Monday, November 9, 2015

NUMBER 14






"7 and 7 Is" is a song written by Arthur Lee and recorded by his band Love on June 20, 1966, at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood. It was produced by Jac Holzman and engineered by Bruce Botnick.

The song was released as the A-side of Elektra single 45605 in July, 1966. The B-side was "No. Fourteen", an out-take from the band's earlier recordings. "7 and 7 Is" made the Billboard Pop Singles chart on July 30, 1966, peaking at number 33 during a ten-week chart run and becoming the band's highest-charting hit single. The recording also featured on the band's second album, Da Capo.

The song drew inspiration from a high school sweetheart of Arthur Lee's, Anita "Pretty" Billings,who shared his birthday, March 7. It also describes Lee's frustration at teenage life - the reference to "in my lonely room I'd sit, my mind in an ice cream cone" being to wearing (in reality or metaphorically) a dunce's cap. Describing how the song came to him, Lee stated: "I was living on Sunset and woke up early one morning. The whole band was asleep. I went in the bathroom, and I wrote those words. My songs used to come to me just before dawn, I would hear them in dreams, but if I didn't get up and write them down, or if I didn't have a tape recorder to hum into, I was through. If I took for granted that I could remember it the next day—boink, it was gone."

It took a great deal of work to record, with Love's drummer, Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer, being challenged with its frantic demands after 30 takes or so, and being replaced on drums, intermittently, by Arthur Lee himself. In an interview for John Einarson's book Forever Changes , lead guitarist Johnny Echols credits the drumming on the released record to Pfisterer. In a 1989 interview, Arthur Lee stated that he himself taught Pfisterer how to play the part, and that the final record featured Pfisterer. In what has been described as a "flirtation" with musique concrète, the song climaxes in an apocalyptic explosion - the supposed sound of an atom bomb - before a peaceful conclusion, in a blues form, which then fades out.Although many listeners thought that the explosion at the end of the song was a reverb unit being kicked or dropped, it was (according to the engineer Bruce Botnick in "Forever Changes" book, , in actuality, taken from a sound effects record. He speculated that it was a recording of a gunshot slowed down (for live performances, the explosion was reproduced by kicking a reverb unit).




7 and 7 is 


When I was a boy I thought about the times I'd be a man
I'd sit inside a bottle and pretend that I was in a can
In my lonely room I'd sit my mind in an ice cream cone
You can throw me if you want to 'cause I'm a bone and I go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip yeah!
If I don't start cryin' it's because that I have got no eyes
My father's in the fireplace and my dog lies hypnotized
Through a crack of light I was unable to find my way
Trapped inside a night but I'm a day and I go
Oop-ip-ip oop-ip-ip, yeah!
One
Two
Three
Four!

No,14


Wake up in the morning
Don't know what to do
Wake up in the morning
Feelin' kind of blue

Going down to Virginia
Going down the fairway
Going down to Virginia
Virginia gets me straight

Went to bed last night, babe
Couldn't sleep a wink
Went to bed last night, babe
Didn't sleep a wink

Going down to Virginia

Going down the fairway
Going down to Virginia
Virginia gets me straight

Going to see my doctor
To see what he can do
Give me some of those capsules
Either red or blue

If they don't make it
If they don't help me
Going down to Virginia
Virginia gets me straight


The artists....

01 soul of the slain
02 district six
03 five by five
04 standells
05 soulbenders
06 tomorrow's love
07 blues inc.
08 arthur lee (solo)
09 rush
10 alice cooper
11 ramones
12 electric prunes
13 liquid jesus
14 love (original)
15 love (no.14)


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Post! Thanks for the info!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. What a classic. Some say this may be one of the earliest examples of "Punk" music. Never saw this Elektra label before either! Larry

Rick said...

this one still gets me...everytime. thanks

john said...

Great song great post Great information Great Idea. Thanks

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