|
Joe Morris
Old Love
3491 Posts |
 Posted - 18/03/2014 : 17:18:12
|
Just got mine in the post - heres my review from off Amazon - will revise it in a day or so:
First of all, although its a good album, with solid songs, don't expect Forever Changes. I know its Love, but..
and the drummer (Joe Blocker) for the album makes a fair point of Arthurs bands post-FC being Arthurly in name and not thought of (by Joe anyway!) as Love - in the incredible liner notes
Let me dwell on the 64 pages (!) of liner notes. Best I've ever seen. Fleetwood Mac had a nice package when releasing Vaudeville Years, a nice booklet by the Peter Green biographer Martin Celminns. Also, the (unofficial) Love release Last Wall of the Castle had a superb cd booklet with it, with lyrics, excerpts by David Housden (he used to issue the Castle zine on Arthur)
But a lot of the information here is new to me - Arthur hung out a lot with Bryan during the Black Beauty sessions? There might even be another Arthur album? That Bryan and Arthur used to hang at the movies and do a running commentary?
As a longtime reader of the Castle (I think it reached issue 25 or so) I knew that Bryan was originally gonna go on the European tour, but didn't make the plane. I'm assuming Bryan didn't play on the Black Beauty sessions, but certainly seems to have been part of the vibe in putting the album together
Now, I'm assuming anyone picking up Black Beauty has picked up the excellent (if dry) Einarson book on Love so knows all about Arthurs personality - how he could be the best person in the world, giving you the shirt off his back, but also could be difficult with the money. (Financial matters entered into his bands time and again, and certainly Baby Lemonade weren't in it for the cash)
But this really is a labor of love here - the musics fine, much better than the French bootleg cd of the album from the 90s (with added LAG's and Love/Baby Lemonade material to boot!)
But the book that comes with this is engrossing, with words by Arthurs widow, information on Buffalo (I still think Black Beauty was gonna be a solo album for Arthur, I could be wrong. Was Arthur able to record as Love - was that not why he released Vindicator? did he own Love?)
But Arthur producing the album is certainly new to me (and the evidence listed here is compelling) - you would think, what with the Buffalo/Paul connection (Paul produced Loves da capo, and the Doors 1st 6 albums) that Paul would have worked on Black Beauty. Not so it seems!
You should buy this release for the superb booklet. Absolutely wonderful - giving Arthur his due. It seems that Rozelle, Blocker, Whittington really enjoyed work on the album, and that Arthur was wonderful to work with
The albums a good listen - Black Beauty was taken from a good sounding acetate, and sounds much better than before. Despite Arthur's fondness for the album (which is why it sees release - I doubt Love's Real to Reel will ever be enshrined on cd, despite it being a better album (in my humble o.)
I don't see Black Beauty as being picked up on too much, just because it was so long after Love's heyday on the Elektra label (Love, da capo, Forever Changes, Four Sail) in the 60s.
Nice songs - Skid is a nice taster for the album, Beep Beep remains a major annoyance (you can see why Paul didn't think much of it) but Walk Right In/Always See Your Face is an interesting track, and its an enjoyable album through and through
The bonus tracks include Thomasine & Bushrod (its a good song, although not "Forever Changes" like as one book on Love had it)
LA Blues (sung by Arthur before going off to prison), live Nothing & Everytime I look up I'm down (1974) as well as a 1974 interview of Arthur (20 minutes) thats a laugh, listening to Arthur talking about the first band he started back at Dorsey (where he went to school with Johnny Echols with)
A very good release. I'm not sure how well its going to sell, as Love remain the ultimate cult band, and usually you have to buy Forever Changes for someone just to get them to listen to it. These days Love remain known to most people because the Doors were huge fans
Hopefully if Forever Changes ever gets (another!) reissue the cd liner notes will be as good as this. Its worth buying this release just for the new info on the recording sessions, and on Arthur
If you're just getting into Love, pick up Forever Changes first, then move along to Black Beauty. This is NOTHING like Forever Changes in that its a heavier direction (Theres acoustics on Skid, but this is electric guitars and reggae like Beep Beep! |
|
Re Black Beauty cd review
