Portfolio March 14, 1977 Retriever Pa ge 8 Bread: Just Like You Remember Them When the group disbanded they were 'Lost Without Your Love; so they reunited to produce an album by the same name.
By Glenn Isaacson When Bread disbanded late in 1973, they said they were taking a sabbatical from their work as a group. They would us~ the time to branch out into individual dIrec tions and to experiment with solo projects. They said it was a temporary measure and they would reunite someday. One year went by ; then two. David Gates put out two moderately successful solo albums and a couple of hit singles. James Griffin put out a solo album that flopped. Three years went by. Larry Knechtel played studio piano on dozens. of albums for dozens of artists. It seemed lIke every third studio album released Knichtel had played on it. Mike Botts played drums on Linda Rondstadt's tour. By then, even the staunchest Bread fans gave up hope of the group ever getting back together. But late in 1976 the announcement came Bread was to reunity, with all the same members. A single would be out within a month and an album to follow soon after. The ' single was " Lost Without Your Love". It was a pretty, soft rock ballad perfectly cast in the mold of the Bread sound we all knew and loved. "Bread is back," it seemed to say, "just like you remember them." I am sure the song worked its magic on new listeners not familiar with the old Bread material. But for those of us who remembered, the song had a numbing effect. Here it was 1976, Bread had a brand new song out, and they sounded exactly the way they did when we were in junior high school. It invited sentimental trips down memory lane to days so much simpler, so carefree. But it was more than nostalgia; it was a time warp. What happened to I these guys during those three years? They song writing period. The new songs just your lovin' every day, I couldn't live material. This makes for unity on the; couldn't have gone into suspended aren't as imaginative as some of the off without it, no way." the song suffers from album, but also for a certain amount of animation, could they? beat classics they did in' their early days, a blandness that is evidens, in several boredom. The answer was on their new album, songs like "Daughter," "The Guitar lyrics on this album, a blandness that Side two is better. appropriately named after their comeback Man," "Been Too Long On The Road," Bread had managed to avoid in the past. , "Lay Your Money Down" is a nice rough hit, Lost Without Your Love. The results of "Dream Lady," "Truckin' " and "Diary." "She's The Only One" is a good Griffin rocker, proving they still have at least , ~~e Royer song, soft with a snappy beat a~?a three years of varied musical experience As always, all the songs on the new LP spirit to rock freely . "The Chosen One IS show up in the more complex, decent lyric. "Lost Without Your Love IS unquestionably Gates' most well-written are written by either David Gates or an excellent, tender ballad that I like a ~ot . sophisticated arrangements, and in the James Griffin with ex-Bread member contribution to the album. It's a complex use of snythesizers and other instruments more now than when it was on the radio. mood piece, but it doesn't particularly Robb Royer, plus there is one Gates "Change of Heart," the Gates-Griffin never used before by Bread. Their Griffin collaboration. send me. The music and lyrics definitely collaboration, is the absolute best song ~n musicianship is as perfectly flawless as Gates and Griffin also 00 all the lead have some depth and imagination to them, the album. It has an good melody that I~ ever. But the sum total effect of the three vocals each singing lead on about half the and that's good to see. "Today's The First years' experience really comes down to made excellent by the inspired Day" is a great pop-rock number, with a songs, ' and sharing lead spots in certain arrangement. The rhythm instruments on the production and the Bread sound. It is songs. The two have similar voices, but clever Grass Roots-like hook in the chorus, much slicker than it ever was before. the delicate chorus are particularly and fabulously energetic singing by Griffin. there are enough differences between strong. Griffin sings his best, with Gates in People forget, because of Bread's chain of them in sound and style to make it in- . and Gates, especially at the end. "~old glossy sweet hit ballads, that the group perfect harmony. Tight" is an excellent song by Gates. It sa te"esting, and to spice up their high "Belonging" is another bland Gates could get rough and gritty in their sound. quality vocal harmonies. bright, effusive rocker with a supple But on the new album even the rockers are song. I fall asleep on this one. "Fly Away" electric organ line winding around a The album begins with "Hooked On sugar-coated. . is another good soft rock song by Griffin, propulsive rock arrangement, .inspir~d You" which sounds like many of Gates' although it points up that there'is a certain singing, and a dreamy, romanttc lyrIC. As for the songs themselves, it appears soft pretty hits combined but isn't as good sameness to all the Griffin songs on this Bread is . past their most creative This is my pick for their next single, but I as anyone of them. With lines like "I need album, as well as similarities to the G~ doubt Elektra Records will agree. Finally, r "Our Lady Of Sorrow" is the kin of weird, off beat song us Bread fans have come to Women Learn To Emotionally Survive, Modern expect from Griffin-Royer. It's moody, it's deep, and it's great. I feel I have been a little harsh in this Living In Making Ends Meet' review. But it is only because I love Bread. and I know they have the ability to stretch out more and be more imaginative in their by Dolores Croft yes. Her bOok, Makin~ Ends Meet, is not a Harry and gets a successful job as a movie songwriting. But whatever else may be bandstand for the feminist movement, but critic. The reader applauds her new in Making Ends Meet (Fawcett, 1976. 318 pp. said, it is wonderful to have this super a novel about a real woman's desoer<1iJ~ sight and believes that maybe there is Paperback $1.95) by Barbara Howar ~ attempt to "get it together," a task that . hope for his confused lady. talented group back together again. There Courtesy of UMBC Book Center requires emotional strength and But Ms. Howar will not Jet us believe 'is nothing quite as enjoyable as a slice of Can a woman emotionally survive tremendous courage. that resolution alone will change a life. fresh Bread. without a man? Does independence mean The heroine, Lillian Baldwin Lilly sinks back into her insecure ways, ~tracization? Can a woman pursue a Bellingrath, is a woman who struggfes to clinging to every man she meets, sear professional career and raise two children discover her relationship with men only to ching for that one meaningful relationship, LIVE! ON STAGE! alone? finally realize that it is her relationship and being dragged down further into the THE 50's COME TO LIFE! According to noted author and televisi~n with herself that really matters. The depths of dependence. By the fourth agonizing affair, we are ready to condemn personality Barbara Howar, the answer IS idiscovery that her own identity does not st 'depend on the identity of a man gives her .her as' a loser and read something else. neln. ge " the inner strength to survive in the '70's We're not the only ones who are sick of "~he d a . toWn and become a total woman. Lilly. Her long-time friend George .Sab ~ shOW 1J:\ "~ c . , ' ·. 1 h Lilly marries Harry Shawcross, the first berstien, always there to pick up the pIeces in a series of men who drain her physically of her broken romances, tells her what we are feeling. "Will you never learn?" he and psychologically as she feeds their eg~ \.ltf