Love "Who Are You?"

Love
Reel-to-Real
LP
(RSO Records, 1974)

Love are known primarily for two rather disparate things: their incendiary, 1966, garage punk hit Seven and Seven Is† and their lush, 1967, psychedelic pop, masterpiece Forever Changes.

Forever Changes was far from the end of their career, however, even though the four albums that followed it are generally given short shrift. The first three of those, Four Sail, Out Here, and False Start, have all been reissued on CD and LP multiple times over the years. The 1974 reunion‡ album Reel-to-Real, however, has never been reissued in any format, to the best of my knowledge. Perhaps that's because it's an even more eclectic mishmash of styles than their earlier albums, or mayhaps 'cause it was released by RSO Records, best known for things about which I'm not especially wild, like disco-era Bee Gees and Eric Clapton.

Reel-to-Real is not a great album, but it is a good one. For some reason, it features a new recording of Singing Cowboy, originally on Four Sail, and a couple of songs, Busted Feet and Everybody's Gotta Live, that appeared earlier on leader Arthur Lee's solo album, 1972's Vindicator.

Today's song is straight-up funk, a definite anomoly in the Love Gun cannon. I think it's pretty darn great. I almost went with Busted Feet, as it's a taught, hard rocker that sounds more like Thin Lizzy or early Aerosmith. The version on Reel-to-Real is shorter, faster and more metallic than the one on Vindicator; I'll post it, if y'all're in'erested.

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†b-side title: "No. Fourteen"

‡Love split in the early 70s, and Arthur released Vindicator before putting together a new, revamped Love. A further album, Black Beauty, was recorded between Vindicator and Reel-to-Real, but it got shelved and never released. It's been announced for release by High Noon Records sometime this year, but the date keeps getting pushed back, sadly.