Michael Stuart-Ware (drummer on LoVE's classic albums Da Capo and Forever Changes) and Johnny Echols (lead guitarist and co-founder of LoVE) have joined us here on the Forum to answer your questions about their time with LoVE.At this moment they are not active as members and are not answering questions but I'm proud to have them both aboard at The Freedom Man Forum!
So many incarnations of LoVE. Arthur's vision always included a LoVE band in his music. I am wondering what Arthur sounded like solo.
His instrumental talent was not as fully developed in the 60's as in the 90's & onward, so he likely didn't have the confidence to go acoustic solo on-stage. And it likely was not his musical vision for his songs. I am wondering if his solo playing and singing (that he would have performed for Love) to show you all his songs... were they good enough to appear on a demos kind of release?
(too bad they were not caught on tape) ...You know, those ubiquitous releases that keep showing up nowadays...the "lost tapes/acoustic demos/outtakes" of so & so.
An acoustic Love album would be fun to hear too; as you formed your songs. Of course, anything LIVE from those golden days would be a major FIND!!
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
Arthur was always more of a keyboard player, than a guitarist. Back in 1964, I taught him a few chords, as did John Lucky. These were the basics, C_ E_ Em_A_ Am _F_ and G. For Arthur that seemed enough. He didn't want to put in the time, or effort required to become proficient on the instrument. In a kind of weird way, his lack of guitar skills, is what made it work for us. When a [group] of people are given cart blanche, to develop a song, you have a huge palate of idea's to draw from. He allowed Bryan, Kenny, and I, the freedom to create music and play chords, that we felt fit the song. Add to that, the exceptional rhythmic foundation that Michael laid, and you have a formula that worked. The outlines Arthur showed us, and the subsequent tracks, were often "light years" apart.
After the original Love broke-up, and as he became a lot better at playing the guitar. Arthur began putting the music together on his own. That's why the songs sound so totally different. He began telling the musicians what he wanted them to play. The musical philosophy had completely changed.
I'm not making any judgments, I'm only stating that the dynamic had changed. Where once you had Bryan's, Broadway, folk-bluegrass influence, and my blues-jazz-rock, and Spanish influence. You're now left with Arthur alone, who was working within a whole new set of parameters. With our departure, he now had a completely different paradigm. [That,] which had become identified as the Love sound, was no longer there. Many of the songs were just as good, but the input, the give and take, Bryan, Kenny, Michael and I, had brought to the mix, was now gone. Different people, with their own musical ideas and motivation. Different group, different sound! JE.
If I remember correctly, Arthur started out in high school on the keyboards when you played school dances etc....were you doing some of your own material even then, or all covers?
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
We started writing our own songs from the very beginning. I would often write instrumentals. And Arthur was always a poet, even when he wasn't playing music. He would write down his observations on notebook paper. They were mostly thoughts about life, from Arthur's perspective.Too bad no one had the foresight to save them. JE.
