Customer Reviews

Baby Im a Want You

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If you already have one of the many BEST OF Bread albums, and want to hear some more, this is as good a place as any to start. Bread's original studio albums are all equally excellent. The difference from the BEST OF albums is that you get to hear more James Griffin songs, because most of the "hits" were penned (and sung) by David Gates. Songs like "Down on My Knees" and "Just Like Yesterday" have the unmistakable Griffin signature. They're not classics like "Baby I'm a Want You" or "Everything I Own", but very good nonetheless. Lets you see the other side of Bread.

Okay you have to buy "Baby I Want You" by Bread. All of the songs on it are great, especially "Everything I own"(my fav song). If you are a soft-rock fan then you can not live without this album for another day! All of the music on the album has a certain quality to it that just kind of calms you almost. Their music isn't too hardcore or heavy, it's just right for taking it easy. I strongly suggest you buy this album. You won't regret it! So go and buy it! Now!

This album brings together some of Bread's best ballads and a few strong rock songs too. They often seem to start an album with a rocky song, and 'Mother freedom' is arguably the heaviest song they have ever done. It is also excellent and catchy, and I don't really like this sort of music, so that is saying something! 'Down on my knees' is also fairly upbeat and catchy, but not as good.
The ballads again stand out, and Griffin writes some of his best. 'Dream lady' has an infectious melody, and nice backing vocals, with the gutiar plucking away. 'Just like yesterday' is one of his best piano ballads ever, and I love 'Games of magic' for its melody. Another ballad, without any drums.
GAtes is also on form. 'Diary' is his 'Aubrey' of the album, with a beautiful set of lyrics, definitely my favourite by Bread, and a gorgeous string arrangement, with subtle backing vocals by James. 'Baby I'm a want you' is really well known and desrvedly so, for it is beautiful. I love 'everything I own' also, particularly the middle eight, where I am still not sure if a guitar is being played, or it is actually a harp.
Only one song is noticeably weaker for me, the substandard 'this isn't what the governmeant'. Apart from the clear pun this is an irritating dirge of a number, that should have been left off and replaced with something else.
Still highly highly recommended!

Perhaps one of the purest pieces of pop perfection ever poured onto a plastic disc for the pleasure of professional fans, "Baby I'm-A Want You" could be the pop equivalent of Picasso or Dali - that is, the first time that soft rock made a true, unabashed masterpiece which can be held up as a standard for time immemorial. Previous "acclaimed" groups, like the Beatles or the Stones, can really just be seen as footnotes leading up to Bread, an inspired group who merged heart, beauty, tunefulness and perfection to create heavenly music of a type never heard before or since. Everything since has been a comedown, really.

Somehow, though, this album is not mentioned in the same breath as other musical classics, like the overrated "Sgt. Pepper" and "Pet Sounds". Anti-Bread bias among music's elite? Possibly. But that's splitting hairs. My question for the growing legion of Bread-heads out there is this: why is this not an album that is in everyone's music collection? Why is it, as I write this, number 20,432 on Amazon's sales list? Are we so possessive of classic songs like "Everything I Own" and "Diary" that we feel no need to share them with others who might also see the light? It's time for everyone to love this album like we love this album and be freed from the oppression of no-talents like Coldplay and Dave Matthews! Let's make this thing number one on the sales chart (or at least in the top 100)!

Bread-heads, it's time to let the world hear what they've been missing. They'll be hearing the greatest music ever - and baby, I'm-a want that.

Bread was a little difficult to take, for true Rock and Rollers in the early seventies. David Gates, their cheif songwriter, evidentally felt that he was the "McCartney" of the band, his penchant for composing AOR/MOR fluff like "Make It With You" being the Bread tracks that were played on the radio. The man COULD Rock and Roll if he absolutely HAD to (dig "Let Your Love Go" off the previous "Manna" album), but by and large, he was going after the leisure suit/"been there-done that" babyboomers who'd burnt out on tripe like Joni Mitchell or James Taylor. Ah, but the other guitarist/vocalist of the band, James Griffin, was there to kick his bootie every album - and Griffin absolutely SHINES here on "Want You": dig his very much LEAD guitar on the very first track, "Mother Freedom," or especially the final cut on the album, "I Don't Love You," where Griffin flaunts his Memphis background (God Bless him!), and sounds like a severely hungover Wilson Pickett. But the most important element that added some desperately need integrity - and, yes, testosterone! - to the group was the addition of one of Ammerica's greatest natural resources, keyboardist/bassist Larry Knechtel. Every thing on "Baby I'm-a Want You," even the hideous title track is...empowered, yes, by Knechtel's presence. And if you're over 50, you certainly must remember Knechtel stealing the show out from under the rest of the band on "American Bandstand," where he played that marvelous tack-piano on "Nobody Like You." Knechtel even plays "lead" guitar (frankly, superior to the other two) on the "daddy bye-bye baby" song, "Daughter." His organ solo on Griffin's "Dream Lady" shows his superiority to other then-current "flashier" keyboardists (I'm not even mentioning Wakeman or Emerson, am I?), and his harmonica on Griffin's "I Don't Love You" makes you say to yourself, "when WERE these guys at Sun Studio?" "Baby I'm'a Want You" is a GREAT album, folks, even the slush, and it's one of those few album/CDs that you can play all the way thru, without having to "skip over" every other track - and you could say that about NO OTHER Bread album. And Rest In Peace, James Griffin, Larry Knechtel, and drummer Mike Botts.

If you already like Bread from some songs you've heard, this album is definitely a buy.

There are only a couple of songs that are not as melodically delicious. Here's the run down:

Mother Freedom: think 70s "smell like teen spirit" (beat wise and catchiness) definitely rock chart topper
Baby I'm a want you: beautiful love song very catchy (chart topper)
Down on my knees: driving catchy and upbeat. good strong melody
Everything I own: chart topper back in the day
Nobody like you: a little country rock lol still catchy... but its not something you need to force yourself to listen a number of times to enjoy it.
Diary: sweet ballad!
Dream Lady: v. cool 70s psychedelic ballad that goes into some serious organ solo!
Daughter: catchy upbeat song (sounds a little beatlesque)
Games of Magic: slow psychedelic song, makes you think of some flower power mommas and pappas song... very enjoyable.
This isnt what the governmeant: the only song i dont like.. sure you can say its catchy but in a REALLY hillbilly way...
Just like yesterday: another beautiful ballad
I dont love you: I hate the contrived vocals at the start... both voices dont fit each other... it has those echo drums like john lennon... still catchy.

so there... only 2 songs i didnt like... i'm a sucker for sweet tunes.

hope this helped you make your buying decision.

In 1972 I bought this, at that time, eight track tape. I wore it out. It was one of mine and my girlfriend's (now wife) favorite tapes. So many memories come flooding back when I listen to this recording. Sometimes music transports us to a place and time from long ago and we can relive wonderful times. This tape does this for me.

I'm not sure I listened to the same album as some of the other reviewers because I thought the strength of this album were the rockin' tunes, most by James Griffin. His "Down on My Knees" and "Nobody But You" are two great songs that benefited more than any other songs on the album from the presence of one of the greatest muscians of all time, Larry Knectel. His keyboards are stellar and Griffin's grainy voice add life to what would have been a very good album anyway, but they make it even better. David Gates' title track as well as the other Gates contributions are great ballads, except for "Mother Freedom" which is his rocker contribution and very good also. If you are tired of all the music that has been released since the 90s, try out this album for a great chance of pace.

Robb Royer departed the group and Larry Knechtel came on board for "Baby I'm A Want You." This was Bread's first album where I didn't think of Bread so much as a collection of David Gates' songs, James Griffin's songs, or Robb Royer's songs thrown together... not that I'm complaining. The members seemed to sound more like a band to me. The tunes seemed to flow together better, the orchestrations developed more depth and flavor, and the members sing more back-up for each other.

Although Gates wrote six of the twelve songs (and co-wrote on two), it seems he and Griffin were at their colaborative best on this album. "Down On my Knees," co-written by both Gates and Griffin remains one of Bread's memorable tunes to me. This album spawned four of their top 40 hits and has, I think, Griffin's best work.... "Just Like Yesterday" (my favorite James Griffin song!- a haunting, infectious ballad you can't help but sing along to) and "Dream Lady" and "Games of Magic" that he both co-wrote with Robb Royer.

It's an album for the times (1971-1972) with Gates' penned tune "This Isn't What the Government" and a bit against the times with "Daughter," but still one of my favorites- even in 1972! I like this album because of the members singing together and backing each other up more. Overall, this album has a nice balance and more variance between the ballads, rockers, and in-between songs than their prior album, "Manna." It does go out with a punch- "I Don't Love You," which you either like Griffin's "throaty" singing style or you don't! "Baby I'm A Want You" is just a very good, creative, and satisifying collection of tunes.

Bread's "Baby I'm-A Want You" album, originally released in January of 1972, is a pleasant affair, but it wallows around in averageness. It sounds as though the band just wasn't that inspired.

Six of the twelve songs are David Gates solo compositions, and though his talent for songcraft is clearly in evidence, he's considerably off his game. The breezy title track was a big time hit, and the melody is certainly very nice, but it's a tad corny lyrically, and in retrospect, the song sounds like a dry run of sorts for David's 1974 version of "Never Let Her Go" (a song he'd actually written in the mid-'60s). "Everything I Own", written for David's father who had passed away, is pretty and well-written, but David oversings it a little. The album-opening "Mother Freedom" is reasonably catchy, but this attempt at rocking out feels forced, and the lyrics are corny and strained. The fiddle-laced "This Isn't What The Governmeant" (no, that's NOT a typo) again suffers from strained lyrics. The "If"-style ballad "Diary" is neatly arranged and has some really nice imagery and flow to the lyrics, but it's disappointingly anti-climactic. "Daughter" is a nice little McCartney-esque ballad-rocker with David and James sharing the lead vocals, though it's no great shakes.

The songwriting duo of James Griffin and former Bread member Robb Royer have just two songs here, but each of them are surprisingly strong. "Dream Lady" starts off dreamy indeed, solidly melodic and well-sung by James, and the song eventually gives way to a middle section that rocks out nicely with organ and guitar soloing. The fine acoustic-based ballad "Games Of Magic" is another dreamy tune with great keyboard work from Larry Knechtel.

The album ends with two solo compositions from Griffin. "Just Like Yesterday" is a nice piano-based ballad. However, "I Don't Love You" recalls the overwrought Griffin-Royer 'rockers' on "On The Waters", with James singing in an incredibly annoying 'blues' voice on the first verse, although mercifully he goes back to a more normal voice for the rest of the song apart from a brief snippet on the fade.

There's also an annoying jazzy 'soul' number with "Nobody Like You", sung by Griffin and written by Knechtel, Griffin, and Gates. The jangly uptempo pop-rocker "Down On My Knees", written by Griffin and Gates, again suffers from those annoying 'gutsy' Griffin vocals.

So, all in all, this really isn't a bad album, and Bread fans will find it enjoyably listenable, but it sure is a disappointment, not least due to the fact that Gates seems to have been in a considerable rut at the time.