The Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today (1967) [FLAC] (1988 MCAD-31325)
The Grass Roots are a U.S. rock and roll band that charted between 1966 and 1975 as the brainchild of songwriting duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri.
In their career, The Grass Roots achieved one platinum album, two gold albums, thirteen gold singles and charted singles a total of twenty nine times.
Between 1967 and 1972, The Grass Roots set a record for being on the Billboard charts for 307 straight weeks.
They are one of only nine bands that have charted twenty nine or more Top 100 Billboard singles.
They have sold over thirty million records worldwide.
Since the disbanding of the original group in 1975, early member Rob Grill and a newer group of Grass Roots continue to perform and tour with many shows each year. They hold the all time attendance record for a one act, the US concert of 600,000 people on July 4th, 1982 in Washington, DC.
They recently released a live album chronicling their fourteen Top 40 Billboard hits titled "Live Gold" in 2008.
Review by Bruce Eder
Released in the spring of 1967, Let's Live for Today was almost a musical throwback, steeped in folk-rock, which was fairly passé at the time, rather than psychedelia, but that's what makes it so appealing to listeners today. Listeners in 1967 were probably disappointed that there was nothing on the album as dramatic or memorable as the title track, but everything else is solid folk-rock with a pretty hard edge, which allows it to stand quite well alongside rival releases by the Beau Brummels, the Cryan Shames, the Blue Things, et al. Most of the music here is derived from the P.F. Sloan/Steve Barri songwriting and production team, spiced with four surprisingly strong originals -- mostly drawn from the original demo tape that they submitted as the 13th Floor -- by the band members themselves. The Sloan-Barri numbers are smooth, hook-laden folk-rock "Things I Should Have Said," "Is It Any Wonder," some of it with a garage band edge, and with elements of mild pop psychedelia ("Wake Up, Wake Up") occasionally manifesting themselves. Sloan and Barri's production gave the music a polish that made it thoroughly commercial without entirely losing sight of the band's fervor; the Grass Roots, only a few months out of playing bowling alleys, rose to the occasion in the singing and the basic playing, but they were also in the hands of two producers who knew how to add such embellishments as an unobtrusive harpsichord or flute over a garage band workout like "Tip of My Tongue," and who also took full advantage of stereo separation. The latter made this album a real treat for the fans, who bought it and got to hear the playing by Sloan (who contributed some guitar), Creed Bratton, and Warren Entner, and the singing by all of them (especially on "Is It Any Wonder") in vivid detail. Also surprising are the group originals, such as Entner and Bratton's "Beatin' Round the Bush" and Bratton's rocking "House of Stone," each of which is a match musically for most of the Sloan-Barri numbers. Admittedly, the lyrics on Sloan and Barri's songs are somewhat more sophisticated than those on most of the group originals, but the simpler words on the latter firm up this album's rock & roll credentials. The CD reissue has decent sound and is worth tracking down as one of the last examples of 1960s commercial folk-rock.
1. Things I Should Have Said
2. Wake Up, Wake Up
3. Tip of My Tongue
4. Is It Any Wonder
5. Let's Live for Today
6. Beatin' Round the Bush
7. Out of Touch
8. Won't You See Me
9. Where Were You When I Needed You
10. No Exit
11. This Precious Time
12. House of Stone
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