The Grass Roots Appreciation Thread

[JazzDreams]

GR were absolutely part of the soun dtrack of my early years. Other than "Let's Live for Today" I wouldn't have remembered most of the tunes mentioned here as being theirs. A few minutes later after reviewing them in my head I couldn't imagine NOT remembering instantly.

 

[BlueGillGreg]

I like this band. In 73 or so, when I was a frosh or soph in high school an upperclassman who lived on our block gave me 5 LPs: Grass Roots, Zager and Evans, Savage Resurrection, and 2 by The Animals. Still have the Animals and the Grass Roots. Wish I had the other two. Great stuff.

 

[GGardner]

Before my time. But through the wonders of the internet, I just learned that the same gentleman who wrote the super-hooky "Sooner or Later," and kind-of-hooky "I'd Wait a Million Years," also wrote the ultra-hooky "Superman." Pretty cool.

 

[gentrywhite]

I just saw Creed Bratton in Brisbane a few weeks ago, he was great did mainly newer stuff and told stories. Very entertaining and a good player and singer.

 

[sad99]

When I was learning the drums as a kid, I played along to a 45 of Midnight Confessions more than any other record I owned, so The Grass Roots have always had a soft spot in my heart. My parents, on the other hand...

 

[pbenn]

Lots of live TV for their career!

Lets Live For Today the ultimate hippy rock song.

Heaven Knows starts out sounding a lot like Soul Deep by The Box Tops… but HK was probably first?

Wait A Million years starts with a bit of Motown tension lick (Keep Me Hanging’ On) , and then sounds a bit like Temptation Eyes.

Midnight Confessions great rock tune.

Later songwriter most influenced? Elvis Costello comes to mind.

 

[SuprHtr]

When I was in Sixth grade and later, they were in the AM radio mix a lot, along with Gary Puckett, Zager and Evans, and Three Dog Night. My focus shifted after hearing the first and second Zepplin albums, but the Grass Roots hits stand the test of time.

 

[2HBStrat]

My early bands had a lot of success covering Grass Roots, before we all became hippies and were too cool for them any more.

 

[Stinger22]

One of my favorite Pandora "stations" is my Grass Roots station. I like to play their songs on the Touch Tones juke box at my local watering hole and seem to always have younger people ask wow who was that! Great songs and great players.

 

[memorex]

 

[Tone Quest]

The Grass Roots. One of my favorite 60's- 70's bands. 'Temptation Eyes' is going through my head right now.

 

[Whitebeard]

One of the patriarchs of the folk rock boom of the Sixties, The Grass Roots were a great rock band. Led by bassist/vocalist Rob Grill, guitarist Creed Bratton (most notably resurfacing as a cast member of the TV sitcom The Office), and second guitarist Warren Entner (who also managed hard rock bands such as Quiet Riot and Warrant in the Eighties). There was another band from California called the Grass Roots led by black guitarist Arthur Lee, but after threatening legal action, that band eventually renamed themselves Love, who, like the Grass Roots, were a huge influence on many of the bands to come.

The group signed to ABC Records in 1965, and their debut was largely written and produced by PF Sloan and Steve Barri (who also produced records for The Mamas and The Papas, Three Dog Night, Barry McGuire and Johnny Rivers, hence why all those bands sound way too similar). Let's Live For Today, led by its dreamy sitar, climbed into the Top 40 and the group's success was assured.



Soon after, the public clamored for more Grass Roots, and their next 2 singles, Heaven Knows and I'd Wait A Million Years, also received heavy airplay on AM radio. The group's creative input was also helped by arranger Jimmie Haskell, who worked on nearly everything the band ever put out.





However, a lot of their later songs, such as Sooner Or Later and Where Were You When I Needed You, showcase how good of a vocalist Rob Grill was.





Check out the Ovation guitar that Warren Entner is playing, and that blonde Fender Telecaster Bass Rob Grill is playing!

The group eventually dissolved in the early Seventies. Rob Grill made a now out of print album for Mercury Records in 1979, and while it has been out of print for many years, it did feature guest work from Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie. Rob Grill sadly died in 2011 of complications from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Florida.

I actually have a few Grass Roots albums in my record collection, and I do think The Grass Roots should be in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but the cheap shots that Jann Wenner constantly takes at those types of bands ensures that they will likely never be inducted. But we'll see.

After all, the Psychedelic Furs have listed The Grass Roots as a huge influence on their music, as did Bruce Springsteen (who regularly covered Where Were You When I Needed You and Let's Live For Today during his early tours), and The Bangles, who covered Sooner Or Later, Let's Live For Today and Where Were You When I Needed You, and even recorded the song Where Were You When I Needed You as the B-side to their first single, Hero Takes A Fall in 1984. It later appeared on their Bangles Greatest Hits album in 1990.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh1w4zxhGv8

If any of you like The Grass Roots please let me know.

I like the Grass Roots' records and briefly worked with keyboardist Dennis Provisor in a little club band at a beer bar in Santa Monica, CA a year or so prior to his joining the Grass Roots. The thing I didn't know about the band "back in the day" is that the songs that became hits were chosen for them and recorded by the wrecking crew. Rob Grill & Dennis then sang lead on the tracks with the other members singing harmony/background. Dennis was able/allowed to get some of his songs as "B" sides of the singles and reaped residuals from them.

 

[ZackyDog]

I'm a big fan of The Grass Roots. I even like the first incarnation that Barri and Sloan recruited who were formerly The Bedouins.

 

[nojazzhere]

One of the patriarchs of the folk rock boom of the Sixties, The Grass Roots were a great rock band. Led by bassist/vocalist Rob Grill, guitarist Creed Bratton (most notably resurfacing as a cast member of the TV sitcom The Office), and second guitarist Warren Entner (who also managed hard rock bands such as Quiet Riot and Warrant in the Eighties). There was another band from California called the Grass Roots led by black guitarist Arthur Lee, but after threatening legal action, that band eventually renamed themselves Love, who, like the Grass Roots, were a huge influence on many of the bands to come.

The group signed to ABC Records in 1965, and their debut was largely written and produced by PF Sloan and Steve Barri (who also produced records for The Mamas and The Papas, Three Dog Night, Barry McGuire and Johnny Rivers, hence why all those bands sound way too similar). Let's Live For Today, led by its dreamy sitar, climbed into the Top 40 and the group's success was assured.



Soon after, the public clamored for more Grass Roots, and their next 2 singles, Heaven Knows and I'd Wait A Million Years, also received heavy airplay on AM radio. The group's creative input was also helped by arranger Jimmie Haskell, who worked on nearly everything the band ever put out.




However, a lot of their later songs, such as Sooner Or Later and Where Were You When I Needed You, showcase how good of a vocalist Rob Grill was.



Check out the Ovation guitar that Warren Entner is playing, and that blonde Fender Telecaster Bass Rob Grill is playing!

The group eventually dissolved in the early Seventies. Rob Grill made a now out of print album for Mercury Records in 1979, and while it has been out of print for many years, it did feature guest work from Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie. Rob Grill sadly died in 2011 of complications from injuries sustained in a fall at his home in Florida.

I actually have a few Grass Roots albums in my record collection, and I do think The Grass Roots should be in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, but the cheap shots that Jann Wenner constantly takes at those types of bands ensures that they will likely never be inducted. But we'll see.

After all, the Psychedelic Furs have listed The Grass Roots as a huge influence on their music, as did Bruce Springsteen (who regularly covered Where Were You When I Needed You and Let's Live For Today during his early tours), and The Bangles, who covered Sooner Or Later, Let's Live For Today and Where Were You When I Needed You, and even recorded the song Where Were You When I Needed You as the B-side to their first single, Hero Takes A Fall in 1984. It later appeared on their Bangles Greatest Hits album in 1990.


If any of you like The Grass Roots please let me know.

The only GR song that really matters...
Until I saw this video I never would have guessed there were two alternating singers - to me they sound identical.
Poor Creed usually got screwed by the camaramen/directors on these shows, but he often looks like he was a shy kid brought in off the street to fill in for a missing member. "Just move your arm up & down, kid, and DON'T look into the camera!

I always dug The Grass Roots......my band in Junior High or High school covered Live For Today, a crowd pleaser.
A while back, I played bass for a "hot" young guitarist, and he covered Midnight Confessions. I "wood-shedded"the bass part, and at first it was pretty humbling. To me, that was a complex, tricky part. But I got it, and am proud to say the guitarist told me nailing the bass "made" the song.

 

[knavel]

What actually happened...Arthur Lee's band was called The Grass Roots and were beginning to get noticed in LA. They were playing a club on the Sunset Strip one night, and an intoxicated patron told one of the band members that the band was great and he wanted to record them. He said great, our manager is so-and-so, you can talk to him. The intoxicated person was Lou Adler, and he felt disrespected in front of the young woman he was with that night. He deliberately named a project he was working on The Grass Roots to screw with Lee's group.

Lee and his group had no idea what was going on until people coming to their gigs told them, "We love your record!" "What record?" "Let's Live For Today!"

As far as I know, they never threatened any legal action, just realized that they had been hosed, and needed to find a new name.

Can certainly understand why Arthur Lee bore a grudge against Lou Adler.

This is exactly as Johnny Echols described what happened in a reasonably recent interview. What a slimeball. No disrespect to the Grass Roots , they were a great band.

 

[wabashslim]

I'd forgotten all about these. Both great songs worth listening to as opposed to some of their radio filler.

 

[ZackyDog]

Rob Grill and Warren Entner wrote this song.

 

[screefer]

I had to google GR not in R&R HOF.
Case closed on the R&R HOshame

 

[boris bubbanov]

Excellent band, and we worked on a number of their songs for our repertoire (though none stuck for long).

Then came Midnight Confessions and we kinda moved on to other things, I'm afraid. I hope they made some money off that one, because IMO it cost them a lot in other ways.

 

[ZackyDog]