Love

• Genre: Psychedelic
• Hometown: Los Angeles

About

San Francisco psychedelic rock band Love enjoyed fleeting success while they were together in the late '60s but have long been considered one of the finest bands of the era on the strength of two of the six albums they put out: Forever Changes and Da Capo. Led by multi-instrumentalist songwriter Arthur Lee, Love stood out partially because Lee was an African American fronting a white band -- but more important was the imaginative, almost backward-through-a-mirror approach he took to writing rock 'n' roll songs. Love's 1966 semi-hit "7 and 7 Is" remains one of the most unique singles to come out of the decade -- as succinct as a punk song, with bullfighter guitars and hippily impenetrable lyrics courtesy of Lee. Lee also wrote folky love songs, messed with the blues (see the 19-minute "Revelation" on Da Capo) and wrote a song called "She Comes in Colors," a phrase the Stones lifted for "She's a Rainbow." The band disintegrated in 1970. Lee resurrected the name for one album in 1975 and, following a six-year prison term served in the 1990s on weapons charges, sporadically performed live with various versions of the band until his death in 2006.

- Mike McGuirk