Permanent Clear Light - Ribes Nigrum

Permanent Clear Light is a great psychedelic rock band from Finland. They released their debut album, ‘Beyond These Things’ in 2014. After that, the group has released several singles, EPs and appeared on a number of compilation albums on the British Fruits de Mer label. After a creative break, Permanent Clear Light released its second album, ‘Cosmic Comics’ (Sulatron Records), which shows that the band has travelled a long way through the spheres since their debut.

What’s the concept behind Permanent Clear Light and when did you form this group?

Matti Laitinen: The basic idea is to make our own music the way we want to make it without anybody saying what we should do. We’re all fans of the 60s psychedelia so that is the obvious influence as well as early 70s Finnish prog rock. On the other hand, all of us have always been open to all kinds of good music from pop to jazz. We started working together in 2008, though we had known each other for a long time and even been in some bands together.

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

I’ve been in a couple of rock bands before. Markku has played in a folk rock jazz band and Arto has played everything from rockabilly to jazz. In our civil lives I’ve worked as a teacher, Markku works at a university and Arto in informatics.

What’s the concept behind Permanent Clear Light? How would you describe your sound?

Our sound is based a lot on keyboards like the mellotron, synths etc. On the other hand, there are a lot of guitars there, too, but not in the form of long solos. We like to create sceneries, pictures, fragments of a movie. The long instrumental sequences are an essential part of our music. The songs usually have lots of layers with everything carefully planned to make an entity. We like to think that we sound like nobody else.

How do you usually approach music making? How important is improvisation for you?

We usually work independently first. Meaning that everyone develops his ideas on his own, we send our ideas to the others, they add something or suggest changes. After that we get together, typically for a week at some isolated place, jam, put everything together and record. After this all the material goes to Arto, who mixes it and adds some stuff and sends it back to us. This finally develops into the final product. We try to avoid doing, for example, the vocals over again and again. If there are mistakes or irritating details, so be it.

Can you share some further details about how your latest album ‘Cosmic Comics’ was recorded?

Most of it was recorded at Markku’s “forest studio”. Basically a log cabin by a lake in the middle of nowhere. Some tracks we made at my summer house. ‘Cosmic Comics’ was actually ready for a long time. When we finally got in contact with Dave at Sulatron records, he suggested some minor changes and we made them and then the album was out really quickly. Some of the material has actually been released by Fruits de Mer records as singles, split singles etc. By the way, a big thanks goes to Eroc for the excellent mastering.

Where did you record it? What kind of equipment did you use and who was the producer? How many hours did you spend in the studio?

As mentioned above, most of it was recorded in the two country studios. Everything is produced by our multi-instrumentalist Arto, who happens to be very good with the recording as well. Nowadays everything is recorded on a computer. It makes the process a lot easier than dealing with tapes. For the equipment we use a normal drum set, different kinds of keyboards and suitable guitars and amps from our, or mostly Markku’s, immense guitar collection. For a band with such a keyboardish sound, we have lots of guitars available. Probably more than any other band around. When we are recording, we work from dawn to dusk for several days in a row. We have found this way of working very productive. New ideas keep popping out all the time during these sessions. The sessions also involve a lot of discussing all kinds of things, drinking, going to sauna, swimming in the lake etc.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Arto plays some jazz in his free time and he and I also have a side-band that plays more straightforward rock. Markku has recorded some tracks for his international friends. He has also been working on some avantgarde-stuff.

How would you compare it to ‘Beyond These Things’ from seven years ago? At that time you also recorded a couple of singles.

We did some singles for Fruits de Mer. I think ‘Beyond These Things’ is our favorite baby. I still like to listen to it sometimes. It has some titles like ‘Higher Than The Sun’ that are really good. Still, my favorite PCL track ’25 German Boy Scouts’ isn’t on our albums. It was released by Fruits de Mer as a single. To compare the two albums is really hard. I think that we can still do a lot better than we did on these two and we have already started working on our third album.

Were you inspired by psychoactive substances like LSD at the time of writing the album?

If we used them? No. But obviously they have influenced this kind of music a lot. Markku has been propagating the use of some substances for medical purposes, but I personally am not interested in taking any kinds of drugs.

How are you coping with the current world situation?

I am staying in Madrid, Spain at the moment. The other guys are in Finland. These are like two different worlds. In Madrid you hardly dare to go out with all the restrictions around. In Finland, where I spent the summer, everything was totally different. People living relatively normally. When it comes to politics, we noticed that for the third album we already have some really angry texts. I personally am worried about the rise of nationalism in Europe. I wish people would study the history a bit more and learn from it.

What are some future plans?

I’m moving back to Finland in the spring. I’m already staying there for a month in October-November for an operation. We will keep on putting the third album together, hopefully with a longer recording session next summer to get it out before Christmas 2021.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

My favorite albums are CSNY’s ‘Deja Vu’, Argent’s first album, King Crimson’s ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’, Love’s ‘Forever Changes’, Wigwam’s ‘Fairyport’, everything by the Move and some by MC5. All of it old stuff. I don’t listen to new bands a lot, but I like for example Dungen (or is that an old band already).

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2020/11/permanent-clear-light-interview.html

Tulia - Marcowy

Tulia is a popular folk musical group formed in Szczecin, Poland in 2017. The band consists of three main members: Dominika Sepka, Patricia Nowicka, and Tulia Bicak – after whom the band is named. Originally, the band had a fourth member, Joanna Sinkevich, who, due to health reasons, cut ties with the group in 2019. The first, and most noticeable performances of this Polish quartet were in 2018 – only a short time after their official formation. The group performed folk-inspired covers of the Depeche Mode hit, “Enjoy the Silence” and David Podsiadlo’s song, “Nieznajomy” – both of which received a great deal of attention on YouTube. These music videos, while simple, are elegant and powerful – the quartet wear traditional, colorful Polish clothing while standing in the snow. The nearly all-white backdrop contrasts with their clothing to create an eye-catching video.
In May of 2018, Tulia released their debut album, Tulia, which included original music, as well as covers of songs by various Polish artists. In that same year, the album was the seventh best-selling album in Poland – reaching platinum status and selling over 30,000 copies. In December of the same year, the group released a cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”, which is still their most popular release to date – reaching over 13 million views on YouTube. The cover and video gives the song special meaning, as the girls sing strongly with noticeable accents about the importance of taking pride in one’s identity while wearing their unique national clothing.
In 2019, Tulia represented Poland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. The group performed the song, “Pali Się” (“It’s on Fire”), written in Polish and English. They finished in 11th place. Later that year, Joanna Sinkevich left the group – reducing the group to only three women. Today, Tulia is still performing and occasionally releasing powerful and enticing music. Although they are probably best known for their unconventional covers of popular songs, the covers often have something unique to add and are something to be admired in their own right.  From: https://popkult.org/tulia-polish-folk/

Spooky Tooth - Feelin' Bad

Considered by many to be the best and strongest of the Spooky Tooth albums, the sophomore release Spooky Two built on the momentum of the smooth psychedelic soul tendencies of the debut "It's All About" but at the same time maintained its trippy psychedelic demeanor and added the occasional heavier doses of hard rock. Likewise the keyboard sounds were better integrated into the musical mix and the band sounded like it was firing on all cylinders. Riding on the wave of a successful American tour, the five members crated a new batch of eight original tracks and left out the filler in the form of cover tunes. Primarily written by Gary Wright, Spooky Two featured a more cohesive stylistic effect than its predecessor and showcased the band's ability to emulate the soulful blues rock of Traffic but by distancing itself even further from that band's similarly styled approach.
By this time keyboardist Gary Wright had also taken control of the lead vocals and had developed quite the sophisticated range of singing styles. The band tightened up its quirky mix of psychedelic rock, blues, soul and even adding a tinge of gospel. The album features a more dynamic songwriting process and the use of the double keyboard attack with the heavy guitar heft accompanied by the psychedelic smooth soul vocal style of Wright was exactly the perfect tour de force for success. Once again the critics raved yet once again the album sales floundered despite a stellar production and engineering job by the combo powerhouse duo of Jimmy Miller and Andrew Johns. The album produced one of the band's better known singles "That Was Only Yesterday" however it failed to chart during its day. Gary Wright at this point was becoming more recognizable as the singer who crafted the huge 1975 hit "Dream Weaver."
The album deftly blends smooth softness with moments of heavier contrast. Compared to both Savoy Brown and the Yardbirds, Spooky Tooth at this point started to become it’s own with even the Traffic connections dissipating and whereas the debut was clearly influenced by the 1967 album "Mr. Fantasy," Spooky Two is a powerhouse that stands on its own with epic performances that evoke a true sense of accomplishment. In many ways Spooky Two prognosticated bluesy rock bands such as Little Feat that would find increasing popularity in the 1970s. Considered a blues rock band that didn't behave like one, Spooky Tooth found a unique intersection between blues guitar, psychedelic atmospheres, Baroque pop compositional styles and a touch of jazz rock influences.
On top of the excellent musicianship and the impeccable instrumental interplay, Wright crafted some of the catchiest pop hooks of the band's entire career with tracks like "Better By You, Better Than Me" and "Waitin' For The Wind" topping the ear worm charts. While considered by some in prog circles to have been a progenitor of the prog movement, in reality Spooky Tooth wasn't particularly progressive and considering this album emerged the very same year as King Crimson's stunning debut as well as other bands like High Tide, Spooky Tooth is actually pretty tame in that regard. The band wasn't about crafting overly complex tunes and on the contrary was about nurturing beautifully addictive melodies into a total band experience and in that regard they reached an apex on Spooky Two.
Due to disappointing album sales the band began to splinter and although several members would stick it out and release a few more albums before the final break up in 1974, the original lineup ended here and the band would never regain the momentum that Spooky Two had delivered so well. Luckily the album has been reevaluated over the ensuing decades and has become designated a classic of period psychedelic soul rock which found all the band's best qualities synergizing for this brief moment in time. This album is very much as good as any Traffic album and although Spooky Tooth didn't stick it out as long or produce as many hits, the first two albums are quite pleasing to the ears with this second offering being the most accomplished.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=27641

Mitsoura - Sat Bhayan

Mónika Miczura is the frontwoman of Mitsoura, one of the most progressive Hungarian world music productions of the 2000s. Since the nineties she has sung in the band Ando Drom, as well as on albums and concerts of other bands in Hungary and abroad, and has contributed to numerous theater and film scores. She was the voice of the invisible singer in Tony Gatlif's 1997 César Award-winning film Gadjo dilo.

You have an unmistakably unique voice. Were you trained in this special vocalization?

I never took singing lessons. I did try, but my teachers didn't recommend it either, because learning classical singing techniques would probably take away the uniqueness of my voice. Having worked with professionals continuously for 25 years, I have absorbed a lot of knowledge. Plus, I have an absolute pitch, which means that I can accurately recall pitch and tone without the aid of a reference note, which is said to be a rare talent. It's no virtue, but it comes in handy for a singer.

You started out in Gypsy folk music, then evolved into a kind of Hungarian Björk, and today you combine traditional sounds with progressive electronics. Is the Mitsoura project your most authentic musical enterprise?

Absolutely. I live in a big city, I listen to contemporary music which influences me and I like to incorporate these influences into my own productions. It would be fake and pretentious if I still sang my songs in a colorful skirt, banging on a kettle, accompanied by a mandolin. What makes something or someone authentic? How many hundreds of years must pass before something can be called authentic? For me, tradition is not a dusty remnant of a bygone era, but an opportunity for current forms of expression. In the second half of the nineties I listened to Björk, Massive Attack and Portishead a lot. That's when I had the idea of breaking away from the traditional instruments and looking for musicians who could create the floating, atmospheric sound I've always longed for.

This effectively puts you in a class of your own among Gypsy musicians.

But I'm not proud of that. I do, however, see it as a problem that according to the pundits, as a Gypsy, one can only play Gypsy music, because that's what they are authentic in. Even 20 years ago, folk, jazz and restaurant music were prioritized, and it seems that even 30 years from now, Gypsy music will still be the same. Moreover, one of the positive stereotypes attached to Gypsies is that we "have music in our blood". Which is not true, nor are any of the other stereotypes, and this can be offensive or obstructive to some people.

When did you first encounter such stereotypes?

It became very clear to me when we formed the band, Mitsoura. We hadn't been able to play at home for years, and we financed our second album's release on our own.

And before that? How was your early socialization in this respect?

The first trauma I experienced on account of being a Gypsy was when I was seven years old, at school. On the first day, during the first lesson, the teacher told the class that she would like the Gypsies to stand up. I looked around and nobody stood up, I was the only Gypsy. I stood up. It was a strange feeling. The teacher kindly thanked me, and said I could sit down. I wasn't ashamed at that moment. I only went to that school for a year, but I remember that I did well, I was always praised when I read something out loud, and I was always teased during the breaks. It was like having a stamp on my forehead. Sometimes the other kids would pretend that someone had touched me, then kicked an imaginary ball, threw it at each other and screamed. I would sit on the bench alone and cry. Then a little girl sat down next to me and said, "I know you're not a Gypsy, you're just sunburnt." I knew I was a Gypsy, but I didn't yet know what that meant. I was scared to tell her the truth because I had already figured out that I was hated, although I didn't know why, so I always tried to avoid Melinda. It felt terrible to behave like that with her, but I didn't want to deceive her. The teacher could have written that letter C (Cigány=Gypsy in Hungarian) without making me stand up. (Decades ago in some Hungarian schools the teachers put a “C” next to the name of the Gypsy students in the class grade book).

Did you even know anything about the meaning of the letter C as a child?

We didn't talk about it in the family. My first real experience relating to it had more to do with music. We had a lot of records, but until the mid-eighties there were only two Gypsy singers, Margit Bangó and Pista Horváth. I was a very sensitive child, so at the age of 7 or 8 I already noticed that there was something very wrong with Pista Horváth's lyrics, because the image of Gypsies that came through in these songs was not in harmony with what I saw around me. Pista Horváth was singing very cheerfully, with earrings in his ears, wearing colorful clothes, singing about how good the Gypsies who live in tents have it, how they pick up dead chickens to feed their little ones, plus about how the wandering life is the most beautiful in the world, and this is why Gypsies don't have permanent homes. I hated these songs, it must have been this wounded sense of self that opened something up in me. From then on, I experienced everything to do with being Gypsy through fairy tales. I still read a lot, but as a child I used to devour storybooks.

What did fairy tales give you?

I felt that they were the only ones that told me the truth. Well, not the eternal truth, but the harsh reality. I noticed, for example, that the queens and positive characters were always blonde, while the negative characters always had brown or black hair. Gypsies were portrayed positively – as good thieves who are always in the right place at the right time. Just like Sárközi, the scab-faced Gypsy from Egri Csillagok, (In English: “Eclipse of the Crescent Moon”, a novel about the Ottoman siege of Eger by Hungarian writer Géza Gárdonyi) who was also a dubious character. Even at the age of eleven, I was terribly ashamed of the fact that he was always trying to take advantage of the situation. I have since learned that this is what is known as disguised racism, which is the most despicable.

Where are we now compared to this, what is your experience?

We've had artificially controlled repressive policies for hundreds and hundreds of years. Why is it any wonder that we are still in this situation? Let me tell you something. Gypsies don't usually attach much importance to the New Year, but on New Year's Eve, at midnight, they always turn on the anthem. (Hungarian state TV traditionally plays the national anthem at that time, the first line of the lyrics being: “Oh, God, bless the Hungarians!”) And then they fall silent at that moment, standing there in mournful silence with tears in their eyes. They don't say anything, the Gypsies just stand there silently, as if waiting for God to bless them too and put an end to this hatred. Then the anthem ends and life continues as usual.

From: https://telex.hu/english/2023/03/21/the-gypsies-just-stand-there-silently-as-if-waiting-for-god-to-bless-them-too

Sam & Dave - Wrap It Up

Known as “Double Dynamite,” “The Sultans of Sweat,” and “The Dynamic Duo,” Sam & Dave have long been recognized as one of the greatest live acts of their time and one of the most successful soul duos ever. During the height of their two-decade-long career, Sam Moore (b. 1935) and Dave Prater (1937–1988) consistently delivered hit after hit on the R&B charts, while their crossover success was instrumental in introducing soul music to white audiences. Both Sam (born in Miami, FL) and Dave (from Ocilla, GA) grew up singing in church and began their careers with gospel groups. The two singers crossed paths on the gospel circuit, performing together for the first time in 1961 at Miami’s King of Hearts club. Before long, Sam & Dave had developed a high-energy live act, perfected their harmonies, and scored their first record deal.
Their initial years together spawned a handful of singles and some regional airplay, but an introduction to Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler changed the course of their career. At the time, Atlantic was handling the distribution of Stax, and Wexler felt that the duo’s grittier, Southern sound would be a perfect fit for the burgeoning Memphis label. There, Sam & Dave began working with one of the label’s newer songwriting duos, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, and recorded with Stax’s talented house band, Booker T. & The M.G.’s. It was a recipe for success. In 1966, the group scored their first Top Ten R&B single, “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” and kicked off an astonishing run of ten consecutive Top 20 hits on the chart.
Encouraged by Hayes and Porter to employ a call-and-response style (borrowed from their church days) the duo settled into their signature high-energy sound, as heard in their follow-up, “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” Released in March 1966, the fiery single spent 20 weeks on the R&B chart, eventually hitting the No.1 spot. It was also a Top 40 pop hit and the title track of their debut LP, which was a No.1 R&B bestseller. Sam & Dave continued to dominate the charts over the next year with “You Got Me Hummin’,” “Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody,” and the soulful ballad, “When Something is Wrong with My Baby.” The tireless duo was playing hundreds of shows a year and had built an international fanbase, thanks to tours in Europe and the UK (their first Japanese tour followed in 1969). While Sam & Dave were at the pinnacle of their career, a song called “Soul Man” was about to secure their place in music history.
Written in the summer of 1967, the idea of “Soul Man” came to Hayes and Porter while watching coverage of Detroit’s 12th Street Riot—one of the deadliest incidents of the Civil Rights Movement. Hayes recalled seeing how buildings that had been tagged with the word “soul” (marking Black-owned businesses) were left intact. “I thought about the night of the Passover in the Bible… And I realized the word soul keeps them from burning up their establishments,” Hayes told Robert Gordon in Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. In Rob Bowman’s Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, Hayes added that the song is “a story about one’s struggle to rise above his present conditions. It’s almost like boasting, ‘I’m a soul man.’ It’s a pride thing.” With its funky guitar licks and joyful horns, the single (which opened the group’s third album Soul Men) became an instantly recognizable anthem across the country. Released in September, the song flew to the top of the R&B chart. Despite the fact that racial tensions were growing in cities and towns across the US, the popularity of the song made Rolling Stone note, “When ‘Soul Man’ becomes a national number one record, it indicates that a much more earthy, low-down kind of soul is beginning to get to white America.” “Soul Man” earned Sam & Dave a Grammy Award in 1968. 51 years later, the Library of Congress added it to their National Recording Registry for its cultural significance. Over the decades since its release, the song has been covered by dozens of artists, including Paul Revere & the Raiders, Prince, and—perhaps most famously—The Blues Brothers (aka Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi).
In 1968, as Stax and Atlantic ended their partnership, the duo released their final single with the Memphis label and their final Top Ten hit (on both the R&B and pop charts), “I Thank You.” After a brief split in 1970, the reunited pair continued to be an in-demand live act, but they failed to find the same chart success as they had in the ’60s. The end of the decade offered them a career resurgence with Aykroyd and Belushi’s “Blues Brothers” sketches and subsequent film, but Sam & Dave officially parted ways in 1981. Their legacy, however, has only grown. In addition to helping pave the way for Black artists to crossover into the pop market, the duo influenced a broad selection of artists, including Phil Collins, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Al Green, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen.  From: https://staxrecords.com/spotlight/sam-dave/

Heart - Dream Of The Archer

This week GGM is celebrating Heart’s groundbreaking third album, Little Queen, which came out on May 14, 1977. Get ready for “Kick it Out,” “Love Alive,” guitars, mandolins, chimes, outdoor effects, Nancy’s Ovation, Roger Fisher’s double neck, and, oh, that ferocious “Barracuda”.
In his 1977 Rolling Stone review of Little Queen, Billy Altman wrote: “Lord knows we need many more women in rock and roll.” Four decades later, of course, many more women are rocking, but Lord knows Heart led the way. By the time Little Queen was released, Heart was a premier live act known for their versatile stage show and Zeppelin-inspired sound. And it was just the beginning of a very long and storied career for the sisters. The album was not only an important one for the band but a milestone in music history, as well. From the full barrel charge of “Barracuda,” to the instrumental mystique of “Sylvan Song,” the band took creative license to experimentally rock.
After the success of Dreamboat Annie, the band started working on their next album for the Mushroom Label, titled Magazine. But record label and contract issues plagued its release. According to their producer at the time, Mike Flicker, from a 1999 interview with Blair Jackson, “The short version of a very long and dirty story is that we ended up in the position of losing the four songs that had been the start of the second album, and we found ourselves having to start over again, and that became the birth of the second album, Little Queen, which was on Portrait/CBS. ”
In true rock spirit, Heart and their manager broke for Seattle to record Little Queen. But there was still the issue of the legally hung-up second album. Later, the Mushroom label would release an unauthorized version of Magazine with half-finished songs and live recordings. Afterward, the courts ruled Heart could release Little Queen if they still re-record and remixed Magazine at a later date for Mushroom. Until then, the band recorded Little Queen rather quickly in 1977. The finished product would cement the band’s unconventional songwriting and melodic rock grooves. It’s success also showed their consistency as a rock powerhouse fronted by two women…a rarity for the times.
The band was really becoming masters at merging their two styles of music. Little Queen’s ten songs had the folk elements of Dreamboat Annie along with the band’s trademark hard edge. It’s a classic guitar-driven album, but one complemented with several instruments not very typically used in rock music like flute and mandolin. But it all made sense for Heart’s earthy but tough mix of ‘70s rock. The guitar work by Nancy Wilson, Roger Fisher, and Howard Leese is truly exceptional and brilliantly layered. Nancy Wilson’s acoustic playing clearly paved the way for today’s singer/songwriters, and it’s especially awesome listening to her developing her sound and style. Plus, her preference for Ovation guitars cast a spotlight on the brand for years to come.  Nancy would go on to be one of the top female guitarists in rock. Legendary guitarist Roger Fisher is one of the founding members of the band (from 1963 to 1980). His innovative electric and double neck mastery provided rich nuances and memorable solos throughout the album; his work is still duplicated by guitarists today.
Howard Leese was an important part of the band as well and would stay in Heart throughout the ‘80s. His hefty credits on the album include acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizer, piano, Moog bass, mellotron, mandolin, backing vocals, as well as orchestral arrangement on “Treat Me Well.” But no question, the heartbeat of Little Queen is “Barracuda” — a timeless rock gem for its lyrics, riff and natural harmonics. On any given day you can still hear Fisher’s open E power chord galloping over the airwaves. But the song’s known for something infamously deeper. Forty-one years ago, Ann Wilson wrote the impassioned lyrics in the wake of mounting sexism from the music industry (namely, the fallout from an unauthorized ad issued by their record company). The promo featured the bare-shouldered sisters under a headline implying they were lovers. The song also spoke to the overall inappropriate treatment the ladies experienced from men in the music industry.
It poses the question, have things really changed? Although women have permeated the music business, the respect conversation is an ongoing one. “Barracuda” is a reminder that offensive treatment has been happening for a long time, and still does; maybe not as obvious as radio station execs asking female musicians to sit on their laps, but in Hollywood (as we’ve learned) the casting couch is still part of the furniture. The upside, “Barracuda” is fuel for self-empowerment. It’s a timeless example that a positive form of art can come from strong emotions – just like Ann did when she wrote those lyrics. Everyone has a song inside them – maybe it’s “Barracuda,” “Take a Piece of My Heart” (Janis Joplin), or perhaps “Dream On” (Aerosmith). Whatever that tune is, Heart reminds us the very best art comes from human experience and self-empowerment.  From: https://guitargirlmag.com/news/music-news/revisiting-hearts-little-queen-timeless-and-telling/

Love - The Forever Changes Concert

 Love - The Forever Changes Concert - Part 1

 

Love - The Forever Changes Concert - Part 2

Can you get copies of music magazines while you’re in prison? I wonder how Arthur Lee found out while he was locked up on a weapons charge that people had rediscovered his music with the seminal 60s psychedelic band, Love. Incarcerated for nearly six years under California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, Arthur Lee was probably just itching to get out and take advantage of his celebrity status for the second time around.
Released in December of 2001, Lee immediately hired a fantastic group of backing musicians and reformed Love. Touring all over the world, particularly covering Love’s crowning achievement, 1967’s classic Forever Changes, in it’s entirety, Arthur Lee has finally found his admirers. And for now, this seems to be one of the more unique stories of rock and roll with a happy ending.
Love’s The Forever Changes Concert was recorded live in London in early 2003, and fittingly, captures Lee and company playing Forever Changes in it’s glorious, psychedelic entirety. One of the finest collections of songs recorded and played to perfection by an ensemble of expert musicians, including the standout guitar playing of one Mike Randle. This live album deviates little from the original album but sounds fuller and more explosive in several places, such as the rocking “A House Is Not A Hotel” and “Between Clark And Hilldale.” While it might be wiser to recommend catching Love live in concert, The Forever Changes Concert is a quality document that showcases Arthur Lee as an exciting live performer and one of rock and roll’s most formative legends.  From: https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/love-forever-changes-concert

In late 2001, after spending six years in prison on gun charges that were later overturned, Love founder and frontman Arthur Lee was understandably eager to begin performing again, and with members of the band Baby Lemonade backing him up, Lee booked a European tour for early 2003 in which he was joined by a string and horn ensemble to perform the Love masterpiece, their 1967 album Forever Changes, in its entirety. The tour seemed like the sort of thing most fans would at once cherish and dread -- it's hard to imagine anyone who cared about Love not wanting to see Lee free and performing again, but would he have anything left to say, especially tied to the vehicle of an album that was all of 35 years old? The Forever Changes Concert, recorded during one of the tour's early stops at London's Royal Festival Hall, doesn't hold much in the way of surprises, but anyone who imagined Lee would just go through the motions of Forever Changes' eleven songs will be pleasantly surprised. Lee's voice is harsher than it was in 1967, but he sings these songs with genuine passion and an understanding of their emotional gravity that seems to have grown with the passage of time. The arrangements that Lee and his musicians worked up for this material obviously follow the template of the original recording, but there's a fire in the guitar work and a willingness to bounce patterns off bandmates Mike Randle and Rusty Squeezebox that keeps this material sounding fresh and alive, and the small orchestra that accompanies the group go through their paces with charming skill (and without crowding the band). Lee also sings with commendable emotional depth on the two numbers Bryan MacLean wrote for the original album. Some editions of The Forever Changes Concert also feature a second disc in which the band plays a number of other songs from the Love catalog, and it's fun to hear Lee rock out on "Seven and Seven Is" and "My Little Red Book," but what's more impressive is how focused and committed Lee is on lesser known classics like "Signed D.C." and "Orange Skies"; while the Forever Changes gambit probably brought in plenty of fans, disc two suggests that an evening drawn from Love's broader body of work could have been every bit as satisfying. Still, while this package is for committed Love fans (no one who hasn't heard Forever Changes should start with this), it's not so much an exercise in nostalgia as an evening with a vital artist who could still find new wrinkles in his back catalog.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-forever-changes-live-concert-mw0000740254#review