(Start Productions, 109 Minutes)

www.myspace.com/lovestorydocumentary

Near the end of this documentary, Jac Holzman, who signed Love to his label, Elektra, puts things in pretty clear focus. He simply stated that the band did a strong first album that was a bunch of songs they’d been performing. This was followed with the experimental DaCapo, and then came their pinnacle, the lasting and ever-lauded Forever Changes. With interviews dating back to the early nineties, Chris Hall and Mike Kerry’s Love Story is a labor of love. When Arthur Lee died in 2006, that was the end of the trail, but it was really over nearly forty years ago.

Lee comes across as less spaced out than was often reported, and it’s the few brief appearances of the late Bryan Maclean that are the most crazed. He had traded in drugs for Jesus, but he seemed more wired than the King of Caffeine. Guitarist Johnny Echols appears with reassuring frequency, and his even toned, well-considered anecdotes and observations make for a comforting contrast to Lee and his loopy headgear choices. Love was a band full of promise, undone by drugs, infighting and a temperamental leader who wouldn’t tour.

Special features: one hour of extras including additional interview footage with Arthur Lee, Johnny Echols, Ken Livingstone, Mick & John Head from Shack, Mike Randle & Rusty Squeezebox, and performance footage from Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer. DAVID GREENBERGER

>>To check out some clips from the film, go to the doc’s MySpace page.