LOVE – FOREVER CHANGES LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 UK 1971 STEREO PSYCH ARTHUR LEE

Love – Forever Changes
(Elektra Records  1971  K42015  Stereo  Elektra Butterfly Labels)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent condition
– good condition but let down by light discolouration/foxing on front & back

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Love is an American rock group that was most prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were originally led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee who wrote most of the songs, although some of their best known songs were written by Bryan MacLean. One of the first racially diverse American bands, their music drew on a diverse range of sources including psychedelia, folk, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco and orchestral pop.

While finding only modest success on the music charts, Love would come to be praised by critics as one of the finest and most important American rock groups of their era. Their third album Forever Changes (1967) is generally regarded as their masterpiece.

Forever Changes is the third album by the American rock band Love. It was released by Elektra Records in November 1967 and would be the final album by the original band, as subsequent albums featured leader Arthur Lee backed by a variety of new players. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008 and was entered into the National Recording Registry in May 2012.

Forever Changes made only a minor dent on the charts when it was first released in 1967, but years later it became recognized as one of the finest and most haunting albums to come out of the Summer of Love, which doubtless has as much to do with the disc’s themes and tone as the music, beautiful as it is,” wrote Mark Deming in an entry for the online Allmusic guide. “Forever Changes is also an album that heralds the last days of a golden age and anticipates the growing ugliness that would dominate the counterculture in 1968 and 1969 … Forever Changes is inarguably Love’s masterpiece and an album of enduring beauty, but it’s also one of the few major works of its era that saw the dark clouds looming on the cultural horizon, and the result was music that was as prescient as it was compelling.”

Track listing

All songs written by Arthur Lee, except where noted.

Side one

1. “Alone Again Or” (Bryan MacLean) – 3:16
2. “A House Is Not a Motel” – 3:31
3. “Andmoreagain” – 3:18
4. “The Daily Planet” – 3:30
5. “Old Man” (MacLean) – 3:02
6. “The Red Telephone” – 4:46

Side two

1. “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale” – 3:34
2. “Live and Let Live” – 5:26
3. “The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This” – 3:08
4. “Bummer in the Summer” – 2:24
5. “You Set the Scene” – 6:56

Personnel

Music

Band members:

• Arthur Lee: lead vocals, guitar
• Johnny Echols: lead guitar
• Bryan MacLean: rhythm guitar, background vocals (lead vocals on “Old Man” and co-lead vocals on “Alone Again Or”)
• Ken Forssi: bass guitar
• Michael Stuart: drums, percussion

With:

• David Angel: arranger, orchestrations
• Strings: Robert Barene, Arnold Belnick, James Getzoff, Marshall Sosson, Darrel Terwilliger (violins); Norman Botnick (viola); Jesse Ehrlich (cello); Chuck Berghofer (string bass)
• Horns: Bud Brisbois, Roy Caton, Ollie Mitchell (trumpets); Richard Leith (trombone)

Additional contributions (according to the liner notes of the 2001 release)

• Carol Kaye: (possibly) bass guitar on “Andmoreagain” and “The Daily Planet”
• Don Randi: piano on “Andmoreagain” and “The Daily Planet”
• Billy Strange: guitar on “Andmoreagain” and “The Daily Planet”
• Hal Blaine: drums on “Andmoreagain” and “The Daily Planet”

And also:

• Neil Young: arranger on “The Daily Planet” (according to the book “Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love”)

Production & design

• Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee: Producers
• Bruce Botnick: Engineer
• Jac Holzman: Production Supervisor
• Zal Schreiber: Mastering
• William S. Harvey: Cover Design
• Bob Pepper: Cover Art
• Ronnie Haran: Back Cover Photo