I posted this on Facebook not too long ago included here with a few edits:
Last night I saw something very special. I was still in my teens when I was introduced to the album, Forever Changes, by Love. Love was an LA based band lead by Arthur Lee. The band also included other incredible musicians and songwriters as well (e.g., Johnny Echols and Bryan Maclean to name just two). Forever Changes is a beautiful album with gorgeous melodies and arrangements. It is very much a contemporary and as good as Sgt Pepper’s (The Beatles) and Pet Sounds (Beach Boys). In my opinion it is slightly better than those two phenomenal albums. Much later, after some trouble in his life, Arthur Lee recruited(?) the LA band Baby Lemonade to back him and tour as Love. The marriage was a match made in heaven. It was a young band of great musicians who were fans of Love and they played beautifully. The songs “lived” again, as well as Arthur Lee and Love's legacy. If you get a chance find, on YouTube the shows that this version of Love did in London where they reproduced song by song the album Forever Changes, including the orchestral arrangements that were found on the original album.
I eventually saw Love play while I was living in Minneapolis. It was in the mid 2000s and they played at First Avenue with another great 60s band, The Zombies. By the time they played in Minneapolis they had picked up original guitar player Johnny Echols as part of the band. Watching those two legends play together was perfect and emotional. It was good to see two members of the original band finally getting some of the recognition for their masterpiece. A few years later Arthur Lee passed away. However, it was good to read later on that Love with Johnny Echols would continue to play this amazing music as Love Revisited (or The Love Band). Last night was my first chance to see this version of the band again. Baby Lemonade and Johnny Echols as Love Revisited played the Casbah and just wowed me with their precision and respect that they show to the music. Johnny Echols, who looks exactly the same as he did in the mid 2000s, played his SG fluidly and was clearly having a great time listening to the music of his band being played expertly, and watching his music listened to adoringly by the Casbah audience. I smiled all night and often closed my eyes just realizing how lucky I was to be there at that very moment. Yet, if there was a highlight for me from an extraordinary night, it was listening to the band play this song below. Enjoy it for yourself.
This CD was made available at the show and it is the band with Johnny Echols already in the band but after Arthur Lee had passed away.
No comments:
Post a Comment