1032 The Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today

1032 The Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today

Been meaning to pick this one for some time now; I feel as if lately I am getting caught up on picking songs in the queue.
Anyway, this is one of The Grass Roots' bigger and earlier hits, although it was actually a cover. The band that originally recorded the song was a British beat group called The Rokes; their version can be found here on YouTube. Oddly enough, the band was living in Italy and the song began its life written in Italian with the title Piangi Con Me, (Cry With Me), (which is here on YouTube). After the song became a hit in Italy, they translated it to English and adjusted some lyrics. However, the version in English that actually made it big was The Grass Roots'.
One of my favourite aspects of this track is how it was mixed and mastered. I often referred to this track as "headphone music," i.e. it sounds the best through a set of headphones. In this one half way through the verse the vocals and some instrumentation slowly moves to the left head phone, then just before the chorus begins from the right you get blasted with "1, 2, 3, 4;" it is an awesome call and response effect.
There are a few other songs where they used cool effects like this, one that I can think of off the top of my mind is Billy Thorpe's Children of the Sun; if you listen to that one with headphones on the music swirls around your head. Of course through the '70s bands like Pink Floyd really set the standard for headphone music; it's a shame that no one really does this much anymore.

Here is the studio version on YouTube.


My song pick a year ago today: The Ventures - Walk-Don't Run
My song pick two years ago today: Ten Years After - I'd Love To Change The World

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