In the mists of time I used to spend infrequent weekends with a mate in Evesham, who was a few years older than me and had lived in California in the late sixties. He`d get all his vinyl out and introduced me to bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Grateful Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, The Chocolate Watchband, Iron Butterfly, but it was thepsychedelic rock bands such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock and Love that really hit home. I`ve seen a number of these bands over the years, well sadly what`s left of them these days but the one i`ve seen the most is Love.
It`s been a tough week with some family issues and I needed a break and knew that Love with Johnny Echols were in town but understandably long sold out. Jake, a really good friend managed to sort a ticket and I went with what I must admit was trepidation. It had been over twenty years since I’d last seen Love as Arthur Lee passed in 2006 and I really couldn`t bring myself to see them without his presence.
There`s minimal fuss as Rusty Squeezebox, Mike Randle, David Green, and James Nolte who are in essence Baby Lemonade and have backed Arthur Lee and Love since 1993 hit the stage with Johnny Echols, Love guitarist, and childhood friend of Arthur. Baby Lemonade for me breathed life into Arthur Lee and Love and in my opinion offered an opportunity to enhance Arthur`s legacy and extend his life productively.
This tour was a kind of 60th anniversary of the first two albums `Love` and `Da Capo` which were both released in 1966 but also `Forever Changes` which was released a year later and in my opinion, is one the greatest albums of all time.
The dreamy `Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale` from Forever Changes, a song written about a block on Sunset Boulevard kicks us off before heading into the chugging `My Little Red Book` a Burt Bacharach cover from the self-title debut album and the reflective `A House Is Not a Motel`. We enjoy a further couple of numbers from the debut with `Gazing` and `Can`t Explain` before the guys really come up for air.
The band move to the more Baroque pop of `De Capo` with the poetic `Stephanie Knows Who` and airy `¡Que Vida!`which equates to `What a Life!`. The fellas flit between albums but it`s `Orange Skies` that brings me back to summer times playing this and thinking what an amazing song it is but it`s `Alone Again Or` that sends this packed crowd into a frenzy which isn`t surprising as it`s gotta be one of the greatest pop songs ever written and recorded.
It could have all gone down hill after this classic but the melodic `Andmoreagain` and the trippy `The Red Telephone` with its surreal spoken word ending of “They’re locking them up today, They’re throwing away the key, I wonder who it will be tomorrow, you or me, we`re all normal and we want our freedom” keeps us on track along with the otherworldly `Live and Let Live` and curious `You Set the Scene` all unbelievably from the classic `Forever Changes`.
Johnny Echols takes over vocal duties for `Signed DC` a song about the horrors of heroin addiction and the isolation it brings and this was supposed to close out the set. But as the venue doesn`t really lend itself to walking off to return for an encore the band remain where they are and share a few more numbers. The highlight of these for me was `Wonder People (I Do Wonder)` an outtake from `Forever Changes` that I was unfamiliar with and the no holds barred `7 and 7 is` and that concluded this ninety minute masterclass.
It would be criminal to class tonight`s performance as just a nostalgia trip as along with many people that were about the same vintage as myself there were so many younger faces all singing along to almost all the tracks shared.
This certainly was a night of Love, musically, visually, and emotionally.
