"Where Were You When I Needed You/Let's Live For Today/Feelings/Lovin' Things" by THE GRASS ROOTS – Four US Studio Albums from 1966 (Debut), 1967, 1968 and 1969 all on Dunhill Records featuring Producer and Songwriters Lou Adler, P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri with Band Members Creed Bratton, Rock Coonce, Rob Grill and Warren Entner (April 2022 UK Beat Goes On (BGO) Compilations – 4LPs onto 2CDs with Andrew Thompson Remasters)- A Review by Mark Barry...

 

 

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"…Melody For You…"

 

Musically somewhere between The Association, The Monkees, The Fabs and even the more melodic moments of Moby Grape (with the long-shadow of The Byrds lingering in the background) – THE GRASS ROOTS charted big – but not that you would know in 2022 or 2023. This most American of Jangle Rock bands seem all but forgotten now let alone respected like some of the hallowed names just mentioned. Yet between 1967 and 1972, TGR charted seven albums on Billboard's Rock LP charts and an impressive fourteen 45-singles starting in 1966 (also ending in 1972). 

 

Brainchild of Producer and Arranger LOU ADLER and featuring extensive songwriting contributions from two 60ts icons - P.F. SLOAN and STEVE BARRI – the last decent CD compilation for The Grass Roots covered their singles. Check out my review for the March 2014 CD "The Complete Original Dunhill/ABC Hit Singles" on Real Gone Music RGM-0227 (B0020162-02) - Barcode 848064002277. A superb sounding compilation with Aaron Kannowski remasters - all 24 of its tracks are USA seven-inch single MONO Mixes (66:27 minutes) and it's a cracker.

 

And that's where this timely 2CD compilation from England's Beat Goes On (BGO) comes a Byrds-jangling in - offering us their first four Studio Albums by THE GRASS ROOTS expertly remastered in Stereo onto 2CDs for maximum value. Time to get rooted (oh dear)...

 

UK released 8 April 2022 - "Where Were You When I Needed You/Let's Live For Today/Feelings/Lovin' Things" by THE GRASS ROOTS on Beat Goes On BGOCD1478 (Barcode 5017261214782) offers Four Stereo Studio Albums originally on Dunhill Records (USA) remastered onto 2CDs and it plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (66:43 minutes):

1. Only When You're Lonely [Side 1]

2. Look Out Girl 

3. Ain't That Lovin' You Baby

4. I've Got No More To Say 

5. I Am A Rock 

6. Lollipop Train (You've Never Had It So Good)

7. Where Were You When I Needed You [Side 2]

8. You Don't Have To Be So Nice

9. Tell Me 

10. You Baby

11. That Is What I Was Made For 

12. Mrs. Jones (Ballad Of A Thin Man)

Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut album "Where Were You When I Needed You" - released August 1966 in the USA on Dunhill Records D-50011 (Mono) and Dunhill DS-50011 (Stereo) - no UK issue. The STEREO Mix is used for this CD.

 

13. Things I Should Have Said [Side 1] 

14. Wake Up, Wake Up 

15. Tip Of My Tongue

16. Is It Any Wonder

17. Let's Live For Today

18. Beatin' Round The Bush

19. Out Of Touch [Side 2]

20. Won't You See Me

21. Where Were You When I Needed You 

22. No Exit

23. The Precious Time

24. House Of Stone

Tracks 13 to 24 are their second studio album "Let's Live For Today" - released July 1967 in the USA on Dunhill Records D 50022 (Mono) and Dunhill DS 50022 (Stereo) - no UK issue. The STEREO Mix is used for this CD.

 

CD2 (65:23 minutes): 

1. Feelings [Side 1]

2. Here's Where You Belong 

3. The Sins Of The Family Fall On The Daughter 

4. Melody For You 

5. Who Will You Be Tomorrow

6. You Might As Well Go My Way 

7. All Good Things Come To An End [Side 2]

8. Hot Bright Lights 

9. Hey Friend 

10. You And Love Are The Same

11. Dinner For Eight

12. Feelings (Reprise)

Tracks 1 to 12 are their third studio album "Feelings" - released February 1968 in the USA on Dunhill Records D 50027 (Mono) and Dunhill DS 50027 (Stereo) - no UK issues. The STEREO Mix is used for this CD.  

 

13. Lovin' Things [Side 1]

14. The River Is Wide

15. (You Gotta) Live For Love

16. City Women

17. What Love Is Made For

18. Pain

19. I Get So Excited [Side 2]

20. The Days Of Pearly Spencer

21. Baby, You Do It So Well

22. I Can't Help But Wonder, Elizabeth

23. Fly Me To Havana

Tracks 13 to 23 are their fourth studio album "Lovin' Things" - released March 1969 in the USA on ABC/Dunhill Records DS 50052 (Stereo only) and March 1969 in the UK on EMI/Stateside SJSL 5064 (Stereo only). 

 

THE GRASS ROOTS were:

CREED BRATTON - Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar

WARREN ENTNER - Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar

ROB GRILL - Lead Vocals and Bass

RICK COONCE - Drums and Percussion

Other Musicians included:

P.F. Sloan (Guitars and Bass), Larry Knechtel and Jimmie Haskell (Keyboards), Joe Osborn and Bobby Ray (Guitars), Hal Blaine (Drums), 'Bones' Howe (Percussion), 

 

The outer card slipcase and 24-page booklet lends this twofer CD set a feel of class. And once again BGO's long-time liner notes associate CHARLES WARING pours on the factoids and generally favourable opinions. Along with all the artwork (front and rear) filling out the first cluster of pages - Waring references sources that include P.F. Sloane's autobiography - it's a typically informative and affectionate read for a band that deserves the spotlight. The AUDIO is very clean even if the deliberate channel separation (the way it was recorded) begins to sound jarring. The imaging is great and when these so-60ts recordings kick in, the pack an ANDREW THOMPSON remastered wallop. Another point noting is that the "Golden Grass" greatest hits set issued in September 1968 contained two new tunes that were both issued as successful 45s in the USA - "Midnight Confessions" and "Bella Linda" and despite room on either CD – they are both AWOL. To the chunes we do have...

 

The debut album is a typical catchall mishmash of contemporary cover versions alongside Sloan and Barri originals. TGR tackled the gentle harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock" (rather well too), The Turtles on "You Baby" and Barry McGuire's "Lollipop Train (You Never Had It So Good)" - while The Stones' "Tell Me", The Lovin' Spoonful's "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" and Jimmy Reed's R&B classic "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" provided the semi-boppers.

 

Opening the band's vinyl account in America - Dunhill Records not surprisingly picked the man of the 1965 moment as their 45-single debut. The Grass Roots' lovely version of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Jones (Ballad Of A Thin Man)" had Dunhill D-4013 put "You're A lonely Girl" on the flipside - a Non-LP track that's outside the purview of this compilation unfortunately. Fans would have to wait until April 1966 for the next platter - a pairing on Dunhill D-4029 of the Sloan/Barri classic "Where Were You When I Needed You" with another Non-LP B-side "(These Are) Bad Times". It did the trick - the A-side punching into Billboard's US singles charts in mid July 1966 and rising to a healthy No. 28 position. Their debut album would proffer one more single in August 1966 (just as the album was released) - the Sloan/Barri two-song combo of "Only When You're Lonely" with "That's What I Was Made Of" on the flipside of Dunhill D-4043 - but chart success would elude them until the release of their much loved second LP - "Let's Live For Today".

 

A cover of an Italian ditty called 'Piangi Con Me' which translates into 'Cry With Me' - The Grass Roots started their chart success proper with their version of that song re-titled "Let's Live For Today". Released April 1967, when that piano, bass and strummed acoustic guitar hits your speakers - you can so hear why its Monkees-meets-The Beatles girly-angst hit the charts with a wallop. Cleverly constructed as the vocals pan across your speakers - hippy-hippy shake moments swoop and swirl and this winner made it up No. 8 on the US singles chart (Dunhill D-4084). The "I'm glad we're different…" and "don't worry about tomorrow…" lyrics of "Let's Live For Today" meant something to Vietnam grunts too.

 

Their signature sound of Clavinet and layered vocals fills every bit of the so-60ts "Beatin' Round The Bush" (it even has a half decent guitar solo). But my fave is the whack and 'down your street' pleader "Out Of Touch" - a Sloan and Barri stab at The Kinks that succeeds. Other acoustic goodies include the layered harmonies of "No Exit" (the walls closing in) and the 'keeping me down' Beach Boys sweetness in "This Precious Time". The album ends in the sound to come - the slightly bad-boy Psych-influenced guitar trash of "House Of Stone" - a fantastic shin-kicker penned by Lead Guitarist Creed Bratton. 

 

Despite the commercial feel to its two opening clavinet and strings cuts, the "Feelings" album (their third) saw changes – a pronounced move away from the Pop of Sloan and Barri to sexier genres and the whole band playing on the album. S & B had only two songs on the album – "Here's Where You Belong" and "Melody For You". After the overtly saccharine nature of the openers, suddenly there is a Kinks hard-hitting guitar edge to "The Sins Of A Family Fall On The Daughter" – a socially smart Ben Sidan song about a girl of 30 who has been around a little too much for her own good. They really come into their own with the brilliant "Who Will You Be Tomorrow" – a Grill and Entner composition that has a slinky vibe with fabulous fuzzed-up guitar. The very pretty "Melody For You" came resplendent with lyrics like "...if I were a poet…my words would be revealing…" This period sweetheart of a tune was issued as a 45-single on Dunhill D-4122 in February 1968 (the Rob Grill and Warren Entner composition "Hey Friend" was its B-side) - but failed to get traction. There is a Dylan meets Buddy Holly jangle to "You Might As Well Go My Way" - while the band channels their inner Neil Diamond Tin Pan Alley cool with the super piano-catchy "All Good Things Come To An End" (great audio on this). The Grass Roots become almost funky THEM with the excellent flick-and-chug of "Hot Bright Lights" – a tune that actually uses the word groovy.

 

Unfortunately the band may have progressed song-wise, but the "Feelings" album di not do much business and there is a marked back-to-what-worked feel to their fourth platter. Title track "Lovin' Things" had been a UK hit for Marmalade (featuring Junior Campbell) in 1968 – the Grass Roots taking its infectious beat to the charts in March 1969. "The River Is Wide" was originally recorded by The Forum on Mira Records 232 in 1967 - here TGR begin their take with cracks of thunders but then do melodrama via Phil Spector and it is admittedly very dated. Harmonica on "(You Gotta) Live For Love" and the death-of-me "City Women" help both tunes, but the strings make it feel like they are trying to hard to please. Back to clavinet can’t-go-on whinging with "What Love Is Made Of" – an awful cloying ballad best forgotten. They even have a go at David McWilliams 'watching me too' tale in "The Days Of Pearly Spencer" though the separation of channels is harsher than it should be. Not as good an album as its undiscovered predecessor.

 

For sure, by the time you get to album number four, you can already hear the winning formula that served them on albums one and two and that taste of genuine progress on their adventurous third – already worn out. But there is much to enjoy on here and warm to see their legacy get such tasty presentation from BGO (yet another quality compilation from them).

 

A uniquely American phenomenon – The Grass Roots deserve this very cool Beat Goes On 4LPs-onto-2CDs offering. Why I can almost forgive those beads and that hairy chest man...