LoVE: Emotions

[silentseason]

"Emotions"
From: LoVE, side one, song seven
-Running time: 1:55
-Recorded: January 27, 1966 Sunset Sound
-Written by: Johnny Echols/Arthur Lee
-Lead/Rhythm guitar: Johnny Echols
-Bass: Kenny Forssi
-Drums: Alban 'Snoopy' Pfisterer
-Only instrumental recorded by LoVE
-Both guitar parts are played by Johnny
-Written by Johnny in the early 60's while still in high school at Dorsey High in Los Angeles. Besides playing with Arthur, Johnny had another group that played surf type music. He carried this over to LoVE.
-Quotable: While this song was credited to both Johnny and Arthur, in fact it was completely written by Johnny. Additionally, it began life under a different title. The orginal name was "Lonely Guitar"; however, at the time that the debut album came out Elektra head Jac Holzman changed the title to "Emotions" and also gave Arthur co-credit for writing the song. He promised to fix this oversight but never did. Johnny explains the reasons for the discrepancies:

"It was either Herb Cohen at Third Story Music, (who was acting as administrator for our publishing) or Jac who came up with that name. I can't recall if I ever knew who actually made the decision, though I blamed Jac. Since he was the only one of the two, who was arrogant enough to make such a move entirely on his own. I always felt Emotions, was such a lame name. I would have been happier, if they had called it "Theme from Elektra Knows Best."

"He changed the title of the song "Lonely Guitar" which I wrote when I was twelve, to "Emotions" and listed Arthur as co-writer, even though he was well aware that Arthur wasn't involved in any way. Jac Claimed, the title Lonely Guitar sounded too much like Herb Alperts' Lonely Bull. He maintained the mis-credit was just a mistake. The two of us never saw eye to eye."

-IMHO: Johnny considered this a filler song for the first album, but I love this song almost as much as any on the debut. Also deserving of credit is Snoopy; his drumming on this cut is subtle yet really provides a nice accompaniment to the haunting guitars.
-Fun fact: This song was the unofficial theme to the movie "Medium Cool" as it surfaces repeatedly throughout the film, which depicts events during the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. It is particularly effective right at the end; you can see it here:

http://veehd.com/video/4516075_Medium-Cool-1969

BTW-He played a camera man in the movie, but Peter Bonerz would later surface again in Chicago, playing Bob Newhart's office mate dentist Jerry Robinson in the 70's sitcom The Bob Newhart Show.

[jamestkirk]

Thanks for all these songs facts and quotes.

Keep 'em coming, SS!

[silentseason]

A tip of the cap to you, jtk, as I borrowed the link for the movie from one of your previous posts.