Love Is..

Album: Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • Originally written by Dinosaur Jr's Lou Barlow for his 2015 solo album, Brace The Wave, this song has an unlikely inspiration. Barlow told Mojo: "I made a solo record last year and I had the skeleton of Love Is.. done but it wasn't working. Later I became obsessed with this band, Smokie– I guess they were popular in England and Germany back in the 70s. I thought, I'm going to do Love Is.. like Smokie! With those big acoustic guitars! But Dinosaur-style. And I could hear a guitar lead in it, too, an emotional thing."
  • Smokie were a soft rock group who had 11 top 20 hits in the UK between 1975 and 1978. In the US they are best known for 1976's "Living Next Door to Alice", which peaked at #25 on the Hot 100. Their frontman Chris Norman went on to have a successful solo career in Europe, particularly in Germany, where his song, "Midnight Lady" held the #1 spot for six weeks.

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