June 23, 2023 —– Chart #201
Hello Music Friends,
Hey music lovers, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. For number 201, the beginning of my third century of charts, we will go back to 1974 and great sing-along tune. “Black Water” is a song recorded by the American music group the Doobie Brothers from their 1974 album What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. The track features its composer Patrick Simmons on lead vocals and, in mid-March 1975, became the first of the Doobie Brothers’ two No. 1 hit singles.
Patrick Simmons would recall that he chanced on the basic guitar lick for “Black Water” while at Warner Bros. Recording Studio for the recording sessions for the Doobie Brothers’ 1973 album The Captain and Me: “I was sitting out in the studio waiting between takes and I played that part. All the sudden I heard the talk-back go on and [producer] Ted Templeman says: ‘What is that?’ I said: ‘It’s just a little riff that I came up with that I’ve been tweaking with.’ He goes: ‘I love that. You really should write a song using that riff.’”
Simmons would complete “Black Water” during a subsequent Doobie Brothers’ sojourn in New Orleans; a lifelong aficionado of Delta blues, Simmons had first visited New Orleans for a 1971 Doobie Brothers gig: “When I got down there it was everything I had hoped it would be…The way of life and vibe really connected with me and the roots of my music.”
“Black Water” is distinguished by its melodious a cappella section, whose lyrics are likely the song’s prevalent hook lines: “I’d like to hear some funky Dixieland/ Pretty mama, come and take me by the hand.” These lines are also featured in the Train song, “I Got You” (from Save Me San Francisco) on which Simmons received a co-writing credit.
Live version: https://youtu.be/gV7a22pVrj0
I don’t really know these musicians but what a great cover: https://youtu.be/JZEh8Atd1ic
Despite his encouragement in regard to writing “Black Water” and his meticulous arranging of the track, Ted Templeman would recall: “We never thought [of] it as a [potential hit] single” – “I put ‘Black Water’ on a B-side because I figured it was an acoustic thing.” “Black Water” was in fact utilized as the B-side for the lead single from the Doobie Brothers’ 1974 album release What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, the A-side being “Another Park, Another Sunday” whose June 1974 Billboard Hot 100 peak would be No. 32: regular group lead vocalist Tom Johnston would recall that “Another Park…” “was doing real well, and then it got yanked off the radio for the line ‘And the radio just seems to bring me down‘”. Well I don’t care what they say, I really like the song. But for me Black Water is the more memorable of the two.
To all you guitar players, try the double drop D tuning on this song. It’s a blast!
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw