Arthur Lee
had every reason to feel disenchanted with his career in 1974, as his harder rock moves on 1970's
False Start
and his 1972 solo debut
Vindicator
didn't please critics or fans and his deal with the fledgling
Buffalo Records
label left him with an unreleased album,
Black Beauty
, when the company abruptly crashed and burned.
Lee
had started dipping his toes into material with a stronger R&B edge on
, and when
RSO Records
gave him another chance at a major-label deal, he dove in headfirst: in a Rolling Stone interview,
said
Reel to Real
was his effort to get "as black and funky as I can, man, on my music." If folks hoping for another
Da Capo
or
Forever Changes
weren't pleased with
, they were simply confused by
's funk grooves and banks of horns and keyboards (not to mention a lineup that featured no previous members of
Love
but
). However, while the album has often been written off as a failure,
is an album with more than its share of great moments, even if it's inarguably uneven.
's vocals are tough but eloquent on these tunes, and though the music is often rooted in deep funk (especially on the percolating "Who Are You" and "With a Little Energy"), blues ("Which Witch is Which"), and vintage R&B ("Stop the Music"), the fierce guitar work from
,
Melvan Whittington
, and
John Sterling
makes it clear
hadn't cut his ties to rock & roll. Psychedelia doesn't really play a part in this music, but the introspective twists of
's lyrics confirm he still had plenty to say about the world around him and the universe inside his mind. And the closing acoustic version of "Everybody's Gotta Live" (which first appeared on
) offered a glimpse of the sly, thoughtful hippie who had recorded
just seven years earlier.
plays more like an
solo effort than a
album (and was blighted with a singularly ugly cover), but it's a good
album, with a tighter focus and a more thoughtful perspective than
, proving
still had a great deal to say even if his audience didn't care to listen. [In 2015,
High Moon Records
gave
a long overdue reissue in an expanded edition that included 12 bonus tracks, most of them alternate takes or unused material from the original album's sessions, as well as a 34-page booklet featuring an outstanding essay on the making of the album from
David Fricke
and plenty of rare photos. Like
High Moon
's reconstruction of
, this new edition of
has been assembled with care and respect, and deserves the attention of anyone who has ever loved the music of
.] ~ Mark Deming