On The Waters
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Album Summary
On The Waters was Bread's second studio album, released in 1970 on Elektra Records, produced by David Gates together with the band and recorded in Los Angeles, California. Gates, already the group's creative nucleus, brought his gifts as songwriter, vocalist, and arranger to bear on a collection that deepened the soft rock and folk-pop sensibility the band had been quietly cultivating since their debut. The production wrapped these songs in lush, melodic arrangements that balanced warm acoustic textures with the kind of polished studio craftsmanship that only Los Angeles in its golden era could conjure — intimate enough to feel personal, pristine enough to own the airwaves. On The Waters was the record that introduced the world to what Bread truly was, and brother, the world was ready to listen.
Reception
- The album yielded the breakthrough hit 'Make It With You,' which climbed all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1970, giving Bread their first chart-topping single and announcing their arrival to a national audience in no uncertain terms.
- On The Waters performed strongly on the Billboard 200 album chart, establishing Bread as a commercially formidable act and expanding their reach far beyond the modest foothold their debut had secured.
- Critical reception acknowledged the album's smooth, polished songwriting and melodic craftsmanship, though some corners of the press noted its soft, middle-of-the-road sensibility as both its greatest strength and its most debated characteristic.
Significance
- 'Make It With You' became one of the defining soft rock ballads of the early 1970s, a song that helped crystallize the genre's aesthetic of tender, melodic pop built for the heart rather than the head — and it has never really left the airwaves since.
- On The Waters marked the moment Bread stepped into their role as leading figures of the soft rock movement, setting a standard that influenced a wave of adult contemporary artists who would carry that torch throughout the decade and beyond.
- David Gates's songwriting throughout this album established a template of emotionally accessible, melodically rich pop composition — the kind of craft that reminds you why a great song written with honesty and care will always find its way through the static and into somebody's soul.
Tracklist
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A1 Why Do You Keep Me Waiting 158
2:29
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A2 Make It With You 83
3:15
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A3 Blue Satin Pillow 110
2:26
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A4 Look What You've Done 141
3:10
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A5 I Am That I Am 91
3:18
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A6 Been Too Long On The Road 143
4:49
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B1 I Want You With Me 120
2:48
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B2 Coming Apart 76
3:25
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B3 Easy Love 132
2:26
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B4 In The Afterglow 95
2:34
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B5 Call On Me 168
4:00
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B6 The Other Side Of Life 178
2:02
Artist Details
Bread was a soft rock outfit that came together in Los Angeles around 1968, led by the impossibly gifted David Gates alongside James Griffin, Robb Royer, and later Mike Botts, cooking up some of the smoothest, most heartfelt pop-rock ballads the decade had ever heard — songs like Make It With You, Everything I Own, and If left a whole generation weak in the knees. They rode that sweet spot between folk-tinged pop and lush orchestrated soul, earning them a string of Top 40 hits and a devoted following who kept their records spinning from coast to coast. Bread may not have had the counterculture edge of their contemporaries, but they proved that pure, unashamed emotional songwriting was its own kind of revolution, and their sound became the very definition of that warm, golden 70s AM radio feeling.
