The History of LOVE Part Two |  

This bands early records have remained some of my favorite music all these decades.

Forever Changes is one of the best albums of the 60's! Thanks for the great video!

Love played at my high school in Orange County Ca. in '67 or '68. Arthur Lee asked if we had any requests, expecting I assume, to hear 'Little Red Book' or whatever. My friend asked for 'Signed DC', and was told they could not oblige on that one. I changed schools to another OC high school where Spirit played. We had the Newport Pop Festival in '68 and '69 with an insane lineup. We were young, white, middle class, and fairly jaded about our privileged circumstance. Viva the west coast acid, rock, surf culture!

Great, as usual, thanks. Really a pity that Kenny and Bryan died before the reunion in the early 00s. Their contributions were huge. I was especially a fan of Forssi's bass playing.

Love Forever Changes is a Masterpiece and one of the greatest rock albums eve made.

In the late 80s I got into Love, then in 1994 I got the chance to see Arthur Lee in Highbury in London, We were in a pub nearby to the venue and Arthur was playing pool, this is before the gig, we got his autograph as you do,

Love Forever Changes is like Pet Sounds From the Upside Down. I do believe it’s my favorite album of all time. Great deep dive, as always!

You should do a show about "Forever Changes." The influence of that LP has and how it has never been forgotten over the past half century despite its low record sales.

Members of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass played the bridge section on the "Alone Again Or" session. Brilliant track.

Bryan MacLean's demo CDs "Ifyoubelievein" and "Candy's Waltz" are a revelation; he was an excellent songwriter who would have been the main man in a lot of other bands. It's also remarkable how similar his writing and singing sound like Lee's; one has to wonder if Lee developed some of his style by incorporating MacLean's. Both of those CDs are worth getting for Love fans, especially the first one which has the A-tier stuff. Trivia note: MacLean was the half-brother of Maria McKee, lead singer of Lone Justice and perhaps best known for her solo number in Pulp Fiction.

Thanks for doing this one Matt. Arthur Lee was a gifted and unique songwriter and it's good that Love has received some of the recognition they deserve. Cheers.

I have every Love album. They're one of my favorite 60's bands, especially the original line-up. I've never really sat down to make up a list, but I'd say that Forever Changes is probably in my top 5 albums of all time.

It’s a fascinating story, and they were a fascinating band. “Forever Changes” is one of my favorite albums. I saw Arthur live in Stockholm during the early 2000’s - he was an eccentric certainly, but he had a slightly warped sense of humor which went above most Swedes heads. Some of that show was filmed for Swedish television along with an interview - worth watching. Great video!

I was also fortunate to experience that 35th anniversary of Forever Changes tour and the backing band Arthur Lee had playing with him was named Baby Lemonade (a reference to Syd Barrett). RIP Arthur Lee and Bryan Maclean

I was fortunate enough to see the new Love group with Lee and Echols perform Forever Changes in a small intimate venue in 2004. One of my favorite live concert experiences.

Also in 1970, “alone again or” reentered the hot 100 for some reason, and finally made the top 100, topping out at number 99 their last top 100 single

It sounds like Arthur Lee had a self-destructive streak. He threw away a lot of opportunities to get the band exposed to a much wider audience.

Thanks for keeping Love music alive- this band is way too underrated and deserves more recognition. I think they deserve a biopic

The great talents of Arthur Lee & Brian MacLean really complemented & competed with each other perfectly, not unlike Lennon & McCartney or McGuinn & Crosby. When Love broke up after Forever Changes, they never quite recaptured their greatness, although Arthur & Brian did write some fine songs afterwards.

Forever Changes is one of my all-time favorite albums. It's like a musical roller coaster that keeps you coming back every time.

You forgot there was a Love album live at the Whiskey with Bryan McClean released around 1980

I emailed Jay Donnellan back in 2005 and asked him specifically about what he used for recording the song August and he replied back saying that he used an Epiphone Sheraton II through a Benson amp. He also had kind things to say about Frank, George and even Arthur, saying he had a blast during the recording. Strange to think that he was let go shortly after recording the songs used for Four Sail and Out There. I just now found out he passed away in 2021. RIP Jay 😢

According to Johnny Echols' recent interviews, it wasn't the drugs or lack of rehearsal, it was that Brian and Johnny felt _betrayed_ because this was supposed to be a DOUBLE album in which both Brian and Johnny would get a side for their songs. Elektra reneged on that deal and Arthur didn't bother fighting for them. In the beginning, the two guys laid out and didn't contribute what they usually did; until as you say, Johnny spoke to Brian about their legacy.

I love Calexico performance of Love's 🎶

Discovered Forever Changes reading an issue of Billboard Magazine in '78. They were celebrating rock's 25th anniversary and almost every critic had it in their top 10. Definitely lived up to its hype.

The Love following in the UK started with "7 and 7 is" on the London label (not Electra) being played on pirate radio stations. The first album came out after that.

This semms like the typical story of a very advanced talented band musically who dabbled in a number of genres, arrangements & instrumentation which alienated them a little. Folk, rock, jazz elements, psychadelia. They did it all! But alot of profressive groups were similarly awesome & diverse, but people didn't know what to make of them and/or records didn't sell as much as mainstream artists did. These guys were true artists though breaking new ground! Maybe they belong in the RHOFame too!❤

I thought I knew everything about love but I learned many new stories

Thank you Matt, for another fine documentary and for bringing to light the history of this sadly under appreciated ( in it's day , anyway) rock band.

Many Thanks Matt for introducing & Re-introducing us with this fantastic series of Arthur Lee & Love 👍I for one have hunt down on EBAY a copy of Bryan Maclean's album:If You Believe In -which I would have never known had I not been for this Pop Goes The 60"s episode on Love -What made part 2 so special for me is the album Forever Changes, its the kind album that you play all the way through and after that re-play it again, the sequencing is superb and I love the flow of the album, Also everytime I hear Red Telephone I cant help but wish that Arthur Lee & Love would have done a Beatles like reprise to this song. But Forever Changes is up there next to The Beatles Sgt.Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band in the great production and Orchestral arrangements, and considering other fanstastic albums of that year like Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced, Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow, The Doors Debut, Cream's Disraeli Gears and The Moody Blues Days Of Future Passed-Love's Forever Changes is one the Greatest album's, or the greatest album IMO of 1967.

My high school band, The Beau Street Runners, Franconia, Virginia, played Love's version of "Hey Joe" and "Signed DC". Good Times.

Great job Matt! I had forgotten how truly great Love was. Well done 2 parter. Very insightful and your music choices were spot on. You never disappoint.

Couldn’t agree more!! Matt is the man!🥳🥳

My late father turned me onto Love back in 2007. He first played me the Forever Changes album in our kitchen with the opening track Alone Again Or. I honestly wasn't too much into it at the time when I first heard it. While we were listening to Alone Again Or, my father was telling me how Love influenced Pink Floyd, the Doors, and Jimi Hendrix. Of course I liked The Doors and Jimi Hendrix at the time and I only liked Pink Floyd The Wall at the time as well but not other Pink Floyd stuff yet which I will get to later on. My Dad also had a vinyl record copy of Love's second album Da Capo which I gave a listen and I really liked the psychedelic sounds of. I really enjoyed the tracks Stephanie Knows Who, The Castle, and She Comes in Colors. However, when I first heard Seven & Seven Is and how it had been coined one of the very first Punk Rock songs, I really liked it a lot and it became my favorite song by Love at the time. Later on, I would give Forever Changes another listen to and this time I really liked Alone Again Or. I would start listening to that song to death and it became one of my favorite albums ever. As a result of listening to more of Love's music, I decided to give the first Pink Floyd album the Piper At the Gates of Dawn a listen to and I really liked that Pink Floyd album a lot too and I credit Love for getting more into Pink Floyd especially the Syd Barrett era of Pink Floyd. I know that Interstellar Overdrive was influenced by Love's cover of My Little Red Book but I also feel that Roger Waters vocals in Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk on that Pink Floyd album the Piper at the Gates of Dawn sounds similar to the tune and pattern of My Flash on You from Love's self-titled debut album. Also, even though I doubt if Love had some influence on the Moody Blues in a way, I started listening to Moody Blues music again and I credit Love's Forever Changes album for getting into Moody Blues music again. I had listened to The Moody Blues music a lot as a kid when my Dad also had me put to sleep with Moody Blues music but then I became disinterested in Moody Blues and most Oldies music as I became an adolescent. However my love for oldies returned when I was a senior in High School. It was during my community college years I really got into Love, Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, and The Moody Blues music. I seriously credit Love's Forever Changes for all of that! I don't know how many people would consider Forever Changes a Progressive Rock album but I seriously do and I credit Forever Changes as the first Progressive Rock album by an American group. Nowadays I am a musician myself and I play guitar and I play mostly covers but also have a few originals in my repertoire as well. At a lot of my gigs, I have covered the Love songs Alone Again Or, A House Is Not A Motel, and Five String Serenade in my repertoire. Most of my friends and family members have no idea who the group Love or Arthur Lee was. I would play the Forever Changes album in the car when my mom was driving and she thought it was really weird. Still, I think the group Love or their album Forever Changes like fine wine takes an acquired taste. Love is seriously one of my favorite bands from the 60s. Also, I would listen to a lot of the post-Forever Changes Love albums but it took forever for me to get into those albums because at first I only liked Love's classic line-up that featured Johnny Echols, Bryan MacLean, Kenny Forssi, and Michael Stuart-Ware. However, I eventually realized that as long as it had Arthur Lee, it was always Love to me because in my opinion Arthur Lee was Love! I loved the live concert of Forever Changes that Arthur Lee did with Baby Lemonade in 2003 as Love. It is a beautiful live album.

Great two parter on a great band. Thanks for doing this. Can't wait for the Move...

This is the most balanced, informative, and interesting history of Love that I have ever come across. Matt busts some myths about the band, particularly concerning the recording of Forever Changes. He also skips entirely the apocryphal tale of the doughnut shop robberies. The presented tracks from the later versions of the group have revived my interest in the later albums. Great work from Matt, as usual.

Matt, Thanks so much for covering Love. I was a fan in the 60’s. My wife, who is 7 years younger, never heard of them until I introduced her to them. Unfortunately, Love only reached a limited audience during a brief time frame. Like a few other bands, they never reached their full potential but leave behind a legacy of that era.

Thanks Matt for finally giving the recognition LOVE deserved, as a huge fan of theirs and so frustrated that so very few had heard of them in the east coast. Keep up the good work as it's very appreciated!

Lee really was the creator of Love's success and failure. If only they had a better manager who could rein in his worst impulses... nevertheless a lot of great music! thanks for doing this!

Please can you do a history of the Moody Blues or The Kinks, or even the Jimi Hendrix Experience? 3 of my favourite ever bands❤

Seems like there were 50,000 good to great songs recorded in the '60s. Amazing that previously unknown material is still turning up to this day.

Forever Changes is so cool. It brings back great memories. Orchestration is the key. The vocal takes are strong. The guitar riffs are hot. What's not to Love?

Forever Changes is one of my favorite albums period.

Arthur and baby lemonade as love killed it playing forever changes live in Hollywood, Glastonbury and London.. I think Johnny Echols is still carrying the torch.

As a long time fan of Love I only knew bits of the story and it seems even sadder than I thought. Arthur was clearly his own worst enemy. Love Revisited or Elektra Masters are both excellent early single vinyl compilations.

Might have been interesting if the original Love band had made it over to the UK in late ‘67 or in ‘68, given how much more popular the Forever Changes album was in the UK at the time (as compared to the USA).

i worked with Robert Rozzelle at a company back in 1990 we were friends, nicest guy you can ever meet and he used to tell me about LOVE sadly i heard he was killed in a car accident in 2011.

The pre-existing band that backed Arthur Lee in those 35th anniversary shows was called Baby Lemonade. Much the same situation as when Brian Wilson toured in the 2000s, there he was backed by an existing band The Wondermints.

the band love sounds fascinating. California always had good music always worth exploring.

THE great album. All fitting together beautifully like one long track - still sends a shiver down the spine. Bought on import in England, another album promoted by John Peel on his influential show. How great that Arthur could tour the album in later years with Baby Lemonade with memorable performances at Glastonbury and the Albert Hall. Saw the Four Sail band in Croydon, England, and hearing these again it's a pretty good album.

Matt, Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards had a great partnership. Why couldn't Arthur humble himself and follow suit as Lee/MacLean duo team? Hypothetically we could only imagine

If Lee could've teamed with Hendrix and Winwood, that would've been insanely good

Enjoyable documentary (can we call it that?) that I watched with my dad the last time he came to visit, thanks Matt :)

Unless I completely missed something as a teenager, they were all but unheard of here on the east coast. Too bad for us, since they seem worthy of national note.

Hi Matt. Today 3/7/24 Arthur Lee would be 79 years old. Happy Heavenly Birthday

Watching within seconds of this being posted. 😊

This episode had more information than the 33&1/3 book on Forever Changes. A potential double?! Neil Young?! Love your interpretation of the lyrics. Your best work since the Association discography. Keep up the great work.

Forever Changes was such a triumph. So sad the band couldn’t keep it together for all the obvious reasons.

I enjoyed learning about Love as I knew very little about them. I also listened to a podcast interview with Johnny Echols in which he gives more detail from his perspective. Echols mentioned that Love came up at a time when there was a great deal of variety in popular music and when bands weren't restricted to one genre. That explains how they drew on many different influences. The horn sections in some of their songs seem a little jarring in hindsight, but they fit right in with the spirit of the times. My impression is that Love is remembered today for influencing the development of punk rock, though they didn't get much credit. It's a shame that ego problems and lack of widespread touring (due to the band's mixed race lineup, according to Echols) limited their popularity. I get the feeling they could have been so much bigger.

What a shot show. Too precious.

Caught the Love/Zombies show in Falls Church, VA. Fantastic!

Damn,Arthur had far more"control" than Hendrix(especially considering the era)but seemed to drive it completely into the ground.Thanks soooo much for the videos !!!👊

Thanks again Matt for such an interesting and informative video that shines a light on AL and LOVE and their big influence on the sound of the sixties and thereafter...never knew AL was such a prolific songwriter!

Love is one of those bands that I knew of (mostly because of the Doors connection) and I knew some of their songs.....but I didn't know their story. Now I do. Excellent job once again.

The album "Forever Changes"like I said before is a great masterpiece.I hope Matt you review the band West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band a psycheldelic band.

Very well done! Thanks 🙏

Out Here is incredible

Good job covering this very overlooked band that had some very great songs. I had mentioned that alone again, or has been covered by the group UFO but I think they were also covered by many other groups like The Damned.

No love for Love here Matt, but your history of them was excellent and very interesting. Thanks. :- )

In 1977, UFO did a great cover of Alone Again Or on their Lights Out album.

thank you for making this series

Always a joy to get a new Pop Goes the 60s episode! An excellent 2 parter once again, and I learned new stuff, which is great. I do think you could have mentioned Arthur, and recently Johnny, recording live shows and touring with Baby Lemonade as Love. They also appeared at Glastonbury, which is a permanent fixture on my TV hard drive. They have kept the flame alive and gave us the chance to see and hear both of them here in the UK in latter years. They are also damn good!

Thank you! Huge fan from the beginning (can still remember where and when I first heard the first album) and really appreciate that you covered the band.

"Forever Changes" is my favorite record. I was in the record store many years ago and heard the owner and another customer discussing this record. They were so effusive in their praise of it that I purchased a CD copy of it without having heard it (this was the pre-streaming days). I was already exploring music of the 1960s when I picked this up so I expected to like it, but it blew me away, and remains my favorite album, listening to it every couple of months at least. I've brought more copies of it on CD and vinyl than I care to admit, but that's what we do with our favorite bands and records, right?

I’m seeing the Love Band inSouthampton in July Hopefully John and me will be spared I’m really excited Man

Great episode as usual. My only complaint is that you usually have a compilation or best of album collection on CD or vinyl that you recommend. I think Rhino records put one out in the mid 80’s. Are there any others?

Congrats on another great post, Matt ! You always manage to come up with puzzle-pieces that bring a clearer view of the bands you choose. I'm reminded of how reluctant I was to get around to the post Forever Changes albums and how surprised and happy I was when I finally did. Not always a pretty story but the music is in a league of its own.

Stand Out

i never thought to consider arthur and johnny mathis to have anything in common. it'd too bad brian mclean didn't get more of a chance to shine. i found an old UK magazine a few days ago that discusses their peaks and valleys but your 2 part video taught me things i didn't know.

Thank you for this Matt, excellent presentation. Some years ago I found stort clips here on You Tube of a triumfant prerformance at the UK Glastonbury frestival of 2003. The band backing Aruther was spectacular and very tight. At the time I was trying to knit those clips together for the complete show. I just checked and now the complete show is available on You Tube. it rewards repeated watchings. (I tried to post the link here but You Tube wouldn't let me.)

OK OK Hot shot. You outdid yourself again. Man excellent job, this was awesome. Thank you for your research and presentation, this was fantastic!

Great band and a great presentation Matt!

I own their first 4 albums. This documentary played quite a few snippets from their last few albums and I think they sound great. I am going to get their latter albums if they are available. Thanks

The cover and band influenced so many liverpool bands they even gave it to kids at school some schools I've heard .

Really insight band history, thank you Matt.

Thank you so much for these vids. Really enjoyed them both. Forever Changes would have been a perfect record if they dropped "Old Man".

You do realize that Forever Changes is a milestone album of the 1960s, right? It didn't do well commercially at the time, but it was an incredible statement, not only at the time, but on into the future. I bought it upon its release, in mono. It was in a completely different field than the Beatles or any other group, for that matter. The FM outlets in NYC seemed to understand what it was, and played tracks from it often.

Hugely informative thank you. (Part 1 and Part 2). i've now learnt Bryan's departure ended the group. This happens in many pop groups of course. Da Capo side 1 is as good as Forever Changes IMHO.

Love Love...

Loving this project. Thanks Matt!

Excellent profile of a unique band which deserves to be remembered.

Great video Matt I might have to check this band out. I have to say that Arthur Lee is the reason for their lack of major success

Correction: the tracks “You are something” and “ Run to the top” are not on False Start but on Out Here.

Love did also record Arthur Lee & Love/ Five String Serenade in 1992 (though sounding more like a solo album) and Arthur also recorded a solo album in 1981 called Arthur Lee

First hearing 'Four Sail." A Kinks like sound. I love the storytelling.

I heard about this band, for their influence on other bands of that era, but I never actually heard their music. Because when you search “love” on RU-vid, you don’t find much music related. Ah, found it! Alone Again Or is incredible, timeless! Wow.

Thanks Matt. You cleared some things up for me. The song I was familiar with was You set the scene. To me it sounded like The Moody Blues Justin Hayward. I'm going to investigate their music a bit deeper.

This was fun to see and the book about Arthur Lee "Alone again or" is also very interesting to read.....

'Forever Changes' is my all-time favourite album, I already commented on your earlier video about that. But I really like 'Four Sail', and, as you said, 'Out Here' had enough solid songs that would've made a fine single album. It all kind of diminished from there though. Even 'The Everlasting First' is not that great a song, despite the presence of Jimi Hendrix. But Arthur Lee had a particular period where he was totally in his own creative zone that no one else could touch. Well done to him for that. A unique musical artist.

This is important work