Love - Forever Changes
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On this episode we let you, our loyal listeners and fans, pick the album we review. That's right, its our first "Listener's Choice!" and you all picked a doozy: Forever Changes by Love.
Love's third album has come to be appreciated as a classic. Released around the time of the "Summer of Love", the album's lyrics and themes are not the "peace and love" you'd expect. Rather they seem to dwell on the inevitability of breakdown those lofty ideals.
Forever Changes is considered by many to be one of the greatest albums of the 1960s, and by some to be one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Regardless of whether you agree with that, there is no doubt that Forever Changes stands out as a truly unusual and unique artistic statement.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols were in several bands before Love, one of which was agroup and n instrumental Booker T and the MGs knockoff called the LAGs (stands for Los Angeles Group).
Here is the LAGs single “the Night Wave”
A billboard advertising the release of what was at the time the name of Love’s third album: The Third Coming of Love.
The classic lineup of Love (Pictured L to R): Michele Stuart, Johnny Echols, Ken Forssi, Bryan MacLean, and Athur Lee.
Here is Love performing “Message To Pretty” and “My Little Red Book” on American Bandstand in 1966.
Rumor has it that Johnny Echols was one of the first guitarist to play a double neck guitar live. According to Echols, because some of Love songs had both 6 string and 12 string parts, he wanted to play one guitar the love instead of than having to switch guitars mid song. A guy who worked for Mosrite Guitars attached a 12-string neck on a the 6-string and he played that until he found a guitar manufactured form the 50’s called the Stratosphere that manufactured that way.
Later in in his life, A Arthur Lee began performing the whole Forever Changed album live. He he is in 2003 performing “The Daily Planet” for a festival crowd in Glastonbury.
