For the love of rock
Vol II, Issue 1 – Love you for a life time (15 Jan 2017)
Name of song- Love you for a life time
Band- The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Album- Fourplay
Writer- Hugh McKenna
Release year- 1977
Similar artists- David Bowie, Badfinger, Smokie, T. Rex
Love you for a life time
Reviewer-Bikash Shrestha/Nirab Kayastha
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (SAHB) was one of the most popular bands to have come from Scotland. Started as an off shoot from a progressive rock band “Tear Gas”, SAHB was formed by Alexander James Harvey (1935-1982) in 1972 in the era of bloom of British glam rock. They were quite successful in Britain however they could not replicate the English success in US. They are particularly famous for their highly regarded albums and exciting live performances, especially during the seventies. Their most successful numbers include “Boston tea party”, “Delilah” (Originally by Tom Jones), “Midnight moses”, “Next”, “The faith healer”, “Love you for a life time” etc. They may have been a perhaps an underrated band, but they have definitely contributed immensely to the progressive development of seventies rock.
The song “Love you for a life time” was taken from their eighth album “Fourplay” in 1977. Actually, this was the first album which was made in the absence of Alex Harvey since he was busy producing his solo album “Alex Harvey Presents: The Loch Ness Monster” during that time. The band then was thus also called SAHB (Without Alex). However, Alex Harvey had admitted that he was always with them and had been featured on the cover of the album too.
The song starts with a slow and catchy guitar pick. The vocal starts melodiously with the guitar plucking and slowly the bass, the soft drums, the rhythm guitar, and the keyboards take the full form. The song reaches its climax and carries on with the same melodious tempo in the further stanzas with a nice combination of guitars and keyboards. The simple but powerful lyrics remind us with any one of our good old days of fantasy poems. The lead guitar in the middle with amazing blending with the keyboards after the second stanza is equally melodious and touchy to our hearts. The song repeats with the same stanza and fades away with the catchy lead guitar admixed with keyboards at the end too. This is a powerful yet soft rock song which has all the ingredients of a successful rock ballad of the seventies.
Although the SAHB has been an important band of the seventies with numerous memorable numbers, their wonderful composition “Love you for a life time” certainly leaves us with the lasting impression and the song is definitely to be loved for a life time.
Happy listening!!
Resources- Wikipedia.org, Allmusic.com
Youtube video link – https://youtu.be/gSJmaiGQOnU