bread’s birthday

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been 17 … 42, it has a way of creeping up on you” – Love is Always Seventeen <Bread>

Today we celebrate the fact that singer David Gates was born on December 11^th in 1940.

Ok.

Who the hell is David Gates ?

<you are saying>

David Gates is <or was> best known as the lead singer of the band Bread.

Ok.

Now the younger folk are saying … who the hell is <was> Bread?

Bread songs reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s.

David Gates sang all their songs … songs which I assume would be considered sappy in today’s day & age … but I would suggest is possibly the best of the easy listening music category.

I say that because it is even easy to listen to today.

Their songs were simply written and in that way they remain timeless.

Gates was a musician and singer <I do not believe he was a lyricist>.

During High school, David formed a band called David Gates and the Accents with a piano player by the name of Russell Bridges <later known as Leon Russell>.

Well. that’s a high school band I wouldn’t mind having seen.

After leaving the University of Tulsa and traveling to Los Angeles, he played the club circuit with Leon. Besides being a great session player <played with Beach Boys and Phil Specter> and proficient on several instruments, Gates wrote and produced for Glen Campbell, Captain Beefheart, Bobby Darin, Glen Yarbrough and Rod McKuen before forming Bread.

Gates’ songs and singing gave the band a signature sound.

As one critic noted … “Their best material stops a fraction short of mawkishness and his gentle voice over light guitar and strings was never strained.”

It Don’t Matter to Me, Make It with You, Baby I’m a Want You and If, which has been covered by more than 200 artists are most likely their three most recognizable songs.

As someone noted … “In an age of hard rock and hippies they sold more than 17 million albums.”

Well.

Happy birthday David.

And here are my favorites from Bread & David Gates solo:

–          Aubrey <with one of the best opening lines in a song about someone>

“…And Aubrey was her name,

A not so very ordinary girl or name…”

Aubrey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqXek853SDE

–          If <let’s say this song should be in the top 5 love songs of all time>

“If a man could be two places at one time,

I’d be with you.

Tomorrow and today, beside you all the way.

If the world should stop revolving spinning slowly down to die,

I’d spend the end with you.

And when the world was through,

Then one by one the stars would all go out,

Then you and I would simply fly away..”

If: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGfVOdTiUEc

–          Guitar Man

“Then the lights begin to flicker and the sound is getting dim

The voice begins to falter and the crowds are getting thin

But he never seems to notice he’s just got to find

Another place to play,

… fade Away. …. got to Play.”

Guitar Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpOjQvADLG4

It sounds so simple in today’s overproduced music world … but still simply good music.