William E. Spevack

NOTES ON A COFFEE CUP: Book Review/ Comment

New Year’s Eve, 2021
Am wishing each and all a very safe, warm and enjoyable New Years eve and the coming 2022 year! Whether you enjoy bubbly or apple juice, enjoy your evening, out with the old and on with the new!

NOACP picked up a copy of William E. Spevack’s new book, “KEEP ON SHINING: A Guide Through The Music Of LOVE & Arthur Lee” and read it over the course of a good week and the went back and re-read some sections. Clocking in at OVER 550 pages, this book is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a magnum opus of Love/ Arthur Lee information and opinion on the entire catalog (including Bryan Maclean’s extensive solo work). I thoroughly enjoyed KEEP ON SHINING and, as much as I like to THINK I know, I still learned a lot of things I wasn’t aware of.
The book seems to be mostly Spevack’s perspective of the material that’s been made public through various releases, but also from bootlegs and/ or authorized live releases. I know that the 4-disc live release, “Coming Through to You” has some incorrect credits (Baby Lemonade received credit on a performance that was actually Das Damen. One of the kind dudes in Das Damen reached out to me to express his displeasure - i didn’t blame him either! But, that had nothing to do with me!) and there’s a couple of song credits missing (Hey, Rusty n me co-wrote the music for Love On Earth Must Be with Arthur, and he wrote the words and melody!) but Spevack’s job isn’t to be a detective but instead to shine a light on an incredible amount of material, much of which has been overlooked in the overall rock and roll world.

I think this book will appeal to everyone from the casual Love/ Arthur Lee fan to the absolute fanatic that has to have everything. This is the most comprehensive LOVE project untaken since the David P. Housden days of his amazing labour of love, The Castle fanzine. Anyone who remembers those Castle publications arriving in the mail will have a deep appreciation for William’s book. And, not only am I not being paid to write this, I bought a copy the day it came out! Writing a book is hard stuff, especially if you’ve never written one. William and I had a phone conversation a week or so before the book was released. We’ve never met and it was our first (hopefully of many) phone call. Of course, we are both huge Love fans so we just yapped for what seemed liked 2 hours! I instantly took a liking to him and saw where his energy and drive was coming from. The guy is so deeply touched by Arthur and LOVE’s music and so into it and loves talking about it so much, he HAD to write this book! When you read it, it’s like he’s talking to you.

I was thinking to myself, “What would Arthur Lee think?”. Anyone that knew Arthur knew that he had this tough exterior where he didn’t want you to fully know what he was thinking. And it was balanced by this really sweet, caring and blessed interior where he was at his most sensitive. His first thought? “Hey man, **** this guy. Who the hell does he think he is?” Then Arthur would cross the street, see Johnny, and yell, “Hey Echs! Echs! Hey man, this dude, William Spevack, wrote this LOVE book man. It’s cool. Man, you gotta read it!” Well, at least that’s what I think! Arthur Lee used to complain about David Housden’s “Castle” fanzine, claiming he was gonna have some “Crips” straighten him out! I would tell Arthur, “I can’t imagine Crips getting passports, flying to England and finding David but stranger things have happened!”. And then, in 2002, we played a show at Queen Elizabeth Hall and low and behold David was there. I told Arthur and he strolled out to see David, as they’d never met. What came next was hugs, laughs, peace and ended with Arthur thanking David Housden for “Keeping my music alive and spreading the word.” Were he here today I absolutely believe he’d say the same about KEEP ON SHINING.

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PopExpresso.com

Author William E. Spevack covers everything there is to know about Arthur Lee and Love’s music in over 500 pages

Keep On Shinning A Guide Through the music of Love & Arthur Lee: An extraordinary and exclusive look at one of the most influential rock bands of all time

As the author William E. Spevack puts it, “Keep On Shinning A Guide Through the Music of Love & Arthur Lee” is a “archeological dig,” since no other books study the career of the influential Psychedelic Rock band Love, one of the most important bands of the late 1960s, in such depth and accuracy. In fact, we rarely come across books regarding bands that go into such detail as the one you’ll find here. It delves into the individual profiles of each member, with a plethora of genuine statements from everyone who has played a role in Love’s continued success, either directly or indirectly (including those of dedicated fans.) It digs deeper into the band’s history, dating all the way back to the first Arthur Lee shows in 1963. The author examines the impact of artists such as Bob Dylan on Love’s distinct and recognizable sound; you can learn how the band met people such as Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and The Byrds early on in their Sunset Strip days, in places such as Ciro’s. It looks at Love’s various lineups and how the most famous one came to be. A full account of how Jac Holzman signed Love to his then-new label, Elektra Records, is another highlight of the book. Their debut in 1966 with the single “My Little Red Book” and the self-titled album Love, helped put Elektra Records on the map for Rock acts, and Arthur Lee was the one who first proposed the label to sign the band that helped transform Elektra into a major label: The Doors.

The book includes a couple of rare and amusing stories about Jim Morrison and Arthur Lee, and how the two bands shared the same universe early in their careers, aside from being Jim Morrison’s favorite band, they shared in common manager Ronnie Haran, who left Love to manage The Doors, sound engineer Bruce Botnick, producer Paul Rothchild, the Sunset Sound Studios, and even Morrison’s girlfriend Pam Courson: “I couldn’t get rid of Jim Morrison. Everything I did, he did. He hung out with me. He had my lady Pam Courson, he got her, I had a black Labrador retriever, he got one.”

One of the book’s distinguishing features is the research of all the tracks performed and recorded by Love and its members over the years, including information on unreleased, live, and obscure recordings that even some fans may be unaware of. It can be used as a discography guide, but it is much more as you read through over 500 pages of stories, oddities, and rare photographs that explain why Love, despite not achieving the same level of fame as bands like The Doors, is one of the most influential artists and (again) is partially responsible for changing the course of Rock history when they suggested The Doors be signed by Elektra Records. It’s a must-have for any die-hard Love fan, and for the casual or music fan, it’s a unique glimpse into the world of a band that offered us songs like “Alone Again Or,” “7 and 7 Is,” “Orange Skies,” “Signed D.C.” “My Little Red Book” or “The Red Telephone,” as well as one of the best music albums of all time, the unrivaled “Forever Changes,” released in 1967.
Love, like its labelmates The Doors, succeeded in creating a sound that is both distinctive and timeless, and despite the fact that the band’s and the majority of its members’ stories did not end well, they have a well-deserved and secure place in the Rock pantheon.