Cycles

Bass and vocals

As I have said, I am the only member to have left the Doobies twice. In ‘89 when I was asked to come back as part of a reunion album, I didn't really know if I wanted to do it. I was having fun playing with two or three different bands in Santa Cruz and producing records for people. I didn’t want to go backwards. After finishing One Step Closer and taking a break from the band, I didn’t really like the idea of going back to the early version of the band. But, I decided to join in on the reunion efforts and in the end it was ultimately a really great time. Mike Hossack and John Hartman came back to play drums and Bobby LaKind stepped in to play percussion. Bobby, Keith Knudsen and John McFee collaborated on the song “Time is Here and Gone.” For Bobby, well this was his last album with the band as he was diagnosed with cancer a couple years later and passed away in 1992. The lyrics of that song seemed to be a premonition or maybe a reflection, as they often are when we are inspired to create music.

“It keeps on getting better, how life keeps movin’ on. Children growing older, seems I just looked over, found that time was here and gone. Seems like time is here and gone. I know they’re getting closer, the answers that have haunted me. Lookin’ for some help, my best friend was myself, I never thought I’d live this long. Seems like time is here and gone.” - opening lyrics from “Time is Here and Gone” written by Knudsen, LaKind, McFee

Of note is that I attempted to get the band to record a song from my solo album on this album. My song from Playing to an Empty an House is titled “Cycles”. It’s a song I wrote for the band back in 1975. I wrote it for Tom and Pat to sing because it's not a good match for my voice. We were changing styles and singers at the time and it didn't fit with what the band was doing. So, I resubmitted it in 89 but it was rejected again, only they decided to use my song title for the album title.