Here's "If", with David Gates... The words to this love song are kind of lovely, but this song always made me think of polluted water for some reason. Years later, Dolly Parton sang it...
She sang it in a little more upbeat style, but kept the vibrating sound effects that put me off of the original.
Then jazz singer Jane Monheit sang it and I liked that version the best, though I eventually got sick of Jane Monheit...
I wasn't actually that familiar with "Baby, I'm A Want You" as performed by Bread...
The version I knew best was a duet done by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. My parents had their 1978 duet album on 8-track and they used to play it all the time. I have many memories of being strapped into the back seat of a urine yellow Ford LTD with ugly green upholstery...
I actually wouldn't mind owning Every Time Two Fools Collide today, but I don't think it's the same album that was around in 1978. I got some of it on a battered cassette tape... Pity.
And of course, there's also "Make It With You"...
I'm sure Bread did other songs, but those are the three I remember by them. And I didn't like them enough to search for others. Barry Williams of The Brady Bunch says that Bread was quite the purveyor of makeout songs in the early 70s, though... And he's made out a lot.
I'm familiar with a lot of 60's to 80's music because of my parents' musicianship, and especially because my dad toured as a guitarist in the summers, but Bread was never a group to which I was exposed. Since then, I've listened to much of their stuff. my favorite, although I don't remember if it was Bread or David Gates' solo work, is "Aubrey," which was almost my name except my mom decided to change her mind at the last
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The image of polluted water is interesting. Msybe it's the odd guitar work at the beginning.
LOL... The only reason I know "Aubrey" is because they played it on Guiding Light back in the early 80s. One of the characters supposedly wrote it... It's a pretty song. David Gates' voice irritates me, though.
ReplyDeleteThey must've had to pay David Gates for the show to be allowed to pretend one of their characters wrote it. As money-savvy as both he and his wife seem to have been, I doubt it was anything resembling a freebie for guiding light. David Gates is from somewhere like Tulsa. if he could've lost the Okie twang, it might have helped his voice. There are singers with drawls who are great, but his music didn't lend itself to the subtle drawl thing that he had and has going.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I can find a clip from that era that has them doing "Aubrey" on Guiding Light... I shall search right now.
ReplyDeleteThat would be interesting.
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