back to the The Doobie Brothers tabs.

Band: The Doobie Brothers
Title: Minute by Minute
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-02-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Here To Love You 2: What A Fool Believes 3: Minute By Minute 4: Dependin'On You 5: Don't Stop To Watch The Wheels 6: Open Your Eyes 7: Sweet Feelin' 8: Steamer Lane Breakdown 9: You Never Change 10: How Do The Fools Survive

"Ooh sweet feeling"...
Long-standing Warners producer TED TEMPLEMAN recorded the original album (engineered by DONN LANDEE) while famed sound engineer STEVE HOFFMAN has mastered this reissue from the original first generation stereo tapes for CD. Originally released on Warner Brothers BSK 3193 in December 1978 in the USA and Warner Brothers K 56486 in the UK, this February 2005 reissue is on Audio Fidelity AFZ 025. This Audio Fidelity audiophile version has a distinctive black and gold outer card wrap, the disc itself is a 24KT + Gold CD - a High Definition Compact Disc issue (HDCD) - while the booklet faithfully reproduces the original album artwork, inner sleeve, lyrics, recording info, reissue details etc. . .

The DOOBIE BROTHERS line-up for the "Minute By Minute" LP was:
Lead Vocals, Keyboards and Synthesizers - MICHAEL McDONALD
Lead Vocals, Guitars - PATRICK SIMMONS
Guitars - JEFFREY ("Skunk") BAXTER
Bass, Vocals - TIRAN PORTER
Drums - JOHN HARTMAN
Drums and Vocals - KEITH KNUDSEN

Guests were:
Congas and Vocals - BOBBY LaKIND
Vocals - TOM JOHNSTON
Backing Vocals - NICOLETTE LARSON and ROSEMARY BUTLER
Harmonica - NORTON BUFFALO
Banjo - HERB PEDERSEN
Fiddle - BYRON BERLINE
Electric Piano - LESTER ABRAMS
Synthesizers - BILL PAYNE
Saxophone - ANDREW LOVE
Trumpet - BEN CAULEY

Here's a detailed breakdown (37:12 minutes)
1. Here To Love You [3:58]
[Writer Michael McDonald. Lead Vocals Michael McDonald, Backing Vocals Rosemary Butler. ]
2. What A Fool Believes [3:41]
[Writers Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins. Lead Vocals Micheal McDonald with Bill Payne of LITTLE FEAT on Synthesizer]
3. Minute By Minute [3:26]
[Writers Michael McDonald and Lester Abrams. Lead Vocals Michael McDonald with Bill Payne of LITTLE FEAT on Synthesizer]
4. Dependin' On You [3:44]
[Writers Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald. Lead Vocals Patrick Simmons with Nicolette Larson and Rosemary Butler on Backing Vocals. ]
5. Don't Stop To Watch The Wheels [3:26]
[Writer Patrick Simmons, Jeffrey "Skunk" Baxter and Michael Ebert. Lead Vocals Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston with Norton Buffalo on Harmonica. ]
6. Open Your Eyes [3:16]
[Writers Michael McDonald, Lester Abrams and Patrick Henderson. Lead Vocals Michael McDonald. ]
7. Sweet Feelin' [2:41]
[Writers Patrick Simmons and Ted Templeman. Lead Vocals Patrick Simmons with Nicolette Larson and Michael McDonald on Harmony Vocals. ]
8. Steamer Lane Breakdown [3:24]
[Instrumental written by Patrick Simmons. ]
9. You Never Change [3:26]
[Writer Patrick Simmons. Lead Vocals Patrick Simmons with Harmony Vocals from Michael McDonald. ]
10. How Do The Fools Survive? [5:12]
[Writers Michael McDonald and Carol Bayer Sager. Lead Vocals Michael McDonald with Lester Abrams on Electric Piano. ]

To my knowledge there's 4 versions of this album on CD; the crappy 80's original, an improved 1990s remaster, this 2005 Audio Fidelity audiophile issue and a Japanese issue in 2006 in a card repro sleeve. Owning both the Japanese issue and this one, it's clear to me that the 2006 Japanese issue has used this 2005 remaster - because to my ears they're identical! Which is good news, because I think this Steve Hoffman remaster is one of the most beautifully rendered transfers I've ever heard - so subtle and so damn good. Every song reveals itself now to you - and not in a showy way where it's all treble and blasting - it's just 'there' - muscular and in your living room. The synth work and rhythm guitar on "Here To Love You" is suddenly in the speakers when it was somehow hidden up until now and the lovely and overlooked "Sweet Feelin'" has the superb harmony vocals of Larson and McDonald so beautifully complimenting Simmons on lead.

Audio Fidelity put the original master mixes on special vintage playback decks and then run them through their own 'proprietary digital to analogue converter', which digs out those musical nuances. Whatever the techno speak says, your ears can hear it - especially on a good CD player. The album's final double-whammy of "You'll Never Change" and "How Do The Fools Survive?" are now both Steely Dan good in terms of sound quality - drums, bass, brass, guitars - all of it - musically superb - and now sonically 'soooo' sweet.

One slight oddity is that both the FACES "Nod" CD (another AF release) and this have the printed info on their card wraps upside down on the rear - don't know why this is??

Audio Fidelity CDs have a high reputation among audiophiles - but ordinary fans of the music may just wonder whether its worth the extra cost - I'd say a resounding yes.

An "Ooh sweet feeling". . . indeed!.

A Minute By Minute Gem By All Means
This cd sounds really close to analog. Another wonderful remastering job by Steve Hoffman. Amazing tracks. Grammy winner 4x over. What more can you ask for? Or maybe, if Audio Fidelity uses the same lift-lock case used by MFSL/DCC Compact Classics, this will be perfect. But again, I already rate this product as 5 stars!.

Terrific remastering a highlight of this fine album from the blue eyed soul line up
Do you make it loud to appeal to the young person who can't distinguish an mp3 thereby brickwalling it eliminating dynamic range and much of the power of the recording? Or do you go with mastering to make the recording so as true to the master recording as possible? If you work for the music industry the former is what most often occurs with little dynamic range and a recording that starts loud, often sounds shrill on a good stereo system and undermines the range of a CD or vinyl recording. CD mastering is a tricky business. The end result is an album that just doesn't sound all that great.

Steve Hoffman has done a marvelous job of remastering this classic album. His mastering deserves 5 stars. "Minute by Minute" sounds warm, inviting and has an enormous amount of detail. What's more there isn't any compression done in the mastering phase so, essentially, this sounds as close as listening to the master recording as is possible for CD. This was among the first of the Audio Fidelity releases that picked up where the now defunct DCC left off. As with all of Hoffman's work, this is an audiophile's dream but, more importantly, it should be every listener's dream as it represents the potential that exists when a recording is remastered right.

Kudos to Steve for once again giving new life to a great sounding recording by not messing with the dynamics in the mastering phase. If you're a fan of this album, this is worth the extra $$ simply because the recording has never sounded so clear on CD before. .

Bravo!
You take a great album, find the true master tapes, give them to someone that knows what they are doing and what do you get?
Another excellent example of Steve Hoffman's mastering and a classic album lives forever.

24 kt Blue Eyed Soul
One of the Doobie Brothers best albums has gotten the 24kt treatment for superior sound quality and mastering. I didn't think it was possible for this to happen, but it did. Lets face it if your still listening to the tinny, muffled version of the CD that came out years ago and only has so many tracks remastered for compilation discs and Best ofs, then this is the CD for you. I only got this disc for one reason, to get a clear, crisp and fabulous version of "How Does the Fool Survive?" and I was amazed at the rest of the disc as well. From every little clatter in the back to any minute horn or vocal, you can hear everything on this CD. It also just simply sounds the way it should. Sometimes in mastering everything just comes out sounding loud or extranious. Minute by Minute isn't a loud album, it's a soft groovy kind of one that doesn't need just a big volume, mixers and faders are used to put everything where they need to be. Whats also nice is you get the full booklet to slip in for the jewel case and everything is where it should be. There are no extended cuts or demos or anything, just the album that many people own and love. My only hope is that STAMPEDE the great fifth album is just around the corner. How awesome it will be to hear Neal's Fandango and I Cheat the Hangman in the same treatment as the band got here. I suspect that if it hasn't been done already CAPTAIN AND ME will be next, but that would be okay too. Definetly a buy.

You can see a complete list of all The Doobie Brothers discography, or go back to the The Doobie Brothers tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.