zamboni
Footballguy
The past week or so, the original movie remastered was playing in selected IMAX theaters. Didn’t get a chance to catch it again unfortunately.MADs adjacent new album releases
Remaster of Pink Floyd at Pompeii from 1972
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Middle Aged Dummies - Artist - Round 5 - #14's have been posted. Link in OP. (30 Viewers)
- Thread starter Zegras11
- Start date
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
The Spotify algorithm has given me a song by a band called Frog Eyes, whose singer is trying very hard to imitate MAD alum Bryan Ferry.
Eephus
Footballguy
New MADs adjacent compilation: Roots Rocking Zimbabwe: The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 documents the era through 25 songs. I haven't gotten all the way through but the songs on the front end of the albums seem more Rock and R&B influenced than the South African music I've heard from the same timeframe.
open.spotify.com
Roots Rocking Zimbabwe - The Modern Sound of Harare' Townships 1975-1980 (Analog Africa No.41)
Various Artists · Compilation · 2025 · 25 songs
open.spotify.com
Mrs. Rannous
Footballguy
For those of you who partake, is this what LSD is like?
Mister CIA
Footballguy
Not a partaker (yet), but I assume it's like this.
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youtu.be
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
That was closer to my experience.Not a partaker (yet), but I assume it's like this.
- YouTube
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Yo Mama
Footballguy
Pretty much like this for me. LSD for someone with social anxiety was not a great mix.Not a partaker (yet), but I assume it's like this.
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Here is what a dumb knucklehead I was: Freshman year in college I made the dumb choice to try to commute to UW-Madison (I grew up only about 20-25mins away), which was terrible. I opted in to the dorms for 2nd semester, and got a gem of a roommate. I was pretty naive and didn't drink or party much, and this dude was selling LSD, hash, and weed out of the dorm room. I drank a little, but was very much against smoking anything so I wasn't having the weed and hash that was offered. Yeah, you guessed it - lsd you don't have to smoke so all systems go, right? I spent about 3 hours staring at the corner of the room, then freaked out a bit when I went to the bathroom and saw the devil forming in the bathroom stall door as I did my business. We decided walking it off (friends, not the devil) might be the better option and I proceeded to have conversations with a couple dogs while out and about. It was an odd night to say the least.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
At least you’ve been making up for all the weed you missed out on.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I just saw your avatar switch and thought it was Meatloaf.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
How dare you!At least you’ve been making up for all the weed you missed out on.
Also, my no-smoking didn't last the semester, but being the dumb knucklehead I was of course the hash was first.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
New Binky the Doormat
Footballguy
not unless you're unfortunate enough to receive a visit from Mummenschanz
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
Is this MAD round filled? If not, I'd like to participate. Didn't think I'd be able to put together a list in time, but I did.....
John Maddens Lunchbox
Socialism for Dummies
Deadline is 9 may. Id say you are fine. Good to have you on board
Zegras11
Footballguy
My last 5....
open.spotify.com
Sonic Superslide
The Go-Go's · God Bless The Go-Go's (Deluxe Version) · Song · 2001
open.spotify.com
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I think our avatars were separated at birth.
Mrs. Rannous
Footballguy
Are you high now?
Mrs. Rannous
Footballguy
And thank you for remembering Mummenschanz. That was the first thing I said when I saw that.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Are you high now?
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
I'll post a playlist from Cornershop.
landrys hat
Footballguy
List is in.
Luna is Dean Wareham's band after Galaxie 500.
5 out
I Want Everything
Freakin' and Peakin'
Into the Fold
Cindy Tastes of Barbecue
Sweet Child o Mine
Luna is Dean Wareham's band after Galaxie 500.
5 out
I Want Everything
Freakin' and Peakin'
Into the Fold
Cindy Tastes of Barbecue
Sweet Child o Mine
Mister CIA
Footballguy
Don't recall if I've mentioned, but come September my grandaughter is due to arrive (first timer grandad, inbound). Her name: May Margaret. Any guesses what I'm going to call her?
...they better not change their minds!
...they better not change their minds!
Zegras11
Footballguy
| Zegras11 | Belinda Carlisle | in |
| -OZ- | Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw | in |
| tuffnut | Conor Oberst | in |
| Dr. Octopus | Golden Smog | in |
| Mister CIA | Hugh Dillon | in |
| Charlie Steiner | John Waite | in |
| landrys hat | Luna | in |
| Snellman | Meatloaf | in |
| Mt. Man | Metllica | in |
| eephus | Michael Head | in |
| Mrs. Rannous | Neil Diamond | in |
| John Maddens Lunchbox | Otis Redding | in |
| Karma Police | People Under The Stars | in |
| zamboni | Steve Marriott | in |
| Yo Mama | The English Beat Family Tree | in |
| Don Quixote | The Gap Band/Charlie Wilson | in |
| Yambag | The Smashing Pumpkins | in |
| Pip's Invitation | (Arthur Lee and) Love | |
| Simey | Billy Joel | |
| MrsKarmaPolice | City and Colour | |
| The Dreaded Marco | Cornershop | |
| Tau837 | Eric Clapton | |
| titusbramble | Ferry Cortsen | |
| Uruk-Hai | The Commodores | |
| Iluv80s | The Waterboys | |
| Northern Voice | TV on the Radio |
simey
Footballguy
I listened to them a lot during my college years, which was in the 80s. There is a specific Waterboys song that I always put on mixed road trip and other various playlists. I just had to listen to it to verify it is still as great as ever. It still is.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
I have a Waterboys song that means a lot to me. Hope it makes the cut.
New Binky the Doormat
Footballguy
I will have my Doobie Brothers list ready in time.
zamboni
Footballguy
Looking forward to this - and to see which Doobie you be taking at #1.
Eephus
Footballguy
One of the few bands from this round I've seen live. They opened for Oasis in 1998 but have only been back to the States for one short tour since.
I've also seen Billy Joel right before The Stranger blew up in 1977, The Waterboys on the This Is The Sea tour and once right before the pandemic, The English Beat when they opened for The Clash in 1982 and a bunch of times with Dave Wakeling's new LA-based band and General Public on their first tour as a duo.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Pressure is building
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
I have seen Love twice, the Smashing Pumpkins twice, Eric Clapton once and Neil Diamond once. And that’s it.
John Maddens Lunchbox
Socialism for Dummies
Otis Redding
Last 10 out (continued)
41 - 6345789- YouTube
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My Girl
Otis Redding · Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (Collector's Edition) · Song · 1965
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36 - Let Me Be Good To You
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From the King and Queen album recorded with Carla Thomas. An idea from producer to record a duet album with Carla Thomas was made to enhance both their careers. It was an effort to duplicate the success Marvin Gaye had with Mary Wells and Kim Weston. Otis simply said “Well, hey, you from Memphis, you from Tennessee, you can hang”
This song itself is quite sensual, reminiscent to others from the era. Surprisingly co written by Isaac Hayes, who was a staff writer for Stax records before breaking out on his own
35 - That’s What My Heart Needs
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This beautiful understated song is buried on the debut album, Pain in My Heart, for Otis Redding. Would have loved to include it, but we can’t include them all.
34 - Ole Man Trouble
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This track was chosen as the opening track to the breakthrough album Otis Blue. It was one if the first songs written by Otis for it and sets a wonderful tone for the album, of which we will see half a dozen tracks from.
33- White Christmas
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We might have more on the last three later once my little surprise is revealed. Given what the surprise reveals its a bit of a shock this does not make the top 31. More well known as a Bing Crosby song, Otis offers something different and generally it works.
32 - Come to Me
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It hurts my heart not to include this beautiful song. This was from the first album Otis recorded on the Stax sub label, Volt records. This track is also one of the very few not to have a horn section. Less is better for this song.
Chaos34
Footballguy
5 out John 5
He’s written and played for and with…
Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Mötley Crüe, David Lee Roth, Nikki Sixx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rob Halford, k.d. lang, Dolly Parton, Lita Ford, Alice Cooper, Filter, Scorpions, Tommy Lee, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach, Meat Loaf, Avril Lavigne, Garbage, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Rick Springfield, Wilson Phillips, Salt-N-Pepa, Leah Andreone, John Wetton, Robin Zander, Randy Castillo, Steven Adler, Tina Guo, Steve Perry, FeFe Dobson, Ricky Martin, and had solo album guests Albert Lee, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Jim Root, Eric Johnson, Peter Criss, and Dave Mustaine. He also contributed to soundtracks for Speed 2, Fantastic Four, Baywatch, Mortal Kombat and scored a few Rob Zombie films.
The list doubles if I include stuff he worked on unaccredited for Chrysalis.
Youtubes only below. This type of playing is better understood when seen not just heard.
This first out is in honor of Roy Clark. There’s a semi-lame intro mocking Hee Haw with tasteless corny jokes, but entertaining nonetheless. Then John covers some Gershwin from 1930. Something Roy did too.
John 5 and The Creatures - HELL HAW
This is from the early days when I first discovered his solo stuff. It got me because I’d only heard his metal and well, wth? Just some pickin’ and grinnin’ metal style.
John 5 - Sugar Foot Rag
That pretty white guitar is called The Ghost. Ghost is in reference to him being ghosted on countless tracks during his Chrysalis gun-for-hire years.
John 5 - The Ghost (Official Music Video)
Soul of a Robot? Johnny 5 connection? I couldn’t make it, but the tremolo work makes me hope for a surf rock EP someday. He’s speedy.
Soul of a Robot
This is another from the early days when I was listening almost daily. It’s better known than most because it was featured at the most difficult level of the video game Guitar Hero. To unlock it you had to beat the final encore. If you did that and beat this too you earn the “Hand Mutilator” award.
John 5 Black Widow Of La Porte Live Performance) YouTube
That's a representation of his technical prowess with guitar. The playlist is mostly songs from his primary bands, so it won't be much wanking guitar wonkery like the above.
He’s written and played for and with…
Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Mötley Crüe, David Lee Roth, Nikki Sixx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rob Halford, k.d. lang, Dolly Parton, Lita Ford, Alice Cooper, Filter, Scorpions, Tommy Lee, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach, Meat Loaf, Avril Lavigne, Garbage, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Rick Springfield, Wilson Phillips, Salt-N-Pepa, Leah Andreone, John Wetton, Robin Zander, Randy Castillo, Steven Adler, Tina Guo, Steve Perry, FeFe Dobson, Ricky Martin, and had solo album guests Albert Lee, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Jim Root, Eric Johnson, Peter Criss, and Dave Mustaine. He also contributed to soundtracks for Speed 2, Fantastic Four, Baywatch, Mortal Kombat and scored a few Rob Zombie films.
The list doubles if I include stuff he worked on unaccredited for Chrysalis.
Youtubes only below. This type of playing is better understood when seen not just heard.
This first out is in honor of Roy Clark. There’s a semi-lame intro mocking Hee Haw with tasteless corny jokes, but entertaining nonetheless. Then John covers some Gershwin from 1930. Something Roy did too.
John 5 and The Creatures - HELL HAW
This is from the early days when I first discovered his solo stuff. It got me because I’d only heard his metal and well, wth? Just some pickin’ and grinnin’ metal style.
John 5 - Sugar Foot Rag
That pretty white guitar is called The Ghost. Ghost is in reference to him being ghosted on countless tracks during his Chrysalis gun-for-hire years.
John 5 - The Ghost (Official Music Video)
Soul of a Robot? Johnny 5 connection? I couldn’t make it, but the tremolo work makes me hope for a surf rock EP someday. He’s speedy.
Soul of a Robot
This is another from the early days when I was listening almost daily. It’s better known than most because it was featured at the most difficult level of the video game Guitar Hero. To unlock it you had to beat the final encore. If you did that and beat this too you earn the “Hand Mutilator” award.
John 5 Black Widow Of La Porte Live Performance) YouTube
That's a representation of his technical prowess with guitar. The playlist is mostly songs from his primary bands, so it won't be much wanking guitar wonkery like the above.
Last edited:
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
I’ve only seen Conor Oberst, English Beat and TV on the Radio.
simey
Footballguy
Billy Joel - The 
Man
William Martin Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, and a year later the family moved to Hicksville on Long Island. He was born from Jewish parents. His mom, Rosalind, was born in Brooklyn, and her parents (The Rymans) had emigrated to America from England. His father, Howard (originally called Helmut), was born in Germany. Howard's father had a lucrative business in Germany, but was forced to sell it for much less than its worth as part of a deal to get him and his family away from the Nazi Regime. They fled to Switzerland and emigrated to America via Cuba. Rosalind and Howard met at a Gilbert and Sullivan show at City College in NY. Howard was an engineer and a classical pianist. After Billy was born and they moved to Hicksville, the Joels adopted Rosalind's sister's two year old child, Judith (Judy). Rosalind and Howard divorced in 1957 (Billy was 8), and Rosalind raised Billy and Judy on her own. Howard moved to Vienna, Austria, and remarried and had a son named Alexander. Alexander is a classical conductor, and worked as the chief musical director at Staatstheater Braunschweig for 13 years.
Billy began to play piano when he was four, but it wasn't his father that made him take lessons, it was his mother. She was tired of hearing him pound on their piano, so she paid for piano lessons for him, and he was classically trained. It wasn't long before it was obvious he inherited his father's musical genes, but Billy said his father really wasn't around when he was learning to play. He said if it weren't for his mother insisting he take lessons, he never would have learned piano. He took up boxing in his teens due to bullies like Billy Hai picking on him on his way to piano lessons. He had some success boxing on the Golden Gloves circuit, but quit after his nose was broken. To help his mother out financially, he started playing in bars and hotels during high school. He was a few credits shy of graduating due to time missed from playing for money, and instead of going to summer school he chose not to graduate. Years later he would get his high school diploma. He was influenced by classical artists, but he also loved artists such as Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, the Kingsman, the Ronettes, and the Beatles. When he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he knew music was his future. Once leaving high school he started some bands. He made two albums with the band The Hassles. They were a rock band, and here is a song called Night After Day off their 1969 album. After they broke up, Billy and Hassles member Jon Small started the heavy metal band Atilla. They made one album together, and here is a song from it called Wonder Woman.
Artie Ripp heard him and signed him to the Family Productions record label, and Billy made his first solo album Cold Spring Harbor in 1971. It was badly produced, and Billy was stuck in a bad contract. He moved to LA, and played in a piano bar on Wilshire Blvd under the name Bill Martin. While working there he wrote a song about himself called Piano Man. He wrote some other songs, and a Philly radio station started playing a live recording of his song Captain Jack. An exec for Columbia Records heard it, and they wanted to sign him. Clive Davis signed him, but he was still stuck in his contract with Family Productions. Artie Ripp made it difficult, but he eventually sold Billy's contract to Columbia. The president of Columbia at the time bought back the rights to Billy's songs, and gave them to Billy as a birthday gift. His first album with Columbia was Piano Man in 1973, and the rest is history. He recorded some great music with Columbia. Billy was very close to his mom, and credits her for a lot of his success, and she inspired him to write some songs such as Rosalinda's Eyes. In 1987 he started a scholarship at City College called the Rosalind Joel Scholarship For the Performing Arts at City College. It is given to talented jazz studies students focusing on piano, voice, or composition. The Joels are animal advocates, and when Rosalind died in 2014, she didn't want flowers, she just wanted donations to go to The Little Shelter in Huntington, Long Island. A couple months prior, Billy performed his 65 birthday concert at MSG, and donated all the proceeds from the concert to The North Shore Animal League America and Bianca's Furry Friends.
I first heard Billy in the 70s. I've always loved piano driven music. I would hear him on the radio, and my sister had The Stranger album, and I had 52nd Street. My best friend in junior high and high school had a sister who loved Billy's music. They originally lived in Warren, NJ, where he was played a lot. She had his Piano Man, Streetlife Serenade, and Turnstiles albums, and we would hang out a lot, and listen to albums. I loved all of them. In the 80s I had the Songs In the Attic, Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain albums. His albums since Nylon Curtain have some good songs on them, but I was into so much other music, and never got any of them, but some of the songs are on some live albums/compilations I have. The first time I saw him live was in 1982, and the show was everything I hoped it would be.
Revisiting his music for this countdown makes me realize the huge amount of songs I enjoy by him. Some of those songs won't be in the countdown (but I'll add them to my playlist), and it isn't because I like them less. Some we've heard not long ago, and some we just all know. There will be some hits in the countdown, and many songs that were not. For those that are still reading this, I'll leave you with a 1 out.
1 Out
You May Be Right - The glass you hear shattering at the beginning of this song is Billy "Uruk" Hai throwing his Sambuca bottle across the kitchen, because he has to listen to 31 Billy Joel songs.
ManWilliam Martin Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, and a year later the family moved to Hicksville on Long Island. He was born from Jewish parents. His mom, Rosalind, was born in Brooklyn, and her parents (The Rymans) had emigrated to America from England. His father, Howard (originally called Helmut), was born in Germany. Howard's father had a lucrative business in Germany, but was forced to sell it for much less than its worth as part of a deal to get him and his family away from the Nazi Regime. They fled to Switzerland and emigrated to America via Cuba. Rosalind and Howard met at a Gilbert and Sullivan show at City College in NY. Howard was an engineer and a classical pianist. After Billy was born and they moved to Hicksville, the Joels adopted Rosalind's sister's two year old child, Judith (Judy). Rosalind and Howard divorced in 1957 (Billy was 8), and Rosalind raised Billy and Judy on her own. Howard moved to Vienna, Austria, and remarried and had a son named Alexander. Alexander is a classical conductor, and worked as the chief musical director at Staatstheater Braunschweig for 13 years.
Billy began to play piano when he was four, but it wasn't his father that made him take lessons, it was his mother. She was tired of hearing him pound on their piano, so she paid for piano lessons for him, and he was classically trained. It wasn't long before it was obvious he inherited his father's musical genes, but Billy said his father really wasn't around when he was learning to play. He said if it weren't for his mother insisting he take lessons, he never would have learned piano. He took up boxing in his teens due to bullies like Billy Hai picking on him on his way to piano lessons. He had some success boxing on the Golden Gloves circuit, but quit after his nose was broken. To help his mother out financially, he started playing in bars and hotels during high school. He was a few credits shy of graduating due to time missed from playing for money, and instead of going to summer school he chose not to graduate. Years later he would get his high school diploma. He was influenced by classical artists, but he also loved artists such as Elvis, the Everly Brothers, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, the Kingsman, the Ronettes, and the Beatles. When he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he knew music was his future. Once leaving high school he started some bands. He made two albums with the band The Hassles. They were a rock band, and here is a song called Night After Day off their 1969 album. After they broke up, Billy and Hassles member Jon Small started the heavy metal band Atilla. They made one album together, and here is a song from it called Wonder Woman.
Artie Ripp heard him and signed him to the Family Productions record label, and Billy made his first solo album Cold Spring Harbor in 1971. It was badly produced, and Billy was stuck in a bad contract. He moved to LA, and played in a piano bar on Wilshire Blvd under the name Bill Martin. While working there he wrote a song about himself called Piano Man. He wrote some other songs, and a Philly radio station started playing a live recording of his song Captain Jack. An exec for Columbia Records heard it, and they wanted to sign him. Clive Davis signed him, but he was still stuck in his contract with Family Productions. Artie Ripp made it difficult, but he eventually sold Billy's contract to Columbia. The president of Columbia at the time bought back the rights to Billy's songs, and gave them to Billy as a birthday gift. His first album with Columbia was Piano Man in 1973, and the rest is history. He recorded some great music with Columbia. Billy was very close to his mom, and credits her for a lot of his success, and she inspired him to write some songs such as Rosalinda's Eyes. In 1987 he started a scholarship at City College called the Rosalind Joel Scholarship For the Performing Arts at City College. It is given to talented jazz studies students focusing on piano, voice, or composition. The Joels are animal advocates, and when Rosalind died in 2014, she didn't want flowers, she just wanted donations to go to The Little Shelter in Huntington, Long Island. A couple months prior, Billy performed his 65 birthday concert at MSG, and donated all the proceeds from the concert to The North Shore Animal League America and Bianca's Furry Friends.
I first heard Billy in the 70s. I've always loved piano driven music. I would hear him on the radio, and my sister had The Stranger album, and I had 52nd Street. My best friend in junior high and high school had a sister who loved Billy's music. They originally lived in Warren, NJ, where he was played a lot. She had his Piano Man, Streetlife Serenade, and Turnstiles albums, and we would hang out a lot, and listen to albums. I loved all of them. In the 80s I had the Songs In the Attic, Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain albums. His albums since Nylon Curtain have some good songs on them, but I was into so much other music, and never got any of them, but some of the songs are on some live albums/compilations I have. The first time I saw him live was in 1982, and the show was everything I hoped it would be.
Revisiting his music for this countdown makes me realize the huge amount of songs I enjoy by him. Some of those songs won't be in the countdown (but I'll add them to my playlist), and it isn't because I like them less. Some we've heard not long ago, and some we just all know. There will be some hits in the countdown, and many songs that were not. For those that are still reading this, I'll leave you with a 1 out.
1 Out
You May Be Right - The glass you hear shattering at the beginning of this song is Billy "Uruk" Hai throwing his Sambuca bottle across the kitchen, because he has to listen to 31 Billy Joel songs.
Last edited:
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
You and I drank beer together! I root for God-forsaken ECU because of you! And this is how you repay me?
You're right on your last sentence, though. Except I threw the Sambuca bottle too hard and hit a neighbor's house. Now the cops are here. Thanks again, simey!
Mrs. Rannous
Footballguy
How is Billy related to Kal-El and Jor-El?
simey
Footballguy
My goal is to break your hate, cause Billy is great. It's gonna happen. I feel so good about it that I'm gonna pre-toast it right now.You and I drank beer together! I root for God-forsaken ECU because of you! And this is how you repay me?
You're right on your last sentence, though. Except I threw the Sambuca bottle too hard and hit a neighbor's house. Now the cops are here. Thanks again, simey!
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
It's a bird
It's a plane
It's Pianoman
Sing us a song tonight
It's a plane
It's Pianoman
Sing us a song tonight
simey
Footballguy
Listening to him play on this, he could be a really great jazz guitarist if he wanted to.
Chaos34
Footballguy
He channels Django Reinhardt and Joe Pass some, but those didn't make my list. He's accused of stealing from Al Di Meola on one that I think made the list. It's kind of a blur atm, like some of his playing.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
Hugh Dillon / Headstones first first five out. I'm not sure which five I'm posting yet, but a well-enunciated f-bomb is always a possibility. Also, going in, I realized quite a bit of the material could be about drugs, but I now know it's practically all about drugs - addiction, rehab, fun, and broken relationships galore. Be forewarned, there's not a lot of varnish.
First up, Navigate. This is brand new material and dropped just three weeks ago, with the rest of the album due for release next month.
www.youtube.com
The View Here, little change of pace here.
www.youtube.com
finalanalysis, pulled from my cardio playlist
www.youtube.com
SOS, did I say no schmaltz?
www.youtube.com
#### You, by popular demand
...encore, #### It
www.youtube.com
First up, Navigate. This is brand new material and dropped just three weeks ago, with the rest of the album due for release next month.
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
The View Here, little change of pace here.
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
finalanalysis, pulled from my cardio playlist
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
SOS, did I say no schmaltz?
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
#### You, by popular demand
...encore, #### It
- YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
Last edited:
Mt. Man
Footballguy
After taking a break from this for a day or two, I revisited my rankings. And actually paid attention that I had a couple of bad links. So that's a good excuse to resubmit. A little changed. Two songs in, two songs out. A bit of rearranging of the deck chairs. As long as I didn't mess this version up, I'm gonna force myself to be done. I know the Main 31 is missing some beloved songs, but there's only so much room.
LastFive 10 out
1 song per album max. Lower numbers were toughest cuts except for #41.
41: The Ecstasy Of Gold (S&M). Technically, Metallica doesn't perform on this song, making it an odd inclusion. Still, Metallica's used this song as an intro for live shows since (at least?) Kill 'Em All. Given that this will be 31-1 (or 41-1), it fits too well here.
40. Cyanide (Death Magnetic). Hard-charging, high-charted (for what THAT's worth) song that I couldn't find room for.
39. The Memory Remains (Reload) .That "la da da" section is etched in memory (ha?), even if reference to a song I'll talk about later.
38. Whiskey In The Jar (Garage, Inc.). This and their version of "Stone Cold Crazy" were close.
37. Shadows Follow (72 Seasons). I feel like if I had more history/nostalgia behind this, it would've made it.
36/35. Spit Out The Bone (Hardwired...) ; Jump In The Fire (Kill 'Em all). Decades apart, these two feel like they belong on the same album.
34. Harvester of Sorrow (AFJA). This was in the original version, so certainly its ranking could depend on mood.
33. The Call of Ktulu (Ride the Lightning). A song associated with Cliff, though equal parts Mustaine. S&M version was a consideration too.
32. Sad But True (Metallica). It became obvious either this or a song I'll get to wasn't going to make it. Depressing yet factual.
--
Album Breakdown:
Kill 'Em All: 3
Ride The Lightning: 4
Master of Puppets: 7
...And Justice For All: 5
Metallica: 3
Load: 2
Reload: 1
S&M: 1
Garage, Inc.: 2 (Also the count for covers)
Death Magnetic: 1
Hardwired... To Self-Destruct: 1
72 Seasons: 1
(St. Anger: 0)
Last
1 song per album max. Lower numbers were toughest cuts except for #41.
41: The Ecstasy Of Gold (S&M). Technically, Metallica doesn't perform on this song, making it an odd inclusion. Still, Metallica's used this song as an intro for live shows since (at least?) Kill 'Em All. Given that this will be 31-1 (or 41-1), it fits too well here.
40. Cyanide (Death Magnetic). Hard-charging, high-charted (for what THAT's worth) song that I couldn't find room for.
39. The Memory Remains (Reload) .That "la da da" section is etched in memory (ha?), even if reference to a song I'll talk about later.
38. Whiskey In The Jar (Garage, Inc.). This and their version of "Stone Cold Crazy" were close.
37. Shadows Follow (72 Seasons). I feel like if I had more history/nostalgia behind this, it would've made it.
36/35. Spit Out The Bone (Hardwired...) ; Jump In The Fire (Kill 'Em all). Decades apart, these two feel like they belong on the same album.
34. Harvester of Sorrow (AFJA). This was in the original version, so certainly its ranking could depend on mood.
33. The Call of Ktulu (Ride the Lightning). A song associated with Cliff, though equal parts Mustaine. S&M version was a consideration too.
32. Sad But True (Metallica). It became obvious either this or a song I'll get to wasn't going to make it. Depressing yet factual.
--
Album Breakdown:
Kill 'Em All: 3
Ride The Lightning: 4
Master of Puppets: 7
...And Justice For All: 5
Metallica: 3
Load: 2
Reload: 1
S&M: 1
Garage, Inc.: 2 (Also the count for covers)
Death Magnetic: 1
Hardwired... To Self-Destruct: 1
72 Seasons: 1
(St. Anger: 0)
Mister CIA
Footballguy
It's a quiet little gem and easy to overlook, but what a time and place.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Some light reading for your morning. Haven't finished the list/last out yet because I am still going over some of the later material, but the essay is done.
Arthur Lee and Love (Part 1)
No AI assistance involved. Some of this is from Wiki, some of it is from articles I've read over the years. And some of it is my opinion.
Love is best remembered today for their third album Forever Changes, which wasn't a hit when released in 1967 but has been universally acclaimed as one of the best albums of the psychedelic era. It will be heavily represented on my list, but there was much more to Love and its frontman Arthur Lee than that. I considered records released under Love's name or Lee's, because starting in 1968 Love was Lee and whoever he had gathered at the time. Music geeks of various stripes acknowledge Lee was one of the most talented songwriters of the '60s and deserved more commercial success than he achieved. He acquired a reputation as a "difficult genius" that labels found tough to work with, but the story is complicated.
Arthur Lee was born Arthur Taylor Porter in Memphis in 1945 and moved with his mother to West LA in the early '50s after his parents divorced. He acquired a new last name when his stepfather adopted him. While in school, he learned to play accordion, harmonica, organ and guitar and taught himself how to write music. There, he also met a guitar player named John Echols, also originally from Memphis, with whom he formed his first band in the early '60s, an instrumental outfit called The LAGs. Shortly thereafter, Lee formed another band called The American Four and began writing songs and shopping them around for others. One of these, "My Diary," was recorded by R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks, and the guitar player on that session was a guy who'd just been fired from Little Richard's band, Jimi Hendrix. Revis Records had brought Hendrix in when Lee said he envisioned the guitar part like something Curtis Mayfield would play. This would be the beginning of a friendship with occasional collaboration that lasted until Hendrix' death.
Lee's outlook on music changed when he saw The Byrds play. Lee never liked to stick to one genre and was always trying new combinations of arrangements and instrumentation. He saw The Byrds' mix of folk and rock as a validation of what he was doing. He decided to form his own folk-rock band with childhood friend and former bandmate Echols and a singer/songwriter/guitarist named Bryan MacLean, who had been a roadie for The Byrds. They were called the Grass Roots until they learned another band with that name had signed a record contract, which led to Lee deciding to change their name to Love. The initial rhythm section didn't last long; drummer Don Conka had substance-abuse problems and bassist Johnny Fleckenstein soon left for The Standells. They were replaced by classically trained multi-instrumentalist Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer on drums and Ken Forssi, a former member of The Surfaris, on bass.
The lineup made them one of the first racially integrated rock bands -- Lee and Echols were black, everyone else was white. Lee was obviously talented and had a charismatic personality when he wanted to display it, but he was also deeply conflicted by his role as a black man in a white scene. His lyrics are rife with stress over being "othered," to use a term popular today, and he greatly distrusted every (mostly white) music executive he came in contact with. He was also profoundly affected by the racial violence of the '60s and before and it was the main reason Love did not play shows outside of California until 1970. This was not because he was "eccentric" or "hated touring." Simply put, he feared for his life. R&B musicians were not always welcome everywhere they toured, but the R&B industry created an infrastructure of friendly venues and places to stay that generally did a good job of keeping its musicians safe on the road. There was no such system for black musicians in the rock scene, because there were so few black musicians in the rock scene. And without that kind of security, Lee thought his safety was at risk.
In late 1965, the band added a drastically rearranged version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" to their setlists. One of their shows at the time was caught by Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, at the time a folk label. Holzman was looking to sign a rock band and offered Love a contract after hearing their version of "My Little Red Book," saying they had brought "searing energy" to "a mediocre song."
The self-titled first Love album, released in early 1966, is heavily influenced by The Byrds but also, in spots, the Rolling Stones, especially Lee's vocals. "My Little Red Book" made the Billboard Hot 100 at #57 and some tracks are considered among the earliest examples of proto-punk.
But Lee wasn't content for the band to be a racially integrated Standells. A lot happened between the release of the first album and the emergence of the second, Da Capo, toward the end of 1966. In the summer, they took their original sound as far as it could go with the recording and release of the single "7 and 7 Is". Biographer John Einarson wrote that the song is "like nothing anyone had either conceived or heard before ... a loud, aggressive, no-holds-barred, garage-style punk song, a decade before that musical term was current." It became the band's only top 40 hit, peaking at #33. Lee was dissatisfied with Pfisterer's drumming and moved him to organ and harpsichord, hiring Michael Stuart-Ware, who had drummed for Sons of Adam, which recorded an early Lee composition called "Feathered Fish," and Tjay Cantrelli (birth name: John Barberis), a sax and flute player. With new instrumentation in the band's arsenal, Lee and MacLean wrote a much more diverse set of songs for Da Capo, incorporating psychedelia, jazz, Latin music and other new elements into the band's established folk-rock and blues-rock sounds. In addition, Lee adopted a smoother vocal style for some tracks; the music press called this aspect of his voice "acid Mathis." Some fans believe side 1 of Da Capo is the band's greatest accomplishment, which may make the album have the greatest disparity between sides 1 and 2 of any record, as side 2 consists of one long song ("Revelation") that is ... not good.
Love followed up their half-masterpiece with a full one, Forever Changes, but it had a difficult birth. The band reverted to a quintet when Cantrelli and Pfisterer left, but the remaining members were not the most functional bunch. With no significant touring duties, the band hung out at their communal living space, The Castle (memorialized in a song on Da Capo) and many of them developed heroin habits, particularly Echols and Forssi. Lee developed more intricate songs than his previous work but didn't think the band was capable of reproducing the sounds he heard in his head. He decided that most of them should be driven by acoustic guitars (Holzman had suggested that he embrace folk music again), horns and strings. As with the Da Capo songs, Lee incorporated whatever genres he felt like. MacLean wrote a few songs in a similar vein.
The other impetus for the Forever Changes songs was that Lee believed he was dying. Whether that was literal due to his heroin habit or symbolic due to the band's inability to function or his disillusionment with California's hippie counterculture scene, Lee penned a set of songs that sound sunny but are in fact extremely dark, filled with paranoia and disappointment.
When it came time for the first sessions, Lee and producer Bruce Botnick didn't think the rest of the band was ready, so Botnick brought in members of session titans The Wrecking Crew to back Lee on "The Daily Planet" and "Andmoreagain." Also aboard briefly was Neil Young, whom Botnick brought to the sessions and whom some sources credit as arranging "The Daily Planet" before deciding, as he would perpetually, that he wanted to go off and do his own thing.
Botnick's strategy worked and the rest of the band shook off the cobwebs and came in to play on the rest of the songs. Lee spent more time working with arranger David Angel on the horn and string parts than on the basic tracks, though.
The end result is, to employ a word that is overused but not in this case, a masterpiece. It is sweepingly ambitious but also obscure and hidebound. It manages to be mysterious, cynical and triumphant all at once. It was an immediate critical success but made pretty much zero commercial impact, with neither the album nor the single, MacLean's "Alone Again Or," cracking the top 100 on their respective U.S. charts. ("Alone Again Or" went on to be covered by The Damned and others and is probably Love's most famous song.) But journalists, fans and other musicians (especially Robert Plant) kept its reputation alive through more than 50 years of shifting trends, and today it is recognized as one of the best albums of its era, making two iterations of the album version of the Rolling Stone Garbage List, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and being added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
Arthur Lee and Love (Part 1)
No AI assistance involved. Some of this is from Wiki, some of it is from articles I've read over the years. And some of it is my opinion.
Love is best remembered today for their third album Forever Changes, which wasn't a hit when released in 1967 but has been universally acclaimed as one of the best albums of the psychedelic era. It will be heavily represented on my list, but there was much more to Love and its frontman Arthur Lee than that. I considered records released under Love's name or Lee's, because starting in 1968 Love was Lee and whoever he had gathered at the time. Music geeks of various stripes acknowledge Lee was one of the most talented songwriters of the '60s and deserved more commercial success than he achieved. He acquired a reputation as a "difficult genius" that labels found tough to work with, but the story is complicated.
Arthur Lee was born Arthur Taylor Porter in Memphis in 1945 and moved with his mother to West LA in the early '50s after his parents divorced. He acquired a new last name when his stepfather adopted him. While in school, he learned to play accordion, harmonica, organ and guitar and taught himself how to write music. There, he also met a guitar player named John Echols, also originally from Memphis, with whom he formed his first band in the early '60s, an instrumental outfit called The LAGs. Shortly thereafter, Lee formed another band called The American Four and began writing songs and shopping them around for others. One of these, "My Diary," was recorded by R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks, and the guitar player on that session was a guy who'd just been fired from Little Richard's band, Jimi Hendrix. Revis Records had brought Hendrix in when Lee said he envisioned the guitar part like something Curtis Mayfield would play. This would be the beginning of a friendship with occasional collaboration that lasted until Hendrix' death.
Lee's outlook on music changed when he saw The Byrds play. Lee never liked to stick to one genre and was always trying new combinations of arrangements and instrumentation. He saw The Byrds' mix of folk and rock as a validation of what he was doing. He decided to form his own folk-rock band with childhood friend and former bandmate Echols and a singer/songwriter/guitarist named Bryan MacLean, who had been a roadie for The Byrds. They were called the Grass Roots until they learned another band with that name had signed a record contract, which led to Lee deciding to change their name to Love. The initial rhythm section didn't last long; drummer Don Conka had substance-abuse problems and bassist Johnny Fleckenstein soon left for The Standells. They were replaced by classically trained multi-instrumentalist Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer on drums and Ken Forssi, a former member of The Surfaris, on bass.
The lineup made them one of the first racially integrated rock bands -- Lee and Echols were black, everyone else was white. Lee was obviously talented and had a charismatic personality when he wanted to display it, but he was also deeply conflicted by his role as a black man in a white scene. His lyrics are rife with stress over being "othered," to use a term popular today, and he greatly distrusted every (mostly white) music executive he came in contact with. He was also profoundly affected by the racial violence of the '60s and before and it was the main reason Love did not play shows outside of California until 1970. This was not because he was "eccentric" or "hated touring." Simply put, he feared for his life. R&B musicians were not always welcome everywhere they toured, but the R&B industry created an infrastructure of friendly venues and places to stay that generally did a good job of keeping its musicians safe on the road. There was no such system for black musicians in the rock scene, because there were so few black musicians in the rock scene. And without that kind of security, Lee thought his safety was at risk.
In late 1965, the band added a drastically rearranged version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" to their setlists. One of their shows at the time was caught by Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, at the time a folk label. Holzman was looking to sign a rock band and offered Love a contract after hearing their version of "My Little Red Book," saying they had brought "searing energy" to "a mediocre song."
The self-titled first Love album, released in early 1966, is heavily influenced by The Byrds but also, in spots, the Rolling Stones, especially Lee's vocals. "My Little Red Book" made the Billboard Hot 100 at #57 and some tracks are considered among the earliest examples of proto-punk.
But Lee wasn't content for the band to be a racially integrated Standells. A lot happened between the release of the first album and the emergence of the second, Da Capo, toward the end of 1966. In the summer, they took their original sound as far as it could go with the recording and release of the single "7 and 7 Is". Biographer John Einarson wrote that the song is "like nothing anyone had either conceived or heard before ... a loud, aggressive, no-holds-barred, garage-style punk song, a decade before that musical term was current." It became the band's only top 40 hit, peaking at #33. Lee was dissatisfied with Pfisterer's drumming and moved him to organ and harpsichord, hiring Michael Stuart-Ware, who had drummed for Sons of Adam, which recorded an early Lee composition called "Feathered Fish," and Tjay Cantrelli (birth name: John Barberis), a sax and flute player. With new instrumentation in the band's arsenal, Lee and MacLean wrote a much more diverse set of songs for Da Capo, incorporating psychedelia, jazz, Latin music and other new elements into the band's established folk-rock and blues-rock sounds. In addition, Lee adopted a smoother vocal style for some tracks; the music press called this aspect of his voice "acid Mathis." Some fans believe side 1 of Da Capo is the band's greatest accomplishment, which may make the album have the greatest disparity between sides 1 and 2 of any record, as side 2 consists of one long song ("Revelation") that is ... not good.
Love followed up their half-masterpiece with a full one, Forever Changes, but it had a difficult birth. The band reverted to a quintet when Cantrelli and Pfisterer left, but the remaining members were not the most functional bunch. With no significant touring duties, the band hung out at their communal living space, The Castle (memorialized in a song on Da Capo) and many of them developed heroin habits, particularly Echols and Forssi. Lee developed more intricate songs than his previous work but didn't think the band was capable of reproducing the sounds he heard in his head. He decided that most of them should be driven by acoustic guitars (Holzman had suggested that he embrace folk music again), horns and strings. As with the Da Capo songs, Lee incorporated whatever genres he felt like. MacLean wrote a few songs in a similar vein.
The other impetus for the Forever Changes songs was that Lee believed he was dying. Whether that was literal due to his heroin habit or symbolic due to the band's inability to function or his disillusionment with California's hippie counterculture scene, Lee penned a set of songs that sound sunny but are in fact extremely dark, filled with paranoia and disappointment.
When it came time for the first sessions, Lee and producer Bruce Botnick didn't think the rest of the band was ready, so Botnick brought in members of session titans The Wrecking Crew to back Lee on "The Daily Planet" and "Andmoreagain." Also aboard briefly was Neil Young, whom Botnick brought to the sessions and whom some sources credit as arranging "The Daily Planet" before deciding, as he would perpetually, that he wanted to go off and do his own thing.
Botnick's strategy worked and the rest of the band shook off the cobwebs and came in to play on the rest of the songs. Lee spent more time working with arranger David Angel on the horn and string parts than on the basic tracks, though.
The end result is, to employ a word that is overused but not in this case, a masterpiece. It is sweepingly ambitious but also obscure and hidebound. It manages to be mysterious, cynical and triumphant all at once. It was an immediate critical success but made pretty much zero commercial impact, with neither the album nor the single, MacLean's "Alone Again Or," cracking the top 100 on their respective U.S. charts. ("Alone Again Or" went on to be covered by The Damned and others and is probably Love's most famous song.) But journalists, fans and other musicians (especially Robert Plant) kept its reputation alive through more than 50 years of shifting trends, and today it is recognized as one of the best albums of its era, making two iterations of the album version of the Rolling Stone Garbage List, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and being added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Arthur Lee and Love (Part 2)
Whatever goodwill Forever Changes might have earned Love in the short-term evaporated quickly. The album's lineup stayed together for just one more non-album single, and then MacLean quit, upset because he wanted the band to use more of his songs and because he hated the mix of "Alone Again Or," which Lee had altered to feature his voice more and MacLean's voice less.
Shortly thereafter, Lee fired the rest of the band due to their drug problems and to his belief that they would not be able to execute what he wanted to do next, which was Hendrix-style hard rock. From this point on, Love would be Lee and whoever else he said it was. From 1968 until the mid-70s, Lee jumped from label to label and bandmates to bandmates, sticking with no one for very long.
In late 1968, Lee found the first set of people he wanted, guitarist Jay Donnellan, bassist Frank Fayad and drummer George Suranovich. The new group convened in a Hollywood warehouse and recorded Lee's backlog of songs -- a whopping 27 of them.
Lee had wanted to be free from Elektra almost from the beginning of Love's tenure there -- he even once claimed the band's contract with them was invalid because he was under 21 when he signed it -- and Holzman agreed to let him go after he delivered them a fourth album. Elektra took the 10 songs it liked best from the warehouse sessions and released them as Four Sail in August 1969. The other 17 were released less than 4 months later as a double album, Out Here, on the band's new label, Blue Thumb. By the time of the albums' releases, Donnellan was gone, replaced by Gary Rowles. Another guitarist, Nooney Ricketts, joined in early 1970.
With a band that was more road-ready than the original lineup and perhaps bolstered by the success -- and safety -- Hendrix had on the road, Lee and Love played their first gigs outside of California in 1970. While in London during that tour, the band met up with Hendrix for a brief recording session, producing a collaboration, "The Everlasting First," that would kick off the album released later that year, False Start, the rest of which (save for a live track recorded at a London gig) was recorded at The Record Plant in L.A. and featured more heavy rock in the Hendrix style.
With commercial success continuing to elude the band despite the association and collaboration with Hendrix, Lee dissolved this lineup and his relationship with Blue Thumb by the end of 1970. Hendrix at one point envisioned a band called Band-Aid including himself, Lee and Steve Winwood, but obviously that never came to fruition before Hendrix' death in September 1970.
In 1971, Lee signed with Columbia and recorded a number of songs throughout the year with Fayad, guitarist Craig Tarwater and drummer Don Poncher, but Columbia rejected the material, which remained unreleased until 2009, appearing in various configurations as Love Lost and Found Love: The Lost '71 Sessions. We don't know if he intended to release these recordings as Love or under his own name.
Lee next signed with A&M and released the first album issued under his own name, Vindicator. Three tracks were taken from the 1971 sessions and a few others were new versions of tunes attempted the prior year. For the fresh recordings, Lee employed Poncher, guitarist Charlie Karp and bassist David Hull and credited them as Band-Aid, the name Hendrix wanted to use for his collaboration with Lee. The change in branding did not bring a change in commercial fortune and the album did not chart.
Continuing his free agent ways, Lee moved to Buffalo Records in 1973 and put together an all-black lineup of Love consisting of guitarist Melvan Whittington, bassist Robert Rozelle and drummer Joe Blocker. "I want some cats that can play funky and rock," Lee told Blocker. They recorded a set of songs, with Doors producer Paul A. Rothschild, that retained Lee's characteristic qualities but wrapped them in more of an R&B sound, somewhat reminiscent of Hendrix' work with Band of Gypsys. Unfortunately the fledgling label, founded by Michael Butler, the producer of Hair, folded before the record, which was to be called Black Beauty, could be issued. Toward the end of his life, bootlegs of these sessions started circulating and Lee pressed for an official release, which thanks to the efforts of his widow Diane, was achieved 6 years after his death in 2012 on High Moon Records.
The Black Beauty version of Love (with guitarist John Sterling added and Sherwood Acuna substituting for Rozelle on bass on certain tracks) made their official recording debut the following year on Reel to Real, the first record issued under the Love name since 1970. A mutual friend, producer Skip Taylor, convinced Robert Stigwood, head of RSO Records, to give Lee the biggest advance he'd ever had in his career and to have Love open for big-name acts such as Lou Reed and Eric Clapton. This album actually managed to get released, but again made no commercial impact.
The 1971-74 period features a lot of songs that crop up multiple times, sometimes with different titles, as Lee was constantly refining and re-recording his material during this time. It was an extremely busy period for him, but in the end it yielded him little other than further distrust and resentment of the music industry. There is little documented activity from him in the late '70s aside from a one-off reunion with MacLean in 1978. He would not record again until a self-titled 1981 solo album, backed by the personnel from that night with MacLean: Sterling, Suranovich and bassist Ken Ketterman.
And after that, there was nothing for 11 years. "I was gone for a decade," Lee is quoted on Wikipedia as saying, without citation. "I went back to my old neighborhood to take care of my father, who was dying of cancer. I was tired of signing autographs. I was tired of being BS'd out of my money...I just got tired."
Whatever goodwill Forever Changes might have earned Love in the short-term evaporated quickly. The album's lineup stayed together for just one more non-album single, and then MacLean quit, upset because he wanted the band to use more of his songs and because he hated the mix of "Alone Again Or," which Lee had altered to feature his voice more and MacLean's voice less.
Shortly thereafter, Lee fired the rest of the band due to their drug problems and to his belief that they would not be able to execute what he wanted to do next, which was Hendrix-style hard rock. From this point on, Love would be Lee and whoever else he said it was. From 1968 until the mid-70s, Lee jumped from label to label and bandmates to bandmates, sticking with no one for very long.
In late 1968, Lee found the first set of people he wanted, guitarist Jay Donnellan, bassist Frank Fayad and drummer George Suranovich. The new group convened in a Hollywood warehouse and recorded Lee's backlog of songs -- a whopping 27 of them.
Lee had wanted to be free from Elektra almost from the beginning of Love's tenure there -- he even once claimed the band's contract with them was invalid because he was under 21 when he signed it -- and Holzman agreed to let him go after he delivered them a fourth album. Elektra took the 10 songs it liked best from the warehouse sessions and released them as Four Sail in August 1969. The other 17 were released less than 4 months later as a double album, Out Here, on the band's new label, Blue Thumb. By the time of the albums' releases, Donnellan was gone, replaced by Gary Rowles. Another guitarist, Nooney Ricketts, joined in early 1970.
With a band that was more road-ready than the original lineup and perhaps bolstered by the success -- and safety -- Hendrix had on the road, Lee and Love played their first gigs outside of California in 1970. While in London during that tour, the band met up with Hendrix for a brief recording session, producing a collaboration, "The Everlasting First," that would kick off the album released later that year, False Start, the rest of which (save for a live track recorded at a London gig) was recorded at The Record Plant in L.A. and featured more heavy rock in the Hendrix style.
With commercial success continuing to elude the band despite the association and collaboration with Hendrix, Lee dissolved this lineup and his relationship with Blue Thumb by the end of 1970. Hendrix at one point envisioned a band called Band-Aid including himself, Lee and Steve Winwood, but obviously that never came to fruition before Hendrix' death in September 1970.
In 1971, Lee signed with Columbia and recorded a number of songs throughout the year with Fayad, guitarist Craig Tarwater and drummer Don Poncher, but Columbia rejected the material, which remained unreleased until 2009, appearing in various configurations as Love Lost and Found Love: The Lost '71 Sessions. We don't know if he intended to release these recordings as Love or under his own name.
Lee next signed with A&M and released the first album issued under his own name, Vindicator. Three tracks were taken from the 1971 sessions and a few others were new versions of tunes attempted the prior year. For the fresh recordings, Lee employed Poncher, guitarist Charlie Karp and bassist David Hull and credited them as Band-Aid, the name Hendrix wanted to use for his collaboration with Lee. The change in branding did not bring a change in commercial fortune and the album did not chart.
Continuing his free agent ways, Lee moved to Buffalo Records in 1973 and put together an all-black lineup of Love consisting of guitarist Melvan Whittington, bassist Robert Rozelle and drummer Joe Blocker. "I want some cats that can play funky and rock," Lee told Blocker. They recorded a set of songs, with Doors producer Paul A. Rothschild, that retained Lee's characteristic qualities but wrapped them in more of an R&B sound, somewhat reminiscent of Hendrix' work with Band of Gypsys. Unfortunately the fledgling label, founded by Michael Butler, the producer of Hair, folded before the record, which was to be called Black Beauty, could be issued. Toward the end of his life, bootlegs of these sessions started circulating and Lee pressed for an official release, which thanks to the efforts of his widow Diane, was achieved 6 years after his death in 2012 on High Moon Records.
The Black Beauty version of Love (with guitarist John Sterling added and Sherwood Acuna substituting for Rozelle on bass on certain tracks) made their official recording debut the following year on Reel to Real, the first record issued under the Love name since 1970. A mutual friend, producer Skip Taylor, convinced Robert Stigwood, head of RSO Records, to give Lee the biggest advance he'd ever had in his career and to have Love open for big-name acts such as Lou Reed and Eric Clapton. This album actually managed to get released, but again made no commercial impact.
The 1971-74 period features a lot of songs that crop up multiple times, sometimes with different titles, as Lee was constantly refining and re-recording his material during this time. It was an extremely busy period for him, but in the end it yielded him little other than further distrust and resentment of the music industry. There is little documented activity from him in the late '70s aside from a one-off reunion with MacLean in 1978. He would not record again until a self-titled 1981 solo album, backed by the personnel from that night with MacLean: Sterling, Suranovich and bassist Ken Ketterman.
And after that, there was nothing for 11 years. "I was gone for a decade," Lee is quoted on Wikipedia as saying, without citation. "I went back to my old neighborhood to take care of my father, who was dying of cancer. I was tired of signing autographs. I was tired of being BS'd out of my money...I just got tired."
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Arthur Lee and Love (Part 3 -- last one, I promise!)
By the time Lee was ready to make music again, grunge was in full swing and there was little interest in an older act whose best-known works did not resemble that in the slightest. Starting with Forever Changes, Lee and Love had been more popular in Europe than in the U.S., so perhaps it was fitting that his first music in more than a decade was released on a French label, New Rose. Like its predecessors, the record, initially released as Arthur Lee and Love and later reissued as Five String Serenade after Mazzy Star covered the song of the same name, made little impact in the States.
Lee resumed touring in the early '90s, using two self-contained bands, Baby Lemonade and Das Damen, as Love at various times. My first time seeing Lee was in March 1994 in Asbury Park with Das Damen serving as Love. The venue, not large to begin with, was maybe half full, and the band played only three songs from Forever Changes, instead focusing more on Da Capo and some of the faster post-Forever Changes songs. Lee was game but came off a bit laconic.
In 1996, Lee's life changed dramatically. He was convicted of negligent discharge of a firearm, which was his third felony after prior convictions for arson and assault. Under California's "three strikes" law, this meant mandatory jail time, and he was sentenced to 12 years (in his characteristically stubborn way, he had turned down a plea deal of 9 months). Lee was released in 2001 after serving slightly less than half of his sentence, and his conviction was later overturned after the prosecutor was found to have committed misconduct. Original Love members MacLean and Forssi died during Lee's prison term, ending any chance of a reunion of the 1965-67 lineup.
By this point, trends had shifted and there was interest in Lee and Love's music again, along with publicity surrounding Lee's release from prison. He spent much of 2002 and 2003 on the road with Baby Lemonade -- Rusty Squeezebox (birth name: David Ramsey) on guitar and vocals, Mike Randle on lead guitar, David Chapple on bass and David Green on drums -- as Love. In August 2002, I saw Lee for the second time in NYC, and the vibes could not have been any different from the 1994 gig. The show was sold out, the crowd was energetic and enthusiastic and the band was on fire. In keeping with the celebratory feeling, nine of Forever Changes' 11 songs were played. However, we were also treated to Lee's other side -- he sounded downright threatening when he spotted a fan videotaping and started yelling at them. (Accounts of this night can be read at http://love.torbenskott.dk/tour/20020810_newyork.asp). This period culminated in a series of shows in Europe where the band performed Forever Changes in its entirety; one of these nights in London was released as The Forever Changes Concert in 2003.
Between mid-2003 and 2005, Lee's childhood friend and original Love collaborator John Echols joined the touring band, bringing Love's history full circle. Lee skipped some of the 2005 dates, leaving Squeezebox to step up as lead singer, but, typically for him, didn't tell anyone why. The truth was only known to his wife Diane and his doctors: He had acute myeloid leukemia. Once he finally made his condition public, a series of benefit concerts were organized in the spring of 2006. Shortly thereafter, on August 3, 2006, Lee passed away in Memphis.
Echols and the members of Baby Lemonade have continued to play together after Lee's death (James Nolte replaced Chapple on bass in 2021), touring under the name The Love Band; they have a few gigs this month, in fact.
2025 turned out to be a good year for me to do this exercise, because this year, the final chapter in Lee and Love's musical legacy will be written. High Moon is scheduled to release Just to Remind You, which consists of some of Lee's previously unreleased recordings between 1990 and 2005; just before his death, he presented Diane with a CD of 17 songs and told her they were the ones he wanted released after he was gone. Four songs were arranged by Angel, Lee's collaborator on the Forever Changes arrangements.
“Where does it fit in the canon? I’m not sure it does,” High Moon's George Wallace told Mojo. “But I see it as the actual follow-up to Forever Changes. When Arthur did that, for some reason, he felt like he was going to die, and that these would be his last words. With this album, he knew he was going to die. This is his last musical gift to the world.”
By the time Lee was ready to make music again, grunge was in full swing and there was little interest in an older act whose best-known works did not resemble that in the slightest. Starting with Forever Changes, Lee and Love had been more popular in Europe than in the U.S., so perhaps it was fitting that his first music in more than a decade was released on a French label, New Rose. Like its predecessors, the record, initially released as Arthur Lee and Love and later reissued as Five String Serenade after Mazzy Star covered the song of the same name, made little impact in the States.
Lee resumed touring in the early '90s, using two self-contained bands, Baby Lemonade and Das Damen, as Love at various times. My first time seeing Lee was in March 1994 in Asbury Park with Das Damen serving as Love. The venue, not large to begin with, was maybe half full, and the band played only three songs from Forever Changes, instead focusing more on Da Capo and some of the faster post-Forever Changes songs. Lee was game but came off a bit laconic.
In 1996, Lee's life changed dramatically. He was convicted of negligent discharge of a firearm, which was his third felony after prior convictions for arson and assault. Under California's "three strikes" law, this meant mandatory jail time, and he was sentenced to 12 years (in his characteristically stubborn way, he had turned down a plea deal of 9 months). Lee was released in 2001 after serving slightly less than half of his sentence, and his conviction was later overturned after the prosecutor was found to have committed misconduct. Original Love members MacLean and Forssi died during Lee's prison term, ending any chance of a reunion of the 1965-67 lineup.
By this point, trends had shifted and there was interest in Lee and Love's music again, along with publicity surrounding Lee's release from prison. He spent much of 2002 and 2003 on the road with Baby Lemonade -- Rusty Squeezebox (birth name: David Ramsey) on guitar and vocals, Mike Randle on lead guitar, David Chapple on bass and David Green on drums -- as Love. In August 2002, I saw Lee for the second time in NYC, and the vibes could not have been any different from the 1994 gig. The show was sold out, the crowd was energetic and enthusiastic and the band was on fire. In keeping with the celebratory feeling, nine of Forever Changes' 11 songs were played. However, we were also treated to Lee's other side -- he sounded downright threatening when he spotted a fan videotaping and started yelling at them. (Accounts of this night can be read at http://love.torbenskott.dk/tour/20020810_newyork.asp). This period culminated in a series of shows in Europe where the band performed Forever Changes in its entirety; one of these nights in London was released as The Forever Changes Concert in 2003.
Between mid-2003 and 2005, Lee's childhood friend and original Love collaborator John Echols joined the touring band, bringing Love's history full circle. Lee skipped some of the 2005 dates, leaving Squeezebox to step up as lead singer, but, typically for him, didn't tell anyone why. The truth was only known to his wife Diane and his doctors: He had acute myeloid leukemia. Once he finally made his condition public, a series of benefit concerts were organized in the spring of 2006. Shortly thereafter, on August 3, 2006, Lee passed away in Memphis.
Echols and the members of Baby Lemonade have continued to play together after Lee's death (James Nolte replaced Chapple on bass in 2021), touring under the name The Love Band; they have a few gigs this month, in fact.
2025 turned out to be a good year for me to do this exercise, because this year, the final chapter in Lee and Love's musical legacy will be written. High Moon is scheduled to release Just to Remind You, which consists of some of Lee's previously unreleased recordings between 1990 and 2005; just before his death, he presented Diane with a CD of 17 songs and told her they were the ones he wanted released after he was gone. Four songs were arranged by Angel, Lee's collaborator on the Forever Changes arrangements.
“Where does it fit in the canon? I’m not sure it does,” High Moon's George Wallace told Mojo. “But I see it as the actual follow-up to Forever Changes. When Arthur did that, for some reason, he felt like he was going to die, and that these would be his last words. With this album, he knew he was going to die. This is his last musical gift to the world.”
Mrs. Rannous
Footballguy
WIthout checking, I just knew it was Pip.
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