Forever Changes

[silentseason]

How are you all's rememberances of the session involving the "wrecking crew", and what is your opinion of the two recorded tracks included on the album? I am left wondering if this was a tactless ploy or it was a stroke of genius. Additionally, how accurate are Bruce Botnick's statements regarding this? I think the playing was certainly professional, but would have preferred to have heard the bands interpretation of "Andmoreagain" and "Daily Planet" included. To me that is always a kind of mar against the album.

As I mentioned in another post, Bryan, Kenny and I, played on all of the cuts. The "wrecking crew's" sole participation, consisted of drummer Hal Blaine joining us for two songs, with Don Randi on piano. And an acoustic guitar player appearing on parts, of those two songs. So in reality, members of Love played all of the tracks. Most of what Bruce and Jac have to say is made up nonsense. Bruce wasn't even there for many of the sessions, since they were done at Western Sound with John Haney as engineer. Jac wasn't there at all.

Thanks Johnny. There are sooo many 3rd and 4th person (and beyond) interpretations of what really happened in the course of Love that reality has been seemingly discarded or deemphasized (I'm sure you've had your fair share of this over the years).

[Johnny Echols]

I talked to Carol Kaye about the session, but she couldn't remember the job, although she has the bill of the session.
Do you recall her being at the session?

Carol Kaye was there, but she couldn't seem to find the groove on "Daily Planet" so as Kenny was trying to show her the tune. Arthur said this is ridiculous and told her to split, and Forssi wound up playing the song. She was a pro, and didn't mind, especially since she was being paid whether she played or not.

As for Hal Blaine, I have known him for years. I was no more than ten feet from him as we played. Years later, Arthur and I discussed who was the drummer on "Daily Planet" and he mispronounced Hal's name (as he often did.) And remarked, "Hub Lane" (a used car salesman from back in the day) is one "heavy dude!"

As for trying to kick-start the group, Botnick totally missed the boat. He tried interfering in a group dynamic he did not understand, and wound up causing more dissension. We finally went to Arthur's house (smoked some herb) and talked out the problems between us. From that point on, we all just ignored Bruce, and played the way [we] played.

[silentseason]

Questions for Michael and the prep time for Forever Changes. I was under the impression that after the unsuccessful first attempt at recording Forever Changes in early June that the band went back and collectively practiced together to get the songs ready to be recorded. I was re-reading Einarson's book and now my interpretation is that essentially each band member went off and individually learned their respective parts on their own without any other or very little interaction from the other members. Can you enlighten?

Was also wondering, if you can recall, whether there was any outside pressure from either Elektra or Arthur to learn the new songs quickly and get back to the studio ASAP.

[MichaelStuart-Ware]

I think after the first unsuccessful attempt, we began to realize that we were simply out of practice on our own instruments. It happens when you don't play, and we just hadn't been playing any gigs. Therefore, we figured if we "woodsheded" on our own then things would probably come together in the studio, and that proved to be the case.

I seem to remember Elektra basically taking the position that they wanted us to take whatever time was necessary to get things right before coming back in for another go at it. No rush. They were very kind and generous and patient to have given us another chance at making the album ourselves. Too bad we didn't then do what was necessary to complete the effort. Had we toured properly, Forever Changes would almost certainly have met with more success.

[silentseason]

Michael,

I picked up on the 'Old Man' cut that you played cymbals only. How did that come about? Was the use of the whole drum kit ever considered during rehearsals?

[MichaelStuart-Ware]

I don't don't recall any discussion about what I was to play on Bryan's "Old Man"because I don't think there was any. I just remember sitting at my drums during the cut, and only playing eight notes on my closed hi hat, and then when we listened to the playback I discovered that Botnick had put timed echo on, and it sounded like I was playing sixteenth notes.

I think I must have played such a light percussion part because the song itself is such a sweet and delicate piece, that snare and bass drum, no matter how lightly I played, would have sounded overbearing and out of place.

[silentseason]

Michael,

Was listening to the deluxe FC edition and was was wondering if I could jog your memory regarding the 'Red Telephone' take that eventually resulted in the impromptu 'Woolly Bully' jam. Do you have any specific memories of that particular session? The band seemed to be in a light hearted mood and enjoying the procedings that day and the recording reflects that.

[MichaelStuart-Ware]

You know, I don't remember that at all but yeah, I guess if we broke into "Woolly Bully", maybe we were in a light-hearted frame of mind because "Red Telephone" was one of the later instrumental cuts we laid down, and suddenly we realized, "Hey, we're gonna get it done, after all!"

I remember playing "Woolly Bully" with The Sons of Adam though. One night at The Beaver Inn, it was. Some guy came up to the edge of the stage and asked us to play it and Randy said "Sorry we don't take requests" and about two minutes later the owner of the bar came up and told us it we didn't play it, we needn't come back the next night, so Randy says "Well OK, I guess we'll play it then."

Beaver Inn was a sweet gig. UCLA frat bar. Lotta lotta beautiful girls and lines around the block every night. It's where Kim Fowley almost got beat up just for looking like he did.