Customer Reviews

Love Lost [Vinyl]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in 1972, I can recall the lengthy hiatus that had seemed to follow the release of the last proper Love album. Eventually our music magazines began to report that Arthur Lee was recording as a solo artist for A&M...and in due course this was confirmed in an interview with surviving Doors. I do not recall seeing it reported anywhere at the time that a new look Love had signed with Columbia in early '71 and had already recorded an unreleased album for the label. With this very welcome new release, we are now able to explore fully this hitherto unknown epoch in Love history. Arthur Lee's solo acoustic tracks on the album definitely have an eeriness to them.... a welcome change following the heavily amplified all electric sound on 'False Start'. By the same token, the songs featuring the ensemble playing of Lee, Tarwater, Fayad and Poncher seem to have much more edge and subtlety to them than the versions that were re-recorded for 'Vindicator' a year later. It is interesting to note that the version of 'Everybody's Gotta Live' included here had not yet been fully developed....Arthur had yet to pen the lines that begin: "It's seems like I have seen just about a million sunsets, she said if you're with me I'll never go away". Of the previously unheard songs, the most melodic is probably 'For a Day', which is vaguely reminiscent of John Sebastian's 'Daydream'. There is also a hidden track tucked away at the very end of the CD....but I'll leave everyone to discover that one for themselves!

You obviously wouldn't want to start with 'Love Lost' if you were seeking to turn someone on to Love's music for the first time. As David Angel observed towards the end of 'Love Story', some people are destined to do a particular thing at a particular time.....and I think that in all honesty by 1971, Arthur's star had already burned brilliantly....and had faded. But pitched midway between 'False Start' and 'Vindicator', this album is, to my ears better than either. And the sound of Frank Fayad's ever faithful bass - every bit as resonant as it is on 'Four Sail' - is strangely moving.

First off, let me just say that I am a huge fan of Arthur Lee and have been since I first heard Love doing "Little Red Book" on the radio way back in 1966. I also rate "Forever Changes" as one of the best albums ever made and count myself lucky to have seen Arthur and Love (actually Baby Lemonade) perform the album live back in 2002, one of the best live shows I have ever seen. Having said all that, I must say this "lost" Columbia album is pretty dismal, even for this megafan. Most of the songs are available elsewhere from around the same period, mainly on Arthur's solo album "Vindicator", and the other versions are far superior. The problem with the studio tracks here is that it just sounds like the band are rehearsing, running through the tracks and trying to get them into workable shape. Columbia rejected the album because it was too sloppy and this is a rare case where a major label actually made a wise decision. If you're a hardcore Love/Arthur Lee fan, you're going to buy this anyway, but everyone else should stay away. Try and find "Vindicator", or, if you've never heard it (and why not?), "Forever Changes", Arthur's masterpiece.

While Forever Changes is unquestionably Love's great album, I'm also a great fan of Four Sail. Lee takes Love in a much harder-rocking direction, but maintains much of his 'arthur-lee-ness.' On Love Lost, we find Love pursuing that direction, a bit sloppily, for 9 tracks; there are also 5 acoustic 'demos' scattered throughout. Truly, it's a mixed bag. For instance, "Looking Glass" has an excellent guitar riff - lean, mean and really catchy (a bit like Free or Cream), but pretty awful lyrics. "Everybody's Gotta Live" is of course a small melodic gem. The final and longest track is mostly riffage, a bit too close to "Revelation" for my tastes; and the rest of the full band tracks are similarly here and there. My favorites far and away are two of the acoustic tracks, "He Said She Said" and "Sad Song," both straight up acoustic blues, just Arthur and his guitar - it's wonderful hearing Arthur play them. It's not a great album, but for folks who seriously go in for Lee and Love it's definitely worthwhile.

You can talk about Love's "Forever Changes" forever if you want to, and it sure is a beautiful composition from the most strange, obscure, original and arguably most satisfying musical act of the late 1960's but with Love's "Lost Love" you find the undeniable rawness that can only be matched by lost recordings of Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra featuring Jerry Garcia, and members of the Dead, The Airplane, Crosby, Stills, And Nash, and Quicksilver messenger service. This is the powerful album Arthur Lee fans have been searching for... Enjoy beautiful people!!!!!!!

This album is as amazing, in every sense, as the fact it was only recently released. I thoroughly enjoy listing to these songs over and over. The range of music that Arthur Lee created during these 1971 recording sessions is, astonishing. The acoustic numbers show the raw emotion of a band that influenced so many others. Jimi Hendrix was a good friend of Lee, and these recordings were performed shortly after his death. The impact Hendrix had on Lee personally is evidient on multiple tracks. A must buy for audiophiles

The old maxim of buyer beware applies here as this single CD was listed on more than one GB site as a 2 CD issue with the 5 extra tracks of the double vinyl LP track listing and a 16GBP price tag to match as opposed to the 10GBP for this also advertised 14 track single CD.

The old maxim of buyer beware applies here as this single CD was listed on more than one site as a 2 CD issue with the 5 extra tracks of the double vinyl LP track listing and a 16GBP price tag to match as opposed to the 10GBP for the also advertised 14 track single CD.

This situation is confirmed on the issuing record company's web site i.e. there is no 2 CD edition extant.

If you want the extra 5 tracks namely 1 C.F.I. 2 He Knows a Lot of Good Women (alternative) 3 Find Somebody (alternative) 4 Midnight Sun (alternative) and 5 Product of the Times (alternative) you must buy the double vinyl LP issue.

Anyway what you get here on the CD is the Arthur Lee and Love Columbia 1971 sessions, several tracks from which Arthur Lee would later re-record for his second solo outing 1972's Vindicator. These are: 1 Sad Song; 2 Everybody's Gotta Live; 3 He Knows a Lot of Good Women; 4 Love Jumped Through my Window; 5 He Said She Said; and 6 Find Somebody. They are all truly excellent. In fact it's a little like an alternative Vindicator album. If you like the Vindicator album (Lee's Hendrix tribute) then you must own this too along with the expanded Vindicator CD. You will love it.

Languishing in the vaults for nearly 40 years the basic tracks were to have formed an album called Dear You. The lineup is: 1 Arthur Lee lead vocals; 2 Craig Tarwater lead guitar; 3 Don Poncher drums; and 4 Frank Fayad bass, although some tracks are acoustic demos with just Lee and his acoustic guitar. These are: 1 Love Jumped Through my Window; 2 He Said She Said; 3 Sad Song; 4 Good and Evil; and 5 For a Day. Add on amongst others: 1 a Hendrix cover, Ezy Rider; 2 a studio version of Product of the Times, from the album Studio Live; 3 the funky Trippin and Slippin; plus soul ballads 4 Looking Glass; and 5 Can't Find It. All together there are 14 superb tracks. My personal favourite is Everybody's Gotta Live which I also have on an Arthur Lee vinyl EP but that's a very subjective choice and the favourite selection is all yours.

This is great. I was a fan of Love back in the day. So it's nice to hear some new tunes. The album is reminiscent of a combination of Love and Jimi Hendrix. Highly recommended.

There's no mystery why Columbia didn't release the album Sundazed calls "Love Lost"--someone rolled tape and the band screwed around. These aren't even acceptable backing tracks, just sloppy demos. Arthur Lee's voice occasionally descends into a yell from hell. The best track is 14, with an instrumental jam following "Ezy Rider." The band fell apart after this and Lee embarked on a checkered solo career.

I'm no fan of Lee's "Vindicator" album, which sounds polished in comparison. "Love Lost" is interesting as a historical sound document and for completists, but you have to be a real fanatic to enjoy this.

Length:: 0:41 Mins