False Start [Import, Original recording remastered]

Love | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 19, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Bgo - Beat Goes on
• ASIN: B00000I38K
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,786 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Everlasting First

2. Flying

3. Gimi A Little Break

4. Stand Out

5. Keep On Shining

6. Anytime

7. Slick Dick

8. Love Is Coming

9. Feel Daddy Feel Good

10. Ride That Vibration

Editorial Reviews

Arthur Lee (rhythm guitar/lead vocals/piano) chose to keep the Love moniker alive after disintegrating the band's original incarnation. By the close of the 1960s, Lee was joined by a new lineup featuring a rhythm section of Frank Fayad (bass) and George Suranovich (drums), with Jay Donnellan (lead guitar) and then Gary Rowles (lead guitar) holding court as the band's primary stringman with the latter present on False Start (1970). While the Lee-supplied material isn't his most memorable, one positive factor is the combo's consistency and cohesiveness. This can be traced back to Love having just completed a successful European tour and Lee being able to collaborate with his longtime pal Jimi Hendrix, who would not only help Lee write the LP's jammed-out opener "The Everlasting First," but also even stick around long enough to lend his unmistakable southpaw to the recording. The track starts abruptly -- as if someone inadvertently jostled a power cord loose -- joining the action in-progress. Ostensibly, Hendrix's instrumental interaction is the impetus behind the number, but it is Lee's sorely underappreciated lyrical abilities that turn it into a bluesy love ballad. The catchy "Flying" typifies the early-'70s boogie that Jo Jo Gunne was able cash in on. Otherwise, it is pretty much fluff. Considerably more interesting is the heavier poppy (think the Raspberries) sound of "Gimi a Little Break" with engaging chord progressions that conjure up Lee's work on "August" from their previous outing Four Sail (1969). The concert extract "Stand Out" -- a prime example of Love's aforementioned on-stage unity -- does just that as the spirited side was derived from the then-recent round of live dates that preceded False Start's creation. It's packed with a compact, hard-edged energy that could be mistaken for Grand Funk or even a mellowed-out MC5. Proving his uncanny ability to jump from genre to genre, Lee heads down-home for the countrified "Keep on Shining" with a chipper disposition somewhat undermined by Lee's ragged vocals. Like "Stand Out," the soulful "Anytime" is another reason for this project not to be dismissed. The quaint narrative "Slick Dick" is as anachronistic as the actual concept of hippies. Similarly, it substantiates how seriously the "counterculture" took themselves at the time. To a certain extent the same can be said of the compact "Love Is Coming" with hints of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young harmonies behind a sassy, upbeat melody. Rounding out the disc are the seductive rocker "Feel Daddy Feel Good," and the syncopated "Ride That Vibration" -- bringing to mind "You Set the Scene" from Forever Changes (1968). Perhaps this is a fitting nod back to Arthur Lee's undiminished skills as a composer as it is the final song prior to the breakup of the band literally weeks after False Start was issued. Interested parties should take note of Hip-O Select's Blue Thumb Recordings triple-disc anthology. It includes a fresh remastering of False Start alongside its predecessor Out Here (1969) and the previously unreleased Live in England 1970 (2007) containing 11 performances culled from three Love shows circa late February/early March of that year. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love's most underrated (and 2nd best) album, April 1, 2002

By 

the Digital Dinosaur "camkeller" (Roseville, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: False Start (Audio CD)

This album is criminally misunderstood. It is the Anti-Forever Changes. Short songs, tight musicianship, the most controlled screaming in all of rock 'n roll, meaningful/meaningless lyrics, nasty attitude (when not buoyantly hopeful), & Love's best guitarist ever! Takes everything slick & punks it up, and then vice versa. It's brilliant and, 30 some years out, still way ahead of the curve. Defiantly alternative - refuses every mold,label, & classification. Lighten up & enjoy!

p.s. "Stand Out" would be equally at home in a youth mass or a mosh pit.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More funky than melodic, November 18, 2004

By 

Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: False Start (Audio CD)

This album was a follow-up to Out Here and was recorded mostly in Hollywood in 1970, though a couple of tracks, including one fantastic work-out with Jimi Hendrix, The Everlasting First, were recorded in London.
The songs are simplistic when compared to the majesty of Forever Changes, but then what isn't? I suspect Arthur Lee was undergoing something of a writer's block while simultaneously exploring more closely the black music of the day, and the album as a whole is short and somewhat patchy by his standards.
More funky than melodic, but still eminently worthwhile

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars worst of their records -but has a few gems, September 26, 2000

By 

Stephen F Mulcahy (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: False Start (Audio CD)

this is easily the worst of the 6 albums love released from 1966 to this one in late 1970. there are a few gems- the everlasting first in particular.this brief (29 minutes) album isn't anywhere as good as four sail ( probably their most underrated album in my opinion) and out here, never mind the 3 classics they put out earlier.its very disjointed and lacks the first rate songwriting that arthur lee was so capable of in earlier works. this is not a bad album: just bad by love's standards.