Always loved the arrangement of this song and they way the Spanish trumpet solo comes in out of nowhere. It was a classic the day it was released in 1967. I was proud to play it on FM radio in the day. The song was new and so was FM Rock radio. Arthur Lee passed on in 2006 and we lost another great of our music.
BRIAN MCLEAN'S MOTHER WAS A SPANISH DANCER AND MCLEANPICKED UP THAT VIBE GROWING UP- NO BRIAN MCLEAN- NO LOVE THE WAY WE KNOW IT. MCCLEAN WAS HEROIN, GOT CLEAN, CHRISTIAN MUSIC, DIED OF A MASSIVE CORONARY- HE WAS A PRETTY BOY BLOND ca KID WITH LOADS OF TALENT. THEY PLAYED AT WHISKEY A GO-G0 WHICH WAS STARTED WITH ONE PARTNER BEING JOHNNY RIVERS WHO PACKED IT 6 MONTHS SOLID. cHECK OUT JR- LP 'REALIZATION' WAS HIS HIPPIE MASTERPIECE.
Gere! Be in touch! I will send you a photo i took from Glastonbury Festival. Ps. Have something else you may have a interest in! From the Arthur Lee benifit at Beacon Theater!
Every once in a while you hear a piece of music where all the ills of the world disappear on hearing it and it stays with you all day long .....the very special ones ..like this one .
I can now call this the greatest song that was ever played and written in the modern world of music. Why? After all my years listenning to unlimited amount of music. I have never heard anything better!
Arthur played Glastonbury Festival in 2003. Really very special! You can find part of it on line. Yes! I was at the show. Have many special photos i took.
It's just fucking magnificent isn't it. Cult artist just doesn't seem enough. It takes a while but once this bastard gets under your skin there is no going back. Thanks for the music arthur lee. Peace
Absolutely..I was given this as suggested listening and though I liked the sound, I didnt understand what all the fuss was about until I listened to it repeatedly for a while..then I couldnt wait to hear it again and it gets better everytime I go back to it.. the best songs are like that I think..
Yes, magnificent is the word. There's something unique about this song....the way the chorus comes to an end and the trumpet lingers over the guitar....that feeling, I can't explain it but it is magical
It's curious how certain songs stay with you throughout your life, never losing their appeal. This is one of them, and the live performance was so well done. Love were in a category of their own.
one of the very best albums I have ever had..and one of the few albums from the 60s that never sounds dated or old..always fresh and original..if I was to choose the best album of the 60s this would in my mind..beat just about anything by the Beatles or the Stones really..
This is so true. I discovered them far later the release of their albums when they were extremely rare on vinyl in the late 70s-early 80. Same for the Seeds and 13th Floor Elevator. I remember guys desperately searching for their albums in the early 80s and you couldn't find any good copy of them unless spending a lot of money in some record shops specialized in old stuff.
Saw the band 8 times during 2003, mostly in small clubs with the basic band, once at Man Academy with strings and horns. The first time was at a club called the Limelight in Crewe, it was renowned for tribute bands, when I first saw the listing in the monthly what's on programme, I presumed it was a Love tribute band, I thought great, that will be worth seeing, looking a bit closer I realised it was Arthur. I recorded the performance, there is a great bit, when between songs someone in the audience shouts out to the stage, "Arthur, my mates on the phone and he doesn't believe it's you, have a word with him" the phone gets passed to Arthur on stage and he starts chatting with the guy on the phone, PRICELESS.
I was lucky to have seen Love many times, starting at Pandora's Box and Whiskey AGoGo. Arthur Lee was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Love's 1st 3 albums were individually amazing, with each increasingly complex. Their 3rd album is a masterpiece, The reason that they were not well known, was because Arthur didn't want to go on the road. Late in his career, they came back and were popular in Europe. They remain one of my top five groups. ❤❤❤
They did tour but weren’t able to tour the southern states (due to segregation) which is probably the bigger reason why they didn’t get more popular stateside
Arthur didn't like to travel. . .period. When his record label, Elecktra, wanted to bring the band to NYC for promotion, Lee balked. Instead, he "recommended" that the label look at a competitive band down the street. That band was the DOORS. Elektra invited them to NY and they accepted. You know the rest. I really, really envy you on he ops you had to see this iconic band. The memories you must still harbor are priceless.
In my 50s now, I was just recently turned onto LOVE by my vinyl pusher. I was immediately hooked. Absolutely a stunning album and to see and hear it 35 years later....timeless.
One of my favourite bands of all time if not the best! I got to see anx meet Love 2 years before Arthur died, it was such an emotional experience, i cried when they played Orange Skies, It took me back to when i was 19 in the late 70s. LOVE AND PEACE ❤❤❤
Great that Jools got this together, a blast from the past that is probably the best ever live performance captured on film -- all of 36 years after the original recording. Thanks again, Jools - the best music show on TV for more than two decades now.
Saw him open for Lou Reed back in '73. He had a big afro, and after the first song, took off the wig, set it on fire, and let it burn for the rest of the set!
LOVE!!! THe greatest Band that ever walked on to a stage! The music is so alive!I I was very lucky to have met Arthur twice at the Glastonbury Festival.One of my photos i took of Arthur was used at his funeral.Do we miss him!
@@lyricsronen i met him briefly at the Garage (London Venue) - he was just walking around out front pre show! Seems like he lived it to me - Shades, boots and Hat... walked the walk. Amazing - grateful for the experience. ❤
@@lyricsronen Lee said, because “we had the West Coast sewn up,” and because “I didn’t trust nobody. I wasn’t going on the road and play for $20 when I could play at the Fillmore for thousands. I had it made in one place, and I was kind of leery of going to a place I’d never been. I think I definitely made a few wrong decisions.”
@@oppothumbs1 I remember hearing from one of the Elektra employees he didn't want to tour the world because he didn't want to lose contact with his drug dealer in California lol.
I played this to my son He thought they were shit He changed his mind when he went to see them at The Royal Festival Hall in London He is now No 1 fan The irony is I never saw them What a great band in their original form and with Baby Lemonade We were blessed
Until a mate at work said he was going to see him live in Birmingham and let me borrow his album, i thought this song was by The Moody Blues! So glad i went with him to the gig!
This was written by Love band member Brian MacLean-he died a few years ago. Also, it was Arthur Lee that got the Doors their record contract with Elektra records. If there was no Arthur Lee there wouldn't have been the Doors...
musikfanat Not true that Arthur Lee got the Doors their contract with Electra - Love was the most visible of the LA/Sunset Strip groups and had 2 albums out by the time the Doors were signed in 1966. Love may been responsible for attracting record company A&R folks to the clubs in the first place, but guys like Arthur Lee had zero influence on getting other artists signed to contracts - Electra's problem was no one knew what to do with them; their first 2 albums were very uneven and were failures commercially, exacerbated by Arthur Lee's rather massive personal problems and his refusal to tour. Electra chose to promote the Doors (a source of tremendous bitterness for Love who believed they were going to get the big promo treatment) because the Doors were obviously quite a bit more audience accessible to the world, but there really wasn't any comparison between the group's music and styles. Whatever the case, Forever Changes was truly a masterwork --- and light years ahead of the earlier albums - I can't think of any other album that almost 50 years later still sounds so revolutionary and I would wager that if you played it today for someone who had never heard this, but who had seriously followed music since the late 50s or early 60s, that person would find it difficult if not impossible to tell you when Forever Changes was recorded.
Frank Converse Well, Frank - I don't think you got the context of my comment, which was written in response to musikfanat's very much revisionist last 2 sentences on Arthur Lee "getting the Doors their record contract" with Electra, followed by an ABSURD closing statement to the effect that if Arthur Lee hadn't been around there wouldn't have been the Doors, because that's simply not true. For the record, I'm very much a giant fan of Forever Changes (in spite of not particularly liking either of the earlier Love albums) and considered it at the time and ever since as one of the greatest albums I have ever heard. Elsewhere I've said that it might be the 1 album that I think is impossible to say when it was cut - anywhere from the 1960s right up to the present - it was so revolutionary (maybe part of it's problem) that no one could mimic it. Look, at the time in question (65/66) I was a 15 year old Long Island boy hanging out on weekends in Greenwich Village and getting to see (and occasionally hang out with) world-class musicians. My buddy would sit-in for the most famous musician in NY during after hours sessions. If you hung out, you got to meet people in the biz, and I met Jac Holzman several times. Electra was THE independent Rec Co around and Holzman wore a lot of hats in running it, combining A&R, Producer and the business side of things. So although I wasn't in LA, I can tell you that I heard about what was going on elsewhere, and when I said Electra/Jac Holzman didn't know what to do with Arthur Lee and Love, it was because people in the business were saying that. LA attracted its own supply of musicians and had its own scene. Business and talent people flocked to that scene - the same as in NY, where you would see a bunch of A&R people at the clubs whose job was to find new groups who were unsigned; anybody coming along who was not known was a "secret" for somewhere between 1 minute and 1 day - the trick was who could figure out the commercial potential for that artist and get them signed - that was true of LA as well. In Electra's case, they weren't positioned to compete with WB, Capitol, etc - didn't have the money for promo, etc.. Holzman's pitch included being able to work around that. Now this is a guy who had an impeccable track record at judging talent - so although Arthur Lee might have recommended that Jac Holzman sign the Doors, (without having been there, I would bet the farm that Jac Holzman knew of the Doors independent of Arthur Lee and he signed them independent of Arthur Lee's recommendation - because that's the way the music business is structured. What I think people constantly forget is that record companies are in business to sell records - if you, for whatever reason, don't sell records, you aren't going to get a lot of support for any length of time. The fact is that Love's first 2 records were rather mediocre and didn't sell - Forever Changes was their masterwork but it didn't sell a lot of records in spite of how great it was. That's not a criticism of Arthur Lee, but his unwillingness to tour and some other real problems were seen AT THE TIME (this isn't 20/20 hindsight) as making it that much more difficult to promote them. And BTW, there were plenty of other great artists who never were able to make a real go of it - some by choice, some for other reasons including not being in the right place at the right time.
I'm listening to Tom Petty's Buried Treasure today on Sirius XM and this song came on and I was transfixed. Almost got chills and felt emotional and weepy. I so remember it and I was a young teen in Los Angeles when the song came out. This is a beautiful live rendition. From the web: Love guitarist Bryan MacLean wrote this as a tribute to his mother, who was a flamenco dancer. Love were a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles. This fit the psychedelic sound with a mix of strings, horns and guitars. The group was led by Arthur Lee. They had one #33 American hit in 1966 with "7 And 7 Is" but they are most remembered for this. Lee was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 1995 for shooting at a neighbor who'd protested at the noise from Lee's stereo. MacLean left the band to join a Christian ministry. McLean dies of a heart attack on Christmas day, Dec 25, 1998 at age 52.
Saw Arthur on this tour at the tiny Limelight club in Crewe, So crowded people were nearly hanging from the ceiling, never realized that so many people loved Arthur's music ( though it is a Bryan tune !) as much as I did, He opened with this, no horns, no strings but a night of pure magic....The world needs Love.
Thank goodness this high quality concert was done for this unique artist. I grew up in a time when every band had to play “My Little Red Book”……but there was and is so much more. LOVE Forever!
Love should have been up there with the Doors popularity wise, unfortunately Arthur didn't want to gig outside the LA area during the bands peak years from 1966-1968 when they had Bryan MacLean (also the writer of this song) and were doomed to declining sales which along with acquired drug problems led to the original groups breakup in 1968. Its too bad as Love during the mid-60's was ground-breaking in many respects.
socialmeasles: You know your stuff. I thought though Brian wanted to sing his song and Art just said NO. Yeah I can hear Herb Alpert; was just listening to Alpert's The Loneliest Bull .. great underrated song.
Great performance of this classic, Love are criminally under rated and this song is one of the greatest compositions of all time. Arthur thank you for the music and good vibes.
Such a hauntingly beautiful song with a wonderful twist of dry humour. I discovered this song at the funeral of a colleague and while I’ll always associate it with a sad occasion I’ll always be forever grateful I discovered it.
It was a song against the free love movement that Arthur and Bryan collaborated on as Bryan didn't like his girlfriend going out all night with others. Hence "I heard a funny thing" because someone else is telling the singer they could be in love with almost everyone.
I was fortunate enough to see Love at the Aquarius Theater on Sunset Blvd. in 1966, I was like, 15 and the original band was amazing at that point, the disintegration had not started yet. The music still holds up today, it's timeless, IMHO, some of it sounds like it could be turned into a Broadway show! I, very much, miss the likes of songwriters like Arthur Lee
@@henrylambreton9079 Hey Hi Henry ! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you...I didn't get any 'notification'! I moved out of LA in 1975...! Up in Northern CA since then. I liked drink and smoke (still do a bit) but never got heavily into much of it at all. My health now is still pretty good. I met you thru Dennis Wolfe! He is around...lives nearby. I remember an anti-war march we went to on Wilshire Blvd. ! Thanks for writing me back !
I think the club was called Hullabaloo at that time. Yeah, I was sixteen. The two best Hollywood bands at the time were Love and the Doors. As I got older, the Doors were always talked about but I would say, "You need to listen to Love." Both great in their own way, but I return to the music of Love over and over again. Took my daughter to see Arthur Lee at the House of Blues before he passed away. I talked with Arthur after the show. He was so gracious with his fans. He held my hands in his as I shared how long I had listened to and loved the music of this group. And Johnny Echols came up on stage that night! It was magic. 🎶🎵💖
Hardly under-rated. Still one of the best loved albums. As a bass man I have to say this was very well done from that perspective. I had lost this album and found it again in a music store where I grabbed the tape so fast my brother noted, "I didn't know you could move that fast..."
Probably the single most underrated single in rock history.
Yep. Tied with "Walk Away Renee".
Wonderful song from a great album.
@@samsimmons8030 Love that song too
Agree
You may well be right. My girlfriend and I thought it had #1 written all over it.
Fourty-seven years later, and it still makes me want to cry, after all this time!
Me too.
netherworldman its a very emotional, haunting song. I get the same feeling
Agreed!
same here I can't explain why but especially when that trumpet comes in and those guitars man
and now...50 years later...still going strong !!!
Love that man. R.I.P Arthur sadly missed
Forever Changes - one of the greatest albums ever. Unique and timeless. Arthur Lee - a special talent RIP
Always loved the arrangement of this song and they way the Spanish trumpet solo comes in out of nowhere. It was a classic the day it was released in 1967. I was proud to play it on FM radio in the day. The song was new and so was FM Rock radio. Arthur Lee passed on in 2006 and we lost another great of our music.
BRIAN MCLEAN'S MOTHER WAS A SPANISH DANCER AND MCLEANPICKED UP THAT VIBE GROWING UP- NO BRIAN MCLEAN- NO LOVE THE WAY WE KNOW IT. MCCLEAN WAS HEROIN, GOT CLEAN, CHRISTIAN MUSIC, DIED OF A MASSIVE CORONARY- HE WAS A PRETTY BOY BLOND ca KID WITH LOADS OF TALENT.
THEY PLAYED AT WHISKEY A GO-G0 WHICH WAS STARTED WITH ONE PARTNER BEING JOHNNY RIVERS WHO PACKED IT 6 MONTHS SOLID. cHECK OUT JR- LP 'REALIZATION' WAS HIS HIPPIE MASTERPIECE.
the trumpet is genuis
Probably the best band ever
1967. / 70. F M. Radio. Was the best. Groups like love made it so
Gere! Be in touch! I will send you a photo i took from Glastonbury Festival. Ps. Have something else you may have a interest in! From the Arthur Lee benifit at Beacon Theater!
Every once in a while you hear a piece of music where all the ills of the world disappear on hearing it and it stays with you all day long .....the very special ones ..like this one .
I can now call this the greatest song that was ever played and written in the modern world of music. Why? After all my years listenning to unlimited amount of music. I have never heard anything better!
Arthur played Glastonbury Festival in 2003. Really very special! You can find part of it on line. Yes! I was at the show. Have many special photos i took.
Agreed.
It's perfection.
@@dougpotosky4102 Watching it on my other laptop right now. Can't get enough of it. Masterpiece. That must have been incredible.
Fascinating. I could almost agree.
It's just fucking magnificent isn't it.
Cult artist just doesn't seem enough. It takes a while but once this bastard gets under your skin there is no going back. Thanks for the music arthur lee. Peace
Absolutely..I was given this as suggested listening and though I liked the sound, I didnt understand what all the fuss was about until I listened to it repeatedly for a while..then I couldnt wait to hear it again and it gets better everytime I go back to it.. the best songs are like that I think..
Yes, magnificent is the word. There's something unique about this song....the way the chorus comes to an end and the trumpet lingers over the guitar....that feeling, I can't explain it but it is magical
Is it OK to cry over this? Asking for a friend.
This song always sounded just beautiful. He doesn't have to sing a note and it still reaches out to you. That is something special.
It's curious how certain songs stay with you throughout your life, never losing their appeal. This is one of them, and the live performance was so well done. Love were in a category of their own.
Brilliant song and performance from Arthur. Respect to Jools for having excellent artists on his shows. Thank you.
Waves of Love
one of the very best albums I have ever had..and one of the few albums from the 60s that never sounds dated or old..always fresh and original..if I was to choose the best album of the 60s this would in my mind..beat just about anything by the Beatles or the Stones really..
i have to agree with you
Totally agree.....makes Pepper sound like just a very nice pop album
I was working at a club called the troc when this happened to be going on. I was a new fan. Thank you for posting
You are kidding, right?
AMEN BROTHER! RIP Arthur
One of rock's hugely underrated and misunderstood talents. And what an insane life he had. Be at peace and travel well, Arthur Lee.
He was insanely ahead of his time.
The most under rated group/songs on the 60'! GREAT STUFF.
yip
*ever
the RV ER'S I agree.
just cuz didn't want to
This is so true. I discovered them far later the release of their albums when they were extremely rare on vinyl in the late 70s-early 80. Same for the Seeds and 13th Floor Elevator. I remember guys desperately searching for their albums in the early 80s and you couldn't find any good copy of them unless spending a lot of money in some record shops specialized in old stuff.
Saw the band 8 times during 2003, mostly in small clubs with the basic band, once at Man Academy with strings and horns. The first time was at a club called the Limelight in Crewe, it was renowned for tribute bands, when I first saw the listing in the monthly what's on programme, I presumed it was a Love tribute band, I thought great, that will be worth seeing, looking a bit closer I realised it was Arthur. I recorded the performance, there is a great bit, when between songs someone in the audience shouts out to the stage, "Arthur, my mates on the phone and he doesn't believe it's you, have a word with him" the phone gets passed to Arthur on stage and he starts chatting with the guy on the phone, PRICELESS.
Love this story!! 😅❤
This may be the best version of this song. So glad it is here.
The damned do a good cover
Arthur Lee awesome ,..in heaven forever !! rock on bruh !!
I was lucky to have seen Love many times, starting at Pandora's Box and Whiskey AGoGo. Arthur Lee was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Love's 1st 3 albums were individually amazing, with each increasingly complex. Their 3rd album is a masterpiece, The reason that they were not well known, was because Arthur didn't want to go on the road. Late in his career, they came back and were popular in Europe. They remain one of my top five groups. ❤❤❤
Great songwriter, for sure, but not the writer of this song. That would be (the late) Bryan MacLean.
They did tour but weren’t able to tour the southern states (due to segregation) which is probably the bigger reason why they didn’t get more popular stateside
I hate you. You saw, love live.. Like winning the lottery.
Arthur didn't like to travel. . .period. When his record label, Elecktra, wanted to bring the band to NYC for promotion, Lee balked. Instead, he "recommended" that the label look at a competitive band down the street. That band was the DOORS. Elektra invited them to NY and they accepted. You know the rest. I really, really envy you on he ops you had to see this iconic band. The memories you must still harbor are priceless.
Lucky you 😊
That's a great live version!
Magic.
A brilliant album. Considered by many to be the best of the 60's.
The best of all time.
Over-rated at best.....a downer compared to "Da Capo" . What HAPPENED ?
@@RockinProfessorA.
@@GarryWootton ----"A" what ?
@@GarryWootton --"A" what ?
Perfection.
In my 50s now, I was just recently turned onto LOVE by my vinyl pusher. I was immediately hooked. Absolutely a stunning album and to see and hear it 35 years later....timeless.
Absouloutly brilliant.
Sends shivers down my spine,
So true. Every single time I hear it.
OH Yeah a funny shiver thing. I heard that about you.
One of my favourite bands of all time if not the best! I got to see anx meet Love 2 years before Arthur died, it was such an emotional experience, i cried when they played Orange Skies, It took me back to when i was 19 in the late 70s. LOVE AND PEACE ❤❤❤
Great that Jools got this together, a blast from the past that is probably the best ever live performance captured on film -- all of 36 years after the original recording. Thanks again, Jools - the best music show on TV for more than two decades now.
Love had me with 7 and 7 is. This is just sublime.
I. Love. Arthur. Lee and love. Great musicians. Great show. Thanks for sharing..⭐️🎶✨🎶☀️
Love that Trumpet solo, spot on..........
Fantastic! This song never gets old. It's great music in any era! Arthur Lee & Love live on!
I miss Arthur Lee... :(
So do I..
love every part of him . before his time
+Tom Macan many thanks from this old hippie. brilliant stuff !
me too
+Brent Mireau just cannot get enough of his genius, so ,so sad that he's gone.
It's BEAUTY .. Makes me cry
just found this band a couple days ago while on acid. the guitar riff hits my spine everytime. this song is so good!!!!
Love Forever Changes is one of the best albums ever made. Rock on Arthur Lee, rock on.
A defining 60's classic . Just a great great song it's got everything. Thank you Arthur
Music doesn't get any better than this.
Saw him open for Lou Reed back in '73. He had a big afro, and after the first song, took off the wig, set it on fire, and let it burn for the rest of the set!
Csccdcswdqkwqo
grew up on LOVE...they were my favorite band....Forever Changes is a masterpiece...so glad I found this
"Forever Changes" The greatest album to come out of the sixties. Even better than that one by those four lads from Liverpool.
I grew up with Love and Forever Changes was a masterpiece!
No other band in history with the cool swagger and mystique brilliance of LOVE!!!!!.........
Met the great man in 04:) he put his arm round me and thanked me for listening to his musc.
superb, how can anyone not like this????????????
"Forever Changes" is one of the greatest "rock" albums ever-have been listening to it since it's release in the late 60's-never gets old!!
Finally got to see Arthur in Philadelphia at the Troc, before he passed away. One of the best concert I ever attended. RIP Arthur
what a great song from the 60s one of the best
love foreverchanges, fantastic lp
Beautiful. I'm speechless. Arthur Lee hasn't aged a bit and his voice is beautiful. His guitar playing is phenomenal. It made me cry. This IS Love.
rebbe1000 he passed in 2006 :(
LOVE!!! THe greatest Band that ever walked on to a stage! The music is so alive!I I was very lucky to have met Arthur twice at the Glastonbury Festival.One of my photos i took of Arthur was used at his funeral.Do we miss him!
That’s incredible! What is he like in person? I heard he didn’t like performing very much
@@lyricsronen i met him briefly at the Garage (London Venue) - he was just walking around out front pre show!
Seems like he lived it to me - Shades, boots and Hat...
walked the walk.
Amazing - grateful for the experience.
❤
@@lyricsronen Lee said, because “we had the West Coast sewn up,” and because “I didn’t trust nobody. I wasn’t going on the road and play for $20 when I could play at the Fillmore for thousands. I had it made in one place, and I was kind of leery of going to a place I’d never been. I think I definitely made a few wrong decisions.”
@@oppothumbs1 Wow that's wild man. What a great man, and a fantastic band! Love was so formative for me in terms of my overall taste in music
@@oppothumbs1 I remember hearing from one of the Elektra employees he didn't want to tour the world because he didn't want to lose contact with his drug dealer in California lol.
This song is so much ahead of its time.
There is no other song that quite hits me like this one ☝️
Great,great album
I played this to my son He thought they were shit He changed his mind when he went to see them at The Royal Festival Hall in London He is now No 1 fan The irony is I never saw them What a great band in their original form and with Baby Lemonade We were blessed
Until a mate at work said he was going to see him live in Birmingham and let me borrow his album, i thought this song was by The Moody Blues! So glad i went with him to the gig!
This was written by Love band member Brian MacLean-he died a few years ago.
Also, it was Arthur Lee that got the Doors their record contract with Elektra records. If there was no Arthur Lee there wouldn't have been the Doors...
musikfanat
Not true that Arthur Lee got the Doors their contract with Electra - Love was the most visible of the LA/Sunset Strip groups and had 2 albums out by the time the Doors were signed in 1966. Love may been responsible for attracting record company A&R folks to the clubs in the first place, but guys like Arthur Lee had zero influence on getting other artists signed to contracts - Electra's problem was no one knew what to do with them; their first 2 albums were very uneven and were failures commercially, exacerbated by Arthur Lee's rather massive personal problems and his refusal to tour. Electra chose to promote the Doors (a source of tremendous bitterness for Love who believed they were going to get the big promo treatment) because the Doors were obviously quite a bit more audience accessible to the world, but there really wasn't any comparison between the group's music and styles. Whatever the case, Forever Changes was truly a masterwork --- and light years ahead of the earlier albums - I can't think of any other album that almost 50 years later still sounds so revolutionary and I would wager that if you played it today for someone who had never heard this, but who had seriously followed music since the late 50s or early 60s, that person would find it difficult if not impossible to tell you when Forever Changes was recorded.
Read the bio online...
Zac Holman said it...
Frank Converse
Well, Frank - I don't think you got the context of my comment, which was written in response to musikfanat's very much revisionist last 2 sentences on Arthur Lee "getting the Doors their record contract" with Electra, followed by an ABSURD closing statement to the effect that if Arthur Lee hadn't been around there wouldn't have been the Doors, because that's simply not true. For the record, I'm very much a giant fan of Forever Changes (in spite of not particularly liking either of the earlier Love albums) and considered it at the time and ever since as one of the greatest albums I have ever heard. Elsewhere I've said that it might be the 1 album that I think is impossible to say when it was cut - anywhere from the 1960s right up to the present - it was so revolutionary (maybe part of it's problem) that no one could mimic it.
Look, at the time in question (65/66) I was a 15 year old Long Island boy hanging out on weekends in Greenwich Village and getting to see (and occasionally hang out with) world-class musicians. My buddy would sit-in for the most famous musician in NY during after hours sessions. If you hung out, you got to meet people in the biz, and I met Jac Holzman several times. Electra was THE independent Rec Co around and Holzman wore a lot of hats in running it, combining A&R, Producer and the business side of things. So although I wasn't in LA, I can tell you that I heard about what was going on elsewhere, and when I said Electra/Jac Holzman didn't know what to do with Arthur Lee and Love, it was because people in the business were saying that.
LA attracted its own supply of musicians and had its own scene. Business and talent people flocked to that scene - the same as in NY, where you would see a bunch of A&R people at the clubs whose job was to find new groups who were unsigned; anybody coming along who was not known was a "secret" for somewhere between 1 minute and 1 day - the trick was who could figure out the commercial potential for that artist and get them signed - that was true of LA as well. In Electra's case, they weren't positioned to compete with WB, Capitol, etc - didn't have the money for promo, etc.. Holzman's pitch included being able to work around that. Now this is a guy who had an impeccable track record at judging talent - so although Arthur Lee might have recommended that Jac Holzman sign the Doors, (without having been there, I would bet the farm that Jac Holzman knew of the Doors independent of Arthur Lee and he signed them independent of Arthur Lee's recommendation - because that's the way the music business is structured.
What I think people constantly forget is that record companies are in business to sell records - if you, for whatever reason, don't sell records, you aren't going to get a lot of support for any length of time. The fact is that Love's first 2 records were rather mediocre and didn't sell - Forever Changes was their masterwork but it didn't sell a lot of records in spite of how great it was. That's not a criticism of Arthur Lee, but his unwillingness to tour and some other real problems were seen AT THE TIME (this isn't 20/20 hindsight) as making it that much more difficult to promote them. And BTW, there were plenty of other great artists who never were able to make a real go of it - some by choice, some for other reasons including not being in the right place at the right time.
+Gary Wolgang you could probably write a very interesting book.
What a fantastic and underrated group!
Hello 👋🏼 Evelyn Lee
Minus the strings I saw them do this show in Royal Oak about this time. I cried.
I cry every time I hear it. :)
Not only an astounding track, but likewise is this album, a standout classic of the generously laden 70s. Sheer magnificence et al.😊🎉❤
Surely one of the greatest singles from the 60s. Yet it only just scraped into the top 30 in the UK.
Beautifully performed by Arthur backed by Baby Lemonade + Orchestra. Majestic.....
what an arrangement - what a song.
Those Guitars the whole Sound reaches the Heart... oh Joy
I came to his music only last week. I’m simply overawed at his talent.
Arthur lee and this band was the best example of great talent and creativity not being a shooin for commercial success
I'm listening to Tom Petty's Buried Treasure today on Sirius XM and this song came on and I was transfixed. Almost got chills and felt emotional and weepy. I so remember it and I was a young teen in Los Angeles when the song came out. This is a beautiful live rendition. From the web: Love guitarist Bryan MacLean wrote this as a tribute to his mother, who was a flamenco dancer.
Love were a psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles. This fit the psychedelic sound with a mix of strings, horns and guitars.
The group was led by Arthur Lee. They had one #33 American hit in 1966 with "7 And 7 Is" but they are most remembered for this. Lee was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 1995 for shooting at a neighbor who'd protested at the noise from Lee's stereo. MacLean left the band to join a Christian ministry. McLean dies of a heart attack on Christmas day, Dec 25, 1998 at age 52.
Hello 👋🏼 Meryl Burke
magic... :)))
Stunning performance of a Stunning Song , from a Stunning LP! God Bless Arthur Lee and LOVE! dx
A great song will stand the test of time. This one is still standing.
Saw Arthur on this tour at the tiny Limelight club in Crewe, So crowded people were nearly hanging from the ceiling, never realized that so many people loved Arthur's music ( though it is a Bryan tune !) as much as I did, He opened with this, no horns, no strings but a night of pure magic....The world needs Love.
Fabulous. Miss Arthur and Bryan MacLean.
This performance gave Arthur Lee a time to really feel appreciated.
Excellent song! Well performed. The brass section hit on all notes!
This is a great video. www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/love-love-story-7729/
exellent il a permis a dave manian des damned d en faire un inclassable mais bien délirant dans le personnage love love
cannot believe he's gone, pure magic.
Thank goodness this high quality concert was done for this unique artist. I grew up in a time when every band had to play “My Little Red Book”……but there was and is so much more. LOVE Forever!
Forever Changes is one of the greatest albums ever made. It must be heard by anyone who doesn't know about an incredible piece of work that FC is
Timeless, one of the great rock classics......
So beautiful
Love should have been up there with the Doors popularity wise, unfortunately Arthur didn't want to gig outside the LA area during the bands peak years from 1966-1968 when they had Bryan MacLean (also the writer of this song) and were doomed to declining sales which along with acquired drug problems led to the original groups breakup in 1968. Its too bad as Love during the mid-60's was ground-breaking in many respects.
I dig drug lovers!! +Geoffrey Allen please visit your local karaoke bar and sing making up vulgar words to the patrons.
socialmeasles: You know your stuff. I thought though Brian wanted to sing his song and Art just said NO. Yeah I can hear Herb Alpert; was just listening to Alpert's The Loneliest Bull .. great underrated song.
I f------g love this.
What else can be said of the great Arthur Lee? This music transcends the time of it's creation....super art and genius!!! Glad he lived among us!!
Such a gorgeous song. The Damned’s version is also great. The lyrics of this song are so beautiful
Great performance of this classic, Love are criminally under rated and this song is one of the greatest compositions of all time. Arthur thank you for the music and good vibes.
It is very wonderful
If one can describe a piece of music as absolutely delicious? This is IT!!!
No words...13 years ago and time just keeps flying,
He's not here anymore, but we have his music and this video, and that's still pretty cool. Thanks, Arthur.
That movie brought me here and I am happy I did...This is now one of my all time favorite tunes.
I saw them live 2 times in the early 2000's. They put up a fantastic show both times
Brilliant song . In my top ten for sure
What a band. I regret I'll never be able to see them live. Forever Changes is a true masterpiece. One of the 60's and in fact all time, great albums
So do I!
A truly great song, by one of the all-time greatest groups!
Such a hauntingly beautiful song with a wonderful twist of dry humour. I discovered this song at the funeral of a colleague and while I’ll always associate it with a sad occasion I’ll always be forever grateful I discovered it.
It was a song against the free love movement that Arthur and Bryan collaborated on as Bryan didn't like his girlfriend going out all night with others. Hence "I heard a funny thing" because someone else is telling the singer they could be in love with almost everyone.
Just❤️
too bad Arthur had such a sad life, he was brilliant.
Brilliant 👏👏
I was fortunate enough to see Love at the Aquarius Theater on Sunset Blvd. in 1966, I was like, 15 and the original band was amazing at that point, the disintegration had not started yet. The music still holds up today, it's timeless, IMHO, some of it sounds like it could be turned into a Broadway show! I, very much, miss the likes of songwriters like Arthur Lee
Blimey! How lucky! Do you remember how different it was to the studio recordings? Did they do anything off da capo?
Hi Henry ! I met you...back in 1972..Silverlake..! Where are u ?
@@hawejr Hi Richard, in 2020 I moved to Augusta GA and I'm very glad I did, Rich, my mind was addled with drugs/drink in '72, where & why did we meet?
@@henrylambreton9079 Hey Hi Henry ! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you...I didn't get any 'notification'! I moved out of LA in 1975...! Up in Northern CA since then. I liked drink and smoke (still do a bit) but never got heavily into much of it at all. My health now is still pretty good. I met you thru Dennis Wolfe! He is around...lives nearby. I remember an anti-war march we went to on Wilshire Blvd. ! Thanks for writing me back !
I think the club was called Hullabaloo at that time. Yeah, I was sixteen. The two best Hollywood bands at the time were Love and the Doors. As I got older, the Doors were always talked about but I would say, "You need to listen to Love." Both great in their own way, but I return to the music of Love over and over again. Took my daughter to see Arthur Lee at the House of Blues before he passed away. I talked with Arthur after the show. He was so gracious with his fans. He held my hands in his as I shared how long I had listened to and loved the music of this group. And Johnny Echols came up on stage that night! It was magic. 🎶🎵💖
Damn , I love this so much! Heard the Calexico cover first, which is awesome but the original is out of this world!
What an absolutely fantastic song!
Beautiful song!! This came out i was 7. Elektra records. A time when Rock music was changing. 🎶
Wow! It's thrilling! One of the best song ever
Unique and beautiful!
Hardly under-rated. Still one of the best loved albums. As a bass man I have to say this was very well done from that perspective. I had lost this album and found it again in a music store where I grabbed the tape so fast my brother noted, "I didn't know you could move that fast..."
If you know Love, you love Love
Wow what a brilliant version, only just found this. Lucky me.