The Grass Roots

This article is about a U.S. band. For other uses, see Grass roots (disambiguation).

Cover of The Grass Roots album Anthology: 1965-1975; (left to right) Warren Entner, Rick Coonce, Dennis Provisor and Rob Grill

The Grass Roots were a highly successful U.S. band that existed between 1965 and 1975, but at first, a band only in the imagination of songwriting duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri.

In their career, The Grass Roots achieved two platinum albums, two gold albums, thirteen gold singles and charted singles a total of twenty-nine times. Between 1967 and 1972, The Grass Roots were on the Billboard charts 307 straight weeks. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide.

The founding years

The name Grass Roots originated in 1965 as the name of a band project by the prolific Los Angeles, California songwriter/producer duo of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. They had written several songs in an attempt by their record company Dunhill Records to cash in on the budding folk rock movement. One of these songs was "Where Were You When I Needed You" which was recorded by Sloan/Barri and a now forgotten line-up of studio musicians. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar. The song was released under The Grass Roots name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.

When moderate interest in this new "band" arose, Sloan/Barri went to look for a group that could incorporate The Grass Roots name. They found one in a San Francisco group named The Bedouins, and cut a new version with that band's lead vocalist Bill Fulton. For some months, The Bedouins were the first "real" Grass Roots - but the partnership with Sloan/Barri broke up when the band demanded more space for their own more blues-orientated material (which their producers were not willing to give them). Bill Fulton, Denny Ellis and David Stensen went back to San Francisco, with only drummer Joel Larson remaining (he was to become a member of a later Grass Roots line-up, as well). In the meantime, the second version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" peaked at #28 in mid-1966; an album of the same name sold disappointingly, probably because there were no Grass Roots anymore to promote it at the time of its release.

The years of success

The group's third - and by far most successful - incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band, called The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators). This band consisted of Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner and Rob Grill and had formed only a year earlier before submitting a demo tape to Dunhill. The band was offered the choice to go with their own name or choose to adopt a name that had already been heard of nationwide.

They had their first top 10 hit with "Let's Live For Today" in the summer of 1967 as The Grass Roots. With Rob Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of "Where Were You When I Needed You". The band continued in a similar hit making vein for the next five years. In the beginning they were one of many U.S. guitar pop/rock bands, but with the help of Barri and their other producers they developed a unique sound for which they drew as heavily on British beat as on soul music, rhythm and blues and folk rock. Many of their recordings featured a section of brass, which was still a rare thing in those days, with bands like Chicago just developing.

The Grass Roots hits of these times include "Midnight Confessions", "Sooner Or Later", "Temptation Eyes", "Things I Should Have Said", "Wait A Million Years", "The River Is Wide", "Baby Hold On", "Heaven Knows", "Lovin' Things", "Walking Through The Country", "Bella Linda" and "Two Divided By Love". The bulk of the band's material continued to be written by Dunhill Records staff (not only Sloan/Barri). The Grass Roots also recorded their own compositions which appeared on their albums and the B sides of many hit singles. In 1969, Creed Bratton left and was replaced by Dennis Provisor and Terry Furlong to form a quintet - the first of many line-up changes that the band was to be subject to. In 1971, Terry Furlong, Rick Coonce and Dennis Provisor left and were replaced by Reed Kailing, Virgil Weber and original member Joel Larson. The singer/songwriter/guitarist duo of Warren Entner (later a successful heavy metal manager) and Rob Grill remained the point of focus in all these years.

The final years

From 1970 on, success slipped away slowly but surely. The Grass Roots had their last top 10 hit with "Sooner Or Later" in June 1971, and success with "Two Divided By Love" not long after. Their final two hits in 1972 were "The Runway" and "Glory Bound". Follow-up singles sold mostly disappointingly or failed to chart altogether - it was clear that their time was over. The 1976 single "Out In The Open" became their swan song, with the band having disbanded the previous autumn. Rob Grill remained in the music business and launched a solo career in 1979 (assisted on his solo album by several members of Fleetwood Mac). When interest in bands of the 60s began to rise again in the 80s, he reformed The Grass Roots (now as The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill) and tours the United States. He has continued to lead the band into the new millennium and is the voice of The Grass Roots, playing many live performances up to the present day.

Most successful songs

*Let's Live For Today
*Midnight Confessions
*Wait A Million Years
*Temptation Eyes
*Sooner Or Later
*Two Divided By Love

Trivia

*Guitarist Creed Bratton plays a character also named Creed, quite possibly a fictional version of himself, in the US version of the television show The Office. In a scene that never aired from the episode "Booze Cruise", Creed's boss, Michael, borrows the guitar from a cruise ship's band and plays it poorly. Creed then takes the guitar from Michael and proceeds to wow the rest of the passengers with his excellent playing. The scene then cuts to a confessional where Creed talks of his time with The Grass Roots, complete with pictures of the actual band and references to actual tours. However, as this scene was later cut, and other episodes mention fictitious biographical information (such as his being left on the doorstep of a Chinese family as a baby), it is quite possible that this is non-canonical.

Members

Pre-1967
*Steve Barri (Steven Barry Lipkin, February 23 ,1942, Brooklyn) - Various Instruments, Producer, Songwriter
*Denny Ellis - Rhythm Guitar
*Bill Fulton - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Joel Larson - (April 29, 1947, San Francisco) - Drums
*P.F. Sloan (Philip Gary Schlein, September 18, 1945, New York) - Lead Vocals, Various Instruments, Producer, Songwriter
*David Stensen - (February 25, 1947, San Bruno) - Bass Guitar

Classic Lineup 1967-1971
*Creed Bratton (February 8, 1943, Los Angeles) - Lead Guitar, Songwriter
*Rick Coonce (Erik Michael Coonce, August 1, 1946, Los Angeles) - Drums, Songwriter
*Warren Entner (July 7, 1944, Boston) - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Songwriter
*Rob Grill (Robert Frank Grill, November 30, 1944, Los Angeles) - Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Songwriter
*Brian Naughton - Lead Guitar
*Dennis Provisor (November 5, 1950, Los Angeles) - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Songwriter
*Terry Furlong (December 31, 1942, London) - Lead Guitar

1972-1975
*Warren Entner - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Songwriter
*Rob Grill - Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Songwriter
*Reed Kailing - Lead Guitar, Songwriter
*Reggie Knighton - Lead Guitar
*Joel Larson - Drums
*Dennis Provisor - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Songwriter
*Virgil Weber - Keyboards

Post-1975
*Rick Alexander - Lead Guitar
*Brian Carlyss - Bass Guitar
*Alan Dean - Lead Guitar
*Ralph Gilmore - Drums
*Rob Grill - Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Songwriter
*Scott Hoyt - Lead Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Joel Larson - Drums
*Charles Judge - Keyboards
*Reagan McKinley - Drums
*David Nudge - Bass Guitar
*Terry Oubre - Lead Guitar
*Dennis Provisor - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Songwriter
*Hal Ratliff - Keyboards
*Gene Wall - Keyboards

Current
*Joe Dougherty - Drums
*Rob Grill - Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Songwriter
*Dusty Hanvey - Lead Guitar
*Chris Merrell - Lead Guitar
*Larry Nelson - Keyboards

The Grass Roots: Encyclopedia BETA

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