“Heated Love”

“Heated Love” is a song from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1968 LP The World In A Sea Shell. Written by the same band members responsible for some of Wake Up… It’s Tomorrow‘s stranger moments, “Heated Love” has a loose and unconventional structure, even though the actual arrangement and performance are much gentler than that album’s whacked-out “Nightmare Of Percussion” and “Curse Of The Witches”.

As a song, “Heated Love” is one of the most interesting on the album. For one thing, it turns the LP’s general over-produced denseness on its head, with a chorus of overdubbed lead guitar parts creating a mountain even more impenetrable but also lots more groovy than, for example, the wistful “Sea Shell”. It’s almost like drummer and composer Randy Seol figured “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” and managed to dig around in The World In A Sea Shell‘s toolbox until he came up with a way to extract some psychedelic treasure from its hardened amber casing.

Also distinguishing the song are the gooey, descending chords and melody of the ragged verses, which recall Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”, and “Heated Love” echoes the odd percussion of that Dylan track with its own inspired snare, cowbell and xylophone work. Not quite a nightmare this time, but oddly dreamlike nonetheless — in structure if not tone.

“Heated Love” stands as an odd counterpoint to the other songs on The World In A Sea Shell, even while fitting in with the disc’s overall sonic landscape. It’s another exhibit in the prosecution of the band’s meddling management during the recording of this album, who only grudgingly allowed this sort of creativity to be explored (and only on side 2).

“Heated Love” appears on…

The World In A Sea Shell (1969)

2 thoughts on ““Heated Love”

  1. This is one of my favourite SAC songs, this song is AMAZING!!! It has such a spiritual sound to it, i love listening to it when i’mm sitting on the cliff in my forest looking over the river. Best song on the album!!!

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