Thursday, August 10, 2006

Hate to interrupt my vacation but I can't just sit idly by while Arthur Lee is unfairly discounted.

Stuart - Good God man!

Conceiving and recording Forever Changes (sure, Bryan Maclean wrote two great songs on the record, but it is AL's project by and large) in and of itself is enough to justify a spot in the annals of recording history, it is that good (but I'll hold off on a full disertation), and truly unique....trivia question, name a band inspired by Love? (good luck.....). BUT, FC's predecessor, Da Capo, is a fantastic record. And Four Sail, the album immediately after FC (after Lee famously fired the entire band), is incredibly strong as well, if quite different. Taken as a three album set this puts Love right up there. Shame AL was burnt out at the age of 25, but hey, he was not alone in the sixties. And maybe psychedelic drugs weren't so fucking freeing after all.

Re Lemonheads, I've always been a big fan, but have considered them a bit of a guilty pleasure, given Evan's status as a rock hotty in the early nineties. I saw them live about seven or eight years ago and it was a very memorable show (except in one respect, who was with me, one or more of you guys?). Shame About Ray is a delightful record filled with great songs...time for me to re-listen, fave songs off the top of my head are Confetti, Ray, Rudderless, Hannah and Gabi, and Alison. Like Stu the Lou-Rawls-loving-Arthur-Lee-hating asshole, I also downloaded a bunch of songs from Baby I'm Bored and thought it was really solid, well worth investigating. Come on Feel the Lemonheads (the one after Ray) is also a pretty strong record.

OK, back to my suburban Ottawa holiday. Corona anyone?

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