#brian maclean

[mylanth]

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Another favorite of mine from Night Vale

Pretty Little Head- Eliza Rickman

Stupid- Brian Maclean

Haunted-Maya Kern 

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Love's classic five-piece lineup, which included Lee and guitarists Brian Maclean and Johnny Echols, stuck around only long enough to record three brilliant albums: "Love" (1966), which included the band's first hit, a furious, erotically charged reinvention of the Burt Bacharach song "My Little Red Book"; "De Capo" (1966), which included the punk precursor "7 and 7 Is" as well as the sprawling "Revelation," the first sidelong track in rock album history; and "Forever Changes" (1967), still regarded as one of the pioneering orchestral-pop albums. In contrast to Summer of Love fare such as the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Forever Changes" reflected on the horrors of the Vietnam War and racial discrimination with bittersweet music and surreal lyrics. In "A House Is Not a Motel," Lee described streets running red with blood, "and if you don't believe me, turn on your tub." The song "The Red Telephone" contained his manifesto: "And if you want to count me, count me out." As a black artist making his way in a society divided by racial riots, Lee saw no other choice than to remain on the fringe. "I was just being honest and real about my concept of how life really is," Lee said in a recent interview. "I saw the same [expletive] repeating through the years, whether it be war or whatever."

[4classicrock-blog]

"Love"

The sixties music scene gave us more top rated groups, individuals and classic songs than any other era in music's history. Everyone knows about the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but to me one of the more under appreciated groups of the 60's was a LA based band named "Love". One thing that made Love unique was that they were a mixed race rock and roll band, which was quite unusual at that time. They were led by African American lead singer Arthur Lee. The rest of the band consisted of guitarist Bryan MacLean, who was originally a roadie for the Byrds, guitarist Johnny Echols (also African American), drummer Don Conka, soon replaced by Snoopy Pfisterer, and base player Ken Forssi. They played the LA Sunset Strip scene on a nightly basis playing at many famous clubs on the Strip including the Whiskey A Go Go. They emerged from the Hollywood scene at the same time as Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Doors, and The Mamas and the Papas. Primarily starting out with a Byrds style folk rock sound, they later covered many different styles including blues, pop, and hard rock. Upon purchasing their first album, simply titled "Love", which hit the stores in 1966, I was completely hooked. They had a sound that was like no other, and Arthur's vocal style was hard edged and addicting. One of this album's songs called "My Little Red Book", writted by Burt Bacharach for the movie "What's New Pussycat", became a minor hit but was not appreciated by Bacharach after hearing the finished version as he thought it was nothing like his much "softer" version. The eerie and beautiful song "Signed DC" was a tribute to ex-drummer Don Conka and his addition to heroin. "Can't Explain", "My Flash on You", and "Hey Joe" were also classic singles included on this album, which critics have always given high reviews. Their next album "Da Capo", featured the move of Snoopy to keyboards, replacing him on drums with  Michael Stuart, along with the addition of Tjay Cantrelli on saxophone. This LP had a ground breaking element to it, as it featured one of the first side long songs in rock music with the 20 minute song "Revelation". It also included the top 40 hit "7 and 7 Is" which has a hard edge to it and happens to be one of my favorite songs on the LP. The album also included the fabulous "She Comes In Colours" and the beautiful Bryan MacLean ballad "Orange Skies". Following up Da Capo, they put out an album that music critics have cited as one of the greatest albums of all times called Forever Changes. It has a psychedelic feel to it mixed with acoustic and horn and string arrangements, and gave us tracks that were nearly flawless. This album has been compared with the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper", and the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" as among the greatest albums ever. It's a huge mystery why songs such as "Alone Again Or" and "Andmoreagain" failed to chart but have lived strong to this day. MacLean's accoustic materpiece "Alone Again Or" is still one of my all time favorite songs and is featured at the end of this article. Love was probably more popular in England than the US as Arthur Lee didn't seem to want to tour the US, preferring to stay in LA. At one point, he even turned down the opportunity to play the Monterrey Pop Festival. In 1968, the band totally reorganized, with all other members leaving, mostly due to excessive drug use, but Lee and his new band mates never gained the same feel or sound. Arthur Lee continued to tour and even teamed up with Jimi Hendrix and recorded a full album, which unfortunately, got buried in legal problems. In 1970, Lee was about to initiate a new superband called "Band Aid" with Steve Winwood, formerly of Traffic and Cream, and Hendrix, but Jimi tragically died in  September of that year. Later in 1996, Lee was sentenced to eight to twelve years for illegal possession of a firearm. MacLean joined a Christian ministry soon after leaving the group, tried to produce a few albums, and died of a heart attack in 1999. Forssi died of brain cancer in 1998. After Lee's release from prison he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease but he continued to tour. He reformed a group of new Love members and gave a "Forever Changes" tour of England in 2003 to overwhelming success. In 2004, I was lucky enough to see Love perform in Anaheim, California. A very special treat that evening was the surprise appearance of guitarist Johnny Echols, who had left the group in 1968. The group, which only had two of it's original band members (Lee and Echols) was flawless and brought me back to my Sunset Strip days of the 60's. Unfortunately, in 2006 the music industry lost one of it's great ones as Lee passed away from complications of his Parkinson's Disease. To me, the sound of Love can never be replaced, and in my mind they were one of the most unappreciated and unique bands of that magical period of rock music called the sixties.

That is just my take.....so keep your ears tuned.