Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	A− [3]
Rolling Stone	(favorable) [4]

Forever Changes is the third album by American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.^[5] The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. It was entered into the National Recording Registry in May 2012.^[6]

Album information [link]

Dropping keyboardist Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and flautist/saxophonist Tjay Cantrelli, the remaining five-piece performed on nine of the album's eleven tracks. The album was the first to be produced by Arthur Lee, with assistance from Bruce Botnick.

Originally, the album was to be produced by Botnick and Neil Young, but Young bowed out due to his commitments to Buffalo Springfield. According to the liner notes of the 1995 compilation Love Story, Young did stick with the album project long enough to arrange the track "The Daily Planet". Young has, however, denied that he had anything to do with arranging it.^[7]

The title of the album came from a story that Lee had heard about a friend-of-a-friend who had broken up with his girlfriend. She exclaimed, "You said you would love me forever!", and he replied, "Well, forever changes." Lee also noted that since the name of the band was Love, the full title was "Love Forever Changes".^[8]

The sessions began in June 1967, with the group (except for Lee and Maclean) replaced by well-known Los Angeles session musicians Billy Strange (guitar), Don Randi (piano), Hal Blaine (drums) and most likely Carol Kaye (bass). Drummer Michael Stuart says that Carol Kaye actually played acoustic guitar on "The Daily Planet" ^[9] when it turned out that Ken Forssi could play just fine, while showing Carol Kaye what to play.

This studio line-up was put in place due to the regular line-up's alleged inability to function. The two tracks recorded during these sessions, "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet", were later given sparing overdubs by the actual members of Love, who felt the tracks otherwise sufficed. Botnick recalls that the use of session musicians "sparked" the band, and they "realized they had blown it, got their act together and recorded the rest of the album". After much rehearsal, the group resumed work in August and continued through September, quickly laying down the remaining nine tracks, with a total estimated cost at $2,257.

Lee spent three weeks with David Angel, the arranger of the strings and horns, playing and singing the orchestral parts to him. Contrary to what has been reported in other places, Lee envisioned the horns and strings from the beginning, and they were not just added at the end. However, Lee did not play any instruments on the album.^[8]

"When I did that album," commented Arthur Lee, "I thought I was going to die at that particular time, so those were my last words." This is borne out by perhaps the most famous lines from the album, on the song "The Red Telephone":

"Sitting on a hillside

Watching all the people die

I'll feel much better on the other side."

Musically, the album is very ambitious. Having extended itself on the lengthy jam "Revelation" from Da Capo, Love here composes a more focused mini-suite, the album-ending "You Set the Scene".^[10]

A September 18 recording session finished the album, adding the horns and strings, as well as some additional piano from Randi, who played all the keyboard parts on the album as the band now had no keyboard player. Lee attended these sessions, and told John Einarson:

"I walked into the studio and took a seat in one of the chairs. I must have been there at least 45 minutes when one of the classical musicians said, "If this guy Arthur Lee doesn't show up soon, I'm leaving." I said, "I'm Arthur." Most of them, if not all of them couldn't believe their eyes. This black hippie guy is Arthur Lee?"^[8]

David Angel said: "String players would talk to me during the break and say, "You're doing something very unusual here." They sensed that this was groundbreaking, and they did sessions every day."^[8]

The album was released in November with cover art by Bob Pepper and only sold moderately, rising to #154 on the Billboard charts (without the benefit of a hit single). It did however reach the Top 30 in Britain. In general, critics loved the album. Pete Johnson, writing in the Los Angeles Times on February 25, 1968, said: [The LP] "can survive endless listening with no diminishing either of power or of freshness." Gene Youngblood, in the LA Free Press, May 10, 1968, wrote: "Soft, subtle. Forever changing in tonal color, rhythm patterns, vocal nuances, lyric substance. Exquisite nuances."^[8]

Forever Changes was included in its entirety on the 2-CD retrospective Love compilation Love Story 1966-1972, released by Rhino Records in 1995. The album was re-released in an expanded single-CD version by Rhino in 2001, featuring alternate mixes, outtakes and the group's 1968 single, "Your Mind and We Belong Together"/"Laughing Stock", the last tracks featuring Johnny Echols, Ken Forssi, Michael Stuart and Bryan MacLean. As for Arthur Lee, he would reform the group in late 1968 with all-new members and carry on the Love name for a few more years.

A double-CD "Collector's Edition" of the album was issued by Rhino Records on April 22, 2008. The first disc consists of the original 1967 album, while the second disc is an alternate mix of it plus the 2001 release bonus songs.

Reception [link]

While not a commercial success upon its release in 1967, "Forever Changes" has gained recognition in the ensuing years as one of the greatest rock albums of all-time.

It ranked No. 40 in the "Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums" book by Colin Larkin, published in 1998. The album was praised with the following: "For anybody not familiar with this record, it is unconditionally recommended as one greatest ever made."

"Forever Changes" ranked No. 34 in the "Critic's Choice, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time" by Paul Gambaccini. The book, published in 1987, asked music critics and others associated with the music industry to list their all-time top 10 albums, from which the top 100 were then compiled into one list. "Forever Changes" was listed as the No. 1 all-time album by two of the participants, Dave DiMartino and Bob Harris.

The album was also included in the third edition of "The Mojo Collection, The Ultimate Music Companion" that was edited by Jim Irvin and Colin McLear and published in the United States in 2003. "A psychedelic masterpiece ... 'Forever Changes' is an enigma wrapped in a web of contradictions ..."

In addition, "Forever Changes" was included in "100 Albums That Changed Music," a book edited by Sean Egan that was published in 2006. "It's the ultimate example of a record that might not find its listenership right away, but eventually comes to be appreciated as a timeless masterwork ...," wrote contributor Richie Unterberger.

"Music Hound, The Essential Album Guide," a book published in 1999 and edited by Gary Graff and Daniel Durchholz, gave "Forever Changes" a 4.5 (out of 5) rating. "The landmark 'Forever Changes' remains an absolute classic," wrote contributor Gary Pig Gold. "An instrinsically seamless, nearly flawless work."

Tom Moon, former music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, included "Forever Changes" in his 2008 book "1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die." Of "Forever Changes," Moon wrote, "Inside these songs are ideas about guitar soloing that Lee's friend Jimi Hendrix rode into the stratosphere; hints of the mysticism and transcendence that became the calling card of the Doors; and the seeds of goth, orchestral pop, and other subgenres. Few records of the era cast such a wide (and still lengthening) shadow."

Vincent "Vicente" Rodriguez, former pop music critic at the Dallas Morning News, lists "Forever Changes" as his No. 1 album of all-time. "The Beatles are the best and most influential act of the rock era, but even their best work - the trilogy of "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's" - falls short of 'Forever Changes.' This dark, innovative and melancholy masterpiece squashed the 1960s utopianism - if it ever existed - three years before the decade ended. There was the aftermath of the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968, the continuing debacle of the Vietnam War, a presidential election that featured a subtext of racism from which the country has yet to fully recover, the events at Altamont in 1969, all of which culminated with the Kent State shootings the following year." On a personal level, Rodriguez says, "'Forever Changes' influenced my decision to become a music critic because as a Hispanic, I related to group leader Arthur Lee. He was an African American pursuing a dream in a field - rock music - with few minorities and in which they were often involuntarily assigned pre-determined places due their racial and ethnic backgrounds. Unfortunately, that was also the case when I became a music critic."

Another notable retrospective praise came in 2003 from the British magazine, NME, which rated Forever Changes No. 6 on their list of greatest albums of all time. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Forever Changes the 82nd greatest album of all time.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in the December 11, 2003 issue. In a special issue of Mojo magazine, it was ranked the second greatest psychedelic album of all time, while in 1995 it made No. 11 in Mojo's list of the 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made.^[11]

Forever Changes was ranked 83rd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.^[12]

Forever Changes was praised by a group of Members of the British Parliament in 2002 as being one of the greatest albums of all time.^[13]

According to the New Musical Express, The Stone Roses' relationship with their future producer John Leckie was settled when they all agreed that Forever Changes was the "best record ever".^[14]

Parody [link]

Perhaps the most well-known parody of any track on the album is that of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's 1968 track We Are Normal, which featured a line from The Red Telephone, viz 'We are normal and we want our freedom/We are normal and we dig Bert Weedon'^[15]

Track listing [link]

All songs written by Arthur Lee, except where noted.

Side one [link]

1. "Alone Again Or" (Bryan MacLean) – 3:16
2. "A House Is Not a Motel" – 3:31
3. "Andmoreagain" – 3:18
4. "The Daily Planet" – 3:30
5. "Old Man" (MacLean) – 3:02
6. "The Red Telephone" – 4:46

Side two [link]

1. "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale" – 3:34
2. "Live and Let Live" – 5:26
3. "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This" – 3:08
4. "Bummer in the Summer" – 2:24
5. "You Set the Scene" – 6:56

Personnel [link]

Music [link]

Band members:

• Arthur Lee: lead vocals, guitar, arranger
• Johnny Echols: lead guitar
• Bryan MacLean: rhythm guitar, vocals, arranger (lead vocals on "Old Man")
• Ken Forssi: bass guitar
• Michael Stuart: drums, percussion, vocals

With:

• David Angel: arranger, orchestrations

And uncredited contributions from:

• Jim Gordon: drums on "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet"^{[citation needed]}
• Carol Kaye: bass guitar on "Andmoreagain"^[16] and acoustic guitar on "The Daily Planet"^{[citation needed]}
• Don Randi: piano on "Andmoreagain"^[16]
• Billy Strange: guitar on "Andmoreagain"^[16] and "The Daily Planet"^{[citation needed]}
• Neil Young: arranger on "The Daily Planet"^{[citation needed]}
• Hal Blaine: drums on "Andmoreagain"^[16]
• Orchestra: Robert Barene, Arnold Belnick, James Getzoff, Marshall Sosson, Darrel Terwilliger (violins); Norman Botnick (viola); Jesse Ehrlich (cello); Chuck Berghofer (double bass); Bud Brisbois, Roy Caton, Ollie Mitchell (trumpets); Richard Leith (trombone)^[16]

Production & design [link]

• Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee: Producers
• Bruce Botnick: Engineer
• Jac Holzman: Production Supervisor
• Zal Schreiber: Mastering
• William S. Harvey: Cover Design
• Bob Pepper: Cover Art

References [link]