Johnny Echols interview; Loop’s Robert Hampson pays tribute

Johnny Echols, together with his friend from birth, the late, great Arthur Lee, founded the epoch-defining Love in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. Only Johnny from the original 1960’s lineup is still alive. I am delighted to share that Johnny was able to take the time to speak with me during the group’s 2024 edition of their annual UK tour.

Also in this article is an appreciation of Love by Robert Hampson of psyche rock legends Loop.

A memorable interview covers Johnny’s career

In our chat about Johnny’s incredible career we talked about Little Richard, Neil Young, and Miles Davis. Obviously, Love and their kid sibling band The Doors, Johnny’s soon-to-be-released ‘lost’ LP Gethsemane, recently using AI to bring Arthur into the studio, and so much more. We didn’t talk about Lee’s close friendship with Jimi Hendrix. After all, the main subject is Johnny Echols. You’d be crazy to miss the chat.

The conversation is the latest of my interviews contributed to Paul Dupree’s Transmission show on City Sound Radio. You can listen by clicking the image below. Many thanks.

Baby Lemonade

Another LA band, Baby Lemonade, became the de facto ‘Love’ band when Arthur Lee was still alive and they re-unite with Johnny once again. On this year’s tour, they play tracks from the landmark Love LP Forever Changes, some oddities, and other choice cuts from the Love’s incredible back catalogue.

A fantastic version of ‘Five String Serenade’ (memorably covered by Mazzy Star) is showcased too. Listen to an updated version of this track and find out more about upcoming Love/Johnny Echols projects here.

My introduction to Love

Was way back around 1990. I was in sixth form, on the cusp of adulthood and enjoying the freedom that entailed. My mate, Dan Rayner, recorded a mixtape for me.

Bands on the cassette included The Wonder Stuff, New Model Army, Jane’s Addiction, and Loop. Some of those bands stayed with me; others less so. Some of the taped Loop tracks came from the band’s second LP Fade Out (1988).

The sound was incredible to my ears. Abstract, pummelling, punishing, hypnotic, heavy as fuck, discordant, completely devoid of humour. Just utterly fantastic.

Art music like I’d never heard before but led me to so many other bands like, for example, Suicide, Can, The Pop Group, and, of course, Spacemen 3. This is despite the stupid rivalry dreamt up by Pete Kember of Spacemen 3 and carried on by the weekly music press. And, by the way, I LOVE Spacemen 3 (just look at this blog’s logo).

On the back sleeve of Heaven’s End, Loop’s debut album (1987): it simply reads: Dedicated to Arthur Lee and Stanley Kubrick.

So that was my ‘in’; however, I didn’t rush to investigate Love. It was a slow-burn process until finally it properly clicked in a years-long process. It all kinda crystallised when watching Love’s Glastonbury appearances in 2003. An occasion of unbridled joy. (Check out the YouTube footage.)

But the Loop sound – heavy and dark – and press image – dressed all in black, long hair, unsmiling – seemed at odds with my uninitiated notion of Love – West Coast USA, marijuana smoke wafting, heading to the beach. How wrong I was.

The Love/Loop connection

As Johnny explains in our interview, and as I well know/knew, 1960’s USA was a fractured society (sounds familiar): Vietnam, political assassinations, civil rights protests/state violence, etc. Especially difficult for a band comprising people of colour and white people.

Simon Reynolds, the esteemed music critic, made the explicit link: “What Loop are [sic] about is making connections between various apocalyptic moments in rock history: 1969 and Iggy’s [Pop] vision of ‘war across the USA’, the hippie dream turning to a bad trip with Manson, Altamont, Vietnam.’
Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock. London: Serpent’s Tail (August 1990).

Robert Hampson reflects on Love

Robert Hampson, Loop mainman and only constant member, told me: “My love affair with Love started early with a copy of Da Capo that belonged to my mum. The sleeve pulled me in, the extended members of the band scattered around the rock formation near The Castle, their headquarters.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this at the time. I didn’t like side 2 that much, as adventurous as it was. But side 1 was on constant repeat and I was too young to realise the subtleties of Arthur Lee’s lyrics.

I had no idea about Forever Changes, Da Capo was the only album I had access to, but later when I heard that, my head exploded. Christ, where did all this come from?

I cannot truly put into words what Forever Changes means to me, it jostles for position of being my all-time fave album with Exile On Main St and Buffalo Springfield Again.

I’m not really that emotional about music, but the only time I’ve cried at a show was seeing Arthur do the Forever Changes show at the Southbank and the finish of ‘You Set The Scene’ demolished me. One of those sweetly just-perfect moments.

There’ll never be another Arthur Lee.”

There’ll never be another Arthur Lee

Robert Hampson

Robert continues: “Check out Love Story, one of the best music docs ever made, and it’s so little known. I recommend it to everyone whomever mentions Love to me. I cannot recommend it enough – made just before Arthur died.

But everyone is in it. Retro Bryan Maclean interviews and Snoopy is just way out weird.”

Final thoughts

Unfortunately, circumstances meant that the radio interview with Johnny Echols had to be delayed and now the tour (remaining dates below) is nearly over. Make it your priority to follow the band on social media and go to see them when they tour again, hopefully, next year.

And keep an eye out for Loop shows too. The band’s most recent LP, Sonancy (2022), was its first since 1990. Hopefully, they will release new material in the next years. Truly one of the best live bands going.

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