Thursday, September 29, 2016

It Don't Matter to Me (1970)

Performer: Bread                                                Writer: David Gates
Highest US Chart Position: #10                          Label: Elektra Records
Musicians: David Gates, Jimmy Griffin, Robb Royer and Mike Botts

While the early seventies are a nebulous time for me in terms of music associations, David Gates and Bread feel as if they were as much a part of that time in my life as eating and breathing. What’s interesting to me looking back is that I never bought The Best of Bread during my high school days. The reason is probably because the band ceased to be a recording unit by 1972--though they did make a comeback in 1976 with the song “Lost Without Your Love”--and so I never went back to consciously revisit their music. I do remember that one of my best friends, Loren, had a copy and even though I borrowed every other album he owned to tape on cassette for myself, I can’t remember recording that one. “It Don’t Matter to Me” has a fascinating back story because the song was originally on the group’s 1969 self-titled debut album. But that version sounds almost like a demo compared to the more polished single, recorded and released year later when I was in the third grade. The album cut features a much more distinctive and up front high harmony, and the electric rhythm guitar is pushed up farther forward in the mix. There’s even a fuzz guitar solo in the middle. All of that is very different from the much smoother string-laden version that would become the hallmark sound of the group from that point on. The B-side, "Call Me," is a mid-tempo minor blues by Jimmy Griffin that was pulled from the group’s second album.

The song begins with David Gates’ acoustic guitar and Robb Royer’s bass on the downbeat, with Gates’ vocals entering singing the title on the second beat. The guitar continues strumming quarter notes during the verse, the bass only playing on the chord changes, while Jimmy Griffin’s electric guitar and Mike Botts’ floor toms join in on a separate rhythm pattern after four bars. They drop out briefly two bars later but then come in with the full band on the second verse. Harmony vocals and strings fill out the space that was left open on the album track, but the harmony is decidedly back in the mix, letting Gates’ lead vocal carry the song. The bridge has a lovely serpentine quality with a continuous stream of sixteenth-note syllables, and each phrase is followed by a distinctive doubled electric guitar line that, on the album, is a thin, single guitar in the middle of the mix. The third verse goes back to acoustic guitar and bass, but this time with the electric guitar playing fills. Also, the whole band comes in after the first four bars with the strings playing a counter-melody instead of just sustained chord backing. At the end of the verse there’s an extra measure before the words of the title are repeated throughout a short guitar solo with some nice syncopated double string work that is repeated a few bars later with a full chord. The strings soar behind the vocals at the end, while Mike Botts’ muted drums fills urge the song to a close, Gate’s harmonized vocal of the title alone with the strings and then quickly fading out.

The song was written before Gates had joined the group, and there’s a sense that the single was re-recorded because the first album was put together in a rather hurried way with the musicians having to hire session drummer Jim Gordon, who didn’t even last until the second album. The song debuted on the Hot 100 in late September of 1970 at a respectable 78. Seven weeks later in mid November it peaked at number 10, and after falling to number 25 three weeks later it dropped off the charts. One of the things that has always bothered me about the song are lyrics in the bridge. In the verse the narrator tells about a woman he loves, in the era of free love, who wants to explore relationships with other men. Fair enough. He’s willing to wait, and those other men don’t matter to him. From there the bridge begins with him saying “some people have an ego hang-up because they want to be the only one.” Clearly he can’t be talking about her because she’s going to be with someone else for a while. Then the line concludes with, “how many came before it really doesn’t matter just as long as you’re the last.” That doesn’t make sense, saying “you’re,” because if he wants her to be his last lover all he has to do is remain celibate. He should have said “as long as I’m the last,” because what he ultimately wants is to be her last lover. But that’s a minor quibble in a song that is wonderfully haunting. “It Don’t Matter to Me,” is the first charting single by Bread, and still one of their best.