Southern California Spotlight: Love - 7 And 7 Is.../No. 14

It's all about the sevens today. Day 7 of the Southern California region of the Battle of the Garage Bands has us, naturally, spinning the incendiary 7 And 7 Is.

We've written extensively about one of our favorite bands, Love. So we are largely going to let the music stand on it's own 7 inches.

The A-Side from this groundbreaking Hollywood band, 7 And 7 Is was performed largely by Arthur Lee himself. Guitar, vocals, most of the drums and perhaps bass too. The abstract words probably aren't as abstract as they seem on first listen. In an interview in Ugly Things magazine a few years back, lead guitarist Johnny Echols suggests that the song has a lot to do with Arthur as a 14 year old kid dealing with his journey into manhood and living with not so engaged family members who didn't always treat him well. In it Arthur Lee recounts watching his dad get his feet too close to the fireplace as his aged dog stared direct into the fire.

If I don't start cryin' it's beacuse that I have got no eyes
My father's in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized
Through a crack of light I was unable to find my way
Trapped inside a night, but I'm a day and I go oop bip bip, oop bip bip yeah!

The title is a reference to the shared birthday of March 7 between he and the gal with whom he was smitten, Anita "Pretty" Billings.

The flip-side is, very logically, No. Fourteen. The song was an outtake from the first album's recordings.

The single was released on Elektra Records in July of 1966, the band's second single.

Elektra Records Spotlight: The Doors - Break on Through and End of the Night

Break On Through

End Of The Night

Day four of our Elektra Records spotlight has us, perhaps predictably, moving from Love to The Doors. The two bands were closely tied and it was in fact members of Love that first brought The Doors to the attention of Jac Holzman and Paul Rothchild in the Spring of 1966. It would be a fateful introduction for all involved.

It was immediately clear to all that Elektra Records had something bigger on hand than anything they had ever had before. The Doors were the complete package: charisma, sound, musicianship, songwriting skills, willing to tour and work hard. Perhaps sensing they had finally got one over on Columbia and Capitol records, Elektra Records put everything they had into the band including preferential treatment for studio time and marketing dollars. Elektra would give the band a picture sleeve for the debut single and they even filmed the band on stage to make a video to promote the new band. Not exactly a common move in 1967. Meanwhile, the agoraphobic Love would languish in the mountains above Hollywood, literally looking down at a billboard promoting The Doors' inaugural album. Arthur Lee and his band would be left to watch The Doors make the circuit of TV shows promoting their explosive debut single, Break On Through.

The prophetically titled Break On Through, primarily composed by guitarist Robbie Krieger, was released in February of 1967, weeks after the release of the album and seven months after the song was recorded. The Flip-Side of the debut single, End Of The Night, also appeared on the debut album. It's a gentle number that really showcased Robbie Krieger's under appreciated guitar skills.  

Shout out to staff engineer Bruce Botnick and producer Paul Rothchild for elevating these recordings to a new level. 

Elektra Records Spotlight: The Beefeaters (aka The Byrds) - Please Let Me Love You and Don't Be Long

We're going to spend this week looking at some records from the Los Angeles based Elektra Records. Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt and focused on re-releasing old classical music records whose copyright had lapsed.

Like every sensible human being who had seen The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964, Holzman saw the future of music in America. He decided he needed to sign a modern rock act. But who? Who should be the first rock act on the label? There was a band called The Byrds that were getting some attention down on Sunset Strip. The band had recorded a number of demos at World Pacific Studios and they were shopping the masters around. A trepidatious Holzman decided to take a chance on the band, but for reasons that are murky at best, Holzman decided to release the record under a fake moniker, the very British sounding one of The Beefeaters. The record flopped. Not surprising. Elektra had no skin in the rock-n-roll game, The Beefeaters didn't exist and fans of The Byrds didn't even know they released their first record. 

While Holzman pondered what to do next, Miles Davis, who could also see the future of rock in America, got wind of this new group and their debut single. He called his A&R man at Columbia, Allen Stanton, and told Stanton about an LA group he should check out. By the time Holzman had called The Byrds back to sign them, they were signing with Columbia Records just days after Holzman released their first record. 

The Byrds would soar to great heights with their mega-label support and Holzman would lick his wounds and try to learn from his mistake. But more on that tomorrow. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!