Long before the days of DJ Alvin’s mixes, the Saint Francis Alumni gym, which at the time was Raskob Memorial Gym, was brought to life with rock and roll bands. When we hear the words “live music” we tend to associate it with concerts at Shoreline Amphitheatre or Chase Center. In the 70s, every Saint Francis dance had a live band and they even hosted some concerts with up-and-coming local bands.
The Doobie Brothers were one of the most successful bands that performed at Saint Francis, and they are still relevant today—that is if you consider 10 million monthly listeners relevant. They were a rock and roll band that started out in 1970 in San Jose and by 1970 they had signed with Warner Bros. Records. They played at Saint Francis, not once, but twice.
Their first gig was opening for the band Stoneground at a dance in the spring of 1971. At that point, they had one self-titled album out, The Doobie Brothers. Pepe Hinojosa (’74) was a freshman at the time and recalls that in 1971, “they were still very, very much just starting out. When they came again in 1973, it was totally different.”
By the time they were performing in Raskob Gym again, in the spring of 1973, they weren’t the opener anymore, they were the main event. They had released their album Toulouse Street in the summer of 1972 and it was just starting to take off in the charts. Mr. Chris Bradford, beloved educator and baseball coach, was the ASB moderator at the time and remembers: “The Doobie Brothers were just coming into their own, so to speak. Somehow we snagged them.”
On Toulouse Street were songs “Listen to the Music” and “Jesus is Just Alright With Me.” While these songs ranked in the Billboard Top 100 by the end of 1972, The Doobie Brothers kept playing locally. “They were just trying to play as much as they could to expose their new music, which turned out to be very, very successful, and very popular. So we got lucky in terms of being able to have them play at Saint Francis just before their fame really took off,” said Hinojosa.
In today’s world, it seems like as soon as artists gain any traction, their concerts immediately sell out. It’s hard to believe that a high school today would be able to host a band that popular with ease. The lancers of the 70s didn’t pay too much mind though. “People were not overly awed by it or anything like that. It was like, okay, we have the Doobie Brothers,” said Mr. Bradford.
Now, 50 years later, the way we experience music has changed a lot. And so have teenagers. We have access to any song at the touch of a screen. We don’t have to tune a radio or buy records. At the same time, these new technologies have allowed for old rock-and-roll hits to resurgence. The Doobie Brothers and other bands of their time have become popular TikTok sounds, exposing an entirely new generation to the music that was played in our gym so long ago.
