|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Jan 26, 2020 15:05:49 GMT -5
I actually liked Bread as a youngster. Very sad, introspective songs had a profound effect on me. Gates was a talented songwriter. I was dating a girl in the mid-70s who was a huge Bread fan, so off we went to see them at a place called Valley Forge Music Fair outside of Philly. Inger might remember the venue. I had to admit I was impressed by their professionalism and skill. While David Gates sang lead on all of their many hit singles, backing vocalist James Griffin was every bit as good when given a shot in album cuts. Their keyboardist/guitarist Larry Knechtel had been a member of The Wrecking Crew, the premier LA-based studio musicians who did instrumental tracks for everyone from the Beach Boys to The Byrds to The Doors to Frank Sinatra to Herb Alpert. Among Knechtel's work was the piano solo on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and the bass line in "Mr. Tambourine Man" as well as lead guitar in Bread's own "Guitar Man." These guys were super talented and pulled off complex arrangements and tight harmonies. Despite the overall wistful approach, I could never consign Bread to the dreaded soft rock category because of their superior artistry. I remember even Rolling Stone tipping its cap to them, commenting that while the music might be pop, it was consummate pop. Their albums were even better than their singles IMO because they were more musically adventurous. Gates is the only one of the main four members still living. |
|
|
|
Post by Renfield on Jan 26, 2020 19:49:54 GMT -5
Good call on Bread, guys. Excellent band. Odd tidbit, maybe y'all knew this before, but I didn't. One of their biggest hits was a"love" song called Everything I Own (my personal favorite Bread tune). It was actually written about Gates' father. And as for Karen Carpenter, my favorite female singer. Tone so pure and that low voice just kills me.
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Jan 26, 2020 22:26:02 GMT -5
Good call on Bread, guys. Excellent band. Odd tidbit, maybe y'all knew this before, but I didn't. One of their biggest hits was a"love" song called Everything I Own (my personal favorite Bread tune). It was actually written about Gates' father. And as for Karen Carpenter, my favorite female singer. Tone so pure and that low voice just kills me. I also enjoy Carly Simon now much more than I did when she was popular...Beautiful voice. Horribly inflicted with stage fright before every performance... |
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Jan 27, 2020 1:58:42 GMT -5
Good call on Bread, guys. Excellent band. Odd tidbit, maybe y'all knew this before, but I didn't. One of their biggest hits was a"love" song called Everything I Own (my personal favorite Bread tune). It was actually written about Gates' father. And as for Karen Carpenter, my favorite female singer. Tone so pure and that low voice just kills me. Renfield, I don't think it was generally known until sometime after the song had faded from the charts. I like it too, in large part because it is a rare musical tribute to a father disguised as a standard issue love song. I also liked "It Don't Matter To Me." |
|
|
|
Post by Renfield on Jan 27, 2020 9:52:08 GMT -5
Another, much lesser known song (except to mostly Faces fans), that is an ode to a father is "Debris" written and sung by Ronnie Lane. My personal favorite Faces tune and, in my mind, Ronnie Wood's best guitar work. For many years I did not really know what the song was about because it kind of sounds like a love song. But the "Debris" (pronounced DEB-ri by the Brits) was apparently kind of an ad hoc swap meet in post-WWII England that folks would go to to buy and sell items they might need--I assume it was set up amongst the rubble or debris from the bombing. Check it out sometime if you get the chance.
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Jan 27, 2020 10:46:06 GMT -5
Another, much lesser known song (except to mostly Faces fans), that is an ode to a father is "Debris" written and sung by Ronnie Lane. My personal favorite Faces tune and, in my mind, Ronnie Wood's best guitar work. For many years I did not really know what the song was about because it kind of sounds like a love song. But the "Debris" (pronounced DEB-ri by the Brits) was apparently kind of an ad hoc swap meet in post-WWII England that folks would go to to buy and sell items they might need--I assume it was set up amongst the rubble or debris from the bombing. Check it out sometime if you get the chance. Good song, “Debris”, and of course you know I loved the other side of that 45 “You’re So Rude”, which was a lot more fun. I was never sure which side was actually the “B” side, and to an extent it didn’t matter... |
|
|
|
Post by Renfield on Jan 27, 2020 10:55:07 GMT -5
"You're so Rude" is an excellent tune as well! A bit more raucous both musically and lyrically. Another Ronnie Lane gem.
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Jan 27, 2020 11:07:24 GMT -5
Good call on Bread, guys. Excellent band. Odd tidbit, maybe y'all knew this before, but I didn't. One of their biggest hits was a"love" song called Everything I Own (my personal favorite Bread tune). It was actually written about Gates' father. And as for Karen Carpenter, my favorite female singer. Tone so pure and that low voice just kills me. Renfield, I don't think it was generally known until sometime after the song had faded from the charts. I like it too, in large part because it is a rare musical tribute to a father disguised as a standard issue love song. I also liked "It Don't Matter To Me." The he amazing upper register of David Gates certainly made those songs challenging to sing... |
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Jan 27, 2020 11:17:58 GMT -5
Renfield, I don't think it was generally known until sometime after the song had faded from the charts. I like it too, in large part because it is a rare musical tribute to a father disguised as a standard issue love song. I also liked "It Don't Matter To Me." The he amazing upper register of David Gates certainly made those songs challenging to sing... For sure, you couldn't have a bit of a cold and sing along with "If." Long before Bread ever formed, David Gates had written a song called "Popsicles, Icicles" that made the charts for a girl group called The Murmaids in 1963. I am unfortunately old enough to remember when this song was a modest hit. On the long-forgotten Chatahootchie label. |
|
|
|
Post by inger on Jan 27, 2020 11:53:38 GMT -5
The he amazing upper register of David Gates certainly made those songs challenging to sing... For sure, you couldn't have a bit of a cold and sing along with "If." Long before Bread ever formed, David Gates had written a song called "Popsicles, Icicles" that made the charts for a girl group called The Murmaids in 1963. I am unfortunately old enough to remember when this song was a modest hit. On the long-forgotten Chatahootchie label. I also recall “Popsicles, Icicles”. The only times I heard much music back was on the music variety shows on TV. Lawrence Welk, Ed Sullivan, etc., or of went for a ride somewhere in my brother’s car. Later I was in the same bedroom ask my brother, Wayne. He had a cheap little turntable and owned a few records. Most were the Righteous Brothers, Bobby Vinton, or Bobby Vee. To this day I can still appreciate most of those tunes, except when Vinton gets a bit to Polish for me goes the polka route...Like many things, because of where and how we lived I didn’t get to start picking my own music or listening to it in public places until I was 10-12 years old. I used to enjoy going to the news stand and folding newspapers before going out on my paper route because the older kids would go in the newsstand and pop quarters in the juke box. I think I was almost kicked out of the house when I bought “Every Picture Has A Story” (the album). Even my older brother, Lloyd who by then was the home owner saying he had never heard such G.D. shrieking in his life... I wasn’t easy being me in those days...I remember my younger sister saying, those are nice songs, but God... that voice... |
|
|
|
Post by pippsheadache on Jan 27, 2020 13:03:50 GMT -5
You could do worse than listening to The Righteous Brothers, even on one of those little turntables most of us started out with. You must have been watching Kirby Scott on his show on Channel 13 in Baltimore. He used to get some good guests on his dance show. I even watched him from PA. He was one of the inspirations for " Hairspray" which as a suburban Baltimorean you surely have seen.
One of my favorite girl soul groups was The Royalettes from Baltimore. Their biggest hit was "It's Gonna Take A Miracle" a great soul ballad which I'll bet you know. Ronnie Dove was another big Baltimore guy in the mid-60s.
|
|
|
|
Post by inger on Jan 27, 2020 14:07:24 GMT -5
You could do worse than listening to The Righteous Brothers, even on one of those little turntables most of us started out with. You must have been watching Kirby Scott on his show on Channel 13 in Baltimore. He used to get some good guests on his dance show. I even watched him from PA. He was one of the inspirations for " Hairspray" which as a suburban Baltimorean you surely have seen. One of my favorite girl soul groups was The Royalettes from Baltimore. Their biggest hit was "It's Gonna Take A Miracle" a great soul ballad which I'll bet you know. Ronnie Dove was another big Baltimore guy in the mid-60s. Not much of that is at the top of mind, but I do have recollections of all. I had to give a listen to “It’s Gonna Take A Miracle” to recall having heard it. You almost couldn’t be alive in MD without being aware of Kirby Scott, but if he was on opposite of anything closer to my mother’s TV taste, we weren’t going to see it. So it was a rare treat. We did get to watch Band Stand of course, but mom would be complaining about how that music would never hold up like her thirties and forties music. No sir! We’d still be listening to “her” music fifty years from now, and that stupid rock and roll would be forgotten. Lol, mom... Yep, saw “Hairspray” more than a time or two. It gets better the more you see it, at least I think so. The least active in my memory bank is Ronnie Dove, thought I do remember some orange and blue record jackets, so there has to be something to that. I’d have to listen to some of his top hits to stir memories. I recall when the Righteous Brothers “Lovin’ Feelin” came out that there were some that at first thought the record was warped when Bill Medley would start the song of in his syrupy, slow baritone. “Ewe Nevah Close Your Eyes”... oddly, though I don’t have a particularly low voice, I could always hit those notes dead on (still can), even at fourteen when singing. I didn’t know whether to think of myself as the Festus Hagen or Gomer Pyle of the neighborhood, lol. Born with the curse of a golden voice. Ah, but in my family any talent you had was to be ridiculed and not encouraged. I wouldn’t sing around any of them, and of course never sought any formal training. Singing could turn you “queer”, you know (when I joined the chorus in school it was referred to at home as “that GD glee club you’re in”. And so could writing. You had to work with your hands to be manly. Come home with grease on your clothes. Damn, I grew up in weird way...But for the most part I always heard different drums and have found my own way. In that way I AM A fortunate son... (: And I still love my family, even though at times they don’t pass the “like” test... Were we talking about something?... |
|
|
|
Post by Renfield on Jan 27, 2020 20:16:43 GMT -5
Renfield, I don't think it was generally known until sometime after the song had faded from the charts. I like it too, in large part because it is a rare musical tribute to a father disguised as a standard issue love song. I also liked "It Don't Matter To Me." The he amazing upper register of David Gates certainly made those songs challenging to sing... Learned yo play Everything I Own on guitar. Gates played it with a capo on the 7th fret. For me to even attempt to sing it (an iffy proposition in any event), had to move the capo down to the 3d fret. That's 2 full steps below where he sang it. So yes, he could sing in a pretty high register. |
|
|
|
Post by inger on Feb 13, 2020 0:27:23 GMT -5
Renfield knows this, but who else knows it?
Down by the sea she knew a sailor who had been to war
She never even knew a sailor before
She never even knew his name
He’d come to town and he would pound her for an couple of days
And then he’d sail across the bubbly waves
And those were happier days
But now,
Gotta get up
Gotta get out
Gotta get home
Before the morning comes...
|
|
|
|
Post by greatfatness on Feb 13, 2020 5:39:26 GMT -5
Renfield knows this, but who else knows it? Down by the sea she knew a sailor who had been to war She never even knew a sailor before She never even knew his name He’d come to town and he would pound her for an couple of days And then he’d sail across the bubbly waves And those were happier days But now, Gotta get up Gotta get out Gotta get home Before the morning comes... Schmilsson |
|
