poptimists | Arthur Lee RIP

Arthur Lee RIP

I am sad. His set at Glastonbury 2003 was one of the best I've ever seen, and fitted the atmosphere perfectly. We don't usually do pop star deaths on Poptimists and that isn't really the intention of this post anyway - there's a perfectly good thread in the Other Place for that.

But it occurred to me that Love are one of the few canonical 60s acts it's hard to pinpoint any kind of Poptimist consensus on. I have no idea how people feel about them. So go on, talk here about whether you like them or not.

For the record, Forever Changes is one of the only widely-revered canonical 'classic' albums that I think is actually as good as it's cracked up to be.

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What Love mean to me: a car trip from Manchester to Norfolk, August 2001. Ex's peculiar brother is driving, and insisted on stealing my copy of Horses for the journey. I hoped we'd bond. We didn't. Somewhere round Chesterfield he puts on Forever Changes, which I hadn't heard before. It's the remastered version with out-takes, and one of the songs starts off with an ace grinding riff, der-der-der-der-ner-ner-ner-ner plink plink plink...no, sorry, let's do that again...der-der-der-der-ner-ner-ner-ner. When the song proper starts I don't think I've been as disappointed since we stopped at Mansfield services and they'd run out of Frazzles. It sticks in my head for three weeks.

So it took me until last year to realise just how AMAZING Alone Again Or is. Feel sad now I never really got into them as much as I ought...people say it's the album that poked the needle at sixties idealism, but Alone Again Or doesn't really fit that. 'I could be in love with almost everyone/I think that people are, the greatest fun/but I will be alone again tonight my dear...' Could be the slogan sprayed on my wall. It's Roe Thugz, actually, but the spirit's there.

The thing with Alone Again Or is, it's meant to be two people in conversation. The "I think that people are the greatest fun" and the "And I will be alone again tonight, my dear" are spoken by two different people. I dunno why, but I always find songs like that interesting.

I was going to give you some other facts, but then I remembered that they all referred to a different song...bugger!

Is that true? Why do people insist on being clever like that? Goddamnthem.

I’ve been listening to Forever Changes since as long as I can remember, I love it in the familiar way you love a family member. I remember studying the artwork on my dad’s LP as a child many times, and later nicked the copy when I moved to London. Glasto 2003 was pretty moving, and I sort of felt like I’d ticked something off the list of important things to do in life, if that doesn’t sound too gay. Oddly I never really got into any of the other albums.

Are Love actually more "British canon"? The first I heard of them was through the Damned cover of "Alone Again Or," but despite the fact that they were the kind of group I should've loved (and should've heard on local radio) in my teens, I can honestly say I'd never heard a note until last year. Or are they somewhat "forgotten" everywhere?

The impression I get is that they were critically huge amongst the coterie of people who started Rolling Stone and got the rock criticism ball moving, but never a huge commercial hit. Then they were rediscovered in Britain when the psychedelic revival happened in the early 80s and never really went off the radar since.

no they were "cool" with punks also -- on the first ATV alb, mark perry was lyin on the floor w.a bunch of LPS round his head and FC was one of them

(ok so wz some godawful famous zappa LP but NEVERTHELESS THE POINT STANDS)

I own Forever Changes; I bought it on spec many years ago, but I've only played it 3 times at most. Leaves me almost completely cold tbh. "Alone Again Or" is alright.

No doubt I'll give it another go eventually.

I bought Forever Changes when it was repackaged a few years back (ok - 5 or 6 I suppose) because I thought anyone who had influenced the House of Love must be good, because I felt I 'should' get into late 60s stuff; and probably because I liked a track Tom had put on a compilation tape a good while before that. I didn't get it first time of listening, but it was one of the few CDs in my office so I played it over and over one afternoon and suddenly realised that I thought it was wonderful!!

Funny story: One Christmas I got this on CD for my dad who was 'around' for all that late 60s stuff and definitely buying records (including I thought Love, but that may have been one of the ones he nicked off his brother). He looked really dubious about it, hadn't heard or liked it at the time it came out, and didn't take to it when trying it out now, but six months later told me he had been listening to it non-stop in the car!

shakey mo on ILM had some ultra-purist -- and to me highly lame -- theory that FC was not as good as other love bcz lee had "sold out" to the "man" by having strings on the LP

obv my line was that "selling out" often makes music better rather than worse -- exception: THE CLASH, who did nothing BUT sell out and were always the worse for it

I sold Forever Changes on ebay. But not before copying it.

Argh, I'd almost written an essay on how I feel about Forever Changes and Love in general, but I slipped on my mouse and lost it.

I would agree that it's one of those albums that genuinely does live up to all it's meant to be, but it does need time. When I first listened to it I didn't quite connect with it, but over the years I came to love it to bits.

Although they weren't all about Forever Changes - their self-titled album in particular is always overlooked, when in fact it's got some brilliant 60s pop on it, although pretty bittersweet at times.

I always liked the self-titled LP more, too.

Yes yes, the early indie stuff, obv.

Bopkids

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Arthur Lee RIP

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