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
Black Beauty, and when RSO Records gave him another chance at a major-label deal, he dove in headfirst: in a Rolling Stone interview,
Lee 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
False Start or
Vindicator, they were simply confused by
Reel to Real's funk grooves and banks of horns and keyboards (not to mention a lineup that featured no previous members of
Love but
Lee). However, while the album has often been written off as a failure,
Reel to Real is an album with more than its share of great moments, even if it's inarguably uneven.
Lee'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
Lee,
Melvan Whittington, and
John Sterling makes it clear
Lee hadn't cut his ties to rock & roll. Psychedelia doesn't really play a part in this music, but the introspective twists of
Lee'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
Vindicator) offered a brief glimpse of the sly, thoughtful hippie who had recorded
Forever Changes just seven years earlier.
Reel to Real plays more like an
Arthur Lee solo effort than a
Love album (and was blighted with a singularly ugly cover), but it's a good
Arthur Lee album, with a tighter focus and a more thoughtful perspective than
Vindicator, proving
Lee still had a great deal to say even if his audience didn't care to listen.