Love
emerged from Los Angeles early in 1966 - one of the first groups to
show what was to come from the West Coast. They were also one of the
few groups from there to equal the hard, driving sound of British
groups like The Yardbirds.
Love released three albums up to November 1967 - Love, Da Capo and
the superb Forever Changes. By 67 they were the hippest band in
Los Angeles after The Byrds.
And while the latter's hit-making phase was coming to an end, Love
were ill-equipped to take their place: they were ethnically mixed,
with two black front men playing music unlikely to appeal to a black
audience; songs stretched out for entire album sides; and their drug
use had spiraled. By the close of summer, The
Doors and Jimi Hendrix were stealing
their kudos.
It was two years before a
fourth album, Four Sail, appeared, and by then only Arthur Lee
remained from the original line-up.
Linchpin Lee was one of the drug casualties of the hippie era, a
position made more poignant by the fact that he was eventually
incarcerated for firing a shotgun at his noisy neighbors.
Arthur Lee
Vocals, guitar BryanMacLean
Guitar, vocals KenForssi
Bass Alban 'snoopy'Pfisterer
Drums Michael Stuart-Ware Drums