LOVE
Da Capo/Four Sail (Elektra)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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The latest in the recent reissuing of Love's catalogue includes their second and forth LPs. For Da Capo, the band's second LP, Love expanded their line-up to include both new drummer Michael Stuart and sax player Tjay Cantrelli, with first LP drummer "Snoopy" Pfisterer moving over to keyboards. While the LP found a band somewhere between the folk-rock and "'60s punk" sound of the first LP, and the more fleshed-out and psychedelic sound of Forever Changes, one song in particular carved them into cult status: "7 & 7 Is." The raucous, unhinged pounder with some of the most frantic drumming ever recorded still seems to be a mystery today. In the liner notes, guitarist Johnny Echols claims it was Snoopy on the skins, while other stuff I've read claim it was Arthur Lee himself manning the kit. An incredible amount of takes of the song were done, with Snoopy, Lee and possibly even Stuart switching off and trying different things. Apparently no one can remember now who exactly played. Regardless, the song is a classic, and not to diminish the rest of the LP, but easily the best song on it. Still, the record was not without other fine moments: "Stephanie Knows Who," with its waltz-time beat and harpsichord, the beautiful "Orange Skies," the Spanish flamenco-influenced "Que Vida," the flute-driven "She Comes In Colors" and the cryptic "The Castle," named after the band's place of living. Side two was taken up by "Revelation," an extended piece that is interesting, but truth be told when I first got this as a vinyl LP, I rarely flipped it over to hear the thing. An interesting aside is that, and like the reissue of the first LP, this has both the mono and stereo mixes, both with subtle differences in sound and tone. As a bonus, there's an excerpt from the tracking session that gave birth to "7 & 7 Is," and if you want to hear a whole bunch more takes, get The Last Wall of the Castle bootleg CD.

Four Sail was the album that followed Forever Changes, and since the original group had splintered apart, Arthur Lee had formed a new Love, a more stripped-down band of four ("Four Sail," get it?) and delivered one last LP to Elektra. Heavier in sound, it still remains a fave of mine. The sound is different, but Lee's great songwriting delivered incredible aural delights in "August," "Dream," "Singing Cowboy," "Robert Montgomery" and "Talking In My Sleep," the latter three of which are also included in alternate versions as bonus tracks.

[Pick up "Four Sail" at www.cduniverse.com.]

© 2003 - Alan Wright