Song's Origin
The tune evolved from an untitled and mostly ad-libbed jam that the Doobies developed onstage years before it was finally recorded. Its working title, according to Johnston, was "Rosie Pig Moseley" and later "Osborn". "I didn't want to cut it," Johnston later confessed. "...I just considered it a bar song without a lot of merit. Teddy, on the other hand, thought it had some." Templeman convinced Johnston to write words to the song.
Johnston performed the signature harmonica solo as well as the lead vocal and the distinctive, rhythmic guitar strumming that propels the song. In an interview with Songfacts Johnston revealed that he "wrote the words sitting in the bathroom at Amigo Studios" in Burbank, California.
Read more about this topic: Long Train Runnin'
Famous quotes containing the words song and/or origin:
“Turn back,
back
to the lake of Delos;
lest all the song notes
pause and break
across a blood-stained throat....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Art is good when it springs from necessity. This kind of origin is the guarantee of its value; there is no other.”
—Neal Cassady (1926–1968)