Customer Reviews

Da Capo

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This cd is truly a measure of how big a Love fan you are... 6 of the 7 tracks from _Da Capo_ appear on the excellent _Love Story_ anthology, so if you're buying this for "Revelation", I think the word "fanatic" can safely be applied to you (grin).

Personally, I think the seven-person lineup heard here was Love's best. Side one is perhaps the best 17 minutes of music the group ever made. The arrival of Tijay Cantrelli (woodwinds) and Michael Stuart (drums) really expanded their sound and raised the level of musicianship. Nowhere is this more eveident than on "Revelation", that sprawling reminder of a bygone era. The song is too long and never really goes anywhere, but Stuart's drumming and Cantrelli's saxophone solo are definitely worth listening for (John Echolls complains loudly in the liner notes that Paul Rothschild ruined the song by moving sections of it around, but, really, it's hard to imagine it having turned out too much differently).

As always, Rhino's packaging and sound are excellent. I thought hearing the remastered stereo mix would prove them wrong for having used the mono one on _Love Story_, but... they were right, the mono does sound better (except "Revelation").

Love's first album had its moments but was possibly too much of a muchness with some of the folk rock numbers being too similar among themselves."Da Capo's"diversity is its winning point with each song having a distinctive identity. That said,only"Revelation",a 19 minute jam,is a half realized concept,for the remaining 6 tracks all reach glorious heights.

STEPHANIE KNOWS WHO-Deft time changes power this rocker.Possibly the closest to their first album,though more embelished than any track on their rough edged debut.
ORANGE SKIES-A jazzy,laid back melody showcasing Arthur Lee's dexterity.Moreover it presents us with the inspired image"Orange Skies,carnivals and cotton candy and you".
QUE VIDA!-This spanish flavored tune is another standout.The guitar riff driving this song is as beautiful as it is superb.
7&7IS-Proto Punk,a relentless 2 minute assault with werdifying guitars and a bass with an odd revving vibe as backdrop to Arthur's sped up vocals.It turned out to be Love's only hit single.The remaster's liner notes cleared up at last the meaning of the decades long mystery"My dad's is in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized"(it turned out to be quite simple,you'll see when you read it)
THE CASTLE-75% of this song is instrumental but since the interplay between the guitar,the bass and the harpsichord is so close to perfection it would be unfair to ask for more.
SHE COMES IN COLOURS-One of Love's top compositions and the album's high water-mark.From the emotionladen vocals to the strangely adequate flute nothing here descends below excellence.
REVELATION-Love decided to recreate on an album their onstage gimmick in which every element of the band had his moment in the spotlight.Predictably the magic didn't pass entirely unto the the recording.Moments of brilliance are interspersed with tedious and redundant segments giving "Revelation"a flawed final form.
"Da Capo" and its successor,the celebrated "Forever Changes",still come through(more than 30 years after after their release)as the most vibrantly original works released in the 60's.
The Beatles had a more coherent career but Love's best work can feasibly surpass the Fab4's best releases.
Essential Stuff.

After the excellent, self-titled debut, it was hard to imagine that Arthur Lee and LOVE could top their pro-punkish selves on their second effort. While "Da Capo" is not as hard-edged and raw as "Love" was, it still packs plenty of punch.

This album is worth buying just for the over-the-top rampage of "7 And 7 Is." This track alone is so far ahead of its time (an influential to boot) it became a true blueprint for what the punks of the 70's were trying to build on. The Sex Pistols, Ramones, Television and Clash all owed a lot of their material and sound to this song and this band. (Their have been many excellent covers of this song; the best being from Alice Cooper on 1981's "Special Forces.")

"Stephanie Knows Who," "Orange Skies," "The Castle," and "She Comes In Colors" are all excellent and (individually and collectively) can hold their own against anything in the bands catalog. "Revelation," which took up the entire second side of the original album, has often been critisized as being bloated, unessissary, and non-essential. However, the more you hear it the more it shows its merit. It may very well be the weakest track, but it is worthwhile as the Arthur and company try to spread their creative wings a bit and get away from the three-minute sing format.

Love would next go on to create their masterpiece, "Forever Changes." But, "Da Capo" was an essential second step in the creative process for this top shelf band of the psychedelic era. Love far outdistanced most of their contemporaries in almost every way. "Da Capo" is proof positive of that.

Love are a really great and important band with every right to at least two slots in your CD rack. Da Capo is not, for me at least, such a rounded masterpiece as Forever Changes but however easy it may be to pick fault in "Revelation" all of the songs on the first side of Da Capo are perfectly crafted pop gems. I noticed that a couple of other reviewers thought that "Stephanie knows who" sounds like "What's new Pussycat". I must admit that I thought exactly the same thing, although the opener to Love's second album is certainly less innocent than Tom Jones' playful pop tune. "Orange skies" is sublime, as is "iQUE VIDA!". "Seven and seven is" (later covered by the Ramones) is a brilliant two minute torrent of proto-punk angst, topped off with a nuclear ending. "The Castle" is a lesson in jam-packed-with-melody three minute songs and "She comes in colours" has a hookline that boast one of pop's most unusual lyrics: "Whoa,whoa,whoa, my love she comes in colours/you can tell her from the clothes she wears". I'm pretty sure I've never heard a song with that particular subject matter. That's side one, superb song writing, dreamy arrangements and hippy lyrics. The reason I can't give Da Capo five stars is for the weaker parts of "revelation". It contains a lot of very listenable jamming, along the same lines as the Stone's "Goin' home". Then Arthur Lee takes the liberty of screaming for a few minutes. He sounds like a socially retarded, almost unbearably obnoxious and audacious, bearded hippy having a very loud orgasm. This is just not acceptable. It's not that I'm against people having orgasms on record (Clare Torry does it to great effect on Darkside of the Moon) but Lee sounds like such an imbecile and creates so little melody that all it does here is make you feel embarassed on his behalf. Anyway, the rest of the track is much more enyoyable. A great sax break followed by a listenable, but ultimately pointless, drum solo and then a few seconds of pompous harpsichord rubbish and its done. It has its moments but side two is nowhere near as good as side one. Still, Da Capo is a great pop record that I highly recommend to Forever Changes fans. Thankfully, Lee gave up making sexual noises and frequently shouting "yeah!" for the classic follow-up, Forever Changes.

The first six songs on "Da Capo" are some of the best rock music ever recorded. I love "Que Vida" and "She Comes In Colors" and "The Castle" as much as any songs I know. A far greater listener than I, Richard Meltzer, said in an interview a few years back that Love and Moby Grape were the best of the wave of bands that followed the Beatles. I would have to agree. It's strange, really--the best bands of the 1960s were mostly from the West Coast. The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Love and Moby Grape: add the Beatles and the Stones and that's pretty much the classic rock groups. "Da Capo" certainly is as inspired a piece of rock and roll as anything by the Beatles, for sure; I enjoy it lots more than "Revolver." The sound: sort of like Johnny Mathis imitating Mick Jagger imitating Rufus Thomas, with Bacharachesque muzak touches, flutes, and a weird L.A. veneer (see Barney Hoskyns' book "Waiting For The Sun"). The instrumental, "Revelation," is perfectly tolerable blues-rock jamming.

I have read some people's comments putting down the song "Revalation". I, for one, love this album-side jam that so much illustrates the magic of what psychedelic rock was all about. Thankfully, everyone back then was not completely driven to produce polished "sound bite" music that fits into some kind of commercial mold. I guess that you had to be there to fully understand. Yes, I can remember (hazily)!

Side One, or the first six songs on the CD, are pretty cool. They're not always completely successful; "Que Vida" contains some inane lyrics, "Orange Skies" is a little too close to pure schmaltz for me, and occasionally Lee's overprecious enunciation is unintentionally funny. But overall their sense of experimentation and the great melodies win out, and on "Seven And Seven Is" and "She Comes In Colors," they hit it out of the ballpark. If they had stopped there, "Da Capo" would be a great 60's psychedelic pop EP.

Unfortunately, there's "Revelation." All right, I have to be fair; when the sax player takes over halfway through, some cool stuff happens, but that only lasts a few minutes, and otherwise you have to put up with Arthur Lee doing a bad Jim Morrison/Mick Jagger impersonation, guitar solos that make the joke solos from the Bonzo Dog Band's "Canyons of Your Mind" and Dr. Hook's "Cover of the Rolling Stone" sound like Jimi Hendrix, and a drum solo that, frankly, should never have existed.

Overall I can't say this album is worth it. You would be better advised to get "Love Story: 1966-1972," which contains the six good songs from this album, as well as the good stuff from Love's first album and all of "Forever Changes" (which really is as brilliant as everyone says it is).

As a side note: I'm surprised that "Revelation" gets nods from people as being "the first" side-long jam epic. It certainly isn't, and even if it was, it's probably one of the worst examples of a "jam" I've ever heard.

"Revelation" was isolated on the second side of the original vinyl album, and sure it looked impressive, but it's only 18 minutes long, not very long in "jam" terms. The Velvets' "Sister Ray" is seventeen and some change and they managed to include "I Heard Her Call My Name" on side 2 of "White Light/White Heat" as well.

It's nice that there are people who are such fans of Love that they will attempt to revise the history of rock for their sake, but saying that "Revelations" was the first "sidelong jam" is just completely wrong. I suppose it's hard to come up with reasons to justify "Revelations," though, so the fans get points for trying.

But let's be clear: Butterfield Blues Band's "East/West," which happened in 1966, was the first rock/jazz jam-out, and it was the one that inspired a lot of people (including Cream, Arthur Lee, and Hendrix) to try and integrate the improvisation of jazz with the energy of rock.

this album is sometimes ignored in favor of forever changes. true, forever changes is so great i think the only recommendation i could give for it is get it! but the 1st side of da capo is one of the greatest sides of an album you're likely to hear. every track is a grade a classic. revelation is overlong and boring but luckily you can skip it on cd if you like, it doesn't really matter. da capo is a great disc that just happens to be the 2nd best album from what may very well have been america's finest rock band of the late 60's.

When I read MusicFan's review I had to laugh... His opinion of each track on "DaCapo" was favorable, except "Revelation." I had to laugh because that sounded so familiar to me.
I purchased the LP in the sixties when it came out. I liked all the cuts until the screaming part of the "Revelation" track came up. I yanked it off the turntable and never played that side again (it's a long track which comprised the entirety of side 2), until... several years later, one evening, a conglomeration of friends were over and we had a stack of records qued. Candles were lit and everone "was feeling no pain" so to speak, eventually "Revelation" came on (someone had flipped the records such that the wrong side of that record was up). I didn't recognize it and wondered "is that one of my mine?"
Long story shorter, we were all totally mesmerized - I came to understand and enjoy it - and I have loved it ever since. Kinda like skydiving, once you come to like it...
People who know about "Love" usually agree, their music was amazingly original and far ahead of it's time.
DA CAPO by Love is a great experience. I wouldn't be without it, especially Revelation!

Post Script: First time I heard LedZeppelin tracks: "didn't like all the screaming" and stashed the album away (get it? the same thing happened!). Later, needless to say I experienced a complete reversal and they became my favorite group for years,especially that first album.

Love are a magnificent band.
Since I purchased their anthology I have got all their CDs including the 1970s stuff they did.
Da Capo contains some of my favorite Love tracks. ¡Que Vida! has a great organ melody that is captivating.
I prefer the stereo version of this CD because there is better separation of the intricate tracks.
The guys playing on this album are 1st class and deserve a lot of credit as part of Love.

Any Love CD is great but this one is my fav at the moment.