Love

Hitchings, hackings, rockings and rollings

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | musiX, pdX | 1 Comment

It’s officially been a couple of months since my last post—the longest drought in TDoL history. ”What gives?” so say you three avid readers. Well, among the many things keeping me away from this blog (including a hack), I got hitched, and kickass, rock ‘n’ roll weddings on California’s Central Coast don’t plan themselves. Needless to say the ceremony went off without a hitch. Life is back to normal. And I’m feeling rejuvenated. Expect good things from here on out.

So yes, there is a Mrs. TDoL … although I don’t advise ever calling her that unless you want your knuckles bloodied with a wooden spoon (it’s not fun). And married life is incredible. The other day we made tuna sandwiches for dinner while listening to KISS Alive! and I thought, “If I knew marriage was like this I would have done it 10 years ago.”

Of course, 95 percent of planning a good wedding revolves around the music … sorta like when I pack for vacation: I spend three minutes tossing rumpled clothes and a toothbrush into a small suitcase, and six days deciding which music to bring along. The real challenge, however, was cramming a full night of music into a small mix. But, here it is. Download the Zip file below. If you’d like the unabridged version, e-mail me at mark@thedaysoflore.com.

A couple things I took away from this mix: The Darkness are fucking awesome, and I do believe in a thing called love.

TDoL Wedding Mix
1. “Caught In a Dream” - Alice Cooper
2. “What I Like About You” - The Romantics
3. “Looking For a Kiss” - New York Dolls
4. “My Heart Skips a Beat” - Buck Owens
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” - The Beach Boys
6. “Sweet Thing” - Van Morrison
7. “Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More” - Mudhoney
8. “Save Me a Place” - Fleetwood Mac
9. “No Matter What You Do” - Love
10. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” - Wilco
11. “Question” - Old 97’s
12. “I Still Miss Someone” Johnny Cash
13. “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” - The Darkness
14. “When My Baby’s Beside Me” - Big Star
15. “Paris 2004″ - Peter Bjorn and John
16. “Stay All Night (Stay a Little Longer)” - Willie Nelson
17. “Some Kinda Love” - Velvet Underground
18. “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” - KISS
19. “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World” - The Ramones
20. “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” - Stevie Wonder

DOWNLOAD: TDoL Wedding Mix (146 MB ZIP)

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Happy birthday to you, Arthur Lee

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

It’s common practice to honor the anniversary of someone’s death. Not me. I’ve decided to instead honor the birth of a musician I hold very dearly. It’s also my birthday (I have many, many years), so I’m going to celebrate it with Arthur Lee right here.

OK, a few other notable people born on this date: Dutch chemist Ernst J. Cohen, Japanese playwright Kobo Abe … Matt Frenette, drummer for Loverboy—all, of course, admirable in their accomplishments. But Arthur Lee fronted Love, a band whose influence would and should be part of every rock band.

Arthur Lee—a tall, slender black kid from a rough L.A. neighborhood—started playing music in the early-’60s with his first band The LAGs. He was obsessed with Booker T. & the MG’s. One of his earlier songs, “My Diary,” was recorded by R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks and featured a young kid named Jimi Hendrix on guitar (Love would cover Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” on their debut).

Lee formed Love in 1965, and his R&B and folk influences were all over albums like 1967’s Da Capo and Forever Changes, the latter of which is considered his masterpiece. But Love made rock music, and was a welcome response to the flower-power movement. Although Lee did consider himself the first “black hippie,” Love’s music was always a little darker.

Arthur Lee has been through it all. In the ’80s he all but disappeared, taking care of his ailing father who was battling cancer. In 1996 he did a five-year stint in prison under California’s “Three Strikes” law for illegal possession of a firearm. During his time Lee rarely had contact to the outside world. Upon his release in 2001, Lee began playing and performing again until he succumbed to leukemia on Aug. 3, 2006.

But this is a happy post, a cause for celebration …

Over the past two months I haven’t been able to get enough of Love’s self-titled 1966 debut. It is rock ‘n’ roll—a true proto-punk garage rock classic, tempered with jangly guitars, distorted basslines and Lee’s soulful vocals. And I’ve been itching to write this for months. So here, on what would have been Lee’s 64th birthday, I give you my labor of love.

“My Flash On You” - Love

“No Matter What You Do” - Love

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