16. Signed D.C.
Albums: Love (1966) and Out Here (1969)
I mentioned in the previous entry that Love's Arthur Lee was ambivalent about the hippie scene and specifically about the hard drug use that made some people from the scene difficult to deal with and ruined many of their lives. Right off the bat, Lee had to deal with this, as Love's original drummer Don Conca chose drugs over music and his heroin addiction made him unreliable and got him fired around the time the band started to record their debut album. On side 2 of the debut album we got a harrowing, unsparing song that Lee wrote from Conca's perspective, hence the title, "Signed D.C."
Sometimes I feel so lonely
My comedown I'm scared to face
I've pierced my skin again, Lord
No one cares
For me
My soul belongs to the dealer
He keeps my mind as well
I play the part of the leecher
No one cares
For me, cares for me
Look out Joe, I'm fallin'
I can't unfold my arms
I've got one foot in the graveyard
No one cares
For me, cares for me
Signed, D.C.
The sing-songy arrangement on the debut album doesn't match the intensity of the lyrics, so it's no surprise that "Signed D.C." became the first of several songs that Lee re-recorded for a subsequent studio album. A grittier, noisier, more anguished arrangement more in tune with the despair of the lyrics was cut at the 1968-69 warehouse sessions and included on the double album
Out Here. It is this version, which I have always felt is far superior to the original, that appears linked above and on the playlist. The
Out Here version is slower and almost twice as long as the original, but omits the literal "Signed, D.C." at the end of the lyrics.
The song has been covered by, among others, Husker Du's Grant Hart (himself a heroin addict)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mKHi1UBpUU and The White Stripes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZzmnGHGs4k.
There is actually a webpage dedicated to Conca's life story.
https://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/don-conca.html. The Cliff Notes version: Conca, like Love bandmate Bryan MacLean, failed an audition for The Monkees, but was considered one of the best drummers in the L.A. club scene, so he was kept on despite constantly missing gigs (his eventual replacement Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer roomed with bassist Ken Forssi and came to every Love gig ready to fill in if Conca didn't show.) When he failed to show for the band's first recording session, that was the last straw. Lee himself played the drums that day, and fired Conca shortly thereafter. Rumors that Conca had died of an OD were untrue; he worked as an air conditioner repairman until a heroin bust sent him to prison for much of the '70s. After his release, he married another musician and addict and they had a daughter who also became a musician and an addict. Around the turn of the millenium, Conca got clean for a few years to try to set an example for his daughter. It was during this period where he rekindled his friendship with Lee and at a 2003 gig in LA, played with Lee and Love for the first time in almost 40 years, on a cover of "Smokestack Lightning," a staple of their '60s club sets. But a year later, he had another relapse and bust, and on the eve of returning to prison, drowned in his bathtub after injecting himself with a speedball.
"Signed D.C." is one of the most-performed Love songs, appearing in setlists somewhat consistently since 1970, and was played at my 2002 show. It continues to be performed today by The Love Band. Every performance I have heard has featured the
Out Here arrangement.
Debut album version:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0gSFDtrOn4kWdZtg22CU0B?si=e485b2baa1fb4350
Alternate mix of debut album version (bonus track on deluxe edition):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0BZUenAeXsgJa9LJVLw5Ta?si=174741e5e48446f7
Live version from 1970 in Copenhagen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srh0A7R0Kng (this version is particularly harrowing)
Live version in 1970 from "England" (appears on
The Blue Thumb Recordings):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moscKYtGcg8
Live version from 1978 in LA with Bryan MacLean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyMwZ0VTgws
Live version from 1992 in Liverpool with Michael Head's Shack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=speDD7_K9xU
Live version from a cable TV show called Art Fein's Poker Party. Given Lee's appearance and the personnel in the video, I'd place this around 1992, the year of the
Arthur Lee and Love album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7BNjDR5Ws
Live acoustic version from 1993 in Northampton, MA (appears on
Coming Through to You: The Live Recordings (1970-2004)):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmQ0SSYxYsg
Live version from 1996 in Odense, Denmark (appears on
Coming Through to You: The Live Recordings (1970-2004)):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge4fJ79ar64
Live version from 2003 in London (appears on
The Forever Changes Concert):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbaa57KySOE
The Love Band live in London in 2022, with John Echols, a former heroin addict himself, on lead vocals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AvfOkzAQ7I
At #15, another song Lee reused on album, this time less than a year after its first appearance.
open.spotify.com
, she’s got a way, 
️, you’ve lost that loving feeling we’re all strong contenders. But possibly my favorite Clapton song takes it - it’s in the way that you use it! 
to 
