Da Capo (Love album)
Da Capo is the second studio album by American rock band Love, released in November 1966 by Elektra Records. The album was recorded during September and October 1966 at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California, with the exception of lead single "7 and 7 Is", recorded the previous June. The single was a departure for the band and became their highest charting, reaching No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite the success of "7 and 7 Is", a string of well received live performances at the time and contemporary critical acclaim for the album upon its release, it peaked at No. 80 on the Billboard 200.
Prior to the album's recording, the band had grown dissatisfied with Elektra and attempted to leave the label but were placated with a cash advance and an increased royalty rate. The album marked several significant changes for the band, including a new studio, engineer and producer. Additionally, there were several lineup changes in the band, with drummer Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer moving to keyboards and Michael Stuart recruited to take his place on drums, as well as the addition of jazz saxophonist and flautist Tjay Cantrelli. The songs were composed by frontman Arthur Lee but "rewritten and rearranged in the studio", with the band members developing their own parts.
In contrast to the band's first album, Love, which had been dominated by garage rock and folk rock, Da Capo features a wide range of musical styles, including psychedelia, baroque pop, jazz, Latin music and proto-punk. The album is also regarded as one of the first examples of "jazz rock", and Lee and guitarist Johnny Echols credited jazz musicians Miles Davis and John Coltrane as having influenced the sound. Some critics have considered Da Capo to be a stylistic bridge between Love and their acclaimed third studio album, Forever Changes, regarding Lee's smoother vocal tone and more autobiographical lyrics on Da Capo to be a harbinger of his work on Forever Changes and later Love albums. The album's title derives from the Italian musical term "da capo", meaning "from the beginning".
Da Capo has been included in several critics' record guides and all-time lists, including John Tobler's 100 Great Albums of the Sixties, Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums, Tom Moon's 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die and Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Background
Conflict with Elektra
In March 1966, Love's self-titled debut album, along with the single "My Little Red Book", was released to moderate commercial success, reaching number 57 on the Billboard Top LPs. According to author Barney Hoskyns, the album "trumpeted the presence of a major new musical force on the LA scene". It was also a pivotal release for Elektra Records, giving them their first rock album as well as their first hit single; however, the band quickly grew dissatisfied with the label's production and promotional efforts. In an attempt to get off the label, bandleader Arthur Lee revealed that when he had signed the recording contract on January 4, 1966, he was not yet 21 years old, making the agreement void. This infuriated Elektra president Jac Holzman, who later said: "That was the point in my relationship with Arthur where he moved from being a scoundrel to being totally dishonest... He said he wasn't making a second album, which meant that Da Capo wouldn't have happened".An addendum to the contract was made, dated April 25, which gave the band $2,500 in cash and an increase in their royalty rate from 5 to 7 percent; however, it also required them to produce 20 more recordings for Elektra to be released on future albums. Lee later claimed that he also demanded 100% of the publishing rights, but Holzman said this was never agreed on. The contract was then notarized on May 6 to prevent further issues regarding the members' ages; Holzman also ensured that a photocopy of Lee's driver's license was stapled to the document.
"7 and 7 Is" and lineup changes
On June 17 and 20, Love recorded their second single, "7 and 7 Is". The song was a radical departure from the band's original folk rock sound; biographer John Einarson writes that it was "like nothing anyone had either conceived or heard before... a loud, aggressive, no-holds-barred, garage-style punk song, a decade before that musical term was current." Despite being a creative success, however, the song's recording sessions, held at Sunset Sound Recorders with Holzman producing and Bruce Botnick engineering, were the last to feature the five-piece lineup of the debut album. Due to drummer Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer's limited abilities, he and Lee took turns attempting the song's intense drum part. Pfisterer later said: "The session was a nightmare... I had blisters on my fingers. I don't know how many times I tried to play that damn thing and it just wasn't coming out. Arthur would try it; then I'd try it. Finally I got it. He couldn't do it."Released in July, "7 and 7 Is" spent ten weeks climbing the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 33 and becoming the highest-charting single of the band's career. During that same time, the band decided to make some changes to their lineup for their second album. Reluctant to fire Pfisterer, Lee instead elected to move him over to keyboards – organ, piano, and harpsichord – as he had been classically trained as a child. To replace him on drums, Lee hired Michael Stuart – formerly of the Sons of Adam, who had occasionally opened for Love and had a local hit with one of Lee's songs, "Feathered Fish". Lee then recruited Tjay Cantrelli, a jazz saxophonist and flautist whom he had crossed paths with in the early 1960s, bringing the band to a seven-piece.
On Stuart's first day with the group, Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols brought him to Elektra's offices where, unbeknownst to him, they had planned another attempt to end their commitment with the label. Stuart recalls the encounter in his 2003 autobiography Behind the Scenes on the Pegasus Carousel with the Legendary Rock Group LOVE:
Arthur said , "I want to talk to you about releasing us from our commitment to Elektra. You really don't have the capacity to be able to handle our group. What do we have to do to get off the label?" And Johnny said, "Yeah, and your records are made cheaply. Look, you can't do this with any other record," and he took out the vinyl and snapped it in half, throwing it down on the desk. The guy laughed and told them they weren't getting out of their commitment. He said "You owe us three more albums." We walked out.
Recording and production
The sessions for Da Capo began at RCA Victor's studio at 6363 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Echols suggested that the change in studio was due to Sunset Sound being occupied by label-mates the Doors. Andrew Sandoval writes that the new environment provided Love "the right atmosphere" for their new material. Botnick was unable to engineer the sessions due to the change, so the job was instead done by Dave Hassinger, whose "sonic mastery", Sandoval continues, "gave the group further confidence in their work." Echols reported positive recollections of the setting: "Everything was relaxed in there... It wasn't uptight at RCA as it was at Sunset Sounds. Several times we had fistfights at Sunset Sound, 'cause it was a small kind of claustrophobic type of place. The atmosphere and the people – Bruce and all of that – just was not conductive in the way RCA was with Dave Hassinger."Paul A. Rothchild, who had just finished the sessions for the Doors' first album in August 1966, was brought in produce Da Capo. The group had been impressed with his previous work and that he had spent time in prison for cannabis possession shortly beforehand. Echols and Botnick both acknowledged that his "no-nonsense" style of producing helped control Lee's often commanding studio presence. Echols said that Lee "could be like a kid, trying to get away with whatever he could. Jac let Arthur get away with that and let him run around. Rothchild wasn't like that. He expected us to pay attention to him, and we did." Holzman praised Rothchild's work, saying that "Da Capo was an artistic stretch, and I think a lot of the reach on that album was provided by Paul." "There's a fair amount of Paul Rothchild on that album", remarked Botnick.
According to Echols, most of the songs on Da Capo "were rewritten and rearranged in the studio", which resulted in them "eating up time in that place". Lee, the band's principal songwriter, presented his new songs by playing the basic chord progressions on his black Gibson acoustic guitar and singing the lyrics. Each member then wrote their own parts, with Lee making suggestions along the way; however, Pfisterer, who was unable to improvise, said that his parts were either written down or "explained to me exactly" by Lee.
Despite Lee's new songs, the first track attempted, on September 27, was rhythm guitarist and secondary songwriter Bryan MacLean's song "Orange Skies". Echols recalled tensions flaring during the session over Cantrelli's flute part: "they kept threatening to call Herbie Mann in because Tjay could not get this part right simply because we were out of tune... we tuned up to this harpsichord and the harpsichord was off... They thought it was his fault". The next three days were dedicated to Lee's songs "¡Que Vida!", "She Comes in Colors", and "The Castle", respectively. On October 2, the band recorded "Stephanie Knows Who" before returning to Sunset Sound to finish the album with the side-long track "Revelation". The album was then mixed by Botnick, who felt that Hassinger "made Love sound different than I did" and wanted to ensure that "there would be no differentiation between work and my work."