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Rating: The year '67 was one in which many new talents burst onto the musical scene. I just remember that the "Grateful Dead" released their first album, the "Jefferson Airplane" created "Surrealistic Pillow" and the "Doors" with their debut album captured millions of young people, enchanted by the lyrics and the theatricality of leader Jim Morrison. This happened during the "summer of love" of '67, in California, which at that time was a boiling pot, the most important crossroads of culture and counterculture in the West. Today we remember that time as an emblem of new trends in every artistic field, social protest, hopes. The youth movement was gaining more and more followers; the image of the hippy smoking a joint is an icon in everyone's imagination. Marijuana, LSD, heroin, were used for the first time by a large number of people... just a precursor of the culture of revelry, which would become a mass phenomenon in the near future. At the beginning of summer, in Los Angeles, the "Love" led by the brilliant guitarist, Arthur Lee, entered the recording studio to record "Forever Changes" (With the important contribution of Bryan Maclean)
The magic that made this album a masterpiece lies in the subtle work with which "Love" managed to weave flamenco adornments onto a rock sound tapestry, harmonizing beat and psychedelia, the sound of strings with wind instruments. Contrasts resolved masterfully, brilliantly playing on the edge of daring balances, implausible coexistences, and the risk of falling into kitsch. The result was an album of "symphonic psychedelia" still enjoyable today because each ingredient is perfectly measured. Songs of incredible emotional power, which captivate because they are rich in hidden suggestions.
"Forever Changes" has become a milestone of Rock, a work always loved by fans of acid rock, and for others, an album to know. The compositions I prefer are: "Alone Again Or" "A House Is Not A Motel" "Andmoreagain" "Live And Let Live" "The Daily Planet" "The Red Telephone" "You Set The Scene" lastly I mention the track I listen to the most, "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale".
PS. Speaking of another great of psychedelia: Syd Barrett. "New Musical Express Year Book, 1974". "He was very influenced by the Stones, the Beatles, the Byrds, and the Love. By the Stones more than the others... He quickly wore out his copy of Between The Buttons. And also the Love album. Once, I was trying to talk to him about an Arthur Lee song whose title I couldn’t remember, so I started humming its refrain. Syd grabbed the guitar and accompanied me. Later, he used those chords for the main chorus of Interstellar Overdrive."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Alone Again Or (03:18)
Yeah, said it's all right
I won't forget
All the times I've waited patiently for you
And you'll do just what you choose to do
And I will be alone again tonight my dear
Yeah, I heard a funny thing
Somebody said to me
You know that I could be in love with almost everyone
I think that people are
The greatest fun
And I will be alone again tonight my dear
Yeah, I heard a funny thing
Somebody said to me
You know that I could be in love with almost everyone
I think that people are
The greatest fun
And I will be alone again tonight my dear
02 A House Is Not a Motel (03:32)
At my house I've got no shackles
You can come and look if you want to
In the halls you'll see the mantles
Where the light shines dim all around you
And the streets are paved with gold and if
Someone asks you, you can call my name
You are just a thought that someone
Somewhere somehow feels you should be here
And it's so for real to touch
To smell, to feel, to know where you are here
And the streets are paved with gold and if
Someone asks you, you can call my name
You can call my name
I hear you calling my name yeah all right now
By the time that I'm through singing
The bells from the schools of wars will be ringing
More confusions, blood transfusions
The news today will be the movies for tomorrow
And the water's turned to blood, and if
You don't think so
Go turn on your tub
And it it's mixed with mud
You'll see it turn to gray
And you can call my name
I hear you call my name...
03 Andmoreagain (03:21)
And if you'll see Andmoreagain
Then you will know Andmoreagain
For you can see you in her eyes
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum
And when you've given all you had
And everything still turns out
Bad, and all your secrets are your own
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum
And I'm
Wrapped in my armor
But my things are material
And I'm
Lost in confusions
'Cause my things are material
And you don't know how much
I love you
Oh, oh, oh...
And if you'll see Andmoreagain
Then you might be Andmoreagain
For you just wish and you are here
Then you feel your heart beating
Thrum-pum-pum-pum
And I'm
Wrapped in my armor
But my things are material
And I'm
Lost in confusions
'Cause my things are material
And you don't know how much
I love you
Oh, oh, oh...
04 The Daily Planet (03:31)
In the morning we arise and
Start the day the same old way
As yesterday the day before and
All in all it's just a day like
All the rest so do your best with
Chewing gum and it is oh so
Repetitious
Waiting on the sun
Down on Go-stop Boulevard it
Never fails to bring me down
The sirens and the accidents and
For a laugh there's Plastic Nancy
She's real fancy with her children
They'll go far, she
Buys them toys to
Keep in practice
Waiting on the war
I feel shivers in my spine
When the iceman says his ice is melting
Won't be there on time
Hope he finds a rhyme
For his little mind
I can see you
With no hands (face)
Eyes I need you
You're my heart (face)
Look we're going round and round
07 Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale (03:35)
Verse 1:
What is happening and how have you been
Gotta go but I'll see you again
And oh, the music is so loud
And then I fade into the...
Verse 2:
Crowds of people standing everywhere
'Cross the street I'm at this laugh affair
And here they always play my songs
And me, I wonder if it's...
Verse 3:
Wrong or right they come here just the same
Telling everyone about their games
And if you think it obsolete
Then you go back across the street
Yeah, street, hey hey
Verse 4:
When I leave now don't you weep for me
I'll be back, just save a seat for me
But if you just can't make the room
Look up and see me on the...
Verse 5:
Moon's a common scene around my town
Here where everyone is painted brown
And if we feel that's not the way
Let's go paint everybody gray
Yeah, gray, yeah
08 Live and Let Live (05:27)
Oh, the snot has caked against my pants
It has turned into crystal
There's a bluebird sitting on a branch
I guess I'll take my pistol
I've got it in my hand
Because he's on my land
And so the story ended
Do you know it oh so well
Well should you need I'll tell you
The end-end-end-end-end-end-end-end
And...
Yes I've seen you sitting on the couch
I recognize your artillery
I have seen you many times before
Once when I was an Indian
And I was on my land
Why can't you understand
And so the story ended
Do you know it oh so well
Well should you need I'll tell you
The end-end-end-end-end-end-end-end
And...
Served my time
Served it well
You made my soul
Write the rules
In the sky
But ask your leaders
Why Why
Oh, the snot has caked against my pants
It has turned into crystal
There's a bluebird sitting on a branch
I guess I'll take my pistol
I've got it in my hand
Because he's on my land
And so the story ended
Do you know it oh so well
Well should you need I'll tell you
The end-end-end-end-end-end-end-end
And...
Served my time
Served it well
You made my soul
10 Bummer in the Summer (02:24)
Well I remember when you used to look so good
And I did everything that I possibly could for you
We used to ride around all over town
But they're puttin' you down for bein' around with me
But you can go ahead if you want to
'Cause I ain't got no papers on you
In the middle of the summer I had a job bein' a plumber
Just to pass till the fall it was you I wanna ball all day
Ah-we were walkin' along, honey, hand in hand
I'm a-thinkin' of you, mama, when you're thinkin' of another man
But you can go ahead if you want to
'Cause I ain't got no papers on you
(No, I don't I ain't got no papers on myself)
All alone on the bone when I didn't have a home
When I saw the way I was and I knew where I was supposed to be
I was twitchin' so I turned and it's really hard to learn
That everyone I saw was just another part of me
But you can go ahead if you want to
'Cause nobody's got no papers on you
(No, babe, it's just a falsehood)
11 You Set the Scene (06:49)
Where are you walking, I've seen you walking
Have you been there before?
Walk down your doorsteps, you'll take some more steps
What did you take them for?
There's a private in my boat and he wears
Pins instead of medals on his coat
There's a chicken in my nest and she won't
Lay until I've given her my best
At her request she asks for nothing
You get nothing in return
If you want she brings you water
If you don't then you will burn
You go through changes, it may seem strange
Is this what you're put here for?
You think you're happy and you are happy
That's what you're happy for
There's a man who can't decide if he should
Fight for what his father thinks is right
There are people wearing frowns who'll screw you up
But they would rather screw you down
At my request I ask for nothing
You get nothing in return
If you're nice she'll bring me water
If you're not then I will burn
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile
For the time that I've been given's such a little while
And the things that I must do consist of more than style
There are places that I am going
There'll be time for you to start all over
This is the only thing that I am sure of
And that's all that lives is gonna die
And there'll always be some people here to wonder why
And for every happy hello, there will be good-bye
There'll be time for you to put yourself on
Everything I've seen needs rearranging
And for anyone who thinks it's strange
Then you should be the first to want to make this change
And for everyone who thinks that life is just a game
Do you like the part you're playing
I see your picture
It's in the same old frame
We meet again...
You look so lovely
You with the same old smile
Stay for a while...
I need you so, oh, oh, oh, oh
And if you take it easy
I'm still teethin'
I wanna love you, but
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile
For the time that I've been given's such a little while
And the things that I must do consist of more than style
There are places that I am going
There'll be time for you to start all over
This is the time and this is the time and
It is time, time, time, time, time, time, time, time, time...
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Other reviews
By psychopompe
No title has ever been more prophetic in encapsulating the timelessness and fragile equilibrium of these compositions.
There is little or none of the 'peace & love' rhetoric in this album, but rather a creeping unease that lurks here and there in the string arrangements.
By March Horses
“Forever Changes by the Californians Love is one of the greatest albums in the History of music, one of the symbols of the entire psychedelic season.”
“Arthur Lee thought he was going to die (side effects of LSD?), and this was to be his personal requiem.”
