54. Forever Changes - Love

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Greetings, Readers! I am beyond excited for this album. I recall doing a quick scan of the list at the beginning of my musical odyssey and seeing Love. I had never heard of Love. I wanted to listen to the album right then and there. But I have waited. And since I am proceeding extremely slowly on this adventure, it has taken years to get to this point. Album 54. "Forever Changes". 

 I did some quick reading about this one, there are all kinds of tantalizing tidbits associated. There is talk of heroin, spooky castles, flower power and darkness. I'm in! I started listening as I began typing this little introduction, and had to turn the music off, because I was getting distracted trying to put my thoughts into words. I'm going to give this one a good listen, and then I'll come back to you. Wait a second, you waited two years for the last post and you can't give me an hour so I can come up with something to say about this album? Pushy! Settle down, I'll be back in a second.

Well that didn't take long! I only got into the first track "Alone Again Or", and I had to come back. I jumped when the audio went from one side to both; I was intrigued by the lyrics, and stopped everything when that trumpet showed up. I am digging this. Its got that psychedelic 60's vibe but doesn't seem as innocent as some of the other music of the time. The Spanish flavour of the track sells it to me immediately. The end of the track has some studio hijinks as well, the audio disappears on one side by about half and then altogether as the song ends. Given some of the other stuff we have visited in the last few posts, this shouldn't be surprising, everyone is trying to outdo each other in the studio, remember? Anyway, on headphones the effect is a feeling of sudden deafness in one ear, and then the next track begins. 

 "A House Is Not A Motel" actually sounds like something from the summer of love. The vocals are full on 60s, but a bit of the darkness comes through with a gruffly shouted 'Alright now', and lyrics about blood and mud allegedly inspired by tales from the war in Vietnam. This tune is full of good musical moments. Busy bass, aggressive guitar, and some obscure shouting in the background make this one a standout.

 Things calm down a bit for "Andmoreagain". I'm sure one could delve deep into these lyrics, there is certainly more going on than is apparent on the surface. "The Daily Planet" is bass forward right off the bat. I just looked up the players and it is the Wrecking Crew again with Carol Kaye playing that bassline, and Hal Blaine banging away on the drums. The track was arranged by none other than Neil Young. Talent everywhere!

 The next track is "Old Man". It is not the same "Old Man" that was recorded by Neil Young. That is something different altogether. This one sounds very sixties and is probably not something I'll throw on again. It's got nice guitar and some parts that sound like cello and strings, and horns towards the end, but I'm finding that the entire package isn't my cup of tea. I don't really care about this fella and his elderly friend. I'm sure Love don't care that much about me or my opinion either. 

 "The Red Telephone" has echoes of early Pink Floyd (get it?). The second line ends with the word 'die' emphasized as though it was spit out in disgust. I really like the bass sound on this album. It stands out nicely against the constantly moving guitar parts. This tune is quite odd. It does have some nice moments though. The whole idea of flower power being tinged with darkness is cemented as the repeated lines at the end of the song drill into your mind. Dark thoughts mixed with humourous background chatter wrap this one up. A little challenging, but a good listen.

 The next tune had me right from the first note. The horns are delicious. The title is "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale". Well, my original thought was that it might be about the old neighbourhood and some shared hardships, since they mention that everybody in the town is painted brown. But, I couldn't help but notice the second part of the title and wondered what could be between Clark and Hilldale. Well, it turns out that at the corner of Sunset and Clark is the Whiskey a Go Go. This tune might be about the scene in LA at the time and the Sunset Strip of the day. Which brought to mind the fact that there were riots around this time on the Sunset Strip. I could be reaching here, and missing the point, but it fits with the general tone of the album. I'm sure these folks would have been right in the middle of whatever was happening around there during that period. 

 "Live and Let Live" starts off talking about snot on somebody's pants. It's hard to come back from that. Implications of violence with references to pistols and artillery don't make it more comfortable. I suppose that when you, or your family and friends, have the possibility of being drafted, or have recently returned from a foreign war to face a less than overwhelming welcome back at home, one could get a little bit pessimistic. The darkness continues. 

 This is all tempered by the next song. "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This". Lyrics about little girls in pigtails, and bright happy sounding music are anything but dark! I'm not fooled. I think they are being ironic here and are making me feel like everything is ok, when it plainly isn't. If the Good Humor man sees things this way, why can't we? At the end, more studio tricks that sound like insanity. I knew it.

 Love do their best Bob Dylan impression on "Bummer in the Summer". At least that is what it sounds like to me. At least there is no goddamn harmonica shrieking at me. Oh, listen! There is some nice country guitar picking in this one. I like this tune. The next track is the final one for the original album, it is called "You Set the Scene". It has a good pace and sounds like a slice of the Sixties. The horns come back for a bit in the middle and the arranging is really well done. It ends on a call and answer fanfare of horns. Beautiful.

 The acoustic guitars stand out throughout the whole album and the bass is panned off to one side and sounds great as well. The musicianship was excellent and the album was not at all what I expected.  I thought this was one of the best offerings we have heard yet. It did not disappoint, even after waiting so long. Rolling Stone placed this album at number 40 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

 Listen here.