Customer Reviews

The Best of Bread

5 star:		(95)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One of the biggest problems I had with Bread was not with their music, but that my friends who liked Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath. Alice Cooper and others of various "more serious" rock genres, as did I, made fun of me any time I mentioned Bread. Well, the fact remains that I did like Bread and continue to like Bread from time to time, so much so that I own this CD.

David Gates has a great voice for the maudlin music he sings. The song I think of most is "Diary", a poignant song about the fear that all of us as young males had that the girl we love loves someone else. David Gates just rips your heart out with his soft mellow words as he reveals that the writings in the diary of his girlfriend weren't in fact about himself, but another guy. Talk about a gut-wrencher.

But of course the gut-wrenching emotion doesn't stop there. Here is a guy singing about himself and all of us and our dreams for the girls and women we love. "Lost Without Your Love", "Sweet Surrender", "Aubrey", "It Don't Matter to Me", "Make It With You", "Everything I Own", and more...David Gates just refuses to let you be anything other than morose about relationships. But somehow that doesn't matter. It seems like there are times when I just can't get enough of David Gates pouring out his heart, making me feel that he and I are one when it comes to how women can tear our hearts out. But that's okay, because it feels good to hear about it in David's songs.

Okay, I admit that maybe you have to be a little self-destructive in listening to this music. However, it can be a little cathartic too to listen to what you feel out loud. Just don't listen to this music while you are drinking a lot, you might feel too maudlin for your own good. On the other hand, if it makes you go sing a Bread song outside the window of your girlfriend's house, or apartment, maybe it's a good thing.

This CD is great stuff in small doses. Well performed mellow and soft rock, very romantic. Perfect for the right mood. I wish they still made music like this.

Bread was likely the most improbable of seventies rock bands, one least likely to soar to the top and remain there with an unbelievable string of hits. Yet lead singer David Gates crooned his way into America's heart, and starting with "Make It With You" quickly spun off hits like "Everything I Own", "Diary", Baby I'm A Want You", "it Don't matter To Me" and "If". The trend continued with still more hits like "Look What You've Done", "Guitar Man", "Aubrey", "Sweet Surrender", and "The Last Time". All of these and more are here, including the reunited band's final hit, "Lost Without Your Love", as well as "Truckin'", "Friends And Lovers", and "Let Your Love Go". Yet as suddenly as they had materialized, so did they evaporate and disappear. Their music was formulaic but quite interesting and good, and while the material for the songs was a but limited, sometimes the lyrics were catchy and diverting, a perfect confection that Gates warbled onto the top ten list with almost monotonous regularity. And all of it is here for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

This is a great overview of music from a band that lives on through soft rock stations everywhere. Bread is known for their mellow, melodic, and often mournful tunes such as "If" and "Lost Without Your Love." At times, their songs take on a more upbeat feel (eg, "Guitar Man"), but they always retain that same soothing blend of soulful lyrics and gentle music. This is an ideal CD for listening to in your car at the end of a long work week or relaxing to at home with a glass of wine. If you recognize and like even one song on this album, buy it--you won't be disappointed.

I kept this particular album sandwiched (no pun intended) between my Led Zeppelin, Foreigner, and ELO records in case one of my friends' accidentally pulled it out and chastised me for listening to a group that was so sappy, so mellow, and so lightweight. To the untrained ear, maybe they appeared to be that way but because I grew up in a household that not only loved and appreciated music, I respected that this was a group that turned out some extremely well-crafted music. Of course, I couldn't tell this to my "hard rock buddies" because I would like even more of a dork, but I just really secretly felt and still feel that this was a very powerful group that offered some incredible music.

I like to listen to this music when the house is all clean, when the garden has been trimmed and watered, when the warm California sun is shining through my windows and a breeze is blowing through what's left of my hair, it just makes me feel so relaxed, so calm, and so ultimately nostalgic thinking of that young boy I once was and how he got to be me.

I'm thankful for all of my influences that have helped me to become the person I now am. Whereas before I might have been embarrassed by what I liked, now I gladly and joyfully accept and embrace every single bit of good that I have been fortunate enough to have received.

May you cherish the things that have helped you to become you.

Peace & Blessings.

During the arena rockin' 70's there were soft rock/ pop alternatives. This collection represents the best of them. It was probably more acceptable to have listened to "The Carpenters" but "Bread" was right there too. There was nothing better for a romantic Saturday night with your favourite girl than some candles, some refreshments and some "Bread". David Gates, James Griffin and Robb Royer knew each other from a group called "Pleasure Faire". They added drummer Mike Botts and then Larry Knechtel when Royer left. And if you don't think that "Bread" ever rocked, try listening to "Let Your Love Go" or "Truckin'". Keep that for when your favourite girl is out. You wouldn't want her to get hit with your air guitar.

If you are a fan of early and mid seventies soft rock, you are already a fan of "Bread". Although considered more for their chart topping ballads with `middle of the road' arrangements, they often inflected a mysterious and innocent ideology in their songs. Sometimes simple and sometimes more complex, they wrote songs that stuck in your head - whether you liked it or not. There are some memories to be had here and all of these songs were popular. It is not hard to forget the plaintive, "Everything I Own" or the wistful, "If". There are few tear-jerkers more successful than, "Diary". However, "Bread" proves to be a rocker band as well, with cuts like, "Mother Freedom" and "Down On My Knees". But "Bread" will be remembered mostly for their ballads. The other collection, "Anthology" also has twenty songs but changed four of them. These four are lesser known, other then, "London Bridge', a David Gates number that falls down along with London Bridge. Check out the song list and decide which suits your tastes - or buy both!

This CD takes me back to the simpler times when I was growing up. Great to listen to it on those lazy afternoons. If you not sure about what Bread CDs to buy this one gets you all the big hits. You can't go wrong with it.

Bread has a general image (for those even familiar with them) of being a "soft rock" band. While it is true that the band made plenty of great ballads, this collection includes at least one tune to break that mold, hard rocker "Mother Freedom". For the most part, though, it has to be admitted that the group was mostly a singles act, so it becomes a game of "Which single CD collection has the best tunes?"

CONS:
With this one, you sacrifice "Fancy Dancer" (a nicely chuggin' midtempo rocker..they didn't a lot of good rockier stuff, but this is one of them...) and "London Bridge"..which is kind of slight lyrically, but so darn melodic you can't help but find it charming anyhow. (From "Anthology")

PROS:
The tradeoff is you get "Mother Freedom" (their hardest rock number) and "Daughter", a nice cautionary tale from David Gates, warning his offspring not to settle for less than the best.

BOTTOM LINE:
Despite really loving "Mother Freedom" and "Daughter", I feel that "Anthology" (ASIN B000002H2N) is the best single disc collection of Bread. If you have more money to spend, then plunk it down and get the excellent Rhino 2CD "Retrospective" (ASIN B000003477) which will let you have your cake and eat it,too, along with adding some excellent David Gates and James Griffin solo material and a couple other decent album tracks that didn't make the cut for this one or for "Anthology".

Bread is eternal, classic and their music will never die. The intensely sensitive vocals of David Gates have been forever etched in the hearts of millions of women, including my own. His song, "Aubrey" is the most sensitive song I've ever heard that brings tears to my eyes. "Make it With You," is another great song that reaches heaven. Words just can't do enough to describe the music of Bread that only those with the ears to hear could ever hear.

Those who want to hear the sounds of hell, can listen to the top singers of 2002. I prefer to travel back in time to hear Bread.

When I was a 14 year old girl back in 1975 and you broke up with your boyfriend (or even worse he broke up with you!!) this was the album that was put on the turntable and listened to for hours and hours while copious amount of tears were shed. This was the perfect album to pout by and you know what? It still is!!

Bread was an awesome band for their genre. No they weren't bad boys like the Stones or Led Zeppelin, but the combination of David Gates singing and songwriting abilities made them a great easy listening band for the early 70's.

This album has all of my personal favorites including "Everything I own" which can still move me to tears if I'm even a little bit sad and "Make it with you". I hadn't heard most of these songs in years and when I saw the DVD for sale I had to have it, even though I have been happily married for 27 years!!!

This is the ultimate album to bring back fond memories.