Getting Your Hands on That Was Then This Is Now Book
I've been dealing with music compilations like this for years, and every time someone asks where to find it, I get the same question. The That Was Then This Is Now Book is actually a companion piece to The Doobie Brothers' 1976 greatest hits album. It came out alongside the record and contained liner notes, photos, and essays about the band's history up to that point. Not everyone knows that distinction though, and people often show up looking for the album when they actually want the book. The book itself was a modest production for its time — roughly 40 to 60 pages depending on the pressing, with black and white photography and written material that documented the band's trajectory from their formation through their peak commercial years. It was never reissued on its own. That's the first thing you need to understand: this isn't something you can just order new from a standard retailer. You're looking at the used market exclusively. I picked up my first copy around 2018 at a estate sale in Oregon for about five dollars. The spine was cracked, a few pages had water damage on the edges, but the interior was intact. That's the normal condition you'll encounter. Most surviving copies have some kind of wear. If you see one listed as "brand new" for $80 or more, it's either a scam or someone who has no idea what they're pricing. Fair market value sits somewhere between $10 and $40 depending on condition.
The actual content isn't particularly controversial or hard to access in spirit. The band's history during that era is well documented elsewhere. What the book offers is period-specific context — ads from the time, tour dates, and some photos that don't appear in later releases. If you're a casual fan, you probably won't need it. If you're compiling a thorough Doobie Brothers archive or writing about that period of classic rock history, it fills gaps that even detailed Wikipedia entries leave open. One practical issue I ran into recently involved verifying the authenticity of a copy I found on a resale site. The listing claimed it was the first edition with a specific publisher imprint, but the ISBN pattern didn't match any documented printing. The workaround was straightforward — I cross-referenced the catalog number against the Warner Bros. discography records from that era, which are available through the Library of Congress online database. The listing turned out to be a later reproduction, not the original. Always verify the publisher imprint and printing date before committing to a purchase. For digital access, there's no official e-book version. Some tracks from the companion album are available on streaming platforms, but the book itself hasn't been digitized by the label. Libraries sometimes carry copies through their interlibrary loan systems, which is probably your best bet if you just need to consult the material rather than own it. You can request it through your local library's system by searching the full title along with "Doobie Brothers."
If you do end up collecting physical copies, be aware that the book was packaged differently across regions. The US edition has slightly different page counts and photo selection compared to the UK pressing. I've seen collectors pay premiums for the UK version without realizing the content isn't substantial enough to justify the markup unless they're specifically building a regional collection. Stick to the US edition unless you have a reason to go otherwise. The companion album, by the way, remains the more accessible and influential piece of this release. It hit number one, went multi-platinum, and introduced a lot of people to the band's catalogue. The book attached to it is historically useful but not essential to understanding the music. I'd recommend grabbing the book only if you're already invested in the deeper catalog or working on something that requires primary source material from that era.
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