Customer Reviews

Love Song

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At the time this record was recorded, the band members of this group called "Love Song" were Chuck Girard, Tommy Coomes, Jay Truax and Fred Field, talented singers, musicians and song-writers whose own search for God led them to a new way of life, which then inspired them to want to reach others with The Gospel through their original words and music. The group incorporating the name of Jesus and The Gospel into pop and rock songs was ground breaking and even tended to offend parents whose teens were preferring this new "Jesus Music" to the old hymns.

The original idea that lead singer/writer Chuck Girard had for this album was to make it a concept album of sorts, not unlike The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" in format, the latter, of course, being THE album which changed popular music as it was known back then, which to this day is considered the greatest album ever recorded. "Sgt. Pepper's" was only a couple of years old when the thought crossed Chuck Girard's mind to create an album like unto it. Only, the "Love Song" LP would be the first ever Christian Pop/Rock-Country Rock Concept Album. And that would be revolutionary!

Upon first listen, one can sense and feel the love that ties this album together, making "love" the overall concept: the love of God, the love that this band had in their hearts for those whose ears this music would reach, and the love felt by the listener. Similar to Sgt. Pepper's, there are NO "fillers" heard here on Love Song's debut album. Every song is a great song, performed, recorded and mixed with the kind of extreme care one employs when setting out to create their "masterpiece". The opening track on Love Song's album is reprised at the close of the album, similar to "Sgt. Peppers" which was the first pop/rock album to reprise the opening song at the close. Also similar to "Sgt. Pepper's" is the exceptional bass guitar work brought to you by Jay Truax who, like Paul McCartney was also self-taught. Some of the tracks on this album are only as wonderful as they are because of how Jay floats along so melodically on his bass guitar, adding a generous helping of sonic bliss to the album, particularly on the ballads performed on this Christian concept album.

The Beatles, however, soon dropped the idea of the "Sgt. Peppers Band" concept running throughout their entire album, primarily, it would seem, because John Lennon had begun eating LSD like it was candy, and by his own account, he was just existing in a fog during those "Sgt. Peppers" sessions. A giggling, word-slurring John Lennon can be heard being whipped into shape, so to speak, by his long-time writing partner through much of that album's out-takes, even on Lennon's own originals, such as can be heard during the "Mr. Kite" out-takes included on The Beatles' "Anthology" CD Box Set, where Paul McCartney is plainly heard calling the shots on Lennon's song and keeping that session (and that album) from falling apart.

The original "Love Song" band, some time earlier, had included drugs as part of their God-experience, but that error was left behind once they came to the truth. The fact is, that a lengthy mini-series could be done on Chuck Girard's early career, say from 1966 to 1976 and still not scratch the surface of his many fascinating experiences and accomplishments, to say nothing of his great work from 1976 to 2006!

Personally, I feel that Chuck Girard's finest work, his shining moment as far as recording goes, was in making this "Love Song" debut album. This is not to say that his later work is not impressive and/or worthwhile. But the magic created on this album, with this particular incarnation of the band is nothing short of other-worldly.

The album opens with the track entitled "A Love Song". It's a beautiful waltz-time number which serves as the album's theme song. A moment after the child-like, heavenly music begins, Chuck Girard enters with so wonderful a lead vocal as to make anyone stop and listen intently. Then in a moment, the song's middle 8 bars begin and the vocal just soars magnificently, taking the listener to another place with the accompanying music beautifully complimenting Chuck's vocal. The listener quickly becomes more attentive to the words and music on this opening track, which has understandably encouraged high hopes that this album will maintain that level of spirituality, quality and craftsmanship throughout... and the listener is not disappointed.

"A Love Song" and the 2nd track, "Changes", are rather short songs, but in no way does that take away from the listener's enjoyment. I think it's a plus when a song says what it set out to say, gets to the point and finishes up without any filler or fanfare just to fill time. One of The Beatles shortest songs is "I'll Cry Instead" and is like that, at least on the original UA album. Later releases feature producer George Martin's tinkering, where he repeats the opening line where the song should have ended, adding to the song's length. It just didn't need it. "Changes" lets the listener hear more of the band's harmonies, and as the album continues, yet more complex harmonies are to be heard. Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys have absolutely nothing on these "Love Song" guys in the harmony department. "Changes" ends with a really nice suspended chord vocal harmony resolving to major chords, and it's actually refreshing to hear the song do its thing and wrap up so quickly, probably because keeping the song short and sweet like that shows originality, particularly for having been recorded at a time when some pop/rock songs were getting to be 20 minutes long: a trend started by The Beatles' song, "Hey Jude".

The vocal work as well as the music heard on the songs "Two Hands" and "Welcome Back" are just amazing as are the sentiments of the lyrics of each song. The song "Two Hands" would be hard to top, as a song to have played at The Pearly Gates for those arriving, being greeted by those who led them to The Lord.

As a long-time musician/song writer myself, I can't imagine being a singer, and having the extreme pleasure of adding lead vocal lines to such gorgeous harmonies as are heard in the background on "Welcome Back". And Chuck's lead vocal is nothing short of superb. This song is what the prodigal son would have heard filling his mind when his father, seeing his son in the distance, ran to him, to welcome him back as the servants chased down the fatted calf. If that song was playing, even the prodigal son's brother would have seen the light and would have stopped bickering! It's not just the song that's great, for how well it was written and arranged. It's one of the most beautiful performances of a song ever recorded in any genre.

As the album progresses, more of the "rock" and "country rock" side of the band is heard. The band's competant musicianship and excellent vocals being baptized by sincere Christian lyrics came to give this album the overwhelming acceptance it received at a time when the idea of inserting Gospel lyrics into popular music styles was so new.

This "Love Song" debut album, as I hear it, is a suite of songs that belong together, which one listens to straight through from the opening theme to the reprise every time it's played, as one MUST do with ANY concept album. No one takes out the Sgt. Pepper's Album, for example, and plays one track and then puts it back in its sleeve! It's the same thing here on the "Love Song" album, only these songs were conceived, performed and recorded with love in mind, toward God and fellow man. The album was originally released on the United Artists (UA) lable.

On The Love Song Tribute Website, Chuck Girard explains that it was UA's policy at that time to send the upcoming releases of UA artists to foreign countries to be reviewed by local distributors, one of whom in The Philippines, felt that the opening track of Love Song's debut album had a good shot at becoming a success on its own, where soon after "A Love Song" was released as a single in The Philippines it climbed to #1. The song's huge success had given the group Beatles-like status with the Filipino fans, who were thrilled to have the group headline a week of shows there, being seen and heard by multiple thousands who, at these Christian concerts, reacted very positively to accepting Jesus, which is noteworthy considering that the band's Manila fans were predominantly Catholic, and that, in any case, it was not immediately understood in the Philippines that Love Song was a Christian Band.

The group's second album, "Final Touch", although exhibiting similar greatness, differs from the first, in that it does not play like a concept album, or like songs in a suite which belong together, despite that the album does stick to a Christian theme.

The big release of rock oriented songs in an album about Jesus around that time (after the first Love Song album) was "Jesus Christ Superstar", a rock opera which of course is rather unsound, biblically. (A bit of trivia for you young whipper-snappers. The first vocalist asked to sing the part of Jesus on the original "Superstar" double album, [and this is abslolutely true] was none other than John Lennon, who agreed to do the recording, but only if Yoko Ono could sing the part of Mary Magdelene... which caused the original request for Lennon's participation to be dropped.

Christian radio stations in the Philippines, to this day, I recently discovered, still keep that ground-breaking single, "A Love Song" in their databases... and it's no wonder. That single and the album are as fresh and vibrant today as the day it was released. The fact that the band members and the music are Christ-centered make it all the more a wonderful thing. This album is MUST HAVE for EVERY fan of great music.

[1] A Love Song
[2] Changes
[3] Two Hands
[4] Little Country Church
[5] Freedom
[6] Welcome Back
[7] Front Seat, Back Seat
[8] Let Us Be One
[9] And The Wind Was Low
[10] Brand New Song
[11] Feel The Love
[12] A Love Song (Reprise)

I remember Love Song when they first came out and I even own an LP album of this one. This was some of the best Christian music written and it truly touches the heart.

Love Song (Self-titled - Calvary Classics volume one): This is the first group of young musicians that ever asked Pastor Chuck Smith if they could play their `rock' songs at a Church service. This is not the first `Christian Rock' album, but this is the group that started the modern `Praise Music' movement using Rock instrumentation.

The CD itself is wonderful. A classic in country-rock `Jesus music'.

As of 2011, this used CD is very overpriced. Get an old LP or wait for a new CD release (if it ever comes).

One of the first groups I listened to in 1979 when I became a christian. This is the studio version but there is a live version that has the same cover. I thought this was it because I had the live 33.3 album. This is as good because the songs sounded the same as they performed them on the live version. This version doesn't have "Little Pilgrim" on it however, like the liver version did.