Love:
One of the best West Coast folk-rock/psychedelic bands, Love may have also been the first widely acclaimed cult/underground group. During their brief heyday -- lasting all of three albums -- they drew from Byrds-ish folk-rock, Stones-ish hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, and even light orchestral pop to create a heady stew of their own. They were also one of the first integrated rock groups, led by genius singer / songwriter Arthur Lee, one of the most idiosyncratic and enigmatic talents of the '60s. Stars in their native Los Angeles and an early inspiration to the Doors, they perversely refused to tour until well past their peak. This ensured their failure to land a hit single or album, though in truth the band's vision may have been too elusive to attract mass success anyway.
Love was formed by Lee in the mid-'60s in Los Angeles. Although only 20 at the time, Lee had already scuffled around the fringes of the rock and soul business for a couple of years. In addition to recording some flop singles with his own bands, he wrote and produced a single for Rosa Lee Brooks that Jimi Hendrix played on as session guitarist. Originally calling his outfit the Grass Roots, Lee changed the name to Love after another Los Angeles group called the Grass Roots began recording for Dunhill. Love's repertoire would be largely penned by Lee, with a few contributions by guitarist Bryan MacLean.
Inspired by British Invasion bands and local peers the Byrds, Love built up a strong following in hip L.A. clubs. Soon they were signed by Elektra, the noted folk label that was just starting to get its feet wet in rock (it had recorded material by early versions of the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful, and had just released the first LP by Paul Butterfield). Their self-titled debut album (1966) introduced their marriage of the Byrds and the Stones on a set of mostly original material and contained a small hit, their punk-ish adaptation of Bacharach/David's "My Little Red Book.”
Love briefly expanded to a seven-piece for their second album, Da Capo (1967), which included their only Top 40 hit, the corkscrew-tempoed "Seven & Seven Is." The first side was psychedelia at its best, with an eclectic palette encompassing furious jazz structures, gentle Spanish guitar interludes, and beautiful Baroque pop with dream-like images ("She Comes in Colors"). It was also psychedelia at its most reckless, with the whole of side two taken up by a meandering 19-minute jam. It was still a great step forward, but by mid-1967, the band was threatening to disintegrate due to drugs and general disorganization.
The group was in such sad shape, apparently, that Elektra planned to record their third album with sessionmen backing Lee (on his compositions) or MacLean (on his compositions). Work on two tracks actually commenced in this fashion, but the shocked band pulled themselves together to play their own material again, resulting in one of the finest rock albums of all time, Forever Changes. An exceptionally strong set of material graced by captivating lyrics and glistening, unobtrusive horn and string arrangements, it was not a commercial hit in the U.S. (though it did pretty well in Britain) but remains an all-time favorite of many critics.
Just at the point where they seemed poised to assert themselves as a top band, Love's first and best lineup was broken up in early 1968, at Lee's instigation. Several albums followed in the late '60s and early '70s that, though credited to Love, are in reality Lee and backup musicians -- none of whom had skills on the level of Bryan MacLean or the other original Love men. Lee largely forsook folk-rock for hard rock, with unimpressive results, even when he was able to get Jimi Hendrix to play on one track. The problems ran deeper than unsympathetic accompaniment: Lee's songwriting muse had largely deserted him as well, and nothing on the post-Forever Changes albums competes with the early Elektra records.
Lee released a solo album in the early '70s, and then put another Love together for one last effort in 1974, but basically Love/Lee (the two had in effect become synonymous) ground to a halt in the mid-'70s. Lee sporadically recorded and performed in the years following without coming up with anything resembling a unified full-length studio statement, though some scattered live and studio recordings appeared, including a 1994 single on the tiny Distortions label.
In 1995, Rhino Records released the compilation Love Story 1966-1972 around which time the label also bailed Lee out of jail after he was arrested for trying to set his ex-girlfriend's apartment on fire. Lee's troubles continued the following year after he was again arrested after shooting a gun in the air during an argument with a neighbor. He was subsequently convicted for illegal possession of a firearm, and due to a prior drug offense in the '80s, was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison under California's three strikes law. In 2000, Rhino issued an expanded version of Love's classic Forever Changes and helped reignite interest in Lee. In 2001, a California federal appeals court found the prosecutor at Lee's trial guilty of misconduct and reversed the charges against Lee who was then freed. Buoyed by renewed fan support, Lee toured with a new Love lineup playing Forever Changes in full and even received a Living Legend Award at the 2004 NME Awards. In 2006, Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and underwent three bouts of chemotherapy as well as a bone marrow transplant before his condition worsened. He passed away on August 3, 2006, at Memphis, Tennessee's Methodist University Hospital. - Richie Unterberger
Rush:
Over the course of their decades-spanning career, Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and rarely the recipients of mainstream pop radio airplay, Rush nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians.
Rush formed in Toronto, Ontario, in the autumn of 1968, initially comprising guitarist Alex Lifeson (born Alexander Zivojinovich), vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib), and drummer John Rutsey. In their primary incarnation, Rush drew a heavy influence from Cream, and honed their skills on the Toronto club circuit before issuing their debut single, a rendition of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," in 1973. A self-titled LP followed in 1974, at which time Rutsey exited; he was replaced by drummer Neil Peart, who also assumed the role of the band's primary songwriter, composing the cerebral lyrics (influenced by works of science fiction and fantasy) that gradually became a hallmark of the group's aesthetic.
With Peart firmly ensconced, the band returned in 1975 with a pair of LPs, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel. Their next effort, 1976's 2112, proved their breakthrough release: a futuristic concept album based on the writings of Ayn Rand, it fused the elements of the trio's sound -- Lee's high-pitched vocals, Peart's epic drumming, and Lifeson's complex guitar work -- into a unified whole. Fans loved it -- 2112 was the first in a long line of gold and platinum releases -- while critics dismissed it as overblown and pretentious; either way, it established a formula from which the band rarely deviated throughout the duration of its career.
A Farewell to Kings followed in 1977 and reached the Top 40 in both the U.S. and Britain. After 1978's Hemispheres, Rush achieved even greater popularity with 1980's Permanent Waves, a record marked by the group's dramatic shift into shorter, less sprawling compositions; the single "The Spirit of Radio" even became a major hit. With 1981's Moving Pictures, they scored another hit of sorts with "Tom Sawyer," which garnered heavy exposure on album-oriented radio and became perhaps the trio's best-known song. As the 1980s continued, Rush grew into a phenomenally popular live draw as albums like 1982's Signals (which generated the smash "New World Man"), 1984's Grace Under Pressure, and 1985's Power Windows continued to sell millions of copies.
As the decade drew to a close, the trio cut back on its touring schedule while hardcore followers complained of a sameness afflicting slicker, synth-driven efforts like 1987's Hold Your Fire and 1989's Presto. At the dawn of the '90s, however, Rush returned to the heavier sound of their early records and placed a renewed emphasis on Lifeson's guitar heroics; consequently, both 1991's Roll the Bones and 1993's Counterparts reached the Top Three on the U.S. album charts. In 1996, the band issued Test for Echo and headed out on the road the following summer. Shortly thereafter, Peart lost his daughter in an automobile accident. Tragedy struck again in 1998 when Peart's wife succumbed to cancer.
Dire times in the Rush camp did not cause the band to quit. Lee took time out for a solo stint with 2000's My Favorite Headache; however, rumors of the band playing in the studio began to circulate. It would be five years until anything surfaced from the band. Fans were reassured in early 2002 by news that Rush were recording new songs in Toronto. The fruit of those sessions led to the release of Rush's 17th studio album, Vapor Trails, later that spring. By the end of the year a concert from the supporting tour was released on DVD as Rush in Rio.
In 2004 Rush embarked on their 30th anniversary tour, documented on the DVD R30, and in 2006 they returned to the studio to begin work on a new album. The resulting Snakes & Arrows was released in May 2007, followed by the CD/DVD set Snakes & Arrows Live in early 2008. Material from the latter was combined with footage from Rush in Rio and R30 for the CD/DVD compilation Working Men, which was released in 2009. A documentary on the band assembled by Toronto's Bangor Productions called Beyond the Lighted Stage appeared in 2010, followed a year later by another Bangor video production, Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland.
Rush's 19th full-length studio album, Clockwork Angels, arrived in June of 2012. While the following year wouldn't bring a new album, it did deliver the next best thing by way of Vapor Trails: Remixed, which found producer David Bottrill revisiting one of the more notable victims of the so-called loudness wars. Along with a freshly repaired album, Rush also released Clockwork Angels Tour, a three-disc live album recorded during their 2012 tour. The band took the next year off, but returned in 2014 with the R40 video box set, which was released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Neil Peart's membership with the group and included the live outings Rush in Rio, R30, Snakes & Arrows Live, Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland, Clockwork Angels Tour, and two previously unreleased bonus discs. The following year saw Rush embark on their North American R40 tour, which was purported to be their last large-scale tour. It was chronicled in the 2015 CD/DVD concert album R40 Live.
The band celebrated the 40th anniversary of their classic 2112 with a deluxe reissue in a variety of packages. It contained a newly remastered version of the album plus a second audio disc with live outtakes of album tracks and included cover versions of some of its songs by Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins and Nick Raskulinecz ("Overture"), Steven Wilson ("The Twilight Zone"), Alice in Chains ("Tears"), and Billy Talent ("A Passage to Bangkok"). Also included was a video disc of Rush's 1976 concert at the Capitol Theater, a video for the cover of "Overture," and a question & answer interview with Lifeson looking back on the album's history. Rush continued to mine their history with a 40th anniversary deluxe reissue of A Farewell to Kings. The album benefitted the radio hit single "Closer to the Heart," but other tracks such as "Xanadu" and "Cygnus X-1" became part of their concert repertoire for decades afterward. Again released in various versions, the super deluxe edition included three conventional audio discs and a Blu-ray Audio disc as well as four high-quality 180-gram vinyl LPs. The set encompasses the Abbey Road Mastering Studios 2015 remastered edition of the album for the first time on disc; a complete 1978 concert at London’s Hammersmith Odeon which was newly mixed by long time Rush engineer and original A Farewell to Kings producer Terry Brown from the multi-track live tapes. The package also featured four newly recorded cover versions of album tracks by Dream Theater, Big Wreck, the Trews, and Alain Johannes, and an instrumental studio outtake of the spacy sound effects the band titled "Cygnus X-2 Eh." The Hammersmith show features over 34 minutes of unreleased performances including a complete "2112" suite, "Lakeside Park," a drum solo, and "Closer to the Heart." The Super Deluxe Edition's audio content on the digital discs was replicated on its vinyl and discs. The Blu-ray Audio disc contains a new 5.1 surround mix by Steven Wilson, along with three original 1977 promo videos from a newly found two-inch quad video master. The Super Deluxe package also includes an elaborate 40th anniversary cover treatment by longtime Rush creative director Hugh Syme, who also created a new piece of art for each of the album's six songs. The set included an extensive 12,000-word liner essay by rock historian Rob Bowman. - Jason Ankeny
The piece, by Arthur Lee and recorded by Love in 1966, took a great deal of work to record. Love’s drummer, Alban “Snoopy” Pfisterer, was unable to cope with its frantic demands after 30 takes and was replaced on drums by Lee. The song climaxes in an apocalyptic explosion—the supposed sound of an atom bomb— before a peaceful conclusion, in a blues form, before it fades out.
The song drew inspiration from a high school sweetheart of Lee’s who shared his birthday, the 7th of March. It also describes Lee’s frustration at teenage life. The reference to “in my lonely room I’d sit, my mind in an ice cream cone” suggests sitting in the corner, wearing a dunce’s cap. The song peaked at 33 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and was the band’s only hit single. Described as “protopunk,” it was later covered by the Ramones and Alice Cooper before Rush. It’s thought that the song’s use of kicking a reverb unit to create the explosion sound might be one of the first, if not the first, use of this device to create a “psychedelic” sound on a recording.—Wikipedia
Neil in the liner notes to the Feedback album suggests neither he nor his bandmates covered the song in their early years, but they included it in their EP because it was among the songs they liked from the era and they thought they could cover it effectively “meaning not too many backing vocals” and have some fun with.
The song title is spelled out as “Seven & Seven Is” on the original album cover, but written as “7 and 7 Is” on the original 45.
Rush’s version of the song was included on one side of a special vinyl release, along with the original version of the song by Love, on Record Store Day 2014, which was April 19.
According to the Encore Records website and Twitter feed, the Side By Side Series mystery release for Record Store Day 2014 will be a 7-inch vinyl version of 7 and 7 Is - the 1966 song by Love that Rush covered for their 2004 Feedback EP. The Side By Side Series includes the same song performed by 2 mystery artists, one of which is apparently Rush as shown in this photo. It's assumed that this would be the same version that appears on Feedback. It's not clear who the other mystery artist is, although the track has been covered by several others over the years including The Ramones, Alice Cooper, and The Electric Prunes. Record Store Day 2014 is this coming Saturday, April 19th. Thanks to Gerry for the heads up.
RHINO / ELEKTRA / ATLANTIC RECORDS 7" Single item - FACTORY SEALED
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Record Made in the USA
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Pressing is in STEREO
Limited Edition - RSD 2014 Exclusive Release
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Record Speed: 45 rpm
Record Made issued in: 2014
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Record Catalog Number / UPC: 7-542141 (081227959890)
Featured on this item -
Love / Rush
7" RSD Vinyl Title -
Side By Side ?
Track Listing -