The Smiley Smile Message Board

Can't do anymore than keep plugging away ! Here's the new promotional video ... :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g7loE_n8Es&feature=g-upl

Please share it amongst your fellow music friends, even if it doesn't appeal to you personally (tho' I hope that's not the case !!)

(http://i50.tinypic.com/2n66ypc.jpg)

Thanks for that link! Bread was great. Talented guys. David Gates never got the recognition he deserved for songwriting. Bread was a big part of my early AM radio listening experience.

Gates may not have recieved due recognition for songwriting....but compared to Griffin/Royer, he's the most praised writer in the biz! Still pisses me off how Elektra passed over all those great Griffin leads. These were the guys that won an Oscar for their song "For All We Know"...yet their own record label relegated them to b-side status.  ::)

Do I take it then I have a confirmed buyer ??!!  :lol

Just put together a new Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/Bread.Biography - if anyone wants to keep track of the books progress, or keep an eye on band updates, videos or general Bread-chat ...

What I always thought of Bread: very solid, talented group on every level, but they polished their studio tracks to such perfection that it sterilized pretty much every song... which has led to them being completely forgettable to many people because their music lacks the character you get with imperfection.

but that's just my opinion.  Still, I love their music.  "Aubry" is incredible. 

Fair comment Ron - although I would certainly dispute this with their first two albums ('Bread' and 'On The Waters') where they were still a little 'rough around the edges'. Then again, folk only tend to associate the band with David Gates material and the wonderful work and compositions of Jimmy Griffin and Robb Royer tend to get overlooked - which is where the book comes in. Righting wrongs ... or 'writing' wrongs as Mike Nesmith once said ...

That's an odd criticism to make on a Beach Boys board. If I want to hear imperfections in music, I pull out those early Kinks albums; or pretty much anything on Sun Records.

I think not!  The Beach Boys had imperfections on every song they released.  Studio chatter, bum notes, wrong words, production and engineering errors, shoddy lyrics, insane dynamic fluctuations, etc.  One of the most endearing things about the 'boys is how they were so imperfectly great. 

Still, back on topic.  Bread were great, I'll try to pick up their first two albums to clue myself in!

I can't listen to Aubrey without the ol' waterworks starting. When my beloved old cat died a few years ago I sat and played it over and over.  :-[

I had a friend who I used to play guitar with, we were both into that and about the same age.  He grew up with his grandfather... so a few years into knowing this guy and his grandfather, the old man passed away.  I went to the funeral, and my friend played and sang "Everything I Own" to his grandfather's casket, since that was his favorite song. 

It was a tearrrrrr jerrrrrrker.  I mean unbearable, just  god awful.  I wish I wasn't even there. 

Bread was one of those bands that, when I was younger, were the epitome of uncool. They played music for housewives and old grandmothers...much like Columbia-era Neil Diamond. I've since come around.

Bread could be rough around the edges after the first two records. Listen to stuff like Take Comfort, Truckin', Down On My Knees, I Don't Love You, Tecolote...they weren't exactly on an ELO level of overproduction and overmixing and overindulgence. Even when they used orchestral backings they were rarely tacky, except on the Lost Without Your Love album, which basically sounds like a band trying to live up to their reputation.

Bread rules. Deal with it.

 I like Bread a lot too, Malc, but I'm going to be brutally honest with you here- that cover is absolutely terrible. You're not helping yourself or the group by representing them with such an unattractive and tacky piece of work. Sorry, man.

I think Lost Without Your Love was just a case of the label pressuring them to reunite - Gates' solo stuff wasn't selling nearly as well as Bread had - so they did it, kind of half heartedly, then James split when it became obvious nothing had changed, he was still second banana to David. Can't say that I blame him. I would be really pissed off if I was writing/singing half of the material in a band, and yet every A-side, every single time out, went to that other guy. Even if that other guy was a melodic genius like David Gates. Imagine (ha ha) had taken a back seat to Paul McCartney every time out.