Elektra EKL 4001 (Mono) EKS 74001 (Stereo)

Production: Jac Holzman and Mark Abramson

Engineering: Bruce Botnick

Recorded: Sunset Sound Recorders, Los Angeles

My Little Red Book

Can't Explain

A Message to Pretty

My Flash on You

Softly to Me

No Matter What You Do

Emotions You I'll Be Following

Gazing

Hey Joe

Signed D C

Colored Balls Falling

Mushroom Clouds

And More

Having been unsuccessful in signing the Lovin' Spoonful (see EKS 74002), Jac found Arthur Lee and Love to catapult Elektra into the 60s rock scene. The band gave Elektra their first hit single ('My Little Red Book') and are fondly remembered in England if not everywhere else, mainly because Arthur wouldn't travel any further than 'the length of a piece of string' from LA. Arthur Lee was greeted as a hero by members of the British House of Commons during his 2002 tour.

The disc started a new numerical series for Elektra - known as the 4000 series - and the company introduced a radically new kind of sleeve. This was printed in colour directly onto stiff card and, for the first time, both the front and back of the cover could be in colour. Love were also the first Elektra band to get their own custom designed logo and this became a common practice for the label. The Love logo, however, is quite complex and does not look so good when printed at a small size. Later designs, notably the Doors logo, didn't suffer from this drawback. Both the sleeve type, and the logo, became common practice in the record business but they are believed to have been originated by Jac Holzman and William S Harvey at Elektra with this album.

As it turned out, when Arthur signed his deal for this album he was under age and backed out of the deal when it came to make a second album. Jac managed to keep Love with Elektra despite this setback but insisted that when Arthur signed a new contract he stapled a copy of Arthur's driving licence to it ... to prove his age. Of course this mirrors Elektra's deal with Jean Ritchie back in the 10-inch days, when Jac's father had to sign because Jac wasn't old enough at the time.

There are some slight differences between the mono and stereo versions of this album: 'Softly to Me' is slightly longer on the stereo and 'Emotions', 'Colored Balls Falling' and 'Mushroom Clouds' are slightly longer on the mono. (See love.torbenskott.dk for more info on Love recordings. The definitive home for Love-dom is the fanzine 'The Castle': www.thefreedomman.com )

To avoid confusion: there really is a track called 'And More' on this LP.