Arthur Lee: Alone Again Or
A book about Love's main man who seems like he was anything but. In the book someone refers to them as Hate. Pretty hard read mainly because not especially interesting and a mishmash of references to interviews and seemingly random journalist pieces. Not a lot of real insight from the author himself into either Arthur, Love or the 60s. One irritating aspect of the book is that Barney keeps on saying Love were the punks of the hippie era as if punk was about being an egomaniacal arsehole which it wasn't. Confrontational yes but not backstabbing idiots. And the album raved about in the book (Forever Changes) sounds nothing like either 60s garage or punk - more like uninspiring 60s west coast folk with the best tracks sounding a bit like The Who but not nearly as good. Some are a straight rip off of The Who. Saying they were revolutionary seems crazy as others were properly out there. Maybe live they were better but not recorded. Their 1st recording Love has a couple of more raw and garage like tracks but that's being generous as they sound like they were recorded in a garage. Having said this lots of other bands that I respect seem to respect Lee and Love so maybe I've missed the point. But coming back to the book it hasn't inspired me to listen further.
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