The Smiley Smile Message Board

Hi folks ...
For anyone who has an interest in the band BREAD can I ask you to visit my website at www.bread.moonfruit.com if you are interested in pre-ordering my forthcoming biography on the band. Available in a LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER format only via the site.

Thanks !

 8)

Sorry for revitalising this link - but I'm pleased to say that my BREAD bio will now be issued via Helter Skelter Publishing, one of the UK's to music publishing houses (and with a few BB books to their credit). All those who pre-order will receive a namecheck within the book as a 'sponsor' of the project !
Please check out the link - now at: http://www.helterskelterpublishing.com

 ;)

What dirt could there possibly be on David Gates?  They were yacht rock before there was yacht rock.  One of the late '60s/early '70s acts that ruined AM Top 40 radio and turned pop/rock into bored housewife music.

I wouldn't say there is much "dirt" on Gates, but this band did have its share of disagreements. And to make a comment like "bored housewife music" displays a glaring ignorance of Bread's music. For the Breadheads, the real star of the group was James Griffin - and he could sing any song, any style - slow, fast, soft, hard, country, soul, straight ahead rock 'n' roll.

I have heard Bread.  I just find their major hits to have a depressing sound.   The success of that style set the stage for a whole slew of sad-sounding Top 40 music in the '70s.  Maybe they did a variety of musical styles, but I always associate them with songs like "If" and "I'd Like to Make It With You."  Which have always bummed me out. 

Well I was a bored housewife when I first started to listen to bread, I was 21 and pregnant with my daughter, and I played them constantly.  Their songs gave me comfort and a hell of lot of happiness when I was in dire need of it, so maybe people think of them as depressing, but I think of them with gratitude and fondness

Sorry to offend, WH, but there's something about the chord progressions in those songs and overall sound that make me really sad when I hear them.  Perhaps that's a sign of being musically effective, that a songwriter can provoke such strong emotions, either to make someone sad or lift their spirits, depending on the listener.  I have to admit I'm not a fan of slow ballads, for whatever reason.  I was a little kid during that time, and it seemed to me music on AM Top 40 radio was at one time almost all uptempo, and the ballads were more likely to be found on Adult Contemporary stations.  That changed in the early '70s.  It may have had more to do with rock listeners migrating over to stereo FM than Bread or America or other ballad-oriented acts getting airplay on AM Top 40.

Baby I'm A Want You
It Don't Matter To Me
Make It With You

Honestly, most groups can't even imagine having three beautiful hit singles like that. It was a trend now called "soft rock", and Bread were leading proponents of it. I don't get the trash talk about them.

Well ... at least my initial post is getting some response !  ???

Try this one for a change in style ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjqvC8Rh444  :hat

Because some people don't like soft rock, or more to the point, don't like that it replaced other genres of music as a staple of AM radio (though other genres replaced or reduced the presence of soft rock as time went on, including disco)?  There are people who trash-talk the entire soft rock genre, or you wouldn't have things like the YouTube Yacht Rock parodies.  Just like there are some people who don't like hard rock, or heavy metal, or country. 

Its okay, you didn't really offend me,  I just love that style of music,  and before I started reading this board I had never heard of yacht rock! and still not sure what AOR is  :)  That's the great thing about music, there is something for absolutely everyone and everyones moods and circumstances. I like most genres,  not a fan of cookie monster music though

Mother Freedom was a top 40 hit that wasn't exactly soft rock. The Guitar Man leans more towards the soft side, but it's got that wonderful guitar work by Larry Knechtel. I guess Bread is just not everyone's cup of tea.

"Guitar Man" is one I don't mind as much, but it seems Neil Young-influenced.  Actually, I have a hard time with Neil Young from the early '70s.  Things like "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold" make me sad when I hear them.  As well as Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me." Those are quality songs, but there's just something about the chord progressions/overall sound that are a downer to my ears. Don't even get me started on anything by Gilbert O'Sullivan.  

I guess I would understand your aversion to these songs/artists if I knew what stuff you DO LIKE. Examples?

He digs the musical stylings of one "The Beach Boys"

It's hard to explain why some songs are depressing to one person but happy or neutral to others.  Maybe it's the minor chords.  What's odd is that I can listen to a Beach Boys ballad, and there are very few Beach Boys' songs that make me feel sad.   I'm also not bothered by New Colony Six's "Things I'd Like to Say," Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina," or the Brooklyn Bridge's "Worse That Could Happen," even though you'd think those would fit the criteria (sad chords, maudlin sound).  But I have a problem with Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" and Clarence Carter's "Patches."  

Sorry to derail the thread, BTW.  But perhaps my possibly neurotic response to some pop songs explains my aversion to the David Gates' side of Bread.  

Music sometimes strikes a cord in us that we don't want to feel.   As I mentioned earlier I listened to Bread constantly at one point, but when I had a major relationship break up a few years ago,  Bread came on the radio I would get really upset and change the station, couldn't bear listening to them.  Same with books, I re-read my books all the time and one time when I re-read one of my favorites that I had read over a dozen times, because I was in a depressed state, the book seemed suddenly bleak and horrid.    I tell you what I can NOT bear to listen to though, no matter what mood I'm in, even though it is a stunning song, is - Life of a Tree..   I cried when I first heard it.

No need to be sorry; initially, I guess I expected you had an aversion to Bread because you were into loud, heavy, pounding music. Used to work with a bass player who called them derisively "Toast", yet he had no problem playing America tunes, or the softer side of the Beatles.

Ironic really - seeing that when Robb, Jimmy and Larry got together again in Nashville during the 80's 'Toast' is what they called themselves - "burnt out Breadies"