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Of course, this is the album that put Bread "on the map," with David Gates' ballad- "Make It With You," which is one of my all-time favorite songs. As many times as I have heard it, some 33 years later, I have never gotten tired of it for many reasons. This is the song that brought me back to listening to radio again. The music playing over the air waves the beginning of 1970 was just too hard rock for me. I actually stopped listening to my favorite AM radio station for about five weeks. I happened to hear "Make It With You" one afternoon in March while riding home on the school bus. It brought me back to listening to radio again. A couple of months later came the Carpenters, then Carly Simon, and then James Taylor... I guess you can figure out the rest of the story. Thank you David Gates and "Make It With You" for bringing music back into my life after my self-imposed exile.

As much as this song means to me, the one song on the album that always affects me the most when listening to it is the last song on the album, Gates' "The Other Side Of Life." David Gates has an incredible innate ability of weaving life lessons into so many of his songs that we are all the better for. Listen to the melody and words to this song. It has a subtle religious overtone and will move you, soothe you, comfort you, and reassure you!

Some of my other favorite lesser known (rock) Bread songs on this album are "Easy Love," "Call On Me," "Blue Satin Pillow," and Gates' better-known "Been Too Long On The Road." All in all, this is a very creative group of songs! Bread's early rock style may surprise you, but it will definitely satisfy you.


too much Griffin, not enough Gates   September 19, 2005
 6 out of 14 found this review helpful

Originally released in July of 1970, "On The Waters" is Bread's second album. At the time of its release, the David Gates-penned single "Make It With You", which was released 2+ months prior, had already become a big time breakthrough hit for Bread and was well on its way to becoming a gold single.

"On The Waters" is one uneven album--it basically feels like you're listening to songs from a really good band/ artist, with songs from a really mediocre band/ artist mixed in. It's been said repeatedly that "Make It With You" gives a rather false impression of the album as a whole, and this is certainly true. The main reason for this is due to the songwriting contributions of James Griffin and his writing partner Robb Royer. At this point, Griffin didn't appear to have even close to the level of talent of Gates. Despite this, of the album's 12 tracks, 6 of the songs are credited to the Griffin/ Royer pairing; one track is actually a Griffin/ Gates composition, while the remaining 5 songs are Gates solo compositions. The liner notes featured in the 1995 CD release of "On The Waters" on Rhino are very interesting indeed and sort of underline, in unintentional fashion, how much less talented Griffin and Royer were. Griffin & Royer's unflatterting remarks toward Gates seem to be largely due to jealously of both his talent and commercial success.

The sumptuous "Make It With You" is an obvious highlight here--it's superbly melodic, with deceptively tender lyrics, and terrific bass and electric guitar parts played by Gates that kind of intertwine with both each other as well as the string arrangement. David's explanation in the Rhino CD's liner notes of how this song came to be is fascinating and shows just how in control he was, whereas Royer displays his appalling ignorance saying that he thought the song was merely a "change of pace" from the more hard-rocking sound he thought the group was going for, seemingly oblivious to Gates' astonishing craftsmanship.

Of all the Gates' tunes here, there isn't a weak one anywhere. "Blue Satin Pillow" is a really catchy rocker with effective use of clever meter-shifting rhythms. The elaborately-arranged epic "Been Too Long On The Road" does resort to melodrama just a tad, but it's extremely impressive, with powerful vocal hooks, and packed with great guitar licks (Griffin does do a great job on lead guitar on this song). "In The Afterglow" has splashes of really cheesy synth, but it's a solidly melodic ballad. The album closes with Gates' lovely, soothing, lyrically incisive acoustic ballad "The Other Side Of Life". His co-write with Griffin, "I Want You With Me", mixes a swaying country feel with some mild jazzy flourishes--it's really good, and has some great harmonies.

Unfortunately, for "balance", we get the Griffin/ Royer tunes which wallow in mediocrity--they strain to come up with the kind of catchy hooks that Gates does. It really adds insult to injury that Griffin's vocals leave a hell of a lot to be desired, and he's on lead vocals for all of these Griffin/ Royer songs. "Why Do You Keep My Waiting" is, according to Royer, an attempt at "finding our own rock direction"--I guess the key word is "finding", because the song is generic, annoyingly self-righteous, and has annoyingly "macho" Griffin vocals. "Coming Apart" is an overdone, melodramatic sappy ballad. As far as the practically tuneless "I Am That I Am" is concerned, Griffin says Royer sang the title line from a Gideon Bible and that "it fit the melody perfectly", which begs the question, "What melody?"--it's an incredibly boring "message" song, with toothless Griffin vocals, and verses that are so melodically weak it's beyond all belief. The ballad "Look What You've Done" suffers from the strained, sickly-sweet Griffin vocals--thankfully Gates manages to salvage things a bit by helping Griffin out on the vocals and contributing some great high harmonies. The somewhat "Day Tripper"-ish "Easy Love" does have a decent riff, but again, it's sorely lacking melodically. The bluesy "Call On Me" starts off promisingly as if it might be a solid groove tune, but it ends up being aggravatingly slight.

Obviously, "On The Waters" is very much a mixed bag in terms of quality, but it's a must for serious David Gates fans, so keep your eyes peeled for a cheap copy. Admittedly, the 1995 Rhino CD is preferrable thanks to the extensive liner notes, and the reproduction of the amusing liner notes from the original vinyl LP, plus the valiant remastering effort.


ANOTHER BREAD WINNER   March 16, 2006
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

I must defend James Griffin from the vicious & (in my opinion) undeserved attack by the reviewer known as Dave 'Missing Person'.
James brought a heck of a lot to the group - guts, raunchiness, flair, an occasional tender touch &, most of all, a great, soulful, hugely underrated VOICE (just listen to 'Today's the first day', 'Fancy dancer' or 'The last time').
I cannot agree with his criticisms of Griffin/Royer's contribution to this album, either. In fact, I think, for the only time on a Bread album, their efforts match David Gates'.
I love their two uptempo numbers, 'Why do you keep me waiting' & 'Easy love', while 'I am that I am' has some great effects & a wonderful, dominant bass line.
I would have to concede that David Gates wrote the three best tracks on the album - 'Make it with you', 'Been too long on the road' & 'The other side of life', but this is balanced by the fact that he also wrote the three worst - 'Blue satin pillow', 'In the afterglow' & the utterly tuneless 'I want you with me', possibly the worst Bread track ever (O.K., James Griffin co-wrote it, but he'd already fulfilled his half-dozen quota).
To sum up, then, another excellent offering from a group who maintained high standards throughout their career, & then disbanded before mediocrity set in, to their eternal credit.


Patchy and too rocky   May 2, 2005
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

I love ballads and songs with good melodies. Hence I rate this one the weakest of all Bread's releases. It takes on more of a rocky edge to it. It would be tempting to think of this album as AOR, after the beautiful hit 'make it with you', that comes from here. But that track is not really an accurate reflection on the album's content.
Yes, there are other ballads. 'Coming apart' has the best Griffin vocal ever, what power and effort went into that vocal delivery, and he is brilliant. 'The other side of life' is also a lovely soft ballad, with some nice vocal harmonies. 'Afterglow' is also a light song that builds in the chorus.
Much of the rest is heavier stuff. 'Blue satin pillow' is weak in my eyes, and has little melody. 'Easy love' is just repetitive' and 'Call on me' could be 'I want you' by the beatles, part 2- in terms of the repetitious vocal line. I do not really care for any of these songs.
Fortunately, Bread improved on their next album/