Love – Forever Changes (1967)

And you’ll do just 

What you choose to do

In 2002, Peter Bradley – a Labour Party member of the House of Commons – proffered the following motion for Parliament’s consideration:

That this House pays tribute to the legendary Arthur Lee, also known as Arthurly, frontman and inspiration of Love, the world's greatest rock band and creators of Forever Changes, the greatest album of all time; notes that following his release from jail he is currently touring Europe; and urges honourable and especially Right honourable Members to consider the potential benefit to their constituents if they were, with the indulgence of their whips, to lighten up and tune in to one of his forthcoming British gigs.

The Forever Changes album cover

A total of nine MPs signed on in support of Bradley’s motion – including not only several other Labour Party members, but also a Conservative and a Liberal Democrat.

Sadly, that motion never reached the floor for vote, despite its obvious merit and its bipartisan – actually, tripartisan – support.  

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The proposition that Forever Changes is the G.O.A.T. of “Golden Decade” has been endorsed not only by those nine members of Parliament but also by the staff of the Brooklyn Vegan – which is a NYC-centric, multi-genre, mostly-music blog founded in 2004.

In 2017, the Brooklyn Vegan marked the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love” by picking the 50 best albums of 1967.

Their top choices included classic albums by the Beatles, Byrds, Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Who, and Jimi Hendrix – all of which were very deserving of being so honored.  But they gave the #1 spot in their rankings to Forever Changes.

Click here to see the entire list.

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In his 33 1/3 book about Forever Changes, Andrew Hultkrans said that Arthur Lee – Love’s frontman and primary songwriter – “was one member of the ’60s counterculture who didn’t buy flower-power wholesale, who intuitively understood that letting the sunshine in wouldn’t instantly vaporize the world's (or his own) dark stuff.Lee’s somewhat pessimistic worldview was likely influenced by the fact that Love was falling apart due to its members’ drug use and the increasing personal acrimony that was developing between Lee and Love’s other singer-songwriter, Bryan MacLean.  

So it’s no surprise that Love ended up producing a somewhat schizophrenic album.  (The New Musical Express – the British equivalent of Rolling Stone magazine – described it as “joyous, uplifting and sweet in parts, while at the same time menacing, introverted and paranoid.”)

Maybe that’s why Forever Changes was a flop commercially, peaking – if “peaking” is the appropriate word – at #154 on the Billboard 200 album charts. 

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Despite the dark tone of some of Arthur Lee’s lyrics, most of the music on Forever Changes is as cool as the other side of the pillow.  For me, that album goes down just as easily as Surrealistic Pillow.  

If you’ve never heard it, you need to.

Click here to listen to Forever Changes.

Click here to buy the album from Amazon.