Love

In their time, Love didn't achieve the same ubiquity as ‘60s L.A.-scene peers like The Byrds and The Doors, but over the next half-century, they’d gradually be recognised as one of the most influential acts of the era. Founded by singer/guitarist Arthur Lee in 1965, Love proved to be more agitated than their flower-power kin on singles like “7 and 7 Is”, a crucial proto-punk text later covered by the Ramones. However, on their 1966 album Da Capo, that track sat alongside the splendourous “She Comes in Colors”, whose day-glo DNA trickled down to The Rolling Stones’ 1967 nugget “She’s a Rainbow” and even Madonna’s kaleidoscopic 1999 dance hit “Beautiful Stranger”. And with 1967’s Forever Changes, Love delivered their own Sgt. Pepper-scaled baroque ‘n’ roll masterpiece, albeit one that swapped out childlike whimsy for a creeping paranoia that anticipated the end of the hippie dream. As the group’s commercial prospects waned, Lee descended into a long spiral of addiction and legal troubles. But renewed critical appreciation for Love would bring him back to the stage in the early 2000s, allowing him to savour a moment of belated mass adulation before his 2006 death.