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LOVE featuring ARTHUR LEE - FOREVER CHANGES ORIGINAL ELEKTRA RECORDS 1967 STEREO LP EKS-74013
ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING
ORIGINAL BROWN TAN ELEKTRA LABEL, MID-TO-LATE 60s STYLE
Allentown Record Corp. of Allentown, PA AL pressing.
THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.
ONE OF THE GREATEST ROCK ALBUMS OF THE LAST 50 YEARS THE UNIVERSALLY ACCLAIMED MASTERPIECE
ORIGINAL, THIN CARDBOARD COVER
COVER IS STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK CELLOPHANE WRAP
THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING
CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS
PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW
Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a recycled image from our previous auction. What you see is what you ll get. GUARANTEED
Love s Forever Changes made only a minor dent on the charts when it was first released in 1967, but years later it became recognized as one of the finest and most haunting albums to come out of the Summer of Love, which doubtless has as much to do with the disc s themes and tone as the music, beautiful as it is. Sharp electric guitars dominated most of Love s first two albums, and they make occasional appearances here on tunes like A House Is Not a Motel and Live and Let Live, but most of Forever Changes is built around interwoven acoustic guitar textures and subtle orchestrations, with strings and horns both reinforcing and punctuating the melodies. The punky edge of Love s early work gave way to a more gentle, contemplative, and organic sound on Forever Changes, but while Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean wrote some of their most enduring songs for the album, the lovely melodies and inspired arrangements can t disguise an air of malaise that permeates the sessions. A certain amount of this reflects the angst of a group undergoing some severe internal strife, but Forever Changes is also an album that heralds the last days of a golden age and anticipates the growing ugliness that would dominate the counterculture in 1968 and 1969 images of violence and war haunt A House Is Not a Motel, the street scenes of Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hillsdale reflects a jaded mindset that flower power could not ease, the twin specters of race and international strife rise to the surface of The Red Telephone, romance becomes cynicism in Bummer in the Summer, the promise of the psychedelic experience decays into hard drug abuse in Live and Let Live, and even gentle numbers like Andmoreagain and Old Man sound elegiac, as if the ghosts of Chicago and Altamont were visible over the horizon as Love looked back to brief moments of warmth. Forever Changes is inarguably Love s masterpiece and an album of enduring beauty, but it s also one of the few major works of its era that saw the dark clouds looming on the cultural horizon, and the result was music that was as prescient as it was compelling.
EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY MARK DEMING, ALL MUSIC GUIDE /ALLMUSIC.COM/
Probably one of the very few albums that can invoke a total, universal consensus: this is one of the most beautiful - and important - albums of the rock era. Recorded in mid-1967, just as LOVE s original line-up was about to disintegrate, Elektra s house producer and engineer, Bruce Botnick who went on to record and produce virtually every Doors album assembled a stellar studio band - which included, among others, Hal Blaine, legendary studio drummer - to support the faltering Love members while they were bickering in the studio. The impact of this parallel group of musicians was swift and massive: the band somehow perceived them as a competition and a threat, and managed to regain its composure and creativity and to create one of the most enduring minor-key masterpieces ever committed to vinyl. If you have never heard this album, take my word: you are missing a lot. The album aged better than 99 of its contemporaries and attained a genuine cult status. Cited by many rock stars as their source of inspiration various members of Led Zeppelin and Fairport Convention come to mind , the impact this majestic album still exerts on rock music and aesthetics cannot be overestimated. Finally, the cover art for this album is one of the most memorable and recognizable visual presentations in all of contemporary music, and a great artistic accomplishment to boot. So much so that Arthur Lee himself mimicked it on his Forever Changes Reunion Tour album.
For its extraordinary contribution to the modern music, superb production, craftsmanship, fine musicianship, revolutionary significance and influence it exerted on numerous generations of musicians, writers and general public, this album was voted one of top-200 albums of all time in one of the largest poll of critics, music reviewers, professionals and producers ever organized: the poll, which was conducted by Paul Gambaccini, legendary BBC Radio AR man, surveyed more than 50 top music professionals including Roy Carr, Jonathan Cott, Robert Christgau, Cameron Crowe, Chet Flippo, Ben Fong-Torres, Charlie Gillett, Greil Marcus, Murray the K., Lenny Kaye, Bruce Morrow a/k/a Cousin Brucie , Tim Rice of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita fame , Lisa Robinson, Robert Shelton who wrote liner notes for Bob Dylan s first album , Ed Ward, Joel Whitburn, Pete Wingfield, etc. . For more details, see: Critics Choice: Top-200 albums compiled by Paul Gambaccini, Omnibus Press, Library of Congress Catalog No.7855565 or click here for the complete album listing
For additional historical or discography information on this album, including track listing click here
CONDITION:
RECORD
IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded we grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight
a WE GRADE THE VINYL AS EXCELLENT. This is one of those albums that are somewhat difficult to grade. It is somewhere between VG and NEAR MINT, just a notch below NEAR MINT. A few light abrasions ARE visible, but they are extremely shallow, superficial and only moderately visually distracting nothing significant .For the most part, the vinyl looks impeccable without any MAJOR visual flaws or imperfections. Much of the original luster is intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.
b The record comes in the original stock inner sleeve.
c The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording
d Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording
COVER
COVER IS NEAR MINT, STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK WRAP
The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:
- Cover has JUST A HINT of ring wear nothing significant On the scale from 1 to 10 1 being the least, and 10 being the most severe , we assess the severity of ring wear as 1.
- Cover shows JUST A HINT of yellowing on both sides, apparently from aging. nothing significant
- Minor shelf wear noted on the opening side nothing significant
NO OTHER IMPERFECTIONS ON THE COVER:
- No split seams
- No cut-out drill holes.
