Problem: Love is an American rock group that was most prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were originally led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee, who wrote most of the songs, although some of their best known songs were written by Bryan MacLean. One of the first racially diverse American bands, their music drew on a diverse range of sources including folk rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco and orchestral pop. While finding only modest success on the music charts, Love would come to be praised by critics as one of the finest and most important American rock groups of their era.

Signed to the Elektra Records label as their first rock act, the band scored a minor hit single in 1966 with their version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "My Little Red Book". Their first album, Love, was released in March 1966. The album sold moderately well and reached No. 57 on the Billboard 200 chart.  In August 1966 the single written by Arthur Lee "7 and 7 Is", notable for the exceptional guitar work of Johnny Echols and proto-punk styled drumming by Pfisterer, became their highest-charting single at No. 33 in the Billboard Hot 100. Two more members were added around this time, Tjay Cantrelli (real name John Barbieri) on woodwinds and Michael Stuart on drums. Pfisterer, never a confident drummer, switched to harpsichord.  Their musical reputation largely rests on the next two albums, Da Capo and Forever Changes. Da Capo, released in November 1966, included "7 and 7 Is" as well as the subsequent singles "She Comes in Colors" and "!Que Vida!" and MacLean's "Orange Skies". Cantrelli and Pfisterer soon left the band, leaving it as a five-piece once again.  Forever Changes, released in November 1967 and recorded and co-produced by Bruce Botnick  is a suite of songs using acoustic guitars, strings, and horns that was recorded while the band was falling apart as the result of various substance abuse problems and tension between Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean, who wanted more of his songs on the album. The band recorded the album in only 64 hours, though many professional session players were utilized, including some who replaced the actual band members in some songs. Writer Richard Meltzer, in his book The Aesthetics of Rock, commented on Love's "orchestral moves", "post-doper word contraction cuteness", and Lee's vocal style that serves as a "reaffirmation of Johnny Mathis". Forever Changes included one hit single, Bryan MacLean's "Alone Again Or", while "You Set the Scene" received airplay from some progressive rock radio stations. By this stage, Love were far more popular in the UK, where the album reached No. 24, than in their home country, where it could only reach No. 154. More recently the album has received recognition as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, appearing on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and being added to the National Recording Registry.

Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

Answer with quotes: Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and being added to the National Recording Registry.


Problem: Pierre Benjamin Monteux (pronounced [pjeR mo.to]; 4 April 1875 - 1 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1907. He came to prominence when, for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company between 1911 and 1914, he conducted the world premieres of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and other prominent works including Petrushka, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, and Debussy's Jeux. Thereafter he directed orchestras around the world for more than half a century.

Monteux made a large number of recordings throughout his career. His first recording was as a violist in "Plus blanche que la blanche hermine" from Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer in 1903 for Pathe with the tenor Albert Vaguet. It is possible that Monteux played in the Colonne Orchestra's 20 early cylinders recorded around 1906-07. His recording debut as a conductor was the first of his five recordings of The Rite of Spring, issued in 1929. The first of these, with the OSP, is judged by Canarina to be indifferently played; recordings by Monteux of music by Ravel and Berlioz made in 1930 and 1931, Canarina believes, were more impressive. Stravinsky, who also recorded The Rite in 1929, was furious that Monteux had made a rival recording; he made vitriolic comments privately, and for some time his relations with Monteux remained cool.  Monteux's final studio recordings were with the London Symphony Orchestra in works by Ravel at the end of February 1964. In the course of his career he recorded works by more than fifty composers. In Monteux's lifetime it was rare for record companies to issue recordings of live concerts, although he would much have preferred it, he said, "if one could record in one take in normal concert-hall conditions". Some live performances of Monteux conducting the Metropolitan Opera, and among others the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, BBC Symphony and London Symphony orchestras survive alongside his studio recordings, and some have been issued on compact disc. It has been argued that these reveal even more than his studio recordings "a conductor at once passionate, disciplined, and tasteful; one who was sometimes more vibrant than the Monteux captured in the studio, and yet, like that studio conductor, a cultivated musician possessing an extraordinary ear for balance, a keen sense of style and a sure grasp of shape and line."  Many of Monteux's recordings have remained in the catalogues for decades, notably his RCA Victor recordings with the Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony orchestras; Decca recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic; and Decca and Philips recordings with the LSO. Of Manon, one of his few opera recordings, Alan Blyth in Opera on Record states "Monteux had the music in his blood and here dispenses it with authority and spirit". He can be heard rehearsing in the original LP issues of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Philips 835132 AY) and Beethoven's 9th with the London Symphony (Westminster, WST 234).  Video recordings of Monteux are scarcer. He is seen conducting Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture and Beethoven's 8th symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Dukas' L'Apprenti sorcier with the London Symphony Orchestra in an "unshowy, deeply satisfying humane way".

What was the reputation and repertoire?

Answer with quotes:
Monteux made a large number of recordings throughout his career.