Saturday, March 1, 2008

Sunday Music: Love


While visiting the record store Dusty Groove recently, I bought a cd reissue of Love Forever Changes, by the 1960's group Love. Love is certainly not obscure, receiving almost universal critical praise. Their fusion of psychedelia and garage-band styles have been cited as influential by several other artists. Yet, they were never very popular in the U.S., perhaps because nobody knew now to market a racially mixed rock group with a black lead singer. Arthur Lee, the singer-songwriter who fronted the band, squabbled with his record company and made some bad decisions, such as taking a pass on Woodstock. Love's misfortunes continued as members dropped out and into drug addiction.

I was surprised to discover only one Love video on YouTube, an appearance on American Bandstand in 1966, where they performed their first and only hit written by someone else, Burt Bacharach's "Little Red Book." If you have time, listen to the lovely "She Comes in Colors", which was written by Arthur Lee well before the Rolling Stones' "She's Like a Rainbow."







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2 comments:

David said...

I recall that cd buying jaunt! We need to hang out again. Been way too long. And my fault.

I bought "Forver Changes" on vinyl recently as well. Still one of my faves.

The Fifty Foot Blogger said...

More like Cancer's fault!