WilliamWes did a great album by album...I totally zoned out on that... but there is always room for more Love...visit WW's great thread too. A little intro today, and then off we go tomorrow! LoVE & Arthur Lee Album by Album The billboard for the best to come, but we'll start with 1966's self titled. Imagine seeing this. Michael and Bryan were driving along and saw this for th e first time. Bryan was a bit put out that Michael's "head" was in the center--giving it more prominence it would seem to Bryan's way of thinking. Love is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. They were originally led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee,[5] who wrote most of the songs, although some of their best known songs were written by Bryan MacLean. One of the first racially diverse American bands, their music drew on a diverse range of sources including folk rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco and orchestral pop.[6] While finding only modest success on the music charts, Love would come to be praised by critics as one of the finest and most important American rock groups of all time. Their third album, Forever Changes (1967), is generally regarded as their masterpiece, included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2011. -wiki 1963–1966 Arthur Lee, who was originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but had lived in Los Angeles since the age of five, had been recording since 1963 with his bands, the LAG's and Lee's American Four. He had written and also produced the single "My Diary" for Rosa Lee Brooks in 1964 which featured Jimi Hendrix on guitar.[7] A garage outfit, The Sons Of Adam, which included future Love drummer Michael Stuart, also recorded a Lee composition, "Feathered Fish". However, after viewing a performance by the Byrds, Lee became determined to form a group that joined the newly minted folk-rock sound of the Byrds to his primarily rhythm and blues style.[5] Singer, songwriter / guitarist Bryan MacLean, whom Lee had met when he was working as a roadie for The Byrds, joined the band just before they changed their name from the Grass Roots to Love, spurred by the release of a single by another group called The Grass Roots.[5] MacLean had also been playing guitar in bands since about 1963 but picked up music early. Neighbor Frederick Loewe, of the composers Lerner & Loewe, recognized him as a "melodic genius" at the age of three as he doodled on the piano. Also joining the band was another Memphis native, lead guitarist Johnny Echols, and from Los Angeles Don Conka was added on drums. A short time later, Conka was replaced by Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer. Love's first bassist, Johnny Fleckenstein, went on to join the Standells in 1967. Fleckenstein was replaced by Ken Forssi (formerly of a post-"Wipe Out" lineup of The Surfaris). Love started playing the Los Angeles clubs in April 1965 and became a popular local attraction. At this time, they were playing extended numbers such as "Revelation" (originally titled "John Lee Hooker") and getting the attention of such contemporaries as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. The band lived communally in a house called "the Castle" and their first two albums included photographs shot in the garden of that house. The song that started it all...My Little Red Book Dick's interview so fine..a bit funny. Arthur Was so cool. More to come...
There was a huge Love album by album thread on here in 2016. I can’t link just now cos on my phone, but search ‘Love Arthur Lee 50 Years’ and you should be able to find it. It was started and curated by @WilliamWes .
Fixed and thanks for reminding me..WilliamWes does great threads and his was fantastic!! Revised mine here...
Fantastic idea for a thread @lemonade kid, and you're the one to do it! Re. the billboard above -- can any forum members in LA indentify what location this is? I'm assuming it was on Sunset Blvd? It also appears to be a different location than the one that was used for the inlay card of the 2001 Forever Changes CD. Looking forward to the rest of the thread...
So share when you all first discovered Love...your favorite stories and myths. Your especial Love music and later LoVE songs and albums. Your memories of seeing Arthur Lee/Love live over the decades... Fill this thread with LoVE.
As on the other thread, I foresee a huge drop-off in participation after Forever Changes. . A shame if you ask me, I have and enjoy all of Arthur's stuff.
I am yet to get one of their albums, but more than likely will at some stage. I was introduced to Love by Alice Cooper .... which sounds all together creepy, but you know what I mean. I Love this song.
Wow, and the Liquor Locker's still there! I drove through there on my two trips to LA in 2011 and 2016 -- probably too busy looking for Clark and Hilldale...
I was introduced when Mojo put Forever Changes in their top 10 albums of all time back in 1997. Had never heard of them at the time but the album cover sucked me in. Fell in love with it and it is a top album for me now. I just scored their first album on vinyl when Rhino re-released a mono a couple summers ago. It is a great bargain for the album I believe it is on insound right now. Love - Love
I would have heard the "My Little Red Book" and "7 and 7 Is" singles on AM radio first. I loved both, and was especially taken with the latter. I remember I was writing letters back and forth to a girl I had met over the summer, and we would talk about our favorite songs a lot. I recall asking her again and again about "7 and 7 Is." It took a long time, but she finally said she had heard it! After that I would have bought the Da Capo album (I didn't get the debut album until sometime later), but I really loved that a lot — although I confess I didn't often listen to "Revelation"! But that first side was fantastic, with "Orange Skies" and "The Castle" being particular favorites. I'm pretty sure I got Forever Changes right when it came out too. I didn't then and can't now pretend to fully grasp the L.A.-based ethos of this album. But I'm a music first/lyrics second kind of listener, and there's no question this is a profound work that takes you to another place no matter how many times you listen. I think I got Four Sail when it was released also, and it was a bit of a comedown after the greatness that preceded it. But I still think "August" is an amazing track. The subsequent albums I sort of heard piecemeal over the years, and can't say I was knocked out by any of them. But they had their moments. And at whatever indeterminate point I got the first album, I loved it of course, already being a huge Byrds fan. Final thoughts: I've pointed out many times (as have others) that it's hard to think of another artist whose first four albums are so radically different from one another. But that can be a good thing, and is in this case. And…I was fortunate enough to see the Baby Lemonade edition of Love when they toured a year or so before Arthur Lee's death. If I understood correctly, it was only the second gig after Johnny Echols had rejoined them. I'm very grateful I had this opportunity, as they were superb. I think what struck me more than anything was the incredible power and beauty of Arthur's voice. You know it's there from the albums, but to hear it in person was, well, a revelation!
I remember reading an article in 1981 which described Forever Changes in such an interesting way that, even if I didn't buy the record right away it stuck in the back of my mind (sort of 'one day I have to get it'). Over the following years I used to keep an eye on the German 70's copy of the LP (with the alternate back cover) in a local store but then again, I wanted the original artwork too... So I finally bought a new reissue in 1986 (btw until then I only had A House Is Not A Motel taped off the radio), and it was... love at first 'sight' I've been a big fan ever since (although I have to admit I don't appreciate the post-FC material as much). And how many different issues of FC have I bought? I guess 10 different copies (only 3 on cd). I think I know what I'm going to play on my turntable right now...
that love billboard above the liquor locker was the site of the "first" rock n roll b'board on sunset. which was elektra's for the doors 1st lp. holzman figured it worked well once!.. why not. theres amazing shots of the doors and my pop all standing under it looking skyward in amazement. they had never been that "large" ha. you do great threads, @lemonadekid
i also was able to catch a couple of those gigs. that band redeemed themselves admirably, and as i recall? played note for note "love". at one of his last troubadour gigs w them was the last time i got to speak with arthur. i think he'd been jailed? or something. it was bittersweet. i knew him fairly well from age of about 10 to my late 30's? i would guess. years after our shared laurel canyon residencies, we were for a brief time neighbors in a west hollywood apt. a time i would rather forget. there will never be another "love" and arthur was truly one of a kind also. messed up? yeah, but so were "many". add: i actually used to kind of tease bryan about "orange skies" as i thought that "carnivals and cotton candy" line was as cheesy as they come. me, a music critic at ten lol
great pic! thats the liquor locker with the infamous chateau marmont behind it. that was my old stomping grounds. almost 50 years. ha the parking lot where that "chase bank" is is the former location of the "gardens of allah" apts. immortalized by joni when she sang: "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot".
I was in Love for the first time in 1966, '7&7 is' got lots of late night radio play in the U.K., I bought the single and had to order the S/T LP. I was gob-smacked when I first played it, it had the lot, punk, folk-rock, blues, pop, up to that point only the Beatles were as musically diverse. In the U.K. at that time there was very little publicity of the band, music papers like the NME started to pick up on the band a few months later when 'Da Capo' was released. 'Da Capo', I was bloody gob-smacked again, prior to release I had picked up the 'She Comes In Colours' single so was ready for something special and I wasn't let down. By this time I had turned friends on to the genius of Arthur Lee & Bryan MacLean and in the village where I lived Love were almost bigger than the Beatles! Nothing could have prepared us for 'Forever Changes', I have extolled my love of this album many times on this forum. Suffice to say that this album has been played by me more than the rest of my collection has been played and I own many albums. Then Arthur goes and breaks up the band, what the hell was going on? I lived thousands of miles away and couldn't understand why. Then 'Four Sail' arrives, first play reaction- wtf is this? Then after a few more plays you realise that it's a natural progression for Arthur and as someone has already said what a great song 'August' is, then there's 'Your Friend And Mine', 'Robert Montgomery', 'Always See Your Face'. Had 'Four Sail' followed 'Da Capo' and 'Forever Changes' came after we'd be saying what a great album it is. So I'm gonna say what a great album 'Four Sail' is, c'mon how can you follow the Greatest Album Ever Made? I remember buying 'Out There' after a great deal of difficulty in trying to find it locally. Eventually got it in a shop that sold washing machines upstairs and had a record store hidden away downstairs. I love that album, yeah it would have made a great single album but you could say the same about the 'White Album'. Albums that followed never caught that spark of genius ever again but if you listened without predjudice there are some gems. I did manage to meet Arthur when Love toured the UK in 1970(?) in Manchester after they played a show. I don't know who was more out of it, me or him but I do remember shaking his hand and him saying hello. Flash-forward to the 00's and Arthur's tours with Baby Lemonade. I caught 5-6 shows on those tours and at the first show when they performed 'Forever Changes' I had tears rolling down my face, one word - beautiful. Never again did I think I would be so moved by music. I was wrong. The 50th Anniversary S.E. Of 'Forever Changes' is delivered to my home. Even though I knew what was contained inside I was bloody shaking opening it, put the LP on and it was 1967 all over again!
Thanks for the memories, rr. Great stuff. And meeting Arthur! So Lucky. I never saw LoVE in any of its variations, but feel very privileged to know Michael, who has become a good buddy (even though we've never met face to face), often exchanging everyday parts of our daily lives with each other (not "everyday" stuff to me, of course). To also be privileged to have been given the opportunity to design the covert art for Michael's "Pegasus Continum (the Story Of Love)" eBook & his business cards are my most cherished moments in my 40+ years as a graphic designer. Oh, and Michaels' drumsticks, signed and given to me... that he used for the Ugly Things 30th anniversary concert featuring Love Revisited...ultimate treasures. He gave them to me for my work on his projects. Michael's various insights and kind words that he has shared with me, and allowed me to likewise, share here...I can only say he is a rare, honest and kind man in a business that is so often filled with unkind and selfish "stars". Visit my thread if you like: LoVE's Michael Stuart-Ware shares insights and memories of LoVE | Steve Hoffman Music Forums I was aware of and loved LoVE from first hearing "My Little Red Book" on the radio. But in our small university town in the midwest, Love was just not on the radar...though I remember distinctly. I actually didn't get deeply into LoVE until about 20 years ago. Suffice to say I've made up for lost time. I have several signed (by Arthur & Michael) copies of the first three albums and signed CDs by Michael, and Michaels book (two editions with some very nice notes to me inside). I also have gotten to know John Einarson who kindly gave me a shout out in the preface of his Love biography, expressing his thanks for my support. More on my memories of Love later...if you are interested in Michael's book, it is always available as an eBook or iBook: Amazon.com: Pegasus Continuum: The Story of the Legendary Rock Group LOVE eBook: Michael Stuart-Ware: Kindle Store Love was one of the legendary bands of the late-‘60’s U.S. West Coast music scene. Now, Michael Stuart-Ware, drummer on the group’s masterpiece albums, Da Capo, and Forever Changes, shares his inside perspective, and relates in vivid detail...the Story of Love.
That's right, you told me already!...your father was connected to Elektra from the early daze. Such cool memories. Man, would I love to sit down with you and talk all night about your memories! Love your memory of Bryan! For now, why not just write a book about you time in those days to share with us all!!
I have started reading Michael's ebook and can confirm it gives a great insight into Arthur Lee and Love, thanks @lemonade kid for putting me on to 'Pegasus Continuum'. I also have the Einarson book which I have yet to read. I can also recommend the 331/3 book on 'Forever Changes'.
thanks for the kind words. i had two false starts on a book with two different co-authors and we didnt get past a sample chapter opening. its a lot of work and not many want to work on "spec". yeah though bryan and arthur were cool .. so was elektra la when it was only a two person office
Please stop with the LoVE conceit. SMiLE was insufferable. It's Love. Really. Great thread, though, to match the music.
Ha! Funny, I think, if I take your meaning as a jest ...(though your post is a bit esoteric...) It is very easy to be conceited when you have LoVE! Love must be performing John Lee Hooker here with Arthur on the six and twelve string double neck guitar. Bryan beltong it out, and I can just make out Snoop on the drum kit wearing his signature vest and beads.
The Einarson book is one of the best music bios around. Heavily researched, using hundreds of interviews and sources from those who were there to witness, or be a part of the genius of Love.
