SH Spotlight By request, a reposting of Love "Forever Changes" alt. mix story about Joe Saraceno. Good times!

I posted this on Facebook in 2020, thought I would repost it here for ****s and giggles. It involves one of my favorite albums "Forever Changes".. Might be of some interest. I might have posted some of this in a previous thread but I forget which one so I'll post it again..

Good old Joe Saraceno. He was an old-school record producer. You've heard his productions: The Ventures, The Routers, The Marketts, Annette, The T-Bones, Sunshine Company, hits like Surfer Stomp, Out Of Limits, Sting Ray, Let's Go, No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In) and many other hits, mainly instrumentals.

Joe used to come around to our record company offices (DCC Compact Classics in Northridge) in the 1990s all the time. He always carried a brown paper grocery bag full of tapes of stuff he said he "owned" for us to possibly license. Mainly junk but one day he said "You'll like this, it's rock and roll, I don't know the artist, but I own it. If you want it, you can have it for $500.00."

We played it in my office and I was surprised to hear clearly an unknown mix of LOVE "FOREVER CHANGES." I said, "Joe, where did you get this?" He told me he got it from the DJ Roger Christian. I told him it was owned by Elektra Records. He just shrugged, looked in his brown paper bag and said, "Oh well, let's try this one!"

As Joe was leaving I asked him if I could have the rock & roll tape ("Forever Changes"). He tossed it to me and it went in my desk and I thought nothing more of it for over 10 years.. This tape was eventually remastered by me and released by Rhino on Elektra and is the source of the alternate mix of FOREVER CHANGES that we know so well now. Not as good as the original album mix but an interesting alternate version.

In the year 2000 a record company was suing Joe because a well-known group's early catalog (The Beach Boys) was being sold and pesky Joe was still licensing the music himself. The new owners of the music filed suit for him to stop and nominated ME to testify as a witness against Joe. Yikes. I didn't want to do that AT ALL but my boss said I had to, politics, business and all that. So, one day I put my best Brooks Brothers dark blue suit with the gold buttons on, went downtown to court early on a Monday morning and sat in the hallway of the courthouse waiting to be called and glowering about it. I felt really bad.

Thing is, I liked Joe (who was probably only getting about $500.00 a year from the artists' catalog) and I didn't like the record company dudes at all. That's how it goes sometimes.

At any rate, I was sitting in the hall waiting for my name to be called with our lawyer and Joe and his lawyers walk in. I felt sad and miserable but Joe saw me, quickly smiled and waved. I rose, walked over to him and he hugged me, whispering "It's OK, it's not your fault, it's OK, don't worry" over and over again to comfort me. Our lawyers tried to break us apart. I was touched because I was feeling quite bad about everything...

Turns out I didn't have to testify, an agreement was reached. My laywer told me to just go back to work so I did, but I got on my couch and laid out for a while. It had been an emotional morning.

Next time you hear "Out Of Limits" on the radio or play the alternate mix of LOVE "FOREVER CHANGES" think of old Joe Saraceno. A rascal but a good guy--- As long as he didn’t owe you money.

 

Might have been, makes sense. It sounds very 1974..

 

My only fear is that the later mix is going to eventually replace the original 1967 mix. It shouldn't, the original is the original and sounds pretty good on modern gear. I hope that doesn't happen 'cause then I'll feel bad..

 

Thank God the alternate will never replace the orignal mix. The original is canon!

 

I was against its release but RHINO wanted it out. It's not a very good mix at all, but, it IS fun to listen to, I guess..