Forever Changes is a wonderful record that should be in everyone's collection. It's been one of my desert island discs since I first acquired it in the mid-1980s. I was intrigued by the five star review in the Rolling Stone Record Guide that called it a "lost psychedelic masterpiece" and "indescribably essential" (among other superlatives), and also by constantly seeing Love mentioned in reviews of artists I favored at the time like Echo & the Bunnymen and Lloyd Cole & the Commotions (there was a line in "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?" about "listening to Arthur Lee records") . I thought it was high time to chase the river back to its source.
Finding Forever Changes became my search for the holy grail during my second year of college. I think I had to special order it, since it wasn't readily available in the pre-CD era. Once I found the album, it was love at first listen. Other people just like me have discovered the album the same way over the past 40 years, but still very much a product of its place (L.A.) and time (late-67). Here are cover versions of four selected songs from Forever Changes
1. Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Alone Again Or
(from Under The Covers, 2006)
"Alone Again Or" has been covered a bunch of times. Along with this cover by Sweet & Hoffs (Sid & Susie), it's also been covered by UFO , the Damned, Calexico, and the Boo Radleys. Among others. One of the two Forever Changes songs written by Bryan MacLean
2. Bryan MacLean - Old Man
(from Ifyoubelievein, 1997)
The other MacLean-penned song on the album is "Old Man". This is a 1966 solo demo of the song from the album ifyoubelievein, released by Sundazed in 1997. Bryan MacLean died of a heart attack one year after this album of his early demos came out (Christmas Day 1998)
3. Yo La Tengo - A House Is Not A Motel
(from Ride The Tiger, 1986)
Around the time of the Damned version of "Alone Again Or", Yo La Tengo released a cover "A House Is Not A Motel", the second song on Forever Changes, on their debut album. It was also the B side of their debut single ("River of Water", 1985).
4. Baby Lemonade - You Set The Scene
(from 68% Pure Imagination, 1996)
Baby Lemonade later became Arthur Lee's backing band, helping him finally take Forever Changes on the road in 2004-2005. There are parallels between that and Brian Wilson's sMiLe tour, but one main difference is that the musical direction on Wilson's tour was by the backing band (the Wondermints and Jeff Foskett) while Arthur Lee was the one in charge on the Love tour, and Baby Lemonade were his backing band.
I saw one of the final shows on the Forever Changes tour, at the Great American Music Hall in the spring of 2005. Arthur Lee & Love (aka Baby Lemonade) co-headlined with the Zombies. It was younger crowd (full of indie kids) and they all knew all the FC songs. During the Zombies set, Rod Argent asked if everyone was there to see someone else, because most of the audience would have been about negative 10 years old when Forever Changes and Odessey & Oracle came out. Shortly after that show, Arthur Lee split with his backing band (either they fired him or he fired them), and he died of leukemia one year later on August 3, 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment