The Doobie Brothers - China Grove 1973 HQ
"China Grove" is a song on the Doobie Brothers' 1973 album The Captain and Me. It was written and sung by original main singer/songwriter Tom Johnston.The song reached number 15 on the U S Billboard Hot 100. While there is a real China Grove, Texas, Johnston's lyrics about the community are fictional. Record Label Warner Brothers Producer Ted Templeman. Like many songs by Johnston, the music was composed and developed before the lyrics were written. It started with a guitar riff that he and drummer John Hartman developed into a jam with a chord structure. Johnston said that the lyrics were influenced by a piano part in the performance. According to Johnston, "...I really owe Billy Payne for the words because he played this wacky bridge that started the thinking process with this wacky sheriff, samurai swords, and all that. The song is based on a real town in Texas. Johnston thought he had created a fictional town called "China Grove" near San Antonio and later learned it really exists from his cab driver in Houston. Johnston later explained that the band had been on tour passing through the town of China Grove on the way to or from San Antonio, and he had seen a road sign with the name, but somehow had forgotten about it. Even though the community's name is real, the lyrics composed by Johnston are not based on the actual population of the town. In the song, Johnston sings about "the sheriff and his buddies with their samurai swords" and the people "just keep on looking to the East." In reality, fewer than one-tenth of one percent of the residents own samurai swords.
