The off-key ending to Love's "You Set The Scene"

[jamestkirk]

For those who wanted to hear it from one who was there...Michael responded to the question that I asked (about the off-key horns finale); I asked him a few days ago. Here is his response. (And good friend, Michael responded honestly and openly, and with respect. As is to be expected---always a class guy.) He said I could share it with you all:

Hi Scott,

Regarding Elektra bringing in the studio people to play the foundation instrumental on the album...

...please remember that this album was recorded at a time when Arthur was trying desperately to distance himself from the rest of the band. Why?

...because 1) Bryan had taken Stephanie away, 2) the rest of the group had sided with Bryan when Arthur tried to fire him, 3) all of Arthur's buddies were telling him what he wanted to hear... that he WAS Love, and 4) he hated sharing the spotlight anyway.

And what better way for him to pull off this divestiture than to find a way to have session guys come in to do our parts for us? It would make us appear totally inept and truly expendable. It was kind of like when Janis Joplin [dumped] Big Brother. She was just SO TALENTED that everybody else in the early group just didn't really belong on the same stage with her. That was more or less the template for what Arthur had in mind for Love.

Remember also, that I always said that whatever problems we had doing our parts when we went in the first time, we would have overcome with a few more takes, no problem. But we only did like 4 or 5 takes before Arthur all too quickly called things to a halt and conferred with the studio heads to bring in the WC [Wrecking Crew]. Remember how many takes the group took to do 7&7 Is? I think I read one time, 54! So limiting their decision to bring in studio people based upon the first few FC takes was unrealistic at best and so obviously contrived.

Then why did I make it appear as if we didn't have our parts down when I wrote the book [Pegasus Carousel]? Diplomacy. Because if I had laid out all the reasoning behind what really happened, many people who idolize Arthur might have simply thought I was, for whatever reason, just kicking a wonderfully & truly talented guy who was already down (during the release of the first edition, he was in prison and then when the second edition was released, he was dead.) So I had to be careful to avoid alienating what would almost certainly be my readership...fans of the group.

Bottom line, (regarding the motive for the horns sounding off-key at the end of You Set The Scene)...there was almost no interaction at all between Arthur and the rest of us when we recorded the album. It was all Arthur and Elektra. So who knows what they decided? That's how he set it up (the scene that is.)

Later my friend,
Michael

PS-Please keep in mind that Michael has often told me it is the greatest honor to have had a part in the creation of Forever Changes. That Arthur, in spite of Arthur's personal issues, was the most talented artist, and the most respected artist (personally) that Michael ever had the immense pleasure to work with. That he is forever honored to have been a part of Love, and forever truly grateful that Forever Changes is so cherished by all us fans, and is so widely revered, worldwide. -LK

PPS-Interestingly, and understandably, Michael's favorite Love LP is the first. The one that he didn't appear on. Likely because, like most artists, listening to oneself can be a rather unsettling and excruciatingly long critique of what he could have done better or differently. He has been teaching himself the parts to all the tracks from that first Love album on, surprisingly, the acoustic guitar.
-LK