OK, so Forever Changes is one of the greatest albums ever made. Everybody knows that. When I first heard it, in 1987, I was 20 years old. It was one of those albums, like the VU and Nico, that I knew about for awhile before I ever heard it.
It took at least four or five listens for me to 'get' it. It was a shock to my system, based on where I was coming from, which was classic rock land. All the orchestration, what is this...strings? mariachi horns? harps? forget it. But it finally made sense.
A House Is Not A Motel is included on this blog first of all for the excellent manic guitar outro, which starts at 2:18. Second is Arthur Lee's voice, that kind of intimate delivery that would turn into a sort of microtonal imperative or a full on scream. And the lyrics...really special. That third verse with 'the news today will be the movies for tomorrow.' Wow. To me, the main character is a dead soldier, singing from his tomb. Free in death, fighting to preserve the gold-paved streets of the warmongers.
No comments:
Post a Comment