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Love, is a band that has had a lot of myth, lore and rumor surrounding it. "Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love" separates the fact from the fantasy and legend sticking to the bones of Love due to the years, if not decades of fan conjecture in the face of silence from Arthur Lee. Author John Einarson does this with meticulous research and interviews with family, friends, and bandmates of Arthur Lee from his earliest days to his death in 2006. Einarson also incorporates the manuscript of an unfinished autobiography Lee was working on after he left prison.
"Forever Changes" focuses on Lee/Love's heyday in the mid 60's when Lee's band Love was the undisputed heaviest band on L.A.'s Sunset Strip. They were at the forefront of the folk-rock music scene. Love was the first house band at the Whisky a-go-go, and Arthur Lee may have been the sartorial model for hippies of the later 60's. Lee certainly thought Jimi Hendrix had adopted his mode of dress after meeting him.
Lee and Love (the two are indistinguishable) were one of the first bands signed by Elektra records Jac Holzman. A record deal that culminated in Lee/Love's artistic and critical success with the album "Forever Changes." Lee/Love were at the top of L.A.'s music scene. Jim Morrison commented that the early goal of The Doors was to be as big as Love. Just as the other bands were breaking nationally Lee and Love faltered. Why did the other bands succeed? And why didn't Love not reach a national audience? A lot of that does fall to Lee. He did little national touring, he had contentious relationships with record companies, money disputes with bandmates and a mercurial habit of changing the lineup of the bands.
"Forever Changes" doesn't fall into the trap that other rock books have, of not paying enough attention to or glossing over what came after their halcyon period. You come away from reading Forever Changes feeling that you have a good idea of Lee's life after he was "the prince of Sunset Strip."
Lee was influential and admired in the Los Angeles music scene that he boasted friendships with Jimi Hendrix, who Lee met in a recording session when Hendrix was still doing session work. The Doors, who succeeded Love as house band at The Whisky and Lee also recommended them to Jac Holzman. Both The Doors and Hendrix make special guest appearances in the book. Towards the end of his life Lee discovered that he had admirers in Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Ian Hunter, and Robyn Hitchcock.
The first thing you notice after receiving your copy of "Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love" is that it's an absolutely gorgeous book. It's cover and pages are high quality paper and the pictures are high gloss and has a high tactile quality, it`s a book you`ll find yourself leafing through again and again.
Einarson's use of Lee's autobiography is spot on. The manuscript is used sparingly but intelligently. The passages used are like a laser light on the subject at hand, and capture Lee cutting to the heart of the matter and shedding light on what may have been heretofore muddied by myth. Lee's voice stands out from Einarson's surrounding narrative and has the feel of listening to a tape recording of Lee as he describes the times, events and the L.A. scene.
"Forever Changes" is one of the best rock biography's I've read . When I started reading "Forever Changes" I wasn't a Lee/Love fan but Einarson's writing pulled me right in and made me care about Lee and his life.
I'm not one to recommend a publisher or their whole catalog but Jawbone Press is publishing high quality books in both content and the actual physical book. If you're a rock fan I would highly recommend other Jawbone Press books such as "Return of the King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback (Genuine Jawbone Books)" and "Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman's Visionary Record Label" as well as checking their catalog for other books that may be of interest. I've made a space in my bookcase for Jawbone Press books.
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"Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love" Feature
- ISBN13: 9781906002312
- Condition: New
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"Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love" Overview
Customer Reviews
The Love story - Bring_back_the_60s - Australia
This book really gives the reader what it must have felt to be Arthur Lee.
He was not a saint but he also had some nice qualities as a human being and musician.
I really enjoyed the book and discovered a lot of things about the band Love and how any music this good could be created under the conditions that exsisted.
Well worth getting.
A great Book about a great artist - Mark H. Linett - Los Angeles
I had the honor of producing and mixing Arthur's "Forever Changes Live " CD and DVD, and tho I only got to meet him twice it was one of the highlights of my career to work on the project. Forever Changes is still one of my favorite albums , and Arthur was obviously an enormous talent. The book tells it all, the good and the bad and anyone who is a fan should read it. My only quibble would be that my name was mispelled (not all that unusual) , and having heard the tracking session for 7 & 7 Is or rather the last 63 takes since takes 1-25 were recorded over, I must point out that it is Arthur playing drums on the record. Even more amazing except for Arthur's vocal the entire track was recorded (take #89) by the band in one take live in the studio. An amazing feat no matter how many takes it took.
I'd also like to praise the late Gene Kraut , Arthur's manager who did so much to resurrect his career, and made the Live Forever Changes project possible.
Love Is Incredible and Woefully Underrated - lenonomusic -
I can't recommend this book enough for Love fans, Arthur Lee fans or just fans of rock music. My emotions went between happiness and sadness throughout, sometimes on the same page. The happiness is obvious: describing the methods and ideas behind some of the most innovative music in rock history; the glory of the Sunset Strip and the craziness of the scene in the mid-to-late 60s; and the internal machinations of the band and it's various members. However, the book also has somber tones including the overriding question: What could have been? If only more people "got it" when listening to Love; If only Arthur would have agreed to tour more outside SoCal; If only the spectre of Forever Changes had not been so large. If if if; we can speculate forever.
The overriding message to me is that Arthur Lee was a musical genius; with Forever Changes he took music in a direction that was bold and daring.
Love is all you need - Donna M. Tindall -
Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love is a very well written book about the life of this very talented man and his various incarnations of his group, Love. A friend of mine, returning from a trip to L.A. in early 1966 brought me a copy of the vinyl LP of their debut album simply titled, Love. I bought all the LP's that followed. It is sad that the original band couldn't stay together but hard drugs reared their ugly heads in 1968, and flower power was stomped to death along with many important musicians of that era.
I recommend this book for those who loved the members of the first three albums and their fourth LP, FOUR SAIL. It makes for a good companion piece to the DVD, Love Story, the excellent documentary about this highly original band. It's such a shame that most of them are gone at such early ages. My only complaint is I would have liked more pictures of the band from that era, 1966-1969.
If you love diverse music, do your self a favor. Amazon.com sells the first four albums of Love. Buy them all and have a Lovefest for yourself, then order this book and wonder, if only...
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