Where Were You When I Needed You | The Grass Roots

Where Were You When I Needed You | The Grass Roots | Astoundingly great sunshine folk-rock

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Where Were You Whe...

	Where Were You When I Needed You The Grass Roots Rev-Ola, 2005 average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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2008 digitally remastered and expanded edition of the debut album from The Grass Roots, one of California's most popular acts of the late `60s and early `70s, including eight bonus tracks. Originally released in 1966, this album contains the original classic hit single "Where Were When I Needed You" and the blinding Garage Punk reworking of Dylan's "Ballad Of A Thin Man". All of the original material was composed and produced by the legendary songwriting duo P F Sloan and Steve Barri so this album is 100% prime US Folk-Rock jangle with gorgeous vocal arrangements. 20 tracks. Rev-Ola.

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This was the debut album....by the original foursome who were intended to be THE GRASS ROOTS...more or less the Dunhill Records version of THE MONKEES...They even came preequipped with their own songwriting duo..For whatever reasons, things didn't turn out as they were supposed to....and the idea was banished...temporarily...

The sound quality is excellent for the period it was recorded...very clean and clear....REV OLA has included plenty of bonus tracks and alternate cuts to fill up the CD....

Now keep in mind...this isn't the same band who charted all those big hits you remember from 1967-75...altho the musical/vocal formula is similar and you might find yourself doing a double take and rereading the liner notes..just to be sure..but not considering that Barri and Sloan were the primary writers of both bands material...

One major similarily this lineup has with the lineup who gave you Midnight confessions.....They were more than capable of nailing down excellent cover versions of other top artists music.

This would be a nice addition to your GRASS ROOTS collection......sort of a..."Blueprint for building a band.."

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Astoundingly great sunshine folk-rock

Given that The Grass Roots had one of the most impressive Top-40 runs in American chart history (including the perennials "Let's Live for Today" and "Midnight Confessions"), it's amazing that these early chapters in the band's history are so little known. Adding to the obscurity is that the band(s) heard here have virtually no personnel in common with the better-known version, save for songwriter/producers Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan.

Barri and Sloan are best known for compositions like "You Baby" (The Turtles), "Eve of Destruction" (Barry McGuire), and Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers), but in 1965 they found themselves recording their own "Where Were You When I Needed You" with Sloan on lead vocal accompanied by Byrds-like 12-string guitar. The harmony-laden, wall-of-sound chorus is as informed by Spector and Wilson as by the then-burgeoning folk-rock scene. In what would come to be a Grass Roots' hallmark, an actual band had to be recruited to take to the road in the wake of the single's success.

The second Grass Roots (counting Barri & Sloan as GR#1) was a northern California band originally called The Bedouins. Riding the sound of the initial single, GR#2 relocated to Los Angeles and became well-known for their performances at Sunset Strip clubs like The Whiskey A-Go-Go and The Trip. Studio sessions yielded almost enough sides for an album, but a rift with their producer/writers (over how much the band would play, and how much their lead singer would be supported by studio hands) destroyed GR#2 before the albums was complete.

Sloan and Barri pulled together some earlier demo tracks (with Sloan singing) to flesh out the GR#2 tracks, and an LP was readied. In preparation for the album's launch, a re-recorded version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" was released as a single, with Bill Fulton of GR#2 singing lead. Once the single caught on, the LP was released (though, most confusingly, with the earlier P.F. Sloan sung version of "Where Were You"!), but with no band to promote it on the road, it flopped.

The obscurity to which this album was condemned is criminal, as Barry & Sloan's vision of folk rock is a superb combination of The Byrds and Beau Brummels, mixed with sunshine pop elements of bands like The Turtles. Their compositions and cover selections are true ear candy, and the various singers who put their voices to them strike the perfect balance between folk harmonies and garage grit, as on a wonderfully snotty cover of Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man." The band was equally adept at the sort of melodic pop-rock that The Monkees cut so convincingly as they were at tougher garage rockers.

Rev-Ola's magnificent reissue includes the twelve tracks of the original LP, along with eight terrific bonuses. Included in the extras are the single version of "Where Were You," a third version of "Where Were You" (sung by eventual GR#3 vocalist Rob Grill), a fuzz-guitar garage B-side ("You're a Lonely Girl"), and a nice garage cover of "Hitch Hike" This CD defines what great reissues are all about. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]

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this album is fantastic

This is one of the best albums to come out of the 1960's. PF Sloan is a supreme songwriter and this record is one of my all-time faves. I was extremely happy to see that it was available as an import. I have been searching for this for at least a decade.

Probably the best album this "band" ever made!

OK, first things first: as other reviewers have noted, this band isn't "really" the Grass Roots, if you're thinking of the group that had hits with "Temptation Eyes" and "Midnight Confessions."

IN THE BEGINNING, the Grass Roots were P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who had been performing/working together for quite some time. They put out a song as the "Grass Roots," it did quite well, they hired a band to actually *be* the Grass Roots (the Bedouins, later the "Unquenchable Thirst," whose drummer eventually played with Gene Clark and Emitt Rhodes), made one album, band gets tired, new band hired, Grass Roots Mk. II born, success. Phew.

"Where Were You When I Needed You" is the one and only album by the first incarnation of the "band," although the liner notes imply that much of the record is, in fact, Sloan, Barri, and backing musicians. No matter. As the enigmatic cover shot implies, you're better off not thinking of the content of the record in terms of bands! Rather, think of it as another entry in the Sloan/Barri canon, and a particularly good one at that.

What we have, then, is a record full of solid, folksy originals, and a slew of well-performed covers. For a 1966 release it's a bit inconsequential, but removed from the weight of 60's chronology it's an enjoyable listen. In fact, I like it better than any of the other albums released under the "Grass Roots" banner, as it's the only one with a consistent focus; additionally, it has little of the overwhelmingly corporate atmosphere that decorates most of the post-Let's Live Grass Roots albums.

This reissue on Rev-Ola replaces the Varese Vintage reissue, although the only difference seems to amount to an extra two tracks (variants of "Where Were You When I Needed You)...otherwise, the audio is likely derived from the earlier release.

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