The Amazing Talent of Tiran Porter

From the interview with Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston of The Doobie Brothers

Pat Simmons: You listen to some of the iconic stuff that Tiran Porter played on the records. Tiran just killed it every time, such a talented bass player. He was more than a bass player. He added these melodic elements. Bill Payne, of course, was always involved on just about all of our records. I think that's a key piece to the structure of so many of our songs. And then we always relied on each other to try and get the best out of the songs. But there are songs that I never even played on that Tommy wrote and vice versa. And the same with Mike (Michael McDonald).

A huge element of our music is that we always had a really great vocal section at any given time, which included all the guys who could sing. And those guys were there for all those records. Tiran and Keith sang and played on so much of the stuff before Michael and the stuff after Michael joined. And then again, Bill Payne was there for various times.

Tom Johnston: Pat made a good point, in that, even from the very beginning, before we were even signed, whoever wrote the song, brought it in — or into the basement in the very early days — and played it for everybody. And everybody would come up with the ideas.

It became Tiran as the go-to bass player, after the initial bass player left. But Tiran played bass like I’d never heard anybody play bass, and that was a big deal. He had his own way of playing, and he played with a pick, but it didn’t sound like a pick. And the melodic lines he would use were completely original. I'd never heard anybody play bass like that.

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