Love's a Prima Donna
Love's a Prima Donna is the fifth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was produced by Harley, and would be the band's last album before splitting in 1977. Background Harley began writing material for Love's a Prima Donna while Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were touring to promote their 1976 album Timeless Flight. Recording sessions for the new album took place at Abbey Road Studios in London from June to September 1976. Once completed, guitarist Jim Cregan left Cockney Rebel to join Rod Stewart's touring band. The album's concept revolves around the theme of love, including "true love, lost love, mother-and-child love, soldier loneliness, valentine sentimentalism and a fan's infatuation with a musician". The album also showcases a range of musical styles, including progressive rock, folk, doo-wop, and reggae. Speaking to Melody Maker in early 1977, Harley commented, In 2015, Harley revealed to guitar-bass.net the albums that have had the most influenced him, with one being Love's a Prima Donna. He revealed, "This is not self-indulgence, I swear! I gave free rein to Jim Cregan during the recordings and he rewarded me with some brilliant parts, which I could harmonise with the keyboards. The more outlandish my production became, the more Jim pushed himself. Cockney Rebel started as a non-guitar band, and here we are offering up lashings of electric mayhem!" Song information "G.I. Valentine", "Finally a Card Came", "Innocence and Guilt" and "Is It True What They Say?" all feature the use of the EMI voice vocoder. "Sidetrack II" is preceded by a non-album track, "Sidetrack 1", which was released as the B-side to "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna". It is the same song but where "Sidetrack II" is the "orchestral version" with a 50-piece orchestra and choir, "Sidetrack 1" is performed by Cockney Rebel using synthesisers, piano, electric guitar and percussion. Originally written at the piano, Harley wanted to "bring another dimension" to the track but felt it would have been "too self-indulgent" to include both versions on the album. "(If This Is Love) Give Me More", which Harley has described as a "spoof 50s doo-wop rock piece" with a "70s spoof lyric and 70s recording techniques", features him playing electric guitar for the first time on record. "Here Comes the Sun", a cover of the 1969 George Harrison-penned song originally recorded by the Beatles, was the first cover version that the band chose to record. As a single, it was backed by another non-album track, "Lay Me Down". The seven-minute long "Innocent and Guilt" was later covered by German musician Guido Dossche. It first appeared on the 2004 single "Ich Bin Gotte", which featured Harley, and also appeared on Dossche's 2005 album Vulnerabel. In a June 2005 interview for the fan site Harley Fanzone, Dossche commented, "'Innocence and Guilt' always meant a lot to me, a grown up son hidden by his mother. She won't let him go because she's afraid to lose him, she wants