Yeah, yeah OK. I know what you are thinkin', the boy's flipped out. All I know is in the summer of my 14th year, this sweet lovely song called "Make It With You" floated out of the AM radio and into the ears of my girlfirend (if you could call her that, but I did at the time). She loved the song, so did I, it was deemed to be "our song" and so it was. After we broke up, she gave me the album back that I bought her with my own money (see previous post). I started playing it and discovered "Been Too Long On The Road", "It Don't Matter To Me" "Why Do You Keep Me Waiting"and others. David Gates hung around in Tulsa with Leon Russell and J.J. Cale. James Griffin was a session guy in LA, Mike Botts was a well respected drummer who once worked with Wes Montgomery and Larry Knectel palyed keyboards on "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" so, these guys could play. They just didn't play as loud as most of the other stuff I was listening to. Apparently, it was a clash of egos that sent these guys to their demise and that's too bad. For every Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Zeppelin record, this was a nice diversion. I was 14 when I first heard them in 70, they split up for about four years in 1973 and released "Lost Without Your Love" in 1977 and called it quits. They had a special on TV around my 16th birthday and I had to beg my father to let me watch it. James Griffin recently passed with cancer at the age of 61. He wrote "For All We Know" for The Carpenters. He once said that they never wanted to be a soft rock band but going toe to toe with Grand Funk was probably not in their best interest. Smart man, Smart band.
And now, the top ten:
1. He's A Good Lad -they wrote that one about me.
2. If -to me, the classic love song. Kris Eric Stevens made this song sound special every time he played it on WLS.
3. It Don't Matter To Me -right song, right time right(?) girl
4. Guitar Man -a bit of an edge (hey, it's Bread, OK?)
5. Make It With You -summer of my 14th year. nuff said
6. Everything I Own -the ultimate song of sacrifice, covered many times. Another great sounding song on WLS.
7. London Bridge-first song, first side, first LP
8. Diary-been there, done that, have the scars
9. Let Your Love Go-nice rocking tune
10.Sweet Surrender- their last great song, a fine way to say goodbye
Here's Larry Knechtel on the lead guitar with "Guitar Man" from that TV special in 1972. Very tasty...
5 comments:
I think this is the only band we agreed on in our teenage years :)
I still love them today.
Love ya!
Mike Botts was the drummer for Dan Fogelberg's band for a long time...He had an interesting "diary" about touring with Fogelberg in 03 here:
http://www.mikebotts.com/html/DFRoadlog.html
Mike Botts passed away due to colon cancer on December 19, 2005. Dan Fogelberg passed away almost 2 years to the day on December 17, 2007 from prostate cancer.
Wow, I didn't know that. Man, what a way to start the day. I will post the wed address for his site. I am surprised thast it's still up. Mike Botts and James Griffin both passing of cancer. Sad.
Another Bread song...Mother Freedom...great song....good band. How we forget about some of these just plain old good bands. Somewhere in my collection I have an instrumental album done by none other than K.C. and the Sunshine Band, that kicked ass. I could name a few other songs, by other "bands" as well, but I might get booed off the stage by some...probably not you, but some...HA! Have a good one!
Dude, I ain't mad at ya--so long as you don't think I'm losing my mind when I do my tribute to The Carpenters in the not-so-distant future! "If" was/is one of my childhood favorites when I first started listening to Top 40 radio on WHB when I was in 1st Grade. Wimpy, yes, but oh so beautiful!
Meantime, I love the fact that Larry Knechtel (who also played keys for the Partridge Family) and Jimmy Griffin had the temerity to regroup during the '90s under the name "Toast"--friggin' brilliant!
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