Back in the day, critics excoriated Bread relentlessly as progenitors of soft rock. Not true, I say. Bread was certainly the most popular example to date of this oxymoronic genre, but they were hardly the first. The Association, Gary Puckett, Simon & Garfunkel, and even Crosby, Stills and Nash had already played key roles in convincing rock to reduce its collective volume. My theory is that rock critics panned Bread's records more out of a sense of fraternal loyalty than any real understanding of their talent. By the band's own account, Bread never set out to become avatars of soft rock. Insofar as they can be judged by David Gates' singles, however, Bread perfected the genre, deftly fusing folk, rock, and pop at the atomic level, creating a new, original, and yet familiar sound. For good or bad, Bread's music has rippled down the generations, influencing everything from synthetic 80's pop to unplugged alternative country.

For his part, James Griffin chiseled a rough-hewn facet into Bread's well-polished music. But, he went largely ignored at the time and, like most second fiddles and flipsides, has been virtually forgotten. According to Griffin, he and Gates initially agreed to split the limelight, alternating singles between songs on which each took the lead. After Gates' initial successes, this arrangement fell through, and Griffin's understandable frustration eventually boiled over. Tensions between Gates and Griffin led to Bread's initial 1973 breakup following the release of Guitar Man (1972). The group briefly reunited in 1976 for one final album (Lost Without Your Love) and tour, then Gates began touring with a reconstituted version of the group. Griffin soon filed those lawsuits that prevented Gates from using the group name - and tying up the band's royalties until much later.

Thankfully, the members of Bread ultimately patched things up, and they toured the world to great acclaim in the late 1990's (though no album was forthcoming). This happy denouement took twenty years to develop, but all the fame and drama didn't happen overnight, either. The members of Bread, including founders Gates, Griffin, and Robb Royer, as well as latecomers Mike Botts and Larry Knechtel, were well-seasoned veterans of the music business. None, however, was well-known to the public. Gates and Griffin had been writing songs, playing sessions, and producing records since the early 60's. Among other projects, David Gates wrote the Mermaids' Top 3 smash, "Popsicles and Icicles," and the Girlfriends' Top 50 hit "My One and Only Jimmy Boy" (both 1963). He also produced Glen Yarborough's hit, "Baby The Rain Must Fall" (#12, 1965) and, believe it or not, the first few singles by Captain Beefheart. Many of these singles are compiled on The Early Years 1962-1967 (2013), including a very early version of Gates' 1975 hit "Never Let Her Go" by country singer Jody Miller.

Gates also recorded a number of surf records. One, a vocal novelty called "The Okie Surfer" (1963), poked less-than-gentle fun at David's Sooner State upbringing. Bob Keene's Del-Fi label released the record under the pseudonym 'The Country Boys' (see The Del-Fi & Donna Story or Del-Fi Beach Party!). The same year, Gates played bass on a Warner Brothers album called Ski Surfin' credited to 'The Avalanches.' The nearly anonymous band included other soon-to-be-famous session men such as guitarists Billy Strange and Tommy Tedesco and drummer Hal Blaine, and they performed winter-themed songs in an instrumental surf idiom.

As for James Griffin, he was born in Ohio but raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where the hard-bitten blues and country of the region stamped a lasting impression on his budding talents. Jimmy caught his first break through his childhood association with rockabilly legends Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. Signed to Reprise Records, Griffin was initially cast as something of a teen idol, releasing Summer Holiday in 1963 and acting in several movies. More singles (for Reprise, Imperial, and others) followed, but no hits resulted, and by 1968 Jimmy was earning his rent as a songwriter. (Real Gone Records reissued Summer Holiday in 2012 with all of Griffin's non-LP Reprise singles as bonus tracks.)

Reflecting on his early days, David Gates told writer Barney Hoskyns, "Seeing some nice songs go down the drain, you started to think, maybe I ought to do them myself." So fate sparked when James Griffin began collaborating with Robb Royer, a singer-songwriter whose group The Pleasure Faire was produced by Gates. The trio of starving musicians - Gates, Griffin, and Royer - immediately hit it off. Tired of tending the careers of other artists while their own lay fallow, they began to conspire, hoping to spotlight their own compositions and considerable performing talents.

Soon, Bread was a reality. Their industry connections must have served them well, because they were signed in relatively short order to Elektra Records, a label previously known for folkies (Judy Collins), blues bands (Paul Butterfield), and acid rockers (Love, MC5, the Doors). Bread's eponymous first album (1969), in fact, sets a fairly somber tack, avoiding the pop sentimentality that would soon earn them fame. Overall, Bread was an inauspicious debut, but several cuts, including "Dismal Day," "London Bridge," and "Friends And Lovers," were strong songs that bore influences as diverse as the Byrds, the Beatles, and Burt Bacharach. Throughout the album, Royer, Gates, and Griffin shared the vocal and songwriting spotlight and also handled most of the instrumental chores (abetted by studio drummers, including noted stickman Jim Gordon). Though well-received by the rock press, Bread failed to produce any hits, and the group moved on to their second album.

For On The Waters (1970), Bread added a full-time drummer, Mike Botts. The California native was a well-known session man (having anchored bands for jazzbos Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, plus former Righteous Brother Bill Medley) and had belonged to his own group, the Travelers Three, in the mid-60's. Botts' strong, stalwart drumming - combined with more seasoned, confident contributions from the songwriters - raised Bread's sophomore platter a discernable notch above their debut. Among the highlights were Gates' "Blue Satin Pillow," a gutsy garage rocker, and Griffin and Royer's "Look What You've Done," a propulsive ballad with a soaring, ambitious arrangement.

But it was "Make It With You" that scaled the charts. In retrospect, this was where Gates set the template for the mellow, easygoing ballads that became the group's trademark. While Bread was never as one-dimensional as their hit singles indicated, David Gates would revisit this formula at least once on all subsequent albums, corralling a cash cow every time. On The Waters, however, failed to generate another hit single. Rather, Gates and the group quickly scored again by dipping back into their debut for their next 45. A new version of Gates' "It Don't Matter To Me," recorded in a more laid-back style (that is, more in the style of "Make It With You"), scraped the Top 10, keeping the group on the charts as they toured and planned their next record.

The growing disparity between Bread's image of themselves as serious rock musicians and the public's perception of them as sweet balladeers was thrown into stark contrast with their third album, Manna (1971). Royer and Griffin wrote a number of fine rockers, and David Gates contributed the smoldering "Let Your Love Go," Manna's lead single. While that song stalled at #28, the follow-up, Gates' tender, poetic ballad "If," shot to #4 and ultimately becames the band's signature song. With tension building, Robb Royer soon departed, though he continued writing with Griffin.

Ultimately, though, the loss of this founding member proved to be a good thing for the group. Royer's replacement was Larry Knechtel, a studio pro with a bulging resumé, including a stint in Phil Spector's legendary Wrecking Crew. Known primarily as a pianist (that's him playing the stately introduction to Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Knechtel could handle a number of instruments with equal aplomb (including bass on the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man").

Larry Knechtel's expert contributions helped make Bread's fourth album their best and most successful ever. Baby I'm A-Want You (released in late 1971) was a tour de force from its sterling collection of songs down to the deluxe, gatefold album cover. Boosted by Knechtel's MVP performance, the band sounded as engaged and passionate as they ever would. Most impressively, the album's repertoire spanned a dizzying array of styles - from the strident crunch of "Mother Freedom" and the eerie punch of "Dream Lady" to the sprightly funk of "Daughter." Gates and Griffin even collaborated on a few songs, cowriting "Down On My Knees" and (with Knechtel) "Nobody Like You" - and harmonized like never before. In so many ways, Baby I'm A-Want You was a nearly perfect 70's rock album. Even lightweight novelties like Gates' "This Isn't What The Governmeant" and Griffin's "I Don't Love You" fit well in the sophisticated scheme of the record. Aided by four hit singles, Baby I'm A-Want You would become the bestselling, highest-charting studio LP of Bread's career.

But, to the average radio listener, Baby I'm A-Want You was just another batch of sweet Bread ballads. "Mother Freedom," the loudest song Bread would ever record or Gates would ever write, had been released as an advance single during the preceding summer, but it barely breached the Top 40. Elektra then released the title song - a virtual rewrite of "Make It With You" - and it predictably shot to #3. This single was followed with two more Gates ballads, "Everything I Own" (#5) and "Diary" (#15). Make no mistake: As soft rock ballads go, these are among the best, and Gates' craftsmanship is impeccable. "Everything I Own," in particular, is really a gem; originally a tribute to Gates' father, the song is, at its core, an emotionally bald plea for rapprochement. Thanks to this universal appeal, "Everything I Own" has been covered over the years by reggae singer Ken Boothe, Culture Club diva Boy George, indie popper Chris Von Sneidern, and boy band N'SYNC.

Bread, however, had proven themselves a more accomplished, diverse band than these sentimental songs could convey. Even Rolling Stone magazine, hard-nosed arbiters of hip, had to acknowledge Bread's newfound vitality. Writer David Lubin admitted, "Baby I'm A-Want You is a full-bodied album, exuding health and vigor," though he felt compelled to add "even in the thick of its most exaggerated sentimentality." But the public had come to expect David Gates' pop arias, not Jimmy Griffin's blues-tinged rock or Gates' own attempts at a more muscular sound. In Barry Alfonso's liner notes to Retrospective (1996), Larry Knechtel recalled that Bread's concert audiences consisted of starry-eyed girls (and their disgruntled boyfriends) who wanted only to hear the soft stuff. Said Knechtel, "We'd usually close the main show with 'Mother Freedom,' one of our best rockers. But a lot of times, I don't think the girls wanted to hear that. As far as they were concerned, we didn't need to put any up-tempo things on our albums at all."

Nevertheless, Bread soldiered on, quickly releasing a new single with David Gates' "The Guitar Man" (1972). Quite unlike anything in the group's canon, "The Guitar Man" is atypical in a number of ways: most fundamentally, it's not a love song. But also, "The Guitar Man" (as the name suggests) emphasizes the rich interplay of six-strings as much as the melody and lyrics. Starting with the sweeping steel guitar introduction, then punctuated with Larry Knechtel's stinging leads, the song tells the story of a journeyman musician driven to perform - a story familiar to the veterans who comprised Bread. The album that followed was certainly less spectacular than Baby I'm A-Want You, though strong by most standards. "Fancy Dancer," a swamp rocker written by Griffin with drummer Botts, and another Gates-Griffin collaboration, "Make It By Yourself," were standout tracks. The subsequent singles, "Sweet Surrender" and "Aubry," though, showcased yet more Gates' balladry.

With these two songs, Bread's formula for success began to wear thin. To describe "Aubry" as cloying is gross understatement, plus the song is a barely concealed rip-off of Gates' earlier hit, "Diary." "Sweet Surrender" is better - darn near irresistible, in fact - but insubstantial in the extreme. Whether the public noticed or had just grown tired of the parade, Guitar Man performed less admirably on the charts than its predecessor (peaking at #15), and none of the three singles reached the Top 10. The stress of stardom and the pressure to produce took its toll, and Bread broke up in 1973. Despite some evidence to the contrary, the idea was more Gates' than Griffin's. Gates felt Bread's creativity was flagging, and he maintains that it was his decision for the band to dissolve. Griffin concurred, saying, "I don't think the rest of us wanted to hang it up."

Whatever, David Gates and Jimmy Griffin soon leapt into the fray with solo records, though both enlisted the talents of Mike Botts and Larry Knechtel. Gates' initial LP, First (1973), was pretty terrific, surveying country ("I Use The Soap"), jazz ("Lorilee"), and rock ("Sunday Rider") with casual assurance. The first single, "Clouds," was part of an impressive extended suite, but on its own conformed roughly to the public's idea of a standard Gates ballad. Nevertheless, the song stalled at #47, and the follow-up ("Sail Around The World") limped to #50. The album failed to even dent the Top 100.

James Griffin's Breakin' Up Is Easy (Polydor, 1974) was a less consistent record than Gates' First, and it performed even worse commercially, failing to chart whatsoever - which did little to dispel the perception of Griffin as a minor talent. However, several great songs emerged from the album, including the gritty Robb Royer-penned title track and "She Knows," a tender paean cowritten by Griffin and Royer. One track, "Love You Till The Cows Come Home," featured David Gates, Mike Botts, and Larry Knechtel with Robb Royer behind the boards - thereby qualifying as a full-fledged Bread reunion.

James Griffin soon began recording another album with a familiar cast of supporting players - Botts, Knechtel, and studio stars like Jim Gordon, David Paich, and Dean Parks. David Gates even showed up to contribute bass to one track, "That's All I Need," making it another unofficial Bread reunion. The album, simply titled James Griffin, was scheduled for release in 1975, but when the lead single - a horn-driven rocker called "Treat Her Right" backed with a superb ballad, "How Do You Say Goodbye" - flopped unceremoniously, the project was shelved, and Griffin slipped into the background. The album finally came out in Europe in 1977, and in 2013, a small English label called Hux compiled both of Griffin's early solo albums as Just Like Yesterday: The Solo Anthology 1974-77.

David Gates next record, Never Let Her Go (1975), simply reiterated - with slightly diminished results - the eclectic formula of First. Still, it fared better in the marketplace, spawning one Top 30 single with the title track and another when Gladys Knight & The Pips promptly covered "Part Time Love." Mike Botts, meanwhile, landed a plum gig drumming for Linda Ronstadt, touring and contributing to such records as Hasten Down The Wind (1976). In later years, Botts worked with Dan Fogelberg, Andrew Gold, and Eric Carmen, and in 2002 he released his first-ever solo album, Adults Only (available through CDBaby). Larry Knechtel simply resumed his illustrious session career, lending support over the years to Jerry Garcia, Elvis Costello, and many others. Also, Knechtel recorded several instrumental albums, including Mountain Moods (1989) and Urban Gypsy (1990).

The Bread story wasn't finished, however - not by a long shot. Immediately following the group's dissolution, Elektra Records unleashed The Best Of Bread (1973), a jam-packed collection of hits, followed the next year by a slightly less stellar package, Best Of Bread Vol. Two (1974). Collectively, these two LP's sold about a jillion copies, demonstrating that demand for the group had not dissipated. At the urging of their record label - and perhaps spurred by their relative lack of success outside the group - Gates and Griffin reunited Bread for what would prove to be their final album. Lost Without Your Love (1976) was a fair success, achieving #26 on the album charts and yielding two hit singles (Gates ballads, both), including the Top 10 title track. With hindsight, though, it was an ill-advised concept, as the record sounded neither fresh nor hip by the standards of the day. James Griffin, at least, could say that he turned in the record's best performance - his songs "She's The Only One" and "Change Of Heart" far outshined Gates' by-the-numbers contributions.

As always, however, Griffin's songs languished as LP cuts or single b-sides while the Gates ballads played out on the charts. David Gates' best cut on the record, the jazzy ode "The Chosen One," was ignored in favor of pleasant piffle like "Hooked On You." Bread toured in support of the record, but, in Gates' own words, "It was worth a try, but once was enough." Tellingly, Lost Without Your Love was unavailable in any format for many years, and unlike Bread's other LP's was never reissued on CD by Elektra. (The album was finally reissued in 2006 without aplomb by little Wounded Bird Records, along with three other then-deleted Bread albums).

Anyway, after the tour all hell broke loose, and Bread crumbled in a flurry of lawsuits and acrimony. Unfazed, David Gates soon garnered the biggest hit of his solo career with "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) from the Neil Simon movie of the same name. In 1978, he included that song, several new tracks (including "Took The Last Train"), and some previously released material on an ad hoc greatest hits collection called Goodbye Girl. Since then, David Gates has conducted a sporadic solo career that included a country-tinged comeback album, Love Is Always Seventeen (1994). A European collection, The David Gates Songbook (2002), culls tracks from Gates' entire career, including some new songs; another import, Collected (2012), takes the same concept and expands it to three discs.

In and of itself, though, Gates' early solo work was never issued on CD in the United States until 2008, when Wounded Bird released his first four albums - First (1973), Never Let Her Go (1975), The Goodbye Girl (1978), and Falling In Love Again (1980). Shortly thereafter, English label Edsel reissued all four titles together in a two-disc set - highly recommended.

As for Griffin, after his self-titled second solo LP was finally released, he resumed writing songs for other artists. He also cut an LP, Griffin & Sylvester (1982), with Hollies' lead singer Terry Sylvester. In the late 80's, Griffin collaborated with fellow semi-legends Billy Swan ("I Can Help") and Randy Meisner (the Eagles) in a group called Black Tie, recording one album, When The Night Falls (1985). When the album was reissued in 1990, the group landed a minor country hit with a rendition of Buddy Holly's "Learning The Game." Soon thereafter, Jimmy Griffin earned his biggest post-Bread success with the Remingtons, a country trio. The group scored a Top 10 country single ("A Long Time Ago") on their 1991 debut, Blue Frontier, then waxed an interpretation of David Gates' "Everything I Own" - extending an olive branch, perhaps? - for their album second album, Aim For The Heart (1993).

Olive branch or not, Bread finally settled the lawsuits and mended the fences for a reunion tour in 1996. According to their biographer, Malcolm Searles, Gates demanded half the proceeds - and Jimmy Griffin acceded. While it ended up an amicable and profitable venture, nothing further came of it - though Griffin, Botts, and Knechtel would perform the occasional gig billed as Toast!

Bread's six Elektra LP's have all been reissued on CD, by Elektra, Rhino, and/or Wounded Bird. All their albums (even Lost Without Your Love) yield rewards for serious fans of 70's rock, but I mainly recommend Manna, Baby I'm-A Want You, and Guitar Man, plus David Gates' first two solo records. In and of themselves, the two Best Of Bread LP's were never issued as CD's. Rather, Rhino Records combined the complete contents of the first album with the best of the second, plus "Lost Without Your Love," which post-dated either. This new edition of The Best Of Bread (2001) culls all-but-one of the group's charted singles together with a handful of stand-out album cuts - ideal for casual fans.

Even better, though, is Rhino's earlier Retrospective (1996), a 2-CD, 50-song treasure trove with nearly every essential Bread song (see below), including several solo tracks and Griffin's never-released demo of "For All We Know." In that light, Rhino's 2-CD, 30-song Definitive Collection (2006) doesn't live up to it's name. Really, it's just a slimmed-down version of Retrospective, edited liner notes included. But, 30 songs for less than $20 - that's a definitive bargain, at least. Avoid, however, Elektra's 20-song Anthology (1990); ancient by CD standards, it inexcusably omits "Mother Freedom," Bread's most convincing rocker.

Beginning with The Sound Of Bread (1977), passable collections have appeared with regularity in the Europe market. Most, such as Make It With You: The Platinum Collection (2005), are interchangeable. One of particular note, however, is Essentials (2002), which approximates a single-disc rendition of Retrospective by incorporating some of Gates' solo hits. On an entirely different tack, indie label Badman Records released Friends & Lovers: Songs Of Bread (2003), an enjoyable tribute album featuring the group Cake (some poetic justice there...) and members of the Posies.

During 2005, tragically and improbably, fully half of Bread passed away. First, James Griffin succumbed to lung cancer in January, and then Mike Botts fell victim to colon cancer in December. Both were just 61 years old. As the year closed, UK label Lemon Records released a previously unheard Griffin album, Break and Run, and in 2010 Robb Royer compiled Jimmy Griffin, a collection of unreleased recordings dating back as far as the 1970's.

One could only hope that Griffin's and Botts' sad, premature deaths (followed by Larry Knechtel's passing in 2009) would trigger a long-overdue reassessment of Bread's music. To date, that hasn't happened, and you shouldn't hold your breath - though the band's popularity in England and Asia has proved durable. True, Bread excelled at sentimental ballads and sold a truckload of records, but they were neither the kings of soft rock schmaltz nor the money-grubbing opportunists the rock press portrayed them as. Rather, they just a rock band, a good and sincere group of professional musicians who captured our young hearts. Listen to their music with open ears, and relive the unblinking magic of all those wonderful, charming hits. But, listen to Jimmy's songs, too.... [top of page]