My Little Red Book

Today in rock history, in 1968 the group Love hit the UK chart (on the way to #24) with their album “Forever Changes.” Arthur Lee and Love were another seminal influence on me as a 17-year old aspiring rock star (hey, 40 years later, I’m still trying to be a rock star!). I especially liked the little heart-shaped shades he always wore – the height of fashion in ’68! Love made its early appearances at the Whisky A Go Go and little-known club Bido Lido’s on the Sunset Strip. There, in the presence of such stars as Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and…Sal Mineo?… Lee and company honed their psychedelic soul sounds and stage show (rumor has it that Hendrix “borrowed” his outlandish style of dress directly from Lee). The band covered the Bacharach/David tune “My Little Red Book” and had an instant Southern California hit, along with “Seven and Seven Is” (when I was a kid I always said, “well, 14…”), and the rest is history. Mr. Lee, unfortunately, fell on some hard times after Love split up, serving 5 years of a 12 year sentence for illegal firearms possession from 1996-2001. He toured with a new version of Love in 2002, and died in 2006 of leukemia. Let’s celebrate Arthur Lee and Love with a couple of vids of their greatest hits from the later version of the band. Thanks to www.bgo-records.com/today/today_in_rock_history.htm and www.wikipedia.org for the info, and keep on rockin’!