'L.A's baddest sixties group - not necessarily good-bad-but-not-evil, either. Singer Arthur lee had the glare and leer of Jimi Hendrix, and if that didn't give him equal brilliance, he was at least up to making some of the nastiest garage rock going. Before he became an acid visionary that is.
Love's My Little Red Book, a Dionne Warwick melody that had been a British hit for Manfred Mann, probably ranks as the sleaziest job anybody ever did on a Bacharach-David song. The static guitar riff, the rudimentary bass bomp, the tambourine and shakers all do their best to compensate for the lack of a really good drummer while Lee yowls on about losing his girlfriend and getting out his little red book (Hugh Hefner told me those things were supposed to be black but apparently Burt and Hal never got the word - or maybe they were Maoists), and chasing around town like a dog in heat. Which is ridiculous but that's okay because when Lee starts to gabble ' All I did was tahlk, tahlk abo-out' cha,' he's hooked you for life.'
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