Of course i love the original 2 and a half albums, and it took me years to even investigate the “Four Sail’ album and beyond. Arthur Lee had released a 1972 solo album “Vindicator” after his period at Blue Thumb Records as Love, which was a commercial disaster.
The “Black Beauty” album was recorded for a new company called Buffalo, with the sessions recorded through Spring and Summer of 1973, with an all black version of Love. This was a fantastic and exciting four piece outfit under the Love name that could have been huge, who also recorded the 1974 Love album “Reel To Real”.
Unfortunately Buffalo Records collapsed, so the recordings for “Black Beauty” were forgotten about for near 40 years with the tapes vanishing in that time, with an acetate of this unreleased album being used for the limited release on High Moon Records in 2011 after cleaning it up and given the best sound quality achievable.
This album is so bloody good to my ears, and for me preferable to much of the Blue Thumb albums, and the solo Arthur Lee album “Vindicator”. You can certainly hear a Jimi Hendrix influence to some of this, but this album is indeed a work of funky rock sounds, with some excellent riveting hard rocking numbers mixed with some mellower quieter moments with scorching guitar playing from Melvan Whittington, with the Arthur Lee vocals sounding in good form.
The recordings with various interpretations of Love after the original Love, and those fantastic original band albums usually pale in comparison, as in reality it’s a completely different time after umpteen different line ups that were in essence just backing musicians for Arthur Lee.
Though this 4 piece for “Black Beauty” seems to have clicked as a functioning group and it’s stated in the excellent liners that the band and indeed “Black Beauty” was among Arthur Lees own favourite releases.
I’m finding those 70s Love recordings as under rated, that deserve to be heard by more people, but their 60s legacy is so strong,one can’t help to compare, but in reality they should be taken and enjoyed for what they are!!
The Fat Angel Sings 