Arthur Lee and his band Love might not be the most recognisable group from the 60s, but their third album, Forever Changes, stands today a touchstone of psychedelic and experimental rock, steeped in the creeping dread and tumultuous spirit that defined its time. Upon release, this album was but a blip on people’s radars, but over time it has grown to almost mythic status, leading many contemporary commentators to recognise Arthur Lee as one of the most pivotal members of the psychedelic rock movement – a master of friction and contrast.

The 1960s were marked by disquiet – political upheaval and cultural revolutions rubbing up against the growing Hippie movement and utopian ideals which sprung from a cultural and philosophical malaise. Arthur Lee exists at a point of tension between these two worlds. His outlook was shockingly cynical compared to the prevailing sentiments of the time, yet his music sounded of a piece with the more positive and optimistic releases of his era. Forever Changes was born out of this milieu of contradictions and delivers Love’s response to it. The throughline of conflict exists throughout the bands mythos, and even brings into focus the dynamics of the band itself. The relationship of Lee and Bryan Maclean (another central member) was strained throughout the making of many of Love’s formative releases, but that angst-ridden environment is audibly fundamental to the band’s identity.

Lee's disillusionment with the Hippie movement and the socio-political landscape of the 1960s and beyond is woven into the fabric of Forever Changes. Songs like ‘The Red Telephone’ are imbued with a sense of impending doom, in sharp contrast with the idealistic and almost utopian visions that accompanied the proto-Summer of Love years – at its core, this album is the phrase “is anyone else seeing this shit!?” set to some of the forward-thinking instrumentation of the time.

Arthur Lee's genius did not go unnoticed by his contemporaries. Jimi Hendrix shared a mutual respect and friendship with Lee. Both musicians were pioneers in their own right, pushing the boundaries of what music could be, even looking beyond rock as their canvas at the time. Hendrix's innovative guitar techniques and Lee's experimental approach to songwriting created a unique kinship between them. In a 2012 interview, Danny Brown (a noted Arthur Lee superfan) highlighted the connection between Lee and Hendrix, noting that both were ahead of their time and often misunderstood by the mainstream audience. Brown pointed out that Lee's influence on Hendrix was subtle yet significant, as both artists spurred each other to challenge norms and brought a heightened level of artistry and ambition to turn-of-the-70s rock music.

Musically, Forever Changes is rich with twangy guitar work and cascading string arrangements – the band's ability to blend folk rock with vibrant orchestral elements resulted in a sound that would go on to lay the foundations for what we now know as psychedelic rock and greatly influenced how folk music at large would continue to be modernised. Yet the production on record is preserved as an artefact of conflict, a fitting metaphor for the theme of the project at large. The band's interpersonal troubles met jarringly with Lee's laser-focused perfectionism, leading to a tumultuous recording process that feels curiously at home with Lee’s narratorial perspective. The album is cohesive and cogent by some kind of miracle, reverse-engineering the conflict, tension, and anxiety at the core of this music’s creation to yield a singular analysis of how conflict manifests in the world around them.

Upon release, Forever Changes did not garner much let alone any acclaim or attention. The album's thematic difficulty, innovative sound, and visionary outlook have been retrospectively celebrated, finally anointing Love as among the pivotal rock bands of the era, but only after many decades of the album sitting dormant – as if the world needed to catch up to them. Now more than ever, a healthy dose of cynicism in art is celebrated and cherished, and nearly 60 years on, Forever Changes is no less relevant or urgent than it was upon release.

90

Michael Vos

27 July 2024