50 Years of Love & Arthur Lee "Da Capo" "Forever Changes" "Love" & more: Album-By-Album Thread

Picked up Revisited for 6.00 mint condition, large cut out top right hand corner...prefer it when there's a punched hole instead.

 

I've come across this thread late in the day, and it's been hugely informative, but as a Love obsessive, in their original incarnation on the first 3 albums, I've some questions that have arisen from the discussion that hopefully someone can answer.

- does anyone know of the songs Love recorded for Herb Cohen, prior to Elektra and does Don Conka, John Fleckenstein or Bobby Beausoliel play on these. This info was mentioned in a Zig-Zag interview with Arthur or Snoopy

- Johnny Echols mentions that some tracks from Four Sail were played by the original Love and as they were gigging until August '68 and Four Sail recorded Sept '68 with the new line-up this would be likely. What songs were played and were any played live with the original line-up? Could any of these have been the song titles and timings proposed to Elektra for the Gethsemane album?

- Michael Stuart mentions the band learning their parts individually for the Forever Changes sessions, rather than rehearsing. Did they use rough demo tapes to familiarise themselves with the chords, timings, etc.?

- a review of a gig in '68 mentions Bryan playing an unnamed folk-style song, while naming the other songs played and being familiar with all their albums. Does anyone know what song this may be, from set lists of that time?

- did anyone receive letters, photos, etc. from the Love Fan Club, mentioned on Da Capo sleeve and are there any Love Mosrite promotional photos?

- is Arthur's 'girlfriend' in the 'Your Mind...' promo Anita or Stephanie?

I've been a Love fanatic since I was 14 in 1986 and bought and searched for anything related to the original line-up since then, looking for info in the Castle fanzine and Zig-Zag, but this thread has been revelatory.
My favourite issues of the albums are the UK laminated sleeve mono editions of the 3 LP's.

 

Not heard the Forever Changes SACD yet?

 

From all that Michael tells me & has written, Arthur played very rough, simple chords and sang the songs, and they never practiced together at all. No rough tapes. They just practiced their own parts after hearing Arthur's rough demonstrations---that seems quite remarkable and a testament to their great talents to then bring it all together to create one of the greatest and most complex albums of all time. Later, Johnny, Kenny, Michael and Bryan would give their input and suggestions on how to finish the final takes--which could end up very different from the original roughs.

 

Excellent, it is!!

 

Yes, it is.
The 2 LP bests it, imo.

 

Thanks for your reply.
Was hoping for the holy grail of demos!

 

No, had thought the 2-CD was the last word on updates, but had a look at this release.
Would you recommend the double LP? What's the differences in sound quality?

 

The 45RPM ( 2 LPs)
Sound difference.
(in comparison with my set up)
Bigger soundspectrum, everything more detail,drums, vocals, guitars on Alone Again Or.

 

Reading around the forum, in another thread, I thought there was quite an agreement about the best sounding version of Forever Changes (2015 remaster by Bruce Botnick).

 

Ahh, it's been so long since I've been here, but after reading a lot of other people's threads, I wanted to try to close out the year with the box set review of Arthur Lee and Love Coming Through To You. So a heads up, I have the first disc review ready-we'll go through the discs individually. The first disc has the 1970's covered-really all the tracks are from the 1970 tour so while the setlist is good, it doesn't give us any representation of the other years during this decade that Love toured. So no 1973, 1974, 1975, or the sporadic shows from the rest of the decade-or anything with Bryan MacLean.

Because this live anthology jumps quickly on the 2nd disc straight into the 1990's totally avoiding/skipping the 1980's, this becomes the only disc with live Arthur Lee still in his youth (here he's only 23) and therefore remains an important document. So I'll be posting the first disc later today, and hopefully everything by the new year.

Hope all is well with all.

 

Well I gave myself the MFSL 45 RPM Forever Changes for Christmas but I haven't cracked it yet. I had on The Blue Thumb Recordings a few weeks ago and I was wondering why I don't play that too often. It's an incredible recording both for SQ and for musical content! Apparently not issued in large numbers either because used copies are going for north of $62.

 

Been a massive Arthur lee & Love fan for years.
Something has been bothering me about forever changes. First of All let's make things clear I absolutely adore the album. We all know the story how the rest of the band weren't performing so Arthur brought in the wrecking crew, this jolted the rest of their band out of their drugged stupor and the rest is history as they say.
What has been bothering me is I've read that some of the songs that the wrecking crew played actually stayed on the album, I'm sure the daily planet is mentioned.
Does anybody know if this is true and what songs the wrecking crew are on?

I'm not sure how I feel about the wrecking crew, I know the story well bought the DVD but I couldn't really find any passion for them. I absolutely love the funk brothers who were the Motown backing band but I struggle to find the same love for the wrecking crew. I don't know why this is. Maybe it's the deception? I was genuinely disappointed when I heard that pet sounds was the wrecking crew with Brian Wilson and not the beach boys.
This is why the beach boys aren't in the same league as the Beatles.


Anyway just like to mention I'm a fan of post forever changed love too. In my humble opinion Four sail is right up there with forever changes and their debut. False start is underated too. I love The song Anytime Arthur at his best for me.

 

The wrecking crew were involved with making classic pop songs with a variety of different artists. Pet Sounds just wouldn't have sounded the same without their involvement. The Mike Sammes Singers did the backing vocals on I Am The Walrus.

 

I hear Hal Blaine's drumming on two tracks. The only really obvious all-out Wrecking Crew session to my ears was for "The Daily Planet".

 

I agree with you but at the same time, Rubber Soul, revolver or Sgt pepper would never have been as good or original if the wrecking crew were present.

 

Thanks for reply, yeah I thought the same about Daily planet which really is a top notch song.

 

Well if you don't listen to FC this year, I predict it will be on your New Year's resolution list.

I'm so spent economically at this point whether from music or other things, I don't own it and I'm not sure when I will. I haven't read that thread that discusses the quality of it in some time so I can't remember the general reaction.

The Blue Thumb Recordings (oddly enough in an all-red package) is just such a definitive Love product to have and it's just going to get more expensive. The 1970 concert has great sound and the performance is the earliest and one of better live releases for Love. I still would have liked a better booklet considering it covered 2 full albums that individually never got booklets as extensive as everything else in the catalog. Even 'Four Sail', 'Black Beauty' and 'Vindicator' have more info than the booklet in this box set. But as an audio doc, it really satisfies.

 

Hi Mr. Wiggles, I dig the name; the tracks were "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet". And you're correct that Botnick did do it on purpose and while it was tough, he had in mind that it would only be temporary because Love were signed by Holtzman because they were a great band. So many of them said in hindsight that they didn't rehearse enough up until that point and understood later why it was done.

When hearing the album with the 2 tracks in mind, they do feel different. Still, I was fooled for some time.

 

I have no problem with any songs that the Wrecking Crew anonymously played on through the years. It's their skill and talent that made so much of the music we love sound as good as it does, no matter whose name is on the record label. What I found interesting was your comment about the Wrecking Crew DVD. I enjoyed watching it but like you, I found no passion for them either. The stories were fun to hear but I didn't feel any connection with them like I did while watching the artists in "20 Feet From Stardom". For that matter, I felt more passion for the people in the "Muscle Shoals" documentary as well.

 

I'm glad that Love did play most of FC, but I do love Pet Sounds too but I guess many argue that Love would have lost some of its original sound if the Wrecking Crew played on all the tracks. Still the majority of tracks on Forever Changes feature session musicians for all the additional instruments like the strings and horns.

 

ARTHUR LEE & LOVE: COMING THROUGH TO YOU (DISC 1: 1970 LIVE)


1. Nothing: A little sparse with Lee’s guitar being mixed low but captures the psychedelic side of the track well. Fine bass work by Fayad.

[The sound is good on most of the track-comparable to the Out There compilation’s live tracks.]

2. Bummer in the Summer: This rocks harder than the original because it features a prominent wah-wah guitar. It’s nice to hear George Suranovich on this Forever Changes track and it’s one of the best on the entire collection. Great guitar solo that brings hard rock with the 1967 L.A. sound together terrifically.

(The Waltham Forest Technical College, London, UK Feb 27,1970)
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3. August: So far this album is proving how great Love could be as a hard rock band by combining great songs with dynamic powerful arrangements. A very difficult song to pull off properly live, this is the closest to success from any version I’ve heard. An explosive performance with the wah-wah in full effect and almost every high point being hit in the right way.

4. My Little Red Book: Because this band feels like it has its roots in hard rock, a song like this will benefit. It pounds harder here than on the rocking recording. Another great performance.

5. Gather Round/Funky Broadway: The first quiet and calm of the album, despite the different live appearances put together, the album is feeling like its own concert. This one becomes more epic than on Out Here, starting softly before gradually increasing the throttle of distortion until it reached a peak at the beginning of “Funky Broadway”, a cover song that is a choppy rhythm hard rock tune. A satisfying long track.


6. Love Is More Than Words Or Better Late Than Never: Another powerhouse here, the acid rock found here is just about as good as it is on the record except it’s missing some of the Out Here version’s guitar interplay. Still Rowles again seems to be on the money live and far outdoing his output on False Start where he feels less inspired. Suranovich continues a tremendous assault throughout-2 straight tracks of thunder.

(The Roundhouse, London, UK, Feb 28, 1970 )
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7. Product of the Times: Another one of Love’s better hard rock tracks, this continues the great band interplay not feeling to different from the original live recording released in 1982. Rowles feels a little sloppy but still inspired on the guitar solo.

8. Keep on Shining: This is a rare soft track and the band mostly tones the hard stuff down but at times, it feels too rough for the nature of the song.

(Fillmore East, New York, NY; Feb 28, 1970)
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9. Doggone: An mediocre performance but the band seem to be recovering some here. They do keep it appropriately calm and there's no drum solo.

10. Good Times: With Suranovich beginning to work up a sweat on the intro, the band do break back into some nice hard rock. Nice but not exceptional. The audio on these last 2 are not quite up to the first 8 tracks.

11. Slick Dick: Here we run into some audio issues. There’s some static on this with white noise evident but it’s worth having the performance for historical sake as the only live version of this released anywhere. It’s nice to hear and perhaps better as a live song than the studio version. Lee sounds extra ‘out there’ vocally with a manic but controlled performance. He belts the vocal out hard-best part of the song.

(Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar 12, 1970-these performances seem to be less magical with a different feel in the sound of the recording.)
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12. Stand Out
With the change of venue, we have some more misfortune with much lower quality audio on the last 3 tracks. These are rough listening in some of the harder rocking moments. Stick with the other versions of this.

13. Find Somebody
Live, this track becomes a stomper, it’s one of Lee’s better 70’s songs and it works well live but again the audio is hampered by issues.

14. Always See Your Face
The aggression is probably too tough on this final track, but it’s a good way to close the disc despite more poor sound.

(Fillmore West, SF, CA, late show Nov, 21, 1970)

COMING THROUGH TO YOU (1970’s- the first disc) Live Recordings 1970-2004: B
So to sum up, the disc has the best stuff first and gets progressively worse in sound quality as it goes along. Since I’m not a sound buff, if I mention it, it means that it may be an issue for a casual fan. The performances and band are all listenable and the songs shine very well as early arena rock like on “Find Somebody” or “My Little Red Book”. Gary Rowles the lead guitarist in particular surprised me considering he was a step down from Jay Donnellan, but perhaps the False Start material did not inspire him in studio. Live, he is great but Suranovich is excellent on drums-absolutely top of the rock world good here-not the best, but very close. He never lets up and Fayad was good on bass. Lee is great vocally hitting everything with the right emotion for the most part except perhaps on ‘Always See Your Face’ where he gets too worked up.

As a concert, it would be fantastic and really it would best the live 1970 disc of the False Thumb Recordings if the sound didn’t dip on the final few tracks. I don’t know about grading it, but if the audio was consistent, it would be a B+ or even an A-, but a B is high for me considering this is a live recording and some of the audio is flawed.

 

One more note for the 1970 first disc; some here mentioned that Lee sings too close against the mike on some of the live songs on the Blue Thumb Recordings causing a 'shh' sound for the letter 's'. The first disc in this box set does not have that noise.

Here's the 2nd disc of Coming Through to You (the live venues/countries are listed below the tracks-lots of different sources and Baby Lemonade only back Arthur on the last 3 tracks on this disc)


DISC 2 (THE 1990’S) COMING THROUGH TO YOU

1. Five String Serenade
What a beautiful way to start another decade. Skipping the 1980’s completely, we find Love in the early 1990’s in the midst of plenty of acoustic work found on this disc. In theory, this disc feels like Arthur Lee/Love Unplugged from the era MTV did so many of those shows.

This is a great performance and perfect singing/whistling but a bit short. At under 3 minutes, it misses the rain on the window effects, the strings and it’s still a great time to be had.

2. Ninety Nine Miles Away
Here, the jazz rock track of Arthur Lee & Love from 1992 is another good performance, but not quite as enjoyable. A beautiful acoustic guitar solo is a highlight and while Lee’s vocal is great on the softer bits, when he gets up in volume, his voice shows some wear.

3. Passing By/Hoochie Coochie Man
A heavy blues medley of the Arthur Lee & Love track and the blues classic. Lee performs a fine harmonica solo. Lee is effective in acoustic blues.

(Richard Skinner Show, BBC Studios, London UK, May 5, 1992)

Just Arthur Lee and Nick Salomon on acoustic guitars.
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4. Alone Again Or
Wow, this would have been something to see live Arthur Lee solo with just guitar and voice performing the all-time classic- “I just learned how to do this” Arthur exclaims as he performs the properly elegant Spanish guitar noodling throughout one of the best live performances of the decade for him. At under 3 minutes, you’re left wanting more of the greatness.

5. Hey Joe
Arthur is sounding beautifully intimate and restrained with another emotional reading of one of Love’s live favorites. Lee is demonstrating that any acoustic blues comes naturally to him. His voice in such a sparse setting is great. It’s too bad the performance feels truncated and ends somewhat abruptly.

6. Somebody’s Watching You
The 60’s throwback track from the 1992 Arthur Lee & Love. “Remember what I say, you’re days will soon be too passed”-a variation of the lyric on the album which feels revealing. Well performed as an acoustic track, this feels like a great Unplugged concert – too bad it wasn’t on the telly.

(Vara Studios, Amsterdam, May 13, 1992- Arthur Lee all alone on vocal/guitar)
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7. L.A. Coleca
Ahh, the first live recording issued of this lost Lee original-an acoustic attempt and it feels ad-libbed but it’s got some energy in parts, feeling bright in melody and guitar strumming. It feels like a reggae singalong and while it’s got good spirit, I could picture it with more instruments to compliment. It ends with some laughter by Lee. I transcribed the lyric from the live version:

You run you run you run
But you can’t hide, you just can’t hide

You run you run you run
But you can’t hide, you just can’t hide

Tweedlee-dee, tweedlee-da, additional scat…

I said L.A. Coleca is where I come from
You can do what you want until you’re laughing in that sun
We’re going to dance to the music and chase all them troubles away
Laugh and sing and have a good time here today

8. That’s the Way It Goes
This song is just beautiful and feels like a lost Forever Changes track. I wish somehow more people got to hear this since it’s right up there with “Five String Serenade” as 2 of Love’s best late-catalog work. The delicate melody and tender vocal are gorgeous but the knockout are the wonderful chord changes, best of his post prime era material. This version feels similar to that of the one found on a couple of his lesser known live releases.

9. Signed D.C.
One of the few live versions of this song that isn’t hard rock, but instead continues in the acoustic vein. Not as incredible as some of the other acoustic tracks on this 2nd cd, but fine nonetheless.

10. A House Is Not a Motel
A live electric band recording for this song, and a solid performance with some nice bass work through the guitar solo.

11. She Comes in Colors
Another Forever Changes song, this one lacks the additional instrumentation so it doesn’t quite reach up there with the studio performance in quality. It’s cleanly done and lacks some of the finesse found in the original.

12. Can’t Explain
A rocked up version of the debut LP’s 2nd track, this is the first live release of the song and it’s energetic and competent aurally. Lee is the star here but the buzzing guitar soloing isn’t too bad either.

13. Everybody’s Gotta Live/Instant Karma!
Lee liked to combine these two, both written around the same time, one by Lee, one by John Lennon. He gets the crowd singing without music, then continues playing but changes to Lennon’s hit. It’s a nice intimate performance.

(Arthur Lee solo with guitar at Northampton Center of the Arts, Massachusetts Oct. 4, 1993. Electric tracks with The Cheetahs.)
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14. Signed D.C.
Wow, Baby Lemonade kind of woke me out of the calm with a rocking version of this blues rock Lee composition that appears electric here. It’s on point and the tightest performance on the disc. Lee sings as well as ever. I notice how clean the execution is in comparison with Love of the 1970’s. Expressive harmonica by Lee.

15. Orange Skies
Another terrific performance that shows how well Baby Lemonade know the material and have chemistry amongst each other within Love songs. Lee actually struggles on some of the falsetto here but it's still good enough on this electric track.

16. 7 and 7 Is
Watch out! A tremendous electric performance with drumming speedy enough to match the record. Lee is again almost the weakest without massive power like he had in the studio recording-of course it was 30 years later but Lee was so strong vocally much of his later life that I thought he’d have a little more power. The band is punishing. The most aggressive live track released by Love.

(These last 3 are with Baby Lemonade at Rhtymeposten Club, Odense, Denmark May 19, 1996)

COMING THROUGH TO YOU (DISC 2 1990'S): B+
Love Unplugged 1992 would be a good name for the most of the tracks on this disc as it plays just like an Unplugged concert from MTV in the 1990's. This is the only disc where we get so many intimate moments of Arthur alone on acoustic or with just a bit of help from some of the band members of Love that were in and out in that decade. Shack, the band Arthur used for the Paris live CD is not credited on this since most of this is just Arthur. All alone, Arthur has nowhere to hide mistakes and while plenty are evident, his natural ability to entertain in an acoustic setting is a bit surprising. His voice isolated away from hard rock or orchestras becomes the main feature and under a more intense focus, it usually comes through with a great performance.

So while the first disc is monstrous hard rock, this disc does an about face and shows us mostly the soft stuff. The diversity in the music is great whatever Lee is tackling acoustically and while Lee is great on the newer compositions, he excels in acoustic blues. A fine disc to have-wish Love did do an all - unplugged show like this-maybe even back in the 60's.

For newer songs; "L.A. Coleca" (it could be Coloco from what I'm hearing but it's always listed the first way) is just an average fun reggae track but "Five String Serenade", "Passing By" and "Ninety Nine Miles Away" are all great to have in solo acoustic form, but "That's the Way It Goes" still tops everything here. I leave it below if people here would like to hear this one.

 

I couldn't agree with you more about "Four Sail" - that album is right up there with the best of Love for me.

 

Happy New Year everyone! I got a bit distracted over the weekend and didn't finish up. But we have 2 more CD's and then I'll review the Johnny Echols release from last year. That's the last Love release we have currently other than the newest Forever Changes.