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Love was an American rock group of the 1960s and 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee (born March 7, 1945 in Memphis). Signed to the Elektra Records label, the band in 1966 scored a hit with a cover version of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book." Their second album, 1967's Da Capo, featured songs by Lee and Bryan MacLean, and is today regarded as one of the finest 1960s albums, with a combination of hard rockers like "Stephanie Knows Who" and "7 and 7 Is" and beautifully melodic songs such as "¡Que Vida!" and "She Comes in Colors." However, Da Capo is marred by a prolix side-long instrumental, "Revelation."
Forever Changes, released in late 1967, is the best-known work by Love, and in its use of acoustic guitars and string and horn arrangements both a classic Los Angeles pop album and a subversive, complex statement on the strangeness and violence of mid-1960s America. Writer Richard Meltzer, in his The Aesthetics of Rock, comments on Love's "orchestral moves," "post-doper word contraction cuteness" and on Arthur Lee's winsome yet twisted vocal style as a "reaffirmation of Johnny Mathis."
Never a hugely popular band, and unwilling to tour, Love recorded one more single and then disbanded temporarily. Lee continued under the name, with new musicians, to little success. Elektra Records signed The Doors, who early in their career had aspired to Love's success, and whose popularity greatly exceeded that of Love.
Bryan MacLean died on December 25, 1998.
After spending time in prison in the 1990s, Lee went on tour and played Love's classic songs with a new band.
Discography
Love (1966)
- "7 and 7 Is" b/w "No. Fourteen" (single, 1966)
- Da Capo (1967)
- Forever Changes (1967)
- "Your Mind and We Belong Together" b/w "Laughing Stock" (single, 1968)
- Four Sail (1969)
- Out Here (1969)
- False Start (1970)
- Love Story 1966-1972 (1995)
- Forever Changes (reissue with additional tracks, 2001)
- See also : Love
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