Dennis Provisor Today
Dennis Provisor joined the Grass Roots as their keyboard player in 1969 when original guitarist Creed Bratton left the group. While it may seem strange that the group chose to replace their lead guitarist with a keyboard player, in retrospect the move was both appropriate and brilliant..
By 1969 the Grass Roots had completely changed their style from the folk-rock of their first few albums to an exciting blend of rock, pop and soul, and keyboards and horns became prominent elements in their records. Dennis's background in recording had always been R&B-influenced. Before joining the Grass Roots, he had released soulful singles as a solo artist on several different labels, including 20th Century-Fox and Valiant., under the name Denny Provisor. Plus, Dennis was a triple-threat man, with abilities as a strong lead singer, a versatile musician, and an immensely talented songwriter.
Some of the details of Provisor's background are hard to come by, as he has not revealed them. These include his actual birth year, which is estimated as 1948, and his actual birth name - Provisor was the stage name he chose, but he has kept his real name private. He is a Los Angeles native who began playing piano at an early age, and expanded to electric organ and other keyboard instruments as he joined several R&B/rock cover bands while still in high school. He landed a recording contract with 20th Century-Fox Records while still a teenager, and released a sort of novelty record which was a soul rave-up of the "Mickey Mouse" theme song, produced by Tommy Oliver. The flip side, a ballad called "Walk On With Him", was more typical of the style of his future recordings with the Grass Roots, and Provisor's voice really shines on this song. He didn't write it (producer Oliver did), but it was very much in the style of some of the slower songs he would later write for the Grass Roots, such as "Let It Go" and "I Can Turn Off the Rain". The single didn't click with the public, and he was let go from his contract. This rare single remains a highly collectible item.
About two years later Provisor signed with the Valiant label, and released a couple more singles there, including some sides he wrote himself. None of these charted, and Provisor found himself once again without a label.
Then came an invitation to join the Grass Roots on ABC/Dunhill in 1969. Dennis's first album with the group, Leaving It All Behind, immediately proved the wisdom of the choice. Besides writing several great songs for the album (one of which, "Hold On To What You Got", was actually listed as one of the tracks on the album's back cover but wasn't included on the album (!), and remains unreleased to this day), Dennis's powerful voice, both on lead and harmony vocals, added an energetic, soulful punch to the Grass Roots' sound. On top of that, the group scored their first hit single which was written by a member of the group, Provisor's melodic "Walking Through the Country", on which he sang lead.
The next album, More Golden Grass, included more powerful Provisor originals, including the sublime "I Can Turn Off the Rain", a song so beloved by Grass Roots fans that it was included on their Platinum-selling Their 16 Greatest Hits album even though it was never a single! More Golden Grass is often considered a compilation album, but the fact is that only five of the twelve cuts had ever appeared on LP before. One of the new cuts, "Come On and Say It", became the second hit for the Grass Roots that they had written themselves. It was composed by Rob Grill, Warren Entner and Dennis Provisor. It was also the first single to showcase Provisor's exciting soulful ad-libbed vocals set against the main melody at the end of the song, which would become practically a trademark of the group's sound on subsequent smashes like "Sooner or Later", "Two Divided By Love", and "Glory Bound" (the last of which Provisor also co-wrote, with Steve Barri, Michael Price and Dan Walsh).
On the major hit singles "Sooner or Later" and "Two Divided By Love", Dennis shares lead vocals with Rob. On "Sooner or Later", the innovative section which duplicates the words of the first verse ("It's just a matter of time/Before you make up your mind" with an entirely new variation on the melody features the other group members singing the main melodic section in the background while Dennis steps out front for an invigorating soulful workout. On "Two Divided By Love", Dennis's presence is felt strongly throughout the song, from the siren-like "Ahh"s on the verse to the "Pull it back together" pre-chorus line, and he sings the "Take away the rain from a flower" bridge by himself. And then we hear him "slowly go" out of his mind as he vocally jams on the final choruses of the song.
Dennis Provisor officially quit the group in 1972 shortly after drummer Rick Coonce left. But although his picture does not appear on the group's next album, Move Along, Dennis is certainly on the album, which contains no less than five songs that he wrote or co-wrote, and he sings lead on two of them ("Someone To Love" and "Only One"). Two other Provisor originals, the catchy "Monday Love" and the powerful title cut "Move Along", are sung beautifully by Rob Grill and seem to have been specifically written for his voice.
After leaving the Grass Roots, Provisor continued to write songs, one of which was recorded by Rare
Earth. Then, in 1975, to the delight of fans everywhere, he re-joined the Grass Roots when they signed to Haven Records. Provisor's return seem to re-energize the group after their last unsuccessful album on Dunhill. Once again trading off lead vocals with Rob, Provisor helped turn two of the Haven album's cuts, "Something About You" and the shoulda-been-a-single "It's A Cryin' Shame", into instant Grass Roots classics.
Provisor continued to tour with the Grass Roots for three more years, including a highly successful tour of Japan.
In 1978, Rob Grill officially disbanded the group to take a much-needed rest from the road. When he decided to re-form the Grass Roots in 1982, and they signed to MCA, Provisor was not included in the line-up. The little-known fact here is that Grill actually considered re-teaming with Dennis in the group, but after several rehearsals together decided the sound wasn't what he wanted for the Grass Roots in the Eighties. "It sounded like the same old thing" is Grill's somewhat mystifying comment, and final word, on the subject.
Afterwards, Dennis, now married, moved to Wisconsin where he built his own home and lives with his wife and children today. He is still very actively performing with his group called "The Hits" (Official Website here ), which has a performance schedule almost as full as that of the Grass Roots themselves. He still performs some of his Grass Roots material. The Hits rarely, if ever, tour outside of Wisconsin, but they have opened shows for many major acts appearing there, including the Beach Boys, America, the Turtles, and, uh, the Grass Roots.
Far be it from this writer and fan to suggest that, when Dennis's band is opening for the Grass Roots, Rob Grill could ask his old bandmate to walk a few feet and step onto the stage with them in what would be a thrilling actual reunion of these two Grass Roots members who complement and bring out the best in each other. But this has never happened to my knowledge, and from what I know of the self-admittedly stubborn Rob Grill, it never will.
You can e-mail Dennis Provisor care of his current band at this address: The Hits
