A publicity photo from 1967. Left to right: Johnny Echols, Arthur Lee, Bryan MacLean, Ken Forssi, Michael Stuart.
Love was an American Psychedelic Rock and Proto Punk band of The '60s. Along with Sly and the Family Stone, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Sir Douglas Quintet, they were among the first multiracial bands. The band was a major influence on later Punk Rock and Alternative Rock artists.
Studio Discography:
- 1966 - Love
- 1966 - Da Capo
- 1967 - Forever Changes
- 1969 - Four Sail
- 1969 - Out Here
- 1970 - False Start
- 1974 - Reel to Real
- 1992 - Arthur Lee & Love
- 2009 - Love Lost (Recorded in 1971)
- 2012 - Black Beauty (Recorded in 1973)
This band provides examples of:
- Continuity Nod: "Laughing Stock", B-side of the original lineup's final single, contains some lyrics from their first hit "My Little Red Book".
- Epic Rocking: "Revelation", a long jam taking up the entire second side of Da Capo which the band had used in concert to show off their instrumental skills. It was poorly received, and
Arthur Lee himself conceded that it was edited too much and unrepresentative of what it sounded like in concert. - I Am the Band: After Forever Changes, all of the other band members left, leaving Arthur Lee to carry on with a new lineup.
- Genre Mashup: Forever Changes draws from very diverse styles, and can be described as jazzy-psychedelic-baroque-latin-folk-rock-pop.
- Lead Bassist: Ken Forssi's bass playing is very melodic.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Alone Again Or" has a bright, sunny chorus about how the narrator will always wait patiently for the one he loves, yet he knows that she won't come for him, leaving him to spend the night alone. He goes on to describe his love for people in general, all knowing that he will remain alone.
- Proto Punk: The band influenced many '70s and '80s punk rockers.
- New Sound Album: The melodic and lyrically complex Baroque Pop of 1967's Forever Changes is a major departure from the frantic Garage Rock of "7 and 7 Is." Though Forever Changes is consistently listed as one of the greatest albums of all time, Love rarely revisited that style of music (a notable exception is 1969's "Always See Your Face," which appears on the High Fidelity soundtrack).
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark & Hilldale" accomplishes this by simply dropping words off the end of the line - usually the expected rhyming word will be the first word of the next couplet, eg:And oh, the music is so loudAnd then I fade into the...Crowds of people standing everywhere
