My interest in Love piqued by my friend Shawn at Forever Changes records, and having picked up their first album from Sundazed, I went back to him for more. He gave me this, but with some hesitancy. “The second side . . . it’s a mess.” Well, of course – it’s an album from 1966. The entire second side is one song, titled “Revelation.” I’ve been around the block, so I think I know what I’m getting into. Listen, I willingly listen to the entire “Happiness Stan” song cycle on the second side of Small Faces’ “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake.” And I like it. (As an aside, we have declared that Small Faces cycle to be the very height of something we call Gnome Rock.) So, I think I can take it.
I brought the record home, sent him a text that I was about to play it, and he responded that he was sorry and if my wife was in the room I might want to rethink it.
But honestly, there were worse 1966ish transgressions out there. That second side of Ogden’s, Eric Burdon’s “Gemini,” Eric Burdon’s “New York 1963 – American 1968” – LSD didn’t always do music any favors. And as freeform as “Revelation” is, it never really comes off the rails. I don’t mind listening to it at all. Is it a song? Not exactly. A jam? Not really. But some interesting freeform? Sure.
I was playing it when my wife was in the room a couple of weeks ago and at some point she peered from behind the newspaper and asked, “What am I listening to?” She was fine with it, just needed to file away its provenance.
The A side is much more straightfoward psychedelic rock, and it’s truly a masterpiece of its time. Included here is an Arthur Lee composition, “7 and 7 Is,” that I first heard done by The Ramones’ “Acid Eaters,” a 1993 collection of covers that finally gave me the long-awaited recorded version of “Palisades Park,” a song they wailed on live and I desperately wanted in permanent form. Typically, “7 and 7 Is” is so spun up here as to sound like a straight-up punk song, which it basically is. But when I heard the Ramones’ version, I had no idea the original was by Love, so missed another opportunity to really be introduced to them.
In addition, there’s some excellent baroque rock in “Stephanie Knows Who,” and the highly cool “She Comes In Colors.” Nothing wrong with this A side.
