Graham Bond-Grahame Bond Love Is The Law (1969)

When Alexis Korner disbanded his fabulous band, Blues Incorporated, in the mid-sixties, the musicians who had accompanied him Jack Bruce, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ginger Baker, and Graham Bond were free agents. It was Bond who took the musical reins from Korner and decided to follow in his footsteps and the path laid out by the British musician. Thus, in 1963, the Graham Bond Organisation was born, a year that saw the highest demand for rhythm and blues in history and also marked the beginning of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and the early days of The Rolling Stones, among many others. The Graham Bond Organisation began performing in the most prestigious clubs in London and soon achieved recognition from both the public and critics of the time. However, massive success would come a little later when they toured England with Chuck Berry. The story of this seminal band can be summarized in three albums corresponding to three pivotal years in their career, beginning with "The Sound of '65", which contained the hit "Long Tall Shorty" in 1964, at the height of the beat craze; "There's a Bond Between Us" and its hit "Tammy" the following year; and their biggest chart success, "You've Gotta Have Love, Babe", in 1967, the Beatles' big year and the year the band would finally break up after a short but intense career. After the split, Graham Bond retired from active music for a time and moved to the United States, creating his own record label, Pulsar Records. Meanwhile, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker joined the Bluesbreakers, and Dick Heckstall-Smith went on to found the progressive jazz-rock band Colosseum. In 1969, Bond returned with the album "Love Is The Law" (under the pseudonym Grahame Bond), an exquisite work of funk, jazz, rock, and rhythm and blues that revived his old sound. On this new album, Bond enlisted the help of percussionists Hal Blaine and Dave Sheehan and vocalist Diane Stewart, while Bond handled the remaining instruments and vocals. His twisted lyrics about free love, terror, and the occult, along with the blues, jazz, and rock sound that Bond achieves with the organ and mellotron, are what earned the album the recognition it deserved. Brilliant tracks like "Love Is The Law", "The World Will Soon Be Free", and "Our Love Will Come Shining Through" are among the best of his entire career. After several more albums; “Mighty Graheme Bond” (1969), “Solid Bond” (1970), “Holy Magick” (1970) or “We Put Our Magick On You” (1971), and as a consequence of his financial problems and his continuous nervous depressions, he would commit suicide under the wheels of a train at Finsbury Park station in London on May 8, 1974, thus ending the life of one of the greatest British blues musicians and one of those who have most influenced later generations of English bluesmen.