Make It With You – Challenge #180

‘Make It With You’ was the first hit for the pop-rock group Bread.  It was released on their second album On The Waters in 1970.  This album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 200 and remained on the charts for 32 weeks.  This song was written by the lead singer and primary songwriter David Gates, and itcharted #5 in the UK and went to #1in the US.  This wasn’t exactly a group effort in the studio, as the only two members of the band to appear on the track were the drummer Mike Botts, and Gates who sang both lead and harmony vocals, played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, and strings.  ‘Make It With You’ topped the charts on the week of August 22, 1970.  It was the group’s only #1 hit, but it confirmed that they had made it, well they definitely conquered the pop charts with this one.

There is a really funny story that goes along with this song about David Gates returning back to his home for a visit with his mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  His mother Wanda Gates (née Rollins), a piano teacher was throwing a big reception party to celebrate the return of the young chart-conquering hero, the newspaper, television and radio press turned up, hoping to play up the whole “local boy does good” PR angle.  In a widely circulated interview, Mrs. Gates proudly told the world just how pleased she was with her son’s recent success.  She went on to say that she didn’t understand why he had to call his new hit record, ‘Naked With You’.

Bread was one of the most popular pop-rock groups of the early ‘70s, scoring a string of well-crafted, melodic soft rock singles from 1970 through 1972, all of which were written by multi-instrumentalist David Gates.  The group disbanded at the beginning of 1973 after a dispute between Gates and Griffin over whose songs should be released as singles.  With the other songwriting members of Bread wanted a crack at a single too, this led to internal dissension and what made matters worse was the fact that Gates made two solo albums during the Bread years.  Eventually, the group disbanded after Gates refused to yield on changing the hit formula. The other three members returned to session work, while Gates scored a hit on his own with the title song to the Neil Simon movie The Goodbye Girl.

Since Elvis shook his pelvis on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, rock ‘n’ roll has been inextricably linked with sex.  In fact, the term rock ‘n’ roll is 1950s black slang for the sexual act itself.  In the early days the music industry was much more prudish and although sexualization in songs was basically wrapped up in the lyrics, back then they were just more polite about it.  In 1967, The Rolling Stones performed on The Ed Sullivan Show under the condition that they change the lyric of their 1967 hit ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ to the more family-friendly “let’s spend some time together.  Songs were sexual as Aretha Franklin’s ‘Natural Woman’ from 1967 may be the greatest record ever made about female sexuality.  In 1969 Bob Dylan recorded ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and he sings about taking a woman to his big brass bed, although Dylan claims this song is not about sex.  Also in 1969, The Rolling Stones recorded ‘Honky Tonk Women’, which most people figure is about snorting cocaine and having sex.  Things changed a bit after the summer of love and Woodstock in the 1970s and it seemed like Charles Darwin was right when he said that music evolved as a way to attract lovers.  When you make it with someone, you are talking about having sex with that person, and many people think that this Bread is about having sex, but is it? 

In this song, the guy reflects on the freshness and beauty of finding someone that he wants to be with despite the uncertainty of love.  This guy wants to put it all on the line and reach out to this girl, because he sees something special in her, which evokes the hope of togetherness, of wanting to be with a special person through thick and thin.  He thinks that he might “be climbing on rainbows”, but he is willing to give her his heart, so they can experience a fresh and new love.  He tells her that he is singing this song because he wants to make it with her, even though they don’t know each other all that well yet.  He does not have everything figured out, knowing that “Life can be short or long” and “Love can be right or wrong”, but he feels like they belong together and he wants to face life together with her.  He wants her to choose him because he feels that if they are together, they’ll be able to make it through anything.  We only get one life, we need to seize our moment, baby let’s turn the light off and make love.  This tender, easy listening song instantly established the bands soft rock sound. 

Hey, have you ever tried
Really reaching out for the other side?
I may be climbing on rainbows
But baby, here goes

Dreams, they’re for those who sleep
Life is for us to keep
And if you’re wondering what this song is leading to
I want to make it with you
I really think that we could make it, girl

No, you don’t know me well
In every little thing only time will tell
But you believe the things that I do
And we’ll see it through

Life can be short or long
Love can be right or wrong
And if I chose the one I’d like to help me through
I’d like to make it with you
I really think that we could make it, girl

Baby, you know that dreams, they’re for those who sleep
Life, it’s for us to keep
And if I chose the one I’d like to help me through
I’d like to make it with you
I really think that we could make it, girl

The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community.  There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Bread song, then go with that.  You could also go with a song that is about finding a special someone to share your life with, or any song from the late 1960s, or early 1970s era.  Maybe you could write a post about rainbows, or dreams, or sleep.  If you would like to write about what you think it means concerning life being short or long, or love being right or wrong, that would make an interesting post.  You could write about helping somebody make it through a rough time.  You could explain how long you think people should wait before they start having sex.  

The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate.  This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable.  I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it.  You could write about life being yours to keep, or you could explain what “only time will tell” means.  If you are a big fan of eating bread, then you could write a post about that.

Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and next Friday Dylan Hughes will be here on April 23 with her First Line Friday and she will provide the first line for your post and then you get to write whatever comes afterward, with the length, genre, and structure being completely left up to you.  I will be back on Friday, April 30 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘We Just Disagree’.  When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire.  This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Music challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and permit everyone to read your post sooner that way, and then follow the directions that are given. When you click the Mister Linky widget, another screen will pop up that will look like this screenshot below, with two empty boxes, one for your name and the other containing the web address where your post can be found, both ready for you to fill in.  You must check the box below, for your post to go through.