Thursday, January 19, 2012

40 Years Ago: Bread Rocks Out...Kind Of




[Buy It Now]

They were the sultans of soft rock schmaltz. Bread sent hearts aflutter with love ballads like the title track of their fourth album, released 40 years ago this month. And there was "Make It With You", "It Don't Matter To Me", "Lost Without Your Love" and that most conditional of songs "If" (covered by such bad asses as Percy Faith, Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra).

Baby I'm-A Want You opened with the surprisingly rocking single "Mother Freedom", a crunchy guitar sound songwriter David Gates referred to as "Bread Zeppelin". It's just one of the great songs on the album. "Down On My Knees" is top-notch pop and "Everything I Own" just might be the best song Bread ever recorded. For those with heart conditions brought on by snare drums, there's "Diary". Because buying a Greatest Hits album is a sensible but cowardly way out, Baby I'm-A Want You might just be the best way to re-introduce yourself to Bread, the best thing since sliced ...schmaltz!


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