Love - Forever Changes Poll

Hey, "The snot has caked against my pants" is itself worth a vote

Yes OTM, MVB!!

He's always been cited as a genius, but his band's most famous song is not written by him (Alone Again or).

This meant that I came to their first three albums late, but exactly when I needed them.

I'm confused as to why that would make you come to the first three albums late. But "Alone Again Or" is not their most famous song. That would go to "7 and 7 Is" or "My Little Red Book."

But even if it were their most famous song, how on earth could that possibly dminish Lee's genius?

"It's Complicated"

OK, it's not really. More, at the time, if he was so great, it would be his song that was the most well know, as opposed to Bryan Maclean's or Burt Bacharach's.

I had heard too many rub bands that were influenced by "Forever Changes", to the point where when I heard it properly for the first time, I was all "my gog, they didn't even get close!"

(hey, I'm leaving that typo in there!)

"You Set the Scene" is the only song I really play off this anymore. I think Arthur Lee can be a bit overrated--his songs can sound a bit too much like children's rhymes for me--but I have had a few occasions when I've woken up to "You Set the Scene" vividly playing in my head, which I would consider to be the pivotal sign of greatness.

"I think Arthur Lee can be a bit overrated"

even if its true, his rare vocals talent and beauty is undeniable.
just compare "andmoreagain" with "7 and 7 is" and "signed d.c." (the later version.
it's like 3 different,great singers..

"The Red Telephone" for its exemplification of 1960s LA dread.

Old Man, ever since I saw Love at Glastonbury in 2003. The whole set was a beautiful moment of clarity for me, but when I got home, it was remembering Old Man that caught the essence of it.

And can we settle this once and for all: the line is "We're all normal WHEN we want our freedom" not "AND we want our freedom."

He's quoting Marat/Sade on this one; "We're all normal and we want our freedom" is a line the inmates in the asylum say.

But he quite clearly says WHEN on the recording itself despite what the Arthur Lee tribute album claims.

More, at the time, if he was so great, it would be his song that was the most well know, as opposed to Bryan Maclean's or Burt Bacharach's.

I thought they were teaching rockism in schools now.

I had heard too many rub bands that were influenced by "Forever Changes"

P.S. What's a rub band?

lol the idea I'm in school now.

Funnily enough, we were on a tour round a secondary school for Amber, the library had (amongst other things) NMEs going back ooh 30 issues?...

(not that that's rockism, etc)

rub = rubbish, Kevin.

this is difficult.....

But he quite clearly says WHEN on the recording itself despite what the Arthur Lee tribute album claims.

-- Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, October 5, 2007 2:16 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

not THAT clearly! ive never heard it as anything but "and."

'the red telephone'

but really fucking hard poll.

It's "and" on the "FC Concert" right?

You Set The Scene

"Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale"

I mean this is a hard one, but I love the way that each verse ends with an elipsis and the first word in the next verse inserts the missing word. Is that device called something?

Difficult choice. The only track I've never much liked is "Good Humor Man" - sounds like an "Orange Skies" retread to me - and even that one's got a nice skittering orchestral freakout at the climax.

I'm gonna go with "Daily Planet". Just like "You Set The Scene", it sounds like 2 or 3 little songs joined together, but unlike that album closer, it comes full circle: Begins with "Every morning we arise...", ends with "Look, we're going round & round" and begins again, another day of sirens and accidents on Go/Stop Boulevarde, etc.

"The Red Telephone" by a nose over "You Set the Scene"

OTM Dr Morbius!

I'm gonna go with "Maybe the People..." slightly over "A House Is Not a Motel."

yes, Morbs got it just about right
xpost

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what?

I missed this. But probably would have gone for "Alone Again Or" anyway.

"old man" is a much better maclean song.
)and where is the love for "daily planet")

I voted for "Daily Planet"!

But I couldn't be unhappy with any set of results

I wanted to stage a rally or protest since my pick A House is Not A Motel didn't win. But I can't really complain since I liked all the candidates and feel that each gave their best effort and to lose to both You Set the Scene and Alone Again Or means that most people who voted probably got to the end of the album and that's very encouraging for all of us as we move into the future together.

Thank You. Now, c'mon, isn't it about time some wiseacre comes along and tells us why Reel to Real or whatever it's called is the REAL masterpiece. I'm game.

So any road: Now there's a "Collectors Edition" due shortly.

Disc 1 = Original stereo mix

Disc 2 = Stereo mix made in 1970 and used ever since, and also some extra tracks:

12. Wonder People (I Do Wonder) [outtake/previously unreleased]
13. Hummingbirds [demo/previously unreleased]
14. House Is Not A Motel [backing track/previously unreleased]
15. Andmoreagain [alt. electric backing track/previously unreleased]
16. Red Telephone
17. Woolly Bully [outtake/previously unreleased]
18. Alone Again Or [mono single mix]
19. Your Mind And We Belong Together [tracking sessions highlights]
20. Your Mind And We Belong Together
21. Laughing Stock

Woolly Bully [outtake/previously unreleased]

I'm thinking I could probably live without this

Well, I have the FC CD with the extra tracks, which are most of those, a Forever Changes Concert CD and DVD also, and I also got the original mono vinyl recently.

I think I'll make do with the downloads.

Woolly Bully [outtake/previously unreleased]

I'm thinking I could probably live without this

-- Tom D., Tuesday, April 1, 2008 3:15 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

hahaha yep. paid for this TWICE now, that's yer lot.

I'd be interesting to hear a mix of "Alone Again Or" with Bryan MacLean's lead vocal intact, before it was wiped, but that probably doesn't even exist anymore. So yeah, this looks pretty damn redundant. They managed to fit most of that stuff on a single disc last time 'round...

I've owned this 3 times but not buying it again.

I'd be interesting to hear a mix of "Alone Again Or" with Bryan MacLean's lead vocal intact, before it was wiped, but that probably doesn't even exist anymore.

Closest you can get is his solo version from 1972

Really? Never even heard of that! Oh, and I meant to say "IT'D be interesting". Or "I'd be interested", that works too.

I've owned it FOUR times since '86! ($0.25 for my first one, which had no cover.)

I've owned it three times - vinyl in 86 (the weird pressing which didn't fade out "A house is not a motel" so it just solo-d and solo-d until it just STOPPED - anyone else have this?), CD in 88 and remastered CD a few years back. My brother had original mono and stereo LPs, both CDs I had, and the "Love Story" double CD which had it in full as well.

On the one hand, my heart is thinking it's a good idea and I'd probably want it. On the other hand, my head (and wallet) are saying "Why bother?"

(the weird pressing which didn't fade out "A house is not a motel" so it just solo-d and solo-d until it just STOPPED - anyone else have this?)

I had this. I thought that's what it did on the original record? I thought it was changed to the fadeout for later reissues (like not fading out the title track on "Marquee Moon" - boo!)

Apparantly not. The real version fades out, but there were pressings made in the 80s which didn't fade out. In fact it makes for a better ending, I think.

Are you sure?

Absolutely. That's why my brother ended up buying the original mono and stereo LPs, to find out. I had my weird pressing first, then bought "Love Masters" which had the faded version, which intrigued me and my brother enough to get the original albums (he found them before I did). I remember reading about the weird pressing a few years back in a Fred Dellar page in Mojo or something like that. The full 'unfaded' version has never been issued on CD.

Strange! I prefer the abrupt ending too!

So, presumably, one of the discs will have this unfaded version.

Presumably two, track 14 (instrumental version) will not fade at the end...

so far on the extra disc--more piano in some cases, vocal mixes different, etc. "Wolly Bully" is cool; and it is only too bad that Love did not do it as a rock n roll tune instead of the folk-rock they play it as. on the other hand, Arthur Lee doing Sam the Sham and being a little embarrassed about it, therefore rendering it as folk-rock singalong, reminds me of his fellow Memphis native Alex Chilton doing the Kinks on Third. concept. FC is a great album.

But is there a version of "A house is not a motel" that doesn't fade out???

who is "Andmoreagain" written about?

one of Arthur Lee's girlfriends wasn't it...?

Really? Never even heard of that! Oh, and I meant to say "IT'D be interesting". Or "I'd be interested", that works too.

It's on the Ifyoubelievein CD that came out a couple years back
http://www.bryanmaclean.com/album/ifyoubelieveinalbum.htm

Undying respect and Love for this album

The very same, as well as undying respect for Love in general... Personally, I spin Love, Da Capo and Four Sail as often as Forever Changes ... particularly Four Sail, which I still think is painfully underrated.

The people of clark and hilldale were robbed

You know, I see a lot of people that like Four Sail, actually. I am certainly one of them!

Out Here has a lot of really good songs comparable to those on Four Sail also.

I've gotta listen to Four Sail right this second.

False Start is another great one, with The Everlasting First belonging in the top rank of their oeuvre. Featuring a killer guitar solo by Jimi Hendrix.

i like robert montgomery off four sail

anyway, happy birthday forever changes xx

is it Johnny Echols who plays the solo on "Live and Let Live"?

No reason not to think it isn't.

... er. No reason to think it isn't. Rather. LOL.

sure, just wanted to be surer, for no important reason. an incredible solo obv !

Maybe the People is the sound of summer, every summer since '67

I don't think I will ever tire of hearing Forever Changes. One of those records, like Odessey and Oracle, that has this incredible ability to retain its freshness for me.

Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale (what a strange title) is toe-curling-joyous (my translation of the french "jouissif"). So lively, and this lead guitar melody repeated by the one-note repetition of the trumpets is genius. I wasn't familiar with this particular song, for only listening to the more famous ones, but now I have it on repeat. I prefer it to the more elaborate guitar compositions.

The whole album's a killer, man. Every last song is fantastic.

maybe the people is so good, love it when Arthur Lee sings over the trumpets too

my vote would've been a dead heat between that and you set the scene, but yeah this is a front-to-back classic

Was it on this board or somewhere else in my years past internet forum fumblings that there was this completely absurd backlash against this album? It was entirely based upon this really trolltastic revision that Arthur was a late-60s hipster / scenester doofus that was just trying to get chicks or something.

tbf a lot of great albums were made by late 60s hipster scenester doofuses just trying to get chicks

lol otm

70s, 80s, 90s hipster doofuses as well.

Live and Let Live deserved better than one vote here.

I know, but I seem to remember this lot was trying to say the album was trash because of that.

It was extremely try-hard and had nothing to do with the actual music.

“Andmoreagain” always seems to me to be some kind of El Lay take on a British folk thing, like their version of “Fotheringay” or something.

I just got this album in March.

You just got a hold of it or you just “got” it, as in understood it?

One of the many things I love about this record:

- side 1 ends with a repeated i - I progression - stasis
- side 2 ends with a repeated V - I progression - completion

Still have not heard that version of “A House Is Not a Motel” with the sudden stop, predating “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by a good two years. That’s how the song originally was supposed to end but they were talked out of it by Elektra. HOWEVER, it did appear on some obscure ‘80s Canadian pressing of the album.

The version I had must have been obscure and Canadian in that case... except I'm pretty sure it wasn't.

When I bought a vinyl reissue of Forever Changes in England in the 1980s , it definitely had the sudden stop version of A House is Not a Motel and for a long time I thought that was the ONLY version.

This fan remix/remaster is pretty awesome

https://www.profstoned.com/2022/08/love-forever-changes-remixed-prof.html