7 and 7 Is
{{Infobox song
| name = 7 and 7 Is
| cover = sevenandsevenis45.jpg
|border=yes
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Love
| album = Da Capo
| B-side = No. Fourteen
| released = July 1966
| recorded = June 17 and 20, 1966
| studio = Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California
| venue =
| genre = {{hlist||Garage rock|proto-punk|folk rock}}
| length = {{Duration|m=2|s=15}}
| label = Elektra
| writer = Arthur Lee
| producer = Jac Holzman
| prev_title = My Little Red Book
| prev_year = 1966
| next_title = Stephanie Knows Who
| next_year = 1966
}}
"7 and 7 Is" is a song written by Arthur Lee and recorded by his band Love on June 17 and 20, 1966, at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood. It was produced by Jac Holzman and engineered by Bruce Botnick.
The song was released as the A-side of Elektra single 45605 in July, 1966. The B-side was "No. Fourteen", an outtake from the band's earlier recordings. "7 and 7 Is" made the Billboard Pop Singles chart on July 30, 1966, peaking at number 33 during a ten-week chart run and becoming the band's highest-charting hit single. The recording was featured on the band's second album, Da Capo.
Background and development
Arthur Lee wrote "7 and 7 Is" at the Colonial Apartments on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.{{Sfn|Sandoval|2002|p=3}} The song was inspired by his high school girlfriend Anita "Pretty" Billings, with whom he shared a birthday of March 7.{{Harvnb|Einarson|2010|pp=52, 116}}; {{Harvnb|Bronson|Gallo|Sandoval|1995|p=15}}.{{Refn|Billings had also inspired Lee's songs "My Diary" (recorded by Rosa Lee Brooks) and "A Message to Pretty" from Love's self-titled debut album.{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=52}}|group=nb}} Describing how the song came to him, Lee stated: "I was living on Sunset and woke up early one morning. The whole band was asleep. I went in the bathroom, and I wrote those words. My songs used to come to me just before dawn, I would hear them in dreams, but if I didn't get up and write them down, or if I didn't have a tape recorder to hum into, I was through. If I took for granted that I could remember it the next day—boink, it was gone."{{Sfn|Bronson|Gallo|Sandoval|1995|p=15}} The lyrics describe Lee's frustration at teenage life—the reference to "in my lonely room I'd sit, my mind in an ice cream cone" being to wearing (in reality or metaphorically) a dunce's cap.{{Sfn|Hoskyns|2002|pp=47–49}}
Lee's original version of the song was a slow folk song in the style of Bob Dylan.{{Sfn|Sandoval|2002|p=3}} Its arrangement developed as the band experimented in the studio.{{Harvnb|Einarson|2010|pp=116–117}}; {{Harvnb|Sandoval|2002|p=4}}. Bassist Ken Forssi had received a bass fuzz effect unit from an endorsement deal the band had signed with Vox, and Lee suggested Forssi use it on "7 and 7 Is". Lead guitarist Johnny Echols recalled: "We started playing [with it] and at first it sounded strange, but Kenny started doing this sliding bass thing with it. As we played it we could hear that this was something different, something new."{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=116}}
Recording
Love recorded "7 and 7 Is" on June 17 and 20, 1966, at Sunset Sound Recorders,{{Sfn|Sandoval|2002|p=4}} with Jac Holzman producing and Bruce Botnick engineering.{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|pp=116, 118}} The fuzz bass was ultimately abandoned as it overpowered the other instruments, but Forssi was able to achieve a similar sound with the feedback caused by his semi-acoustic Eko bass. Echols also used feedback, as well as extensive reverb and tremolo,{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=117}} saying he had wanted to use a surf guitar effect in a different context.{{Sfn|Sandoval|2002|p=4}}
The sessions were tumultuous due to the song's fast and intense drum part, with Lee and drummer Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer taking turns trying to accomplish it. Pfisterer later said: "The session was a nightmare ... I had blisters on my fingers. I don't know how many times I tried to play that damn thing and it just wasn't coming out. Arthur would try it; then I'd try it. Finally I got it. He couldn't do it."{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=|pp=116–117}} Echols praised it as Pfisterer's best performance.{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=117}} Estimates in the number of takes the song required range from 20 to 60;{{Harvnb|Einarson|2010|p=117}}: 20; {{Harvnb|Brooks|1997|p=35}}: 60. however, most of these were only false starts.{{Sfn|Sandoval|2002|p=4}} The song took 4 hours to record according to Echols, who also claimed that the session took longer due to Holzman and Botnick objecting to the band's experimentation: "they kept stopping us, saying, 'It's feeding back!' We'd say, 'It's supposed to feed back.{{'"}}{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=|pp=117–118}}
In what has been called a "flirtation" with musique concrète,{{Sfn|Pouncey|2002|p=157}} the track climaxes with the sound of an atomic explosion before a peaceful conclusion, in a blues form, which then fades out.{{Sfn|Hoskyns|2002|pp=47–49}} Botnick said the explosion was taken from a sound effects record and may have been a gunshot slowed down. During live performances, Echols would recreate the sound by kicking his amplifier with the reverb turned all the way up.{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=118}}
Release and reception
Elektra Records issued "7 and 7 Is" in July 1966, backed with "No. Fourteen", an outtake from Love's debut album.{{Sfn|Bronson|Gallo|Sandoval|1995|p=29}} It entered the Billboard Hot 100 on July 30 and spent 10 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 33 on September 24.{{Cite magazine |title=Chart History: Love |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/love/chart-history/hsi/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129034113/https://www.billboard.com/artist/love/chart-history/hsi/ |archive-date=29 January 2023 |access-date=25 February 2023 |magazine=Billboard}} It was the highest-charting single of the band's career.{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=118}} Elektra released the band's second album, Da Capo, in November,{{Sfn|Einarson|2010|p=145}} with "7 and 7 Is" sequenced as the fourth track, between "¡Que Vida!" and "The Castle".{{Sfn|Brooks|1997|pp=34–35}}
Music critic Robert Christgau called the song "a perfect rocker".{{cite web|title=Columns|author =Christgau, R.|author-link =Robert Christgau|date=June 1967|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/columns.php|publisher=Esquire|access-date=2012-07-06}} Cash Box described the song as a "pulsating, rhythmic extremely danceable blueser with a clever gimmick wind-up".{{cite magazine |title=CashBox Record Reviews |date=July 16, 1966 |page=36 |access-date=2022-01-12 |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/60s/1966/CB-1966-07-16.pdf |magazine=Cash Box}}
Covers
Described as garage rock,{{cite book|first=Richie|last=Unterberger|title=Jingle Jangle Morning: Folk-Rock in the 1960s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DihcDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT628|year=2014|publisher=BookBaby|isbn=978-0-9915892-1-0}} proto-punk{{cite book|title=Icons of Rock|author =Schinder, S.|author2 =Schwartz, A.|name-list-style =amp|page=263|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313338465|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chj91X0dWzUC&pg=PA263|quote="'7 and 7 Is', Love's only hit single, was a furious proto-punk rocker that climaxed with the sound of a nuclear blast." }}{{cite web|url=https://www.treblezine.com/26298-10-essential-proto-punk-tracks/|title=10 Essential Proto-punk tracks|date=November 5, 2015|first=Jeff|last=Terich|website=Treble|access-date=December 23, 2024}}{{cite book|first=Jon|last=Harrington|editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Dimery|year= 2015|title= 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die|chapter=Love - 7 and 7 Is|publisher=Universe|location= New York|page=183}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/forever-changes-love-album/|title='Forever Changes': Behind Love's Eternal 60s Masterpiece|first=Joe|last=Tiller|date=November 1, 2022|website=Dig!|access-date=February 18, 2025|quote=Da Capo, followed in November that year and suggested a swift evolution, with an expanded line-up delving into psychedelic pop (She Comes In Colours), explosive proto-punk (7 And 7 Is) and hazy folk-rock (Orange Skies).}} and folk rock,{{cite book|first=Bob |last=Stanley|title=Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop|chapter= The Golden Road: San Francisco and Psychedelia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9emZAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT7|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-28198-5|page=227}} the song was later covered by numerous bands, most notably Ramones, Alice Cooper, Jared Louche and The Aliens,{{cite journal|first=Alex |last=Steininger |url=https://www.inmusicwetrust.com/articles/26e07.html |title=Jared Louche and the Aliens: Covergirl |journal=In Music We Trust |date=July 30, 2020 |issue=26 |access-date=July 30, 2020}} The Electric Prunes, Billy Bragg, The Sidewinders, The Fuzztones, Robert Plant, Rush, Alice Bag, The Weirdos, The Bangles, Deep Purple, and Hollywood Vampires as well as a re-recording by Lee himself.
Notes
{{Reflist|group=nb}}
References
= Citations =
{{Reflist}}
= Sources =
- {{cite AV media notes |date=1995 |first=Harold |id=R2 73500 |last=Bronson |others=Love |publisher=Rhino Records |title=Love Story 1966-1972 |type=Liner notes |url=https://ia802808.us.archive.org/20/items/cd_love-story-1966-1972_love/cd_love-story-1966-1972_love.pdf |first2=Phil |last2=Gallo |author-link3=Andrew Sandoval |first3=Andrew |last3=Sandoval}}
- {{Cite book |last=Brooks |first=Ken |title=Arthur Lee: Love Story |publisher=Agenda Books |year=1997 |isbn=1-899882-60-X |location=Andover, Hampshire}}
- {{Cite book |last=Einarson |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/foreverchangesar0000eina |title=Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love |publisher=Jawbone Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-906002-31-2 |location=London |author-link=John Einarson |url-access=registration}}
- {{Cite book |last=Hoskyns |first=Barney |url= |title=Arthur Lee: Alone Again Or |publisher=Mojo Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-84195-315-1 |location=Edinburgh |author-link=Barney Hoskyns}}
- {{Cite book |last=Pouncey |first=Edwin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypu6BwAAQBAJ |title=Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8264-6450-7 |editor-last=Young |editor-first=Rob |location=London |pages=153–162 |chapter=Rock Concrète}}
- {{Cite AV media notes |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/806015-Love-Da-Capo |author-link=Andrew Sandoval |date=2002 |first=Andrew |id=8122 73604-2 |last=Sandoval |others=Love |publisher=Carlin Music Corporation |title=Da Capo |type=Liner Notes}}
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{{Alice Cooper}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:7 and 7 Is}}
Category:Songs written by Arthur Lee (musician)
Category:Song recordings produced by Jac Holzman