Grass Roots - Biography
By Nick Castro
The Grass Roots are often remembered as the starting point for songwriter P.F. Sloan, but the various incarnations of the group have also come to reflect a sound of Los Angeles in the 60's. They attained a high level of popularity throughout the 60's and 70's with hit songs like, "Let's Live for Today", "Temptation Eyes", "Two Divided by Love" and "Midnight Confessions". THough they never achieved a number one status with any of their songs, they did manage to chart 14 times in their career. They are also said to hold the record for the most well attended concert in history, with around 600,000 coming to their 4th of July concert in Washington, DC. Their are three distinct periods of the group, who survived through these diverse personnel changes, to maintain their popularity through ever changing musical styles and tastes. They they are largely forgotten today, they made their mark on rock history.
The beginnings of The Grass Roots were in Los Angeles in the mid 60's, when two songwriters, P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri were working in many diverse styles, writing songs for other people to sing. At the time, the two were employed by Dunhill Records, which was the newly formed label of Lou Adler, later to produce acts like The Mamas & the Papas, Cheech & Chong, Carole King and Spirit. One song that the duo wrote and recorded, under the name The Grass Roots, for the label was, "Where Were You When I Needed You", which was so well received by disc jockeys, that the label held auditions for a band to become The Grass Roots. A band called The Bedouins were chosen to play the part of the band.
The members of The Grass Roots became Danny Ellis, playing guitar, Willie Fulton, singing and playing lead guitar, David Stenson, playing bass and Joel Larson, playing drums. The band, who hailed from San Francisco, were still in high school and needed parental consent to sign their first recording contract with Dunhill. They quickly went into the studio and worked up a furious version of Bob Dylan's, "Mr. Jones (Ballad of A Thin Man)". The song has been featured on many compilations since, and is often cited as critics and collectors' favorite version of the tune. The single became a local hit in California and this led to the band having to secure, through some legal wrangling, the rights to the band name, The Grass Roots, as the name was often used by Arthur Lee, later of the band Love, for his group as well.
Soon, The Grass Roots recorded the album Where Were You When I Needed You (1966 - Dunhill), which included may Barri/Sloan songs, such as the album's opener, "Only When You're Lonely", "Look Out Girl", "I've Got No More to Say", "Lollipop Train (You Never Had It So Good)", "You Baby", "This is What I Was Made For" and of course the albums title track, "Where Were You When I Needed You". Apparently, Sloan and Barri both played and sang on the record. Though the record buying public was unaware of the ambiguities of the band at the time, later this would lead to music aficionados scrutinizing the album, which was a mix of Sloan, Barri, The Bedouin and session players. Regardless of this, the band carved out a place for themselves alongside other Los Angeles groups like The Byrds, The Mamas & the Papas and The Turtles. The album was issued with an unfortunate stock photography cover, which the label thought would them to sell records in the burgeoning folk rock movement of the times. Soon, The Bedouins were having difficulties with the Dunhil label and the direction they were being forced to pursue. The band wanted to do a more blues rock material but the label refused and in the end, the band quit. The label was left with the unenviable task of finding a replacement band right away. The initial album came out without proper promotion or a band to tour in support of it, so it did not do as well as it could have.
Dunhil found a new group in Los Angeles, called The 13th Floor, to become the new face for their project. The second phase of The Grass Roots began. It was at this time that the Dunhill label began toying with the idea of letting new compositions into the fold, though the majority og the band's second album was still penned by Barri and Sloan. They released Let's Live For Today (1967 - Dunhill), which had a hit with the title track. Barri and Sloan still contributed a number of songs, including "Things I Should Have Said", "Wake Up, Wake Up", "Tip of My Tongue", "Is It Any Wonder", "Out of Touch" and "Precious Time". Unfortunately though, the group's folk rock sound was become a hard sale in the changing face of psychedelia but the record did well, especially with the success of it's title track single.
Undaunted, The Grass Roots began to work on their next album, Feelings (1968 - Dunhill), which saw Sloan and Barri begin to take a back seat in terms of songwriting, which seemed to coincide with the rise of Sloan's solo career. Sloan did write one of the strongest songs on the album, "Melody for You". The album also listed the band's name as The Grassroots, probably to help differentiate their new sound. The album was still produced by Barri and Sloan, who created a sound which was looser and the feeling of a group, rather than a produced session album.
The Grassroots went on to have hits with songs like "Temptation Eyes", in 1970 and the next year's, "Sooner or Later". Into the 70's the band began to assume a more disparate sound and their success began to wane after their last big hit, in 1972, with their songs "The Runway" and "Glory Bound". The band has had a few reunions since their demise in the late 70's. They have been featured on countless compilations, but mainly for their early works in the 60's.
