Of the many lost classics produced during the creative explosion of the late '60s psychedelic heyday, the greatest may be the third album by the Los Angeles-based group Love.~
FOREVER CHANGES / Love
Producers: Arthur Lee and Bruce Botnick
Elektra, 1967
Recorded amidst a storm of drug addiction, ego battles and downright weirdness, Forever Changes remains both a cult classic and a fascinating document of the strange flip side of the Summer of Love. Love, led by mercurial genius Arthur Lee, was a mass of contradictions. Unusually for the time, they were a mixed race group playing a similarly mixed bag of folk, pop, rock and rhythm and blues. They had already released two albums (an eponymous debut and the fiery Da Capo) by the time Forever Changes appeared.It was written in a Hollywood mansion which had belonged to Bela Lugosi whilst under the influence of vast quantities of drugs. Sessions commenced with Neil Young in the producer's chair, while Elektra was so disillusioned with the strung out state of the band that session musicians (including the core of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew) were brought in to play the parts. Perhaps it was the shock of this that prompted the band, in the parlance of the times, to 'get their shit together' - Young and the session musos were banished and Love began recording their masterpiece.And what a record. Bryan MacLean turned in two classics - Alone Again Or and Old Man - which mixed classical melodies with folk chord changes, but it was Lee's songs which dominated. His lyrics in particular reflected something altogether darker than the peace and love vibe so prevalent at the time. The Red Telephone -"Sitting on a hillside / Watching all the people die" - was a strange journey into acid paranoia, while A House is Not a Motel spiralled into a squalling duel of guitars. David Angel added the string arrangements so integral to the record's lush textures at the end of the sessions, despite Lee and MacLean's dissatisfaction with the result. The entire album was mixed in one 17-hour session, fuelled by vast quantities of cocaine. It is impossible to sum up Arthur and his music in one statement, or how to put
Arhur's music or what it meant to me into words. Lyrics of abstract depth, a
voice with an angelic quality one minute and menacing the next... an unlimited
number of voices. Musical surprises and music that has been unequaled up until
now... it never will be. Arthur was a genius, a complicated, unique person. I
compare Arthur more to a great painter who understood the use of color and
texture and knew how to vary his pallete to create whatever he saw in his mind
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