SH Spotlight We love LOVE! "Forever Changes" Elektra 1967 recording sessions and dates, studios, stories, etc.

Johnny Echols on the two tracks he recorded for FC from the Q&A at The Freedom Man forum. Note he was asked if there was anything in the vaults that was not on the Deluxe Edition...

I was in constant communication with Andrew Sandoval, throughout the production of the "Collector's Edition". Missing are slightly different versions of most of the songs, plus various out-takes. We are also left without the banter, the give and take between group members. Then we have two instrumentals, that I wrote, that were almost finished. One was a jazz tune called "Search for the Fatherland". I could not play a decent guitar solo, even when doing take, after take. It just wasn't there. I felt so embarrassed, when Hal Blaine and Don Randi kept trying to encourage me to "play". The other song was called "Booker T". a soulful, up-beat instrumental, that was just never finished. I would have loved to have had the opportunity, to go in the studio, and finish those songs. JE.

 

Great thread. I can't remember how I discovered this album, but it's the only album of the psychedelic era that connects with me. Maybe because it's as cynical as I am, has many moods and sometimes likes to rock.

Arthur Lee is one of the only musicians I can relate too, or care to relate to on a personal level. He is far more human than Sid Barrett or Jim Morrison. In some ways I really admire his attitude, but I also see the dark side of myself in his life and it scares me.

 

So Botnick referred at least once specifically to the two tracks which Steve has the group beginning in June at Western, two months before the next sessions, even though Botnick surely wouldn't have been involved in these earlier sessions? Weird.

Perhaps he knew these had been done with studio musicians before he got involved but when the band reconvened to record in August they were still struggling and he has since conflated the stories.

 

Ahhh, I re-read Steve's chronology. I was mistaken: they reconvened at Western in August and, apparently, recorded the remaining basic tracks there. Going by this quote and Steve's chronology, the basic tracks were likely done before Botnick was even involved.

What gives with his detailed recollections of the sessions then? Why would they be sitting around upset if they'd recorded most of the album in a few days in August and were at Sunset for overdubbing? They might have been having other problems of course but the recording history of this album as we know it seems quite streamlined.

I wish I had something useful to add. Since I learned of this album (I think from a Q Magazine top 100 albums article in 1998) and found it in Melbourne after three years of looking in CD stores in Sydney, I have adored it. As someone who has only been to LA twice in my life I only have a vague understanding of the place but this has always seemed to me like the magic of '67 filtered through the LA smog. It's beautiful but it's also very ominous. Even dangerous.

 

For me, it's Arthur Lee's authenticity that makes the Live Forever Changes such compelling listening. That, combined with knowing what he went through to get there, and the palpable crowd electricity due to both, makes this a rival to the studio version, which is no small accomplishment, particularly last year's vinyl reissue.

 

What a great album. I had read music books as a preteen that had Love listed in them and told of their career and discography. Each reviewer went out of their way to praise this album above anything else the band did. So, around the age of 15, I bought a used copy on vinyl to determine myself on how good it was. I was in love (pun not intended) from the start. "Alone Again Or" just sets off a classy mood of 60's tracks. Went and bought the deluxe edition when that first came out.

 

I bought Forever Changes in the mid 80s as a German LP reissue and from the first notes I felt the greatness. People not at all in rock, are also thrilled whenever I play it to them. Perhaps because it goes beyond rock.

 

Steve, thanks for sharing this mono mix with us. Certainly agree that it's a dedicated mix. The rest of the album does sound like fold-downs, as has been discussed before.

BTW, the person who uploaded this to YouTube did the whole mono LP. Here is the link . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXsUzEQ1Uc&list=PL593D1BC6A72690ED

 

I bought the Rhino Best of Love (probably only released because of The Knack connection ) and ordered FC from the local import shop and got a red label US copy 3 weeks later. So it must have been in print.

 

I know the mono's mostly reported to be a fold, but I still wish someone would do a nice vinyl reissue. Just sayin'. I've had zero luck finding a mono original ... never even seen a copy.

One question for everyone: I always thought Forever Changes stayed in print on Elektra straight through to the '80s on vinyl. Over the years I've owned at one time or another a brown label original, first butterfly, second butterfly (with WB logo), solid red late '70s label and black/red '80s label.

 

It's even the little things. Many times, words combined with phrasing. One of the most chilling moments for me on the record is in the middle of "The Red Telephone": "I've been here once. . .IIIIIIIII've been here TWICE."

 

I think I posted this in another thread, but there's a great interview about Forever Changes with Bruce Botnick, Johnny Echols and Maria McKee from Studio 360 that aired last fall.

 

I asked this in another thread but no one could answer so I will pose the question here.

I recently bought a 7" single "Alone Again Or" / "Bummer in The Summer" and the version of the A-side is edited, a deifferent version than the single mixes on the cds and the RSD 7".
Can anyone tell me if that edit was exclusive to the UK ? I think Bummer is a dedicated mix on the B-side too. Anyone have any info on these singles?

 

Great thread...I didn't discover this record until about a month ago when I found this mint Stereo gold label at a local yard sale. It's in heavy rotation, I like to listen to it at night, what a master piece of tone and music...

 

Absolutely, it's an incredible record...Thanks!

 

Johnny Echols interview: http://danielcoston.blogspot.com/2012/05/love-interviews-johnny-echols-and.html

Bryan MacLean site: http://www.bryanmaclean.com/lovebiogs.htm

 

Amen Steve...and kudos to Bill Inglot. That guy is great at tape research.

Most of my collection is now in sstorage as we are remodeling. And wouldn't ya know it...the deluxe edition of Forever Changes is in a box. Bummer....I wanna give that set a spin. But, my Allman Brothers discs are among the few artists I did NOT pack away. Priorities

 

Your post really brings that (awful) time back to me...90 percent of the music I was interested in was out of print, it seemed. I remember trying to get some Byrds albums back in 1982, coming up empty and being enraged (of course the Byrds were considered total has-beens back then). I bought the Rhino Love compilation
you mention in the early 80's, and first heard the "Forever Changes" album in 1979. The album took several
plays for me to fully get it, but eventually it became my all time favorite album...and still is.

 

Yeah, I think Elektra must have had "Forever Changes" still in print at the time, I got a red label copy of it in 1979. The Rhino Best Of liner notes mentioned that "Forever Changes" was still out but everything else by the band was OOP.

My very first Love record purchased was a (mono) reissue 45 that I got in 1975 that had "Alone Again Or" on the A side and "My Little Red Book" on the B side.

 

Definitely Billy Strange on electric guitar. If there's a piano on the track, I think it might have been Don Randi, but I won't swear to it.

 

If you want to get some idea of how pathetic the in-print landscape was in the late '70s, find a copy of the Rolling Stone Record Guide (the one with the red cover). The releases in that guide reflected what was in print when they were assembling it. There are mistakes, and some stuff that was out of print still gets reviewed, but it gives you a pretty good idea of how pathetic the availability of certain artists was at that time.