Forever Changes - Love (1967)

Forever Changes - Love

When I talk about this band to my friends, some still don't know them.  Love are sometimes called as "obscure" or "underground," which makes me very sad.  Though they are often described as "underground," they affected The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and even The Rolling Stones (Love's singer, Arthur Lee recommended The Doors to Elektra Records, and The Stones wrote "Goin' Home" after they saw Love on stage). 

You can see the similarity between "Goin' Home" and Love's first album. 

Since the band were fans of The Byrds, they invited The Byrds' manager and singer songwriter, Bryan MacLean to join their band. Jac Holzman's Elektra signed Love in 1966, and this is their 3rd album.  It's surprising that Neil Young, who was a fan of the band, and Bruce Botnick, who was The Doors' producer at that time planned to produce this album, but Neil Young wanted to focus more on his own projects like Buffalo Springfield, so this plan was abandoned. 
Instead, Arthur Lee and Botnick produced this and started recording at Sunset Sound Recorders in June 1967.
However, the band was inable to play at first because they were high on acid lol, so Botnick invited a group of session musicians called Wrecking Crew to the studio, and they recorded two songs.

Speaking of Wrecking Crew, they actually played in many A&M works and "Roger Nichols And The Small Circle Of Friends" as well. This song is one of the songs in which Wrecking Crew played. By the way, I love this album cover!

Except "And More Again" and "The Daily Planet," Love managed to record all the songs without Wrecking Crew.

Arthur Lee wrote 9 songs and Bryan MacLean penned "Alone Again Or" and "Old Man." Neil Young arranged "The Daily Planet," and David Angel did orchestral arrangements. 

My favorite song is "Maybe People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale."
I think "Alone Again Or" is often picked up as the best song of the album, "Maybe People Would Be ~" is the little known masterpiece, then.

So far, I listened to their three albums - Love, Da Capo, and Forever Changes, but I think this album is the most renowned and fascinating one in which Spanish music and rock n' roll are strangely mixed.  
So, if you don't know Love yet, I highly recommend this album!