Love

Love - Love Lost - 2009 - Sundazed Music

Being that there's no over-emphasizing its importance, Arthur Lee aficionados can claim a certain amount of credibility in heralding the newly unearthed Love Lost as Love's holy grail, the missing link between the band's latter trajectory and Lee's transition into an ultimately abbreviated solo career. While several of these songs were rerecorded and released in different versions at a later time, Love Lost presents this material in primal form, stripped down and still in the process of shaping and discovery. When these sessions were initiated in mid 1971, the Love legacy had pretty much run its course as far as the band's recorded output was concerned, and Lee's focus on a new direction well beyond the original group's regal psychedelia was well on its way. Although Lee's stature as an African American musician had been viewed as something of an anomaly amidst the pure pop, day-glo happenstance of the mid and late `60s, by the end of that era and the start of the `70s Lee had shed the artiness and artifice and was weighing in with a darker imprint. Sharing many of the same sentiments as his good friend and occasional collaborator, Jimi Hendrix (check out "Midnight Sun, a near note- for-note recasting of "Axis Bold As Love"), the music began tilting more towards deeper grooves and a grittier approach, and even in this rudimentary form, these sessions exemplify Lee's more primal intents. Those hoping for the expansive sound of Forever Changes will scarcely recognize the straight-ahead, Hendrix-infused sound demonstrated here, and as emphasized by the inclusion of several acoustic demos, the rawer elements of Lee's music are clearly evidences. Even so, accessibility isn't in short supply; the riveting "Love Jumped Through My Window," the soon-to-be standard "Everybody's Gotta Live" and a deft medley incorporating a short snippet of Jimi's "Ezy Ryder" help illustrate Love's later evolution. Likewise, a detailed essay inside the gatefold sleeve offers further enlightenment about Lee's oeuvre at the time. More intriguing than essential for casual fans, this glimpse at a work in progress will likely be coveted by Love and Lee's devotees. © Lee Zimmerman © Blurt Magazine, December 4, 2009

Listen to Arthur Lee's brilliant "Vindicator" album. There is no need to talk about Love's magnificent "Forever Changes" album, but Love's "Four Sail" album is often overlooked and should be heard by all lovers of great rock music

TRACKS

1 Love Jumped Through My Window 3:21
2 I Can't Find It 4:49
3 He Said She Said 3:39
4 Product Of The Times 4:20
5 Sad Song 2:55
6 Everybody's Gotta Live 4:01
7 Midnight Sun 4:12
8 Good & Evil I 4:23
9 He Knows A Lot Of Good Women 3:13
10 Find Somebody 3:57
11 For A Day 2:08
12 Good & Evil II 2:56
13 Looking Glass 2:32
14 Trippin' & Slippin'/Ezy Ryder 6:58

All tracks composed by Arthur Lee except "Ezy Ryder" by Jimi Hendrix. Tracks 1, 3, 5, 8, 11 are acoustic demos featuring only Arthur Lee and a guitar.

BAND

Arthur Lee - Vocals, Guitar
Craig Tarwater - Guitar
Frank Fayad - Bass
Don Poncher - Drums

REVIEWS

The post-Forever Changes recordings that Love and Arthur Lee did in the late '60s and early '70s will forever be a point of contention among fans. Some contend that he and the group never neared the heights of the LPs by the pre-1968 lineups; others find the post-1967 discs to be high-quality hard rock. The material on Love Lost, a 14-track collection of previously unreleased music the band cut for Columbia in 1971, isn't likely to change many people's minds on these scores. Even judged on its own merits rather than against the earlier Love catalog, however, it's not something fated to be hailed as all that impressive, even if it does fill in an intriguing gap in their recording career. To begin with, it should be noted that while all of these tracks are previously unissued, some of the songs did emerge in different versions on Lee's 1972 solo album Vindicator and the 1975 Love long-player Reel to Real, with different versions of yet others appearing on an unreleased (but bootlegged) album done in the early '70s, Black Beauty. Love's brief association with Columbia thus found them using approaches similar to those found on the aforementioned records, more often than not wedding rather routine hard rock to Lee's sometimes (but not always) idiosyncratic lyrics and song structures. Yet as even Michael Simmons' excellent liner notes acknowledge, the Columbia sessions were on the loose and undisciplined side. These tracks don't find the late Love at their best, and could have used more finely honed songwriting and sharper playing. All that noted, those who do enjoy Love from this era will find much of this to be not all that dissimilar from slightly previous Love albums like False Start and Out Here, though nothing here would have been considered highlights of those LPs. A Jimi Hendrix influence is certainly detectable on some songs, and not just the version of "Ezy Ryder" that concludes the CD. "Midnight Sun" could almost pass as a Hendrix outtake, in fact, and if "Product of the Times" and "Looking Glass" (with its "Machine Gun"-like riff) aren't quite as blatant, they aren't far behind in that regard. For those who like Lee's lighter side, "Everybody's Gotta Live" is far more tilted toward the brooding folk-rock with which he made his initial name, while "Good & Evil" has a most unusual lyric boasting of the singer's taste for Japanese, Spanish, and Native American women over white ones. The inclusion of four acoustic demos (only one of which, "Good & Evil," is also included in an electric version) also helps balance this collection, perhaps inadvertently illustrating how Lee's songs could often be more satisfying in a relatively folky bare-bones state. © Richie Unterberger © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kxfpxztaldde

The long wilderness years of Arthur Lee, the mercurial singer-songwriter-commander of the Los Angeles band Love, began with an abandoned 1971 LP for Columbia, now resurrected on Love Lost (Sundazed). By then, Lee was four years and several Love lineups away from the dark orchestral magic of 1967's Forever Changes. The full-band tracks here are heavy serrated-guitar rock (this is the Love I saw at a late-1970 Fillmore East show), and Lee's writing is aggressively blunt in "Everybody's Gotta Live" (re-cut for his 1974 solo debut, Vindicator) and "Product of the Times". But there is a fighting magnetism in the music and Lee's voice. He sings with fierce engagement even on acoustic demos like "Sad Song". Lee slipped in and out of sight after this, until the end-of-the-century Love revival. But it is clear here that even on the eve of exile, Lee had much love to give. © David Fricke © Rolling Stone

Arthur Lee's seminal work as leader of the '60s band Love is treasured by discerning rock fans around the world. Lee's status as one of his era's preeminent musical cult heroes has grown immensely in recent years, leading to generations of new fans rediscovering the artist's remarkable catalog. Unfortunately, Lee and the band's body of available recordings is relatively small, making Sundazed Music's release of a previously-unheard full-length vintage Arthur Lee and Love album a major musical event. Love Lost was recorded in 1971, during a brief, little-known period during which Love was signed to Columbia Records. Lee and the then-current Love lineup--bassist Frank Fayad, guitarist Craig Tarwater and drummer Don Poncher--recorded an album's worth of new material for the label. But after the band left the company, the recordings sat unreleased and unheard until now. The material on Love Lost--comprised of the unreleased Columbia sessions, plus five unreleased acoustic demos from the same period--captures Love in a transitional phase, charting the next step in Lee's idiosyncratic musical trajectory, following the lush garage-psychedelia of the classics Da Capo and Forever Changes, and the bluesier direction of the hardrocking False Start and Out Here. Many of the songs included on Love Lost would resurface, often in radically different form, on subsequent Love releases, and on Lee's fabled solo album Vindicator. But the original versions included on Love Lost, boast a playful looseness that's absent from most of Lee's later work, as well as a raw, edgy urgency that underlines his credentials as an early progenitor of punk-rock attitude. Love Lost also features three songs--"For a Day," "Trippin' & Slippin'" and "C.F.I. Instrumental"--that have not previously been released, in any form. With a treasure trove of vintage Love music that has never before been heard by fans, Love Lost is a major addition to Arthur Lee and Love's body of work, and its release is a major event for Lee's fervent fan base. © 1996-2010, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates [N.B: This review refers to the bonus cd version]

This is pretty exciting - the missing link between the False Start Love and early Arthur Lee solo material like Vindicator and the also unreleased Black Beauty. Recorded in 1971, this putative major label debut is the seedbed for those later two records but superior to both in its loose energy. Mixing acoustic demos with spirited riff-rock work-outs - including Craig Tarwater from the Sons Of Adam, famed for their killer cover of Lee's "Feathered Fish" - Love Lost plays very well. Only occasionally does it verge on the wilful sloppiness that apparently sabotaged the project. But songs like "He Said She Said" - with its lyrical reference to Vietnam - are worthy additions to the Love canon. As is the final track, "Trippin' And Slippin'/Ezy Rider", which over six minutes inhabits the recently departed spirit of Jimi Hendrix. Well if anyone was entitled, Arthur Lee was. © Jon Savage © Mojo, March 2010

Poor LOVE and ARTHUR LEE. If there's such a thing as the curse of a masterpiece, they suffered it. As creators of Forever Changes, one of the most justifiably acclaimed and iconic psychedelic recordings of the 60s, Lee and whatever musicians with which he surrounded himself would find any work done since compared to the signpost and inevitably found wanting. This has led to most of Love's post-_Changes_ work being dismissed as inconsequential on the face of it, which, to my mind, is unfair. Sure, the late 60s Love albums aren't as good as Forever Changes, but how could they have been? Like so many landmarks, that album was the result of a particular time, place and set of circumstances coinciding with a peak in the artist's talent - recreation or even emulation is impossible. So let's not judge Lee's later work solely on the basis of his personal apex, but on the quality of the work itself. Which brings us to Love Lost. Recorded in 1971 as part of an ill-fated deal with Columbia Records, this album (allegedly to be called Dear You) would later be cannibalized for Lee's solo debut Vindicator. As with most of his later music, Lee's songs rest in bluesy hard rock settings, a milieu which may not allow for the subtleties inherent in his more celebrated work, but is nonetheless effective. The pummeling "Product of the Times" (appearing as a studio recording for the first time), the lustful "He Knows a Lot of Good Women" and the amazing "I Can't Find It" tremble under the attack of particularly ragged arrangements, but never fall - Lee's songsmithery can withstand such rough treatment. Topped with Lee's near-maniacal vocal performances (a subject of some controversy, due to suspicions that Lee was deliberately sabotaging the recordings), the tracks blaze with energy and excitement. It may not be Forever Changes, but it's still great rock & roll. Making a good thing even better, though, is the inclusion of nearly a half-dozen demos, with Lee backing himself on acoustic guitar so percussive it makes a full band unnecessary. "He Said She Said," "Sad Song," the lascivious (and, by today's standards, politically incorrect) "Good & Evil," which also appears in electric form, the previously unreleased "For a Day" and especially "Love Jumped Through My Window" (which opens this record) are all stellar songs, strong in both melody and performance, which is again somewhat - deliberately? - rough and raw. Love Lost may not be as flat-out brilliant as Forever Changes, but it holds up nicely on its own as a worthy chapter in the book of Love. © Michael Toland © The Big Takeover, December 5, 2009

LOVE BIO

One of the best West Coast folk-rock/psychedelic bands, Love may have also been the first widely acclaimed cult/underground group. During their brief heyday — lasting all of three albums — they drew from Byrds-ish folk-rock, Stones-ish hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, and even light orchestral pop to create a heady stew of their own. They were also one of the first integrated rock groups, led by genius singer/songwriter Arthur Lee, one of the most idiosyncratic and enigmatic talents of the 1960s. Stars in their native Los Angeles and an early inspiration to the Doors, they perversely refused to tour until well past their peak. This ensured their failure to land a hit single or album, though in truth the band's vision may have been too elusive to attract mass success anyway. Love was formed by Lee in the mid-'60s in Los Angeles. Although only 20 at the time, Lee had already scuffled around the fringes of the rock and soul business for a couple of years. In addition to recording some flop singles with his own bands, he wrote and produced a single for Rosa Lee Brooks that Jimi Hendrix played on as session guitarist. Originally calling his outfit the Grass Roots, Lee changed the name to Love after another Los Angeles group called the Grass Roots began recording for Dunhill. Love's repertoire would be largely penned by Lee, with a few contributions by guitarist Bryan MacLean. Inspired by British Invasion bands and local peers the Byrds, Love built up a strong following in hip L.A. clubs. Soon they were signed by Elektra, the noted folk label that was just starting to get its feet wet in rock (it had recorded material by early versions of the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful, and had just released the first LP by Paul Butterfield). Their self-titled debut album (1966) introduced their marriage of the Byrds and the Stones on a set of mostly original material and contained a small hit, their punk-ish adaptation of Bacharach/David's "My Little Red Book." Love briefly expanded to a seven-piece for their second album, Da Capo (1967), which included their only Top 40 hit, the corkscrew-tempoed "Seven & Seven Is." The first side was psychedelia at its best, with an eclectic palette encompassing furious jazz structures, gentle Spanish guitar interludes, and beautiful baroque pop with dream-like images ("She Comes in Colors"). It was also psychedelia at its most reckless, with the whole of side two taken up by a meandering 19-minute jam. It was still a great step forward, but by mid-1967, the band was threatening to disintegrate due to drugs and general disorganization. The group was in such sad shape, apparently, that Elektra planned to record their third album with sessionmen backing Lee (on his compositions) or MacLean (on his compositions). Work on two tracks actually commenced in this fashion, but the shocked band pulled themselves together to play their own material again, resulting in one of the finest rock albums of all time, Forever Changes. An exceptionally strong set of material graced by captivating lyrics and glistening, unobtrusive horn and string arrangements, it was not a commercial hit in the U.S. (though it did pretty well in Britain) but remains an all-time favorite of many critics. Just at the point where they seemed poised to assert themselves as a top band, Love's first and best lineup was broken up in early 1968, at Lee's instigation. Several albums followed in the late '60s and early '70s that, though credited to Love, are in reality Lee and backup musicians — none of whom had skills on the level of Bryan MacLean or the other original Love men. Lee largely forsook folk-rock for hard rock, with unimpressive results, even when he was able to get Jimi Hendrix to play on one track. The problems ran deeper than unsympathetic accompaniment: Lee's songwriting muse had largely deserted him as well, and nothing on the post-Forever Changes albums competes with the early Elektra records. Lee released a solo album in the early '70s, and then put another Love together for one last effort in 1974, but basically Love/Lee (the two had in effect become synonymous) ground to a halt in the mid-'70s. Lee has sporadically recorded and performed since then without coming up with anything resembling a unified full-length studio statement, though some scattered live and studio recordings have appeared, including a 1994 single on the tiny Distortions label. © Richie Unterberger © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fifoxqe5ldde~T1

ARTHUR LEE BIO

Prior to forming Love, Arthur Lee was a Los Angeles hustler, desperately searching for the formula that would make him a star. In the early mid-'60s, Lee recorded some unsuccessful singles including one as the American Four on Selma, a subsidiary of Del-Fi, "Luci Baines"/"Soul Food." He also recorded a session for Rosa Lee Brooks that featured Jimi Hendrix as a session guitarist. Lee found his niche at last when he founded one of the '60s seminal garage/folk/psychedelic bands, Love, in 1965. The band, which also featured fellow songwriter and singer Bryan MacLean, recorded three amazing albums for Elektra including Forever Changes, an album that is certainly a contender for best rock album ever made. In 1968, Lee decided to scrap the idea of Love as a real band, kicked out all the remaining members, and began recording with pickup bands and sessionmen. The band's and Lee's fortunes quickly declined, and Lee, never the most normal person in the best of times, began exhibiting erratic behavior as his drug intake began to take its toll. He recorded more unsuccessful albums as Love, recorded a solo album, Vindicator, in 1972, and began to fade away. Lee would regularly tour and recordings were made of these shows, but he rarely returned to a studio or wrote new songs. In 1994, Lee recorded a new single "Midnight Sun"/"Girl on Fire," although the B-side was actually salvaged from an unreleased album Lee recorded with Jimi Hendrix years before. Soon after this, Lee's problems with the law took over his life. In 1995, he broke into an ex-girlfriend's apartment and tried to set it aflame. He was bailed out by Rhino Records, which had just released the Love Story 1966-1972 compilation. In 1996, he was arrested for shooting a gun into the air during an argument with a neighbor and was convicted on an illegal possession of a firearm charge. Thanks to California's strict and sometimes unfair three strikes and you're out law, Lee (who had been convicted of a drug offense sometime in the '80s) was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison. In 2000, Rhino reissued an expanded version of Love's Forever Changes that served as a reminder of just what a huge talent Arthur Lee was in his prime. On December 12, 2001, Lee was released from prison, having served six years of his original sentence. Happily for Lee and his fans, a federal appeals court in California reversed the charge of negligent discharge of a firearm as they found the prosecutor at Lee's trial was guilty of misconduct. After Lee was freed, he toured with a new incarnation of Love in 2002, playing all of Forever Changes. Over the next few years he continued to perform, receiving such accolades as a Living Legend Award at the 2004 NME Awards. In early 2006, Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Despite aggressive treatment, including three bouts of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord — which made him the first adult patient in Tennessee to receive this treatment — his condition worsened, and Lee passed away on August 3, 2006, at Memphis, TN's Methodist University Hospital with his wife at his side. © Tim Sendra © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:ajfwxqy5ldke~T1