| Forever Changes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Love | ||||
| Released | November 1967 | |||
| Recorded | June to September, 1967 at Sunset Sound Recorders | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock, folk rock | |||
| Length | 42:51 | |||
| Label | Elektra, Rhino | |||
| Producer | Bruce Botnick, Arthur Lee | |||
| Love chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-) [2] |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable) [3] |
Forever Changes is the third album by American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[4] The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
Contents |
Dropping keyboardist Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and flautist/saxophonist Tjay Cantrelli, the remaining five-piece performed on nine of the album's eleven tracks. The album was the first to be produced by Arthur Lee, with assistance from Bruce Botnick.
Originally, the album was to be produced by Botnick and Neil Young, but Young bowed out due to his commitments to Buffalo Springfield. However, according to the liner notes of the 1995 compilation Love Story, Young did stick with the album project long enough to arrange the track "The Daily Planet".
The title of the album came from a story that Lee had heard about a friend-of-a-friend who had dumped his girlfriend. She exclaimed, "You said you would love me forever!", and he replied, "Well, forever changes." Lee also noted that since the name of the band was Love, the full title was "Love Forever Changes".[5]
The sessions began in June 1967, with the group (except for Lee and Maclean) replaced by well-known Los Angeles session musicians Billy Strange (guitar), Don Randi (piano), Hal Blaine (drums) and most likely Carol Kaye (bass). This studio line-up was put in place due to the regular line-up's alleged inability to function. The two tracks recorded during these sessions, "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet", were later given sparing overdubs by the actual members of Love, who felt the tracks otherwise sufficed.
Botnick recalls that the use of session musicians "sparked" the band, and they "realized they had blown it, got their act together and recorded the rest of the album". After much rehearsal, the group resumed work in August and continued through September, quickly laying down the remaining nine tracks, with a total estimated cost at $2,257.
Lee spent three weeks with David Angel, the arranger of the strings and horns, playing and singing the orchestral parts to him. Contrary to what has been reported in other places, Lee envisioned the horns and strings from the beginning, and they were not just added at the end. However, Lee did not play any instruments on the album.[5]
"When I did that album," commented Arthur Lee, "I thought I was going to die at that particular time, so those were my last words." This is borne out by perhaps the most famous lines from the album, on the song "The Red Telephone":
Musically, the album is very ambitious. Having extended itself on the lengthy jam "Revelation" from Da Capo, Love here composes a more focused mini-suite, the album-ending "You Set the Scene".[6]
A September 18 recording session finished the album, adding the horns and strings, as well as some additional piano from Randi, who played all the keyboard parts on the album as the band now had no keyboard player. Lee attended these sessions, and told John Einarson:
David Angel said: "String players would talk to me during the break and say, "You're doing something very unusual here." They sensed that this was groundbreaking, and they did sessions every day."[5]
The album was released in November with cover art by Bob Pepper and only sold moderately, rising to #154 on the Billboard charts (without the benefit of a hit single). It did however reach the Top 30 in Britain. In general, critics loved the album. Pete Johnson, writing in the Los Angeles Times on February 25, 1968, said: [The LP] "can survive endless listening with no diminishing either of power or of freshness." Gene Youngblood, in the LA Free Press, May 10, 1968, wrote: "Soft, subtle. Forever changing in tonal color, rhythm patterns, vocal nuances, lyric substance. Exquisite nuances."[5]
Forever Changes was included in its entirety on the 2-CD retrospective Love compilation Love Story 1966-1972, released by Rhino Records in 1995. The album was re-released in an expanded single-CD version by Rhino in 2001, featuring alternate mixes, outtakes and the group's 1968 single, "Your Mind and We Belong Together"/"Laughing Stock", the last tracks featuring Johnny Echols, Ken Forssi, Michael Stuart and Bryan MacLean. As for Arthur Lee, he would reform the group in late 1968 with all-new members and carry on the Love name for a few more years.
A double-CD "Collector's Edition" of the album was issued by Rhino Records on April 22, 2008. The first disc consists of the original 1967 album, while the second disc is an alternate mix of it plus the 2001 release bonus songs.
The most notable retrospective praise came in 2003 from the British magazine, NME, who rated Forever Changes #6 on their list of greatest albums of all time. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Forever Changes the 82nd greatest album of all time.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in the December 11, 2003 issue. In a special issue of Mojo magazine, it was ranked the second greatest psychedelic album of all time, while in 1995 it made #11 in Mojo's list of the 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made.[7]
Forever Changes was ranked 83rd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.[8]
Forever Changes was praised by a group of Members of the British Parliament in 2002 as being one of the greatest albums of all time.[9]
According to the New Musical Express, The Stone Roses' relationship with their future producer John Leckie was settled when they all agreed that Forever Changes was the "best record ever".[10]
All songs written by Arthur Lee, except where noted.
Band members:
With:
And uncredited contributions from:
|
||||||||||||||||||||