2006年VOA标准英语-The Doobie Brothers: 35 Years Of Rock And Roll

By Larry London
Washington, DC
09 August 2006
 
watch Dobbie Brothers report 

 
Dobbie Brothers 
  
For more than 35 years, theDoobie Brothers have been "Taking it to the Streets" with their unique style of guitar driven rock music. VOA's Larry London recently caught up with the group outside Washington, DC and has more on this legendary¹ band.

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When they hit the music world in 1971 this was state-of-the-art technology. Today - 30 years later - the technology is quite different but the band, they are still going strong.

Dobbie Brothers founders³ Pat⁴ Simmons and Tom Johnston   
  
Who are they? They are the Doobie Brothers! Founding members Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston.

Pat Simmons, takes us back to the beginning. "We started out in '70 and this has been just a kind of continuous⁵ tour -- the tour that never ends. To me, it is like touring again for the first time in a way because you play for all these new audiences that, some people have never heard you before, or somebody might not have heard you for years and years so its almost like playing for the first time for those audiences. I love that feeling of being a little off balance and not knowing what to expect. 

It has always been a great experience for us, we seem to be able to connect with audiences everywhere regardless of the language.  Rock and roll, music in general gives us a great ability to communicate with people on a nonverbal level. That is really an unbelievable feeling to be able to do that because you can be not even able to speak the same language as the people you are playing for - but as soon as you start playing the music you are together, they understand you and you understand them and it all becomes a big party. It is the greatest feeling in the world."

With multiple⁶ Grammy Awards, 27 chart singles, 16 top 40 hits, 11 multi-platinum albums, 13 gold albums and the Diamond award for having sold over 10 million units of a single title - "The Best of the Doobies Volume One" - the Doobie Brothers certainly know the secret to success.

Simmons says the magic is in the songs. "The songs are what makes us able to do what we do.  If we did not have the songs we would never be anywhere."

Dobbie Brothers, fans  
  
Songs indeed, including many classics⁸. "We try to start out with something that has energy to it. I think that is the one thing we go for," Simmons said.

Fellow founder² Tom Johnston adds, "If you get out there and know the song is going to get a reaction and you see it get a reaction, then you have succeeded in doing what you came to do as far as live performance: get the crowd up and interacting⁹ with you and responding.  And certain songs you know will do that.  That keeps them fresh in that instance¹⁰ alone, that night alone. The only thing that gets old is the traveling.  The playing -- our drummer who passed away last year used to say, we get paid for the 22 hours it takes to get here, we play for nothing."

And it shows.  Just watching them perform reveals¹¹ how much fun it is…even after all these years.

So where did all these classic⁷ titles and sounds come from? How do they keep on doing it? "I just kind of collect all this stuff¹² and when I sit down to write a song sometimes I will pull these out and look at them, they will make me think of something," says SImmons.  "For me, I will be working on a song and it will remind me of something else.  Then I start thinking I would like to write a song like that, and that is one way (to write a song).  A lot of time I'll just hear something and I'll listen to the drum thing and I'll go, 'Wow, that drum thing was so cool,' and I'll try to duplicate¹³ something like that and then write a song that is my own expression within those boundaries," -- a successful recipe for the Dobbie Brothers according to Simmons.

The band's current tour runs until December when they will return to the studio to record a new album - it will be their 23rd.

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

3 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 pat   

n.轻拍，拍打声；vt.轻拍，拍打；vi.轻跑，轻击；adv.适时，彻底；adj.油腔滑调的，恰好的，合适的

参考例句：

• Could you hear the pat?你能听到轻轻的拍击声吗？
• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。

5 continuous   

adj.继续的，连续的，持续的，延伸的

参考例句：

• She finally got in after 10 years'continuous effort.坚持不懈地努力了十年后，她终于当选了。
• We must be continuous to study.我们必须不断学习。

6 multiple   

adj.多个(或多项、多种)的；n.（数）倍数

参考例句：

• The number 8 is a multiple of 4.八是四的倍数。
• The most common multiple births are twins,two babies born at the same time.最常见的多胎是双胞胎，两个婴儿同时出生。

7 classic   

n.经典作品；adj.经典的，一流的；古典的

参考例句：

• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。
• The football match was a classic.那场足球比赛堪称典范。

8 classics   

n.文豪( classic的名词复数 )；文学名著；优秀的典范；古希腊与古罗马的文化研究（尤指对其语言与文学的研究）

参考例句：

• There are three great constituents of modern education --the classics, modern history and literature, and science. 现代教育有三大内容 -古典文学、现代历史和文学、以及自然科学。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• "The Classics on Tea", written by Lu Yu of the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.) was the world's earliest treatise on tea leave production. 中国唐代陆羽写的《茶经》是世界上最早的茶叶制作专著。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 interacting   

adj.相互影响的；相互作用的

参考例句：

• The interacting surfaces were lubricated with a mineral oil. 相互作用表面是用矿物油润滑的。
• Proteins which have two separate but interacting sites are called allosteric proteins. 这种具有两个不同而又相互作用位置的蛋白质叫做变构蛋白质。

10 instance   

n.例，例证，实例

参考例句：

• Can you quote me a recent instance?你能给我举一个最近的例子吗？
• He's a greedy boy,yesterday,for instance,he ate all our biscuits!他是个贪吃的孩子――比如，他昨天把我们的饼干都吃了！

11 reveals   

v.显示( reveal的第三人称单数 )；揭示；泄露；[神学]启示

参考例句：

• He reveals his innermost feelings only to his best friend. 他把最隐秘的想法只告诉最好的朋友。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The strong wind reveals the strength of the grass. 疾风知劲草。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

13 duplicate   

n.复制品；v.复写，使加倍；adj.复制的，二倍的

参考例句：

• The manager asks the secretary to duplicate the document.经理让秘书复印这份文件。
• This agreement is done in duplicate.本协议书一式两份。