Songs I Love, Part V: “7 and 7 is” Love

Posted: July 6th, 2009 | Filed under: Culture, Music, Ruminations | No Comments »

Before we start on this song, a note on process.

My friend Ronni Lundy recently regaled me with a tale from when she was pop music critic for the Courier-Journal. They were doing a piece on favorite singles of all-time. The readership was admonished that “Free Bird” was never released as single, only on an album, and therefore was ineligible, so please don’t vote for it.

It got the most votes anyway.

Well, when I talk about singles in this continuing series, I do include songs that were never released by themselves on 45s, as Mp3s, or for radio play. But they are songs that stand alone in my mind, having resonated for me somewhere along the way. It’s my shtick. I make the rules. Which, frankly, are subject to change at my whim.

Now, back to regular programming.

For those of us who have been around awhile, it’s easy to forget that in 1966 in Louisville, Kentucky, the counter culture and its musical ramifications were still far away. There was AM radio, and, well, that was it, AM radio.

We’re talking about a era with hit songs by Sgt. Barry Sadler, Frankie “I Loathe Rock & Roll” Sinatra and The New Vaudeville Band. “Winchester Cathedral,” that’s what I’m tryin’ to say. “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’,” which may have some kitschy nostalgic value in retrospect, but was a metaphor for endemic times back then. “Cherish.” “Lightnin Strikes.” Got the picture?

Sure there were such as “Paint It Black” and “Wild Thing” that forewarned us folks still fallow in the Heartland that something was going on but we didn’t know what it was. Buuuuut, not yet.

So that’s the scene.

I’m driving down Jefferson Street and all of a sudden this song blasts from the dashboard of my car like an Ali shot to the solar plexus. Breathless? You could say so. I remember the exact spot near 3d Street where I had to pull my car over to take the whole deal in. I sat blinded by the light.

Oop yip yip oop yip yip yeah!!!!!!!!!

This live version is pretty powerful, but, to my ears, not as much as the original from the album De Capo. But I couldn’t find one to embed, so this will have to do. You can hear that original by clicking here.

Arthur Lee was essentially Love, a group originally called the Grass Roots, but realized there was already a band of some note with that name. One bit of mythos has that the name was chosen by vote at a bar gig. Another says it has something to do with Lee’s nickname, Cupid.

The lyrics were the usual Arthur Lee hoo hah: “If I don’t start cryin’ it’s because that I have no eyes/ My father’s in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized . . . ”

Like I said: Oop yip yip oop yip yip yeah??????

By my oh my, that propulsive drum, the crackling guitars, Lee’s Hendrixian voice, the dark mystery of another world, hyperventilation, the beat like a hurricane and tornado wrapped in one, the thunder’s crack, exhale.

The wonder, sitting there with the car idling: What the fuck just happened?

And that title, “7 and 7 is.” What’s it mean, Mr. Wizard?

Life got a little curioser as I pulled my car warily back into traffic.

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