Tag Archives: Love

Song of the Week – Andmoreagain, Love

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Happy Valentine’s Day. What better time is there to feature a SotW by a band called Love that is itself, a love song (of sorts). It is called “Andmoreagain” from the classic 1967 album Forever Changes.

I like some of how Matthew Greenwald reviewed the song at AllMusic.com, though I don’t necessarily interpret the lyrics the way he does:

“Andmoreagain” is another example of Arthur Lee letting the song he was writing lead him, rather than the other way around. Its lilting, slightly spaced folk melody is somewhat similar to Burt Bacharach, as well as Neil Young’s “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing.” Loaded with sweet, major-7th chords, its calm, infectious beauty is, in a word, mesmerizing. Lyrically, it’s another example of Lee free associating on his acid-magnified state of mind, meditating on reincarnating his own defense mechanisms. The line “undone, wrapped in my armor/’cause my things are material” bears this out. One of Lee’s best-loved compositions, it’s always been included in his concert repertoire, even after disbanding Love.

To me, the lyrics are a text book example of the kind of hazy, mystical, psychedelic mumbo jumbo to come out of the “Summer of Love;” so vague and cryptic that they can be construed an infinite number of ways.

I’ve heard interpretations that the title refers to the girlfriend of Love’s leader Arthur Lee, or the film and TV actress Ann Morgan. (I think it’s just a word that is sung to sound like a name.)

I’ve heard that it is about love’s “duality” – the light and dark of love. But my favorite theory is that Angmoreagain is a succubus, defined by Wikipedia as “a female demon or supernatural entity in folklore (traced back to medieval legend) that appears in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. The male counterpart is the incubus.” Now that’s cool!

review_succubus_4
And if you’ll see Andmoreagain
Then you will know Andmoreagain
For you can see you in her eyes
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum

And when you’ve given all you had
And everything still turns out
Bad, and all your secrets are your own
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum

And I’m
Wrapped in my armor
But my things are material
And I’m
Lost in confusions
‘Cause my things are material

And you don’t know how much
I love you
Oh, oh, oh

The music has a baroque rock (The Left Banke) feel. Arthur Lee’s vocal is reminiscent of Bee Gee Robin Gibb circa “I Started a Joke” but not nearly as maudlin.

Forever Changes is a great album that really deserves your attention if you’re not familiar with it. It has received numerous accolades — #40 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, #11 on Mojo’s list of the 100 greatest albums ever made. Other songs to check out include “Alone Again Or”, “The Red Telephone” and “You Set the Scene.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Songs of the Week – This Man He Weeps Tonight – The Kinks, A House is Not a Motel – Love, The Door Into Summer – The Monkees

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One of the books I read on my summer vacation was Big Day Coming, a biography of the Hoboken, NJ based band Yo La Tengo. But the book is much more than the band’s bio – in fact it is subtitled Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock. If you’re interested in the subject the book is a very good read, chock full of interesting facts and colorful stories.

What interested me from the standpoint of the SotW was all of the cool songs the band curated into their repertoire – not only when they were beginning as a cover band playing at parties for friends, but sprinkled into their live performances throughout their career. They even released the obligatory (mostly) covers album in 1990 called Fakebook.

Here’s an excerpt from the book describing some of the hip, deep cuts they included in one of their early sets.

In addition to the hundred plus songs rolling through their recent memories, A Worrying Thing (a pre Yo La Tengo band name) continued to practice covers. Ira (Kaplan) and Tony (Blow, an early band member) attempted harmonies on the Kinks’ “This Man He Weeps Tonight.” Tony did the Dils’ “Sound of the Rain,” and they took on a batch of ‘60s pop obscurities, including Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel,” the Monkees’ “The Door into Summer,” the Rascals’ “Find Somebody,” (an early SotW) Syd Barrett’s “No Man’s Land,” and Everything Is Everything’s “Witchi Tai To.” There was also Parliament’s “One Nation Under a Groove,” soul songwriters Gamble and Huff’s “Drowning in the Sea of Love,” and a recent Waves B-side, “Hey, War Pig!” There was likewise a pair of songs popularized by the Weavers, Ira’s Hudson Valley neighbors: a funkified run at “Darling Corey,” and a similarly tarted up version of the left-wing anthem “If I Had a Hammer,” written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays.

Now that’s a pretty cool list of songs! So let’s listen to a few.

“This Man He Weeps Tonight” is one of a relatively few Kinks’ songs penned and sung by Dave Davies. As such, it isn’t very well known to most people, even those that consider themselves Kinks fans. It was originally included on the band’s album of rarities called The Great Lost Kinks Album (itself the subject of another early SotW).

Next is Love’s “A House is Not a Motel” from the band’s important album Forever Changes and was the b-side to the album’s first single release “Alone Again Or.” This psych classic presages the Viet Nam era alienation some would feel in cities like L.A. after the Summer of Love. The guitar duets set the mood perfectly.

Lastly is “The Door Into Summer” from Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. Michael Nesmith takes the lead on the type of protest song the band fought for the right to record. It showcases Peter Tork’s underrated keyboard prowess.

These are all terrific recordings. Thanks, Yo La Tengo, for inspiring me to check them out again.

Enjoy… until next week.