Movie Review: Love Story

Visiting with friends one weekend, the conversation turned to music as it inevitably does.  My friend Jim is particularly passionate, always with some new discovery and something he needs to share.  Setting up a projector in the backyard, we planned to have a movie screening.  We just needed to wait for darkness to fall. That, and we had to decide on what to watch.  The selections all had one theme (aside from the fact that Jim owned and loved them all) they involved music. 

After we settled on a double feature – Yellow Submarine followed by 24 Hour Party People – it seemed a pity for the rest to go to waste.  I learned the reasons why I needed to see The Who’s Tommy; that I perhaps did not understand the genius of Scott Walker and that I knew nothing about the band Love.  According to Jim, the Love situation was the most pressing.

The DVD he lent me was Love Story. Not to be confused with the 1970 Ali McGraw movie of the same name, this documentary told the story of the LA band and its front man Arthur Lee.  Although they are little-known now, they proved to be one of the more influential bands of the 1960s.  Comprised of a diverse bunch of musicians, their sound presaged what would be psychedelic.  They were also one of the first muli-racial bands to perform.  Love Story follows the band members as they hone their sound, attain success and (since this is a rock documentary) through the excesses, drug use and ultimate demise of the band.

The songs are familiar and yet excitingly new.  One of their best-known songs, “Alone Again Or,” has been covered by the bands like The Damned and Calexico.  But the original, particularly taking in the context of the time, blows the other versions out of the water.

Although Love Story may be just another rock documentary, what sets it apart is the band and the movie itself.