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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
Love were representative of three
different stages in psychedelic-rock: its roots in folk-rock, still
evident on the naive Love (late 1966 or early 1967); its full-blown creative maturity,
after digesting blues, jazz and raga, as on their masterpiece
Da Capo (1966); its baroque apex, when,
influenced (like everybody else) by the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, the
band adopted the lush pop arrangements of Forever Changes (1967).
They were, in a sense, a rare schizophrenic case, as they boasted both
a fantastic guitarist, Arthur Lee, worthy of the most glorious
blues-rock tradition, and baroque arrangements, worthy of
Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson.
Full bio.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT)
Love were one of the most important bands of the mid-1960s, particularly in the genre that combined psychedelic sensibilities with a rediscovery of pop melody. In this sense, they were a schizophrenic case, boasting a prodigious guitarist like Arthur Lee, a worthy heir of the blues-rock tradition, while simultaneously featuring baroque arrangements reminiscent of Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson.
The band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles in the wake of the folk-rock craze of the Byrds, the phenomenon of the moment. Arthur Lee, a black singer who had played in rhythmnblues bands since 1963 (even performing with the young Jimi Hendrix on guitar in 1964), decided to play Byrds-style folk-rock and formed one of the first racially mixed groups, with a spectacular black guitarist, Johnny Echols, his childhood friend who had played with Little Richard, along with another guitarist and singer who was white (Bryan McLean, former Byrds road manager) and a white rhythm section (Ken Forssi and Michael Stuart).
The group immediately released a successful single, Little Red Book (written by Burt Bacharach), driven by an emphatic, pulsating chorus. Their debut album, Love (Elektra, 1966), was propelled in the charts by the noble and painful blues of Hey Joe (written by Dino Valenti, future Quicksilver), but the album also includes the funereal, spectral atmosphere of Signed D.C., which delivers a solemn gospel with the vigor of the Animals, and the equally ethereal Mushroom Clouds, hinting at the personality of the band's second leader, Bryan MacLean.
Love fully embraced psychedelia (and jazz) on their next album, Da Capo (Elektra, November 1966). The record refined the hard/soft technique of the first album: on one hand, a sharp and compact ensemble sound, with instrumentation extended to brass (Tjay Cantrell) and keyboards; on the other, relatively melodic compositions that lend themselves to controlled digestion. Furthermore, Echols guitar, one of the boldest of the era, rivaled Hendrix. The arrangements are among the most eccentric of the time. Assault pieces like Stephanie Knows Who, a shouter-style rhythm and blues with harpsichord, and especially the frenzied epileptic Seven And Seven Is, propelled by a supersonic drum roll, one of the great garage-rock classics and a ten-year precursor to punk rock, alternate with softer, melodic songs featuring flutes (She Comes In Colors and the jazzy Orange Skies, MacLeans masterpiece) and harpsichords (The Castle, with one of Echols most evocative instrumental passages, moving from country to flamenco), imbued with California sunshine, exotic lands, and LSD, built on heterodox harmonies.
On the flip side stands the twenty-minute suite Revelation, which after a frantic harpsichord attack unfolds into a canonical, syncopated, crackling blues, with brilliant harmonica bursts, free strumming over hypnotic pseudo-boogie rhythms, and lascivious vocalizations. The record label saved only twenty minutes of the piece, which in live performance often extended to an hour.
Forever Changes (Elektra, December 1967) was partly a compromise with commercial music and partly yet another case of a "psychedelic" album actually dressed up with non-rock instruments by the producer/arranger (in this case David Angel). Yet it is undoubtedly an original record, with orchestration here and there worthy of classical music that integrates elegantly with the rock instrumentation. It is also the lightest and most ethereal album of their career, full of surreal vignettes and idyllic, hallucinatory dreams, including Andmoreagain (recorded by Lee with session musicians), Alone Again Or (composed by McLean), Red Telephone, You Set The Scene, and Old Man. It is their most intricate and baroque album, their Pet Sounds. One of the first rock musicians to play double-necked guitar.
The band originally intended it to be a double album with more experimental material, but the record label thought otherwise. Lee's contribution is questionable, since the music was written by the other members and the arrangement is by David Angel.
The troubled history of the group continued, amid constant restructuring, into the 1970s, but without significant additions to the major repertoire,
except perhaps the schizoid melodies of Singing Cowboy, off Four Sail (Elektra, 1969), and Love Is More Than Words, off the double-LP Out Here (Blue Thumb, 1969).
False Start (One Way, 1970) is in the tradition of the heroic-guitar albums of the era.
Arthur Lee's solo album Vindicator (A&M, 1972) fared better. It came after
an album recorded with Jimi Hendrix that was never released.
Lee's second solo album was never released. It was beginning to feel like a curse.
Lee decided to reform Love but Reel To Real (RSO< 1974) was a major disappointment.
Love Revisited (Elektra, 1972) is an anthology of 1965-68,
and the double-disc
Love Story (Rhino, 1995) is an anthology that used
the original masters.
Black Beauty (High Moon, 2012), recorded in 1973 with a lineup of Black musicians, was finally released after 39 years.
Arthur Lee revived the name Love for the album
Arthur Lee And Love (New Rose, 1992), that continued the mission of
Forever Changes
(in fact, Five String Serenade sounds like a cover of She Comes In Colors),
and for the single
Girl On Fire (Distortion, 1994), but health issues and legal disadventures
paused against his career.
Forssi and MacLean died in 1998.
Arthur Lee died in 2006.
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