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Rating: I might be biased. I will not be objective in this review.
This is the album that personally opened up fabulous universes for me, so this review is an affectionate tribute to this debut work by Arthur Lee & Brian McLean. An album practically forgotten, the debut of Love. Overshadowed by various Revolver, Surrealistic Pillow, The Doors, and Mr. Tambourine Man. When you think of the absolute masterpieces of the following year, this album practically disappears.
I consider the first album by Love an (unconscious) masterpiece. More than any other album of that period, it holds within itself a very rare genuineness, a sunlit beauty in every single track. Supported by the extraordinary voices of Arthur Lee and Brian McLean (discover him as a unique author), the album is a "different" fresco of the summer of Love on the horizon. The garage sound does not detract from the infinite sweetness of tracks like "A Message to Pretty" (masterpiece), Mushroom Clouds. The immature experimentation of "Emotions," the sunlit psychedelia of "Can't Explain." The shadows of "Signed D.C" (another masterpiece) and "My Little Red Book." Up to the album's "hit," that "Hey Joe" second only to the version by the guitarist from Seattle (a close friend of Arthur Lee).
An album that once listened to will radically insinuate itself among all those who loved the first two LPs by the Byrds and Jefferson. It did not sell well. Not even the next one did better. Only "Forever Changes" will be remembered. But none of the subsequent albums (except for the amazing and equally forgotten "Out There") will know how to repeat such simplicity of sound and equivalent beauty.
One last note.
The following year saw the vinyl debut of a group led by a gentleman named Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett. The album opened with "Astronomy Domine" (a peak of pure art). The track also opened "Ummagumma" in '69. Well, this track was nothing more than an elaboration of "My Little Red Book." The producer of Pink Floyd asked Barrett to play a Love track, and he started with the piece. Thus, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" came to light.
The debut of Love remains for me the brightest ray in the entire history of rock.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 My Little Red Book (02:33)
Verse 1:
I just got out my little red book
The minute that you said goodbye
I thumbed right through my little red book
I wasn't gonna sit and cry
And I went from A to Z
I took out every pretty girl in town
They danced with me and as I held them
Chorus:
All I did was talk about you
Hear your name and I'd start to cry
There's just no getting over you... oh, no...
Verse 2:
There ain't no girl in my little red book
Who could ever replace your charms
And each girl in my little red book
Knows you're the one I'm thinkin' of
Oh won't you please come back
Without your precious love I can't go on
Where can love be I need you so much
Verse 3:
Oh won't you please come back
Without your precious love I can't go on
It's haunting me I need you so much
Chorus 3:
All I did was talk and talk about you
Hear your name and I'd start to cry
There's just no getting over you
All I did was talk and talk about you
Hear your name and I'd start to cry
There's just no getting over you... oh no
02 Can't Explain (02:41)
Can't explain
Nothin' seems to be goin' right
Can't explain
Nothin' seems to be goin' right
*
Well now you wake up in the mornin'
Find your poor self dead
Well now you wake up in the mornin'
Find your poor self dead
What a shame
You always wanna start a fight
Can't explain
You always wanna start a fight
(* Repeat)
Let it go, what I say, yeah
Can't explain
You always wanna start a fight
Can't explain
You always wanna start a fight
(* Repeat)
Let it go, one more time, yeah
04 My Flash on You (02:09)
I don't want to be in your company
I don't need you to take care of me
Let me alone, let me alone,
Let me alone, can't you let me be!
All I want in this world is
To say I'm a man that's free
People talk about the way I look
I say come on and say it,
I got enough to write a book
But don't they know, don't they know,
Don't they know it's a waste of breath
'Cause I don't wanna be like them,
All I want is to be myself
Lemme hear you play it one time now
Don't try to force
Your smuggled drugs my way
'Cause baby, I cleansed my soul
And I say that's the way it's gonna stay
But you can put me down,
All around, on the ground,
Anyway you choose
Get your kicks with your fix,
But this time I know it's you who lose
Lemme hear you play it one time now
05 Softly to Me (02:57)
Verse 1:
I could love you more and more each day for a million years
And I'd sit around all day just crying happy tears
Chorus:
To [2: But] dance and sing my life away (life away)
And laughing with you, my darling, softly to me
Verse 2:
Orange, sugar, chocolate, hot cinnamon and lovely things and you
And darling, you know there was really nothing else that I could do
Bridge:
And my darling you will never know how elegant
you'll always be to me
And my darling I was so in love it was evident for anyone
Verse 3:
To see, and I suppose they already do
And how come so suddenly everything depends on you
Verse 4:
And if I kissed you once I'd probably do it again
But then that's not so inconceivable, my friend
06 No Matter What You Do (02:46)
Do you remember me
I'm the one you talk about
Do you remember me
I'm the one you booted out
No matter what in the world you do
Hey, I'll always be in love with you
No matter what in the world you say
Girl, I'm gonna love you anyway
Do you remember when
You said that I was your true love
And you'd take care of me
And watch me like the stars above
No matter what in the world you do
Hey, I'll always be in love with you
No matter what in the world you say
Girl, I'm gonna love you anyway
I just gotta hear you play it one time for everybody now!
No matter what in the world you do
Hey, I'll always be in love with you
No matter what in the world you say
Girl, I'm gonna love you anyway
I just gotta hear you play it one time for the world now!
No matter what in the world you do
Hey, I'll always be in love with you
No matter what in the world you say
Girl, I'm gonna love you anyway
I said I'm gonna love you anyway
You know I'm gonna love you anyway.
08 You I'll Be Following (02:26)
Verse 1:
I went to Georgia
I went to Florida
I went to Missi
Tripped in Missippi, but now
You I'll be following
Oh, oh, oh
Verse 2:
I went to Baghdad
I went to Laurel
Tripped in the canyon
My head is still bent, but now
You I'll be following
Oh, oh, oh
Verse 3:
I went to Johnny
I went to Conka
One of them told me
That he was holding, but now
You I'll be following
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh (Ow!)
Verse 4:
I went to Frisco
Bumped into Cisco
He had a shoebox
Behind his icebox, but now
You I'll be following
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
09 Gazing (02:42)
In a gazing dazzling glare
As an image stood before me
But he knew not where
a mulatto soul so rare
Intercepted by graviation
Through the mist like air
From the pits of Eden
This image he came from there
One time now
Johnny's turn now
Driven out by Eden's
..........
This image he came from there
10 Hey Joe (02:42)
Hey Joe where you goin with all that money in your hand now
Well I said hey Joe where you goin with all that money in your hand
Well I'm goin after my woman she's been runnin around with some other man now
Well I said I'm goin after my woman she's been runnin around with some other man
Well I'm gonna go downtown gonna buy me some blue steel 44's
And when I catch up to that woman she ain't gonna be runnin no more
All right
All right
Well I said hey Joe I heard you shot your woman dead
Well I said hey Joe I heard that you shot your woman dead
Well yes I did I shot tham just like I said now
Well you see I shot them just like I said
Well hey Joe tell me where are you gonna go
Well I said hey Joe now tell me where are you goin to go
Well I guess I'll go back to my favorite Mexico
Well I guess I'll go back to where I know a man can be free
Well there ain't goin to be no hangman putting no noose around my neck little child
Well I said there ain't goin be no hangman putting no noose around me
Well hey Joe where you goin with all that money in your hand
Well I said hey
On all of the A's just put your finger off the B
then put it back on then up a fret. You'll understand.
11 Signed D.C. (02:47)
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.
13 Mushroom Clouds (02:25)
Mushroom clouds are forming
And the sky is dark and grey
Little children dying
In a age of hate and war
We can love again
Only God knows when
Help us with our problems
I don't need you bothering me
Can't you tell me that I'm free
Mushroom clouds are forming
And the sky is dark and grey
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