Proof positive, should any be needed, that cultural decades pay little heed to the calendar - though it kicked off the Seventies,'Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)' and it's titular character are as mid sixties as anything bearing that actual date stamp."She ain't got no money, her clothes are kinda funny, her hair is kinda wild and free"- how times change. If Rosemary behaved like that today then she'd have her windows put through and 'WITCH' scrawled on her door by the local chavs. But it's still interesting that such hippy ideals were still being pedalled and swallowed in the new decade as still something to aspire to, not least in the wake of the previous month's Altamont concert and Charlie's Family, events that made this naively out of time before it was even released.
Then again, being a strictly studio, all British ensemble with the ever prolific Tony Burrows on lead vocals, Edison Lighthouse were never going to find themselves on the cutting edge of anything. 'Love Grows' is a provincial take on the sort of American pop The Turtles found success with but with none of the underlying counterculture links to add credibility.
Essentially a bunch of chancers (Burrows also sang with The Flowerpot Men who themselves provided an approximation of what was going on over in Haight Asbury), Edison Lighthouse produced straight pop in a flowery frock that was to the music of the summer of love what a bloke in a monkey suit is to a real monkey. 'Love Grows' is a catchy chorus milked for all it's worth, but running at barely two and a half minutes, it knows when to stop and is all the more listenable because of it.
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