Vindicator

Always thought Love were a decent enough band thanks largely to Arthur Lee, but nothing I'd heard by them prepared me for Vindicator. Vindicator brought so many influences to mind, from Hendrix to Led Zep and Sabbath (no really) whilst always sounding original rather than derivative. I have to say it is one of my favourite albums and contains some of my favourite songs of all time. Until recently I'd been without a CD player for several months and having acquired this record last year from a friend, whose wife had relegated all his vinyl to the shed (consigned to a damp kind of purgatory), it has rarely been off my turntable since. Even having regained access to my cd collection it still gets played regularly. Words like 'grower' or 'sleeper' don't do it justice. From the first listen it was clear this was special and I've been mining it for all it's worth ever since. As I said before don't let Love confuse you when it comes to this album as it's really unlike anything they ever produced. If you can get hold of a copy then do.

"Vindicator" (A&M, 1972) is the follow-up album to Love's "False Start" (Blue Thumb, 1970.) The latter - including a collaboration with Jimi Hendrix - is considerably more hard-edged than the two previous releases, which sometimes harkened back to the lighter sound of the original ensemble. Arthur Lee's flair for compositions was still in evidence but this set clearly severed any similarity with the original Love.

"Vindicator", credited to "Arthur Lee with the group Band-Aid", takes the chaotic Hendrix track from "False Start" ("The Everlasting First") to its furthest extreme. To this day, "Vindicator" still sounds like an incredibly hot album, full of powerful guitar licks and carefully controlled excess.
Like "Four Sail" (Elektra, 1968), "Vindicator" is, musically, a very tight recording thanks to the backing band, which features session keyboardist Clarence McDonald and, especially, guitarists Charlie Karp and Craig Tarwater.

On the other hand, "Vindicator" has a very pessimistic feel about it. At least half of the songs include lyrical references to death. Black humour also surfaces on several cuts. This is actually nothing new as earlier "Love" material also included, sometimes cryptically, pessimistic or cynical lyrics.

The material relies a lot on Hendrixisms, both musically and vocally. It is also linked to the pop/R&b stuff that Arthur Lee was involved with before starting Love.

My own favourite track is "Everybody's Got to Live" ("cause everybody's gonna die") that actually sees Lee musically close to the medium paced kind of riff used on the aforementioned "Four Sail."
There are many other tracks to enjoy. "Busted Feet" features the agony of Lee's vocal. "Hamburger Breath Stinkfinger" sees Lee impressively revisiting Blind Boy Fuller's bawdy "What's That Smells like Fish" (from 1938!) Could he ever get much "blacker" than that? Moreover, dig that "Ol' Morgue Mouth"!

Speaking of "blacknuss", it is revealing that - in a 1975 interview with Max Bell - Arthur Lee stated: "All my music should have had a black sound" and that: "... the black (radio) stations may have influenced me (lately)".

BGO has not released the original LP, but the expanded CD version, which first appeared on A&M 540697-2 in 1997. The track listing provided by Amazon is not correct. This album includes five tracks not present on the original LP. These are:

13. Everybody's Gotta Live (alternate)
14. He Knows a Lot of Good Women (alternate)
15. Pencil In Hand (early version of "He Said She Said")
16. E-Z Rider (Jimi Hendrix) (outtake)
17. Looking Glass Looking at Me (early version of "You Want Change For
Your Re-Run")

Like so many works by Arthur Lee, this album died a death at the time of release.

Those who fervently waited for the "Next Forever Changes" were getting restless and defamed the album. This brings to mind the self-righteous comments of one self-appointed "Captain for the quest of Arthur Lee" that fanzine readers will remember. On behalf of Arthur Lee, I will quote Voltaire who once wrote: "My God, keep me from my friends and I will take care of my enemies."

I modestly hope that my comments will somewhat vindicate this album amongst Love and Arthur Lee fans. If you are a dedicated fan of Arthur Lee, the musician, buy this CD for yourself. If you are able to forget, for a moment, "Forever Changes" or "Da Capo" (as wonderful though they are) and to open up your mind and ears, you will be rewarded!

I bought the original vinyl of this when it came out in 1972 on US import with the usual high quality thick cardboard gatefold sleeve on the green A&M label, then I bought it on Japanese-only import CD (still on A&M) in the unusual white case (for 19GBP - a lot some 20 years ago - to discover that it was a bit short on time at 35 minutes) and then again when it was issued in an expanded CD version in GB for a more reasonable 8.49 GBP. I didn't regret any of the duplication as this is truly one of the best albums ever in my opinion.

I must admit that my original reason for buying it was that I liked and had most of Love's albums and, perhaps more importantly to me at the time, many of the tracks sported a distinct Hendrix flavour. I later discovered that the LP was described by Lee himself as "A tribute in sound to Jimi Hendrix".

Make sure that you buy the expanded version which adds 5 extra tracks to the original 12, namely unreleased versions of "Everybody's Gotta Live" (the single from the LP) and "He knows a Lot of Good Women", plus early versions of "He Said She Said" and "You Want Change for Your Re-run" under different titles and finally "E-Z Rider", a cover of the Hendrix song. Extensive sleeve-notes are thrown in, in the informative booklet.

RIP Arthur. Didn't the boy do well.