Looks lovely….will be the 4th time I’ve bought it. The mono will be interesting (haven’t heard it in mono for ober 40 years) and the new Botnik master should be terrific.
The mono mix is apparently just a fold-down of the usual stereo one, and not a dedicated mono mix. With a fold-down the two stereo tracks are mixed straight to mono, and results in the instruments and vocals at the centre of the stereo image sounding louder than those panned left and right.
Ironically the single mix of Alone Again Or is a different stereo mix to the standard one, the purpose of the new mix was to ensure it sounded decent when played back on mono equipment. Elektra were experimenting with releasing singles in stereo at the time, Alone Again Or was one of their first batch of stereo single releases. As many radio stations were still mono, the single was remixed to make it sound good on the radio. Later many record companies would provide radio stations with two sided promo singles, containing the stereo mix on one side a dedicated mono mix on the other.
Released in 1968 so by definition it’s hippy. Nothing wrong with hippies per se just this record, it’s dreadful. And as per the Roxy Music thread it is a crime to charge more than, say, £9.99 for a 50 year old album no matter the remixes, Dvd, booklets, locks of hair and the smell of a dead horse.
Because it’s the opposite of hippy peace and love as the way to go. This is Arthur Lee’s own particular, unsettling, dark vision. 1967 not 1968, a diverse year of many styles.
Everyone knows that Dvorak was smoking dope when he went into the studio with his cello ie he was a hippy
I can categorically state without fear of contradiction that Forever Changes did not arrive in Telemech (Aberdeen’s finest record emporium – well, emporium might be a bit strong. “Dodgy shop full of dodgy characters who would sell you a dodgy tv for a tenner, some dodgy weed (oregano most likely) for five bob and a mallet to the head if you tried to nick anything” might be closer to the truth) until the spring of 1968.
As was so often the case I bought Forever Changes because of the cover and for a year I told everyone “this is bloody brilliant”. I then came to my senses – it’s pish.
“50 year Anniversary” it says up there. Gets out calculator. 1967 + 50 = hold on, that can’t be right…..
I have enough Tesco points to buy Forever Changes, Roxy Music and some Lady Doritos.
Herbert wouldn’t have tolerated such behaviour. The BPO even had a house barber to keep everything in check. A bassoonist once whistled a Gershwin tune while tying his shoes in the rehearsal room.
The great conductor momentarily heard this. Guards appeared. Of the poor bassonist, let’s just say… tootle again he did not.
I have to say your comments starting with “Herbert” are amongst the finest ever recorded on here. Grudging yet heartfelt admiration is coming your way…
ps who knew Electrif Lycanthrope was on Amazon Music, my cup do overfloweth. I remember unwrapping the original bootleg with trembling fingers before carefully and reverently placing it on the turntable. Now I search The Feat and there it is…. and here it is playing in my chateau. And look lots of other “rare” Feat recordings. Expect everyone else on here knows about this kind of thing but that’s me in the sweetshop.
I have about 7 copies of Lycanthrope – I’m just marvelling at the age we live in where I can find it on mainstream Amazon at the press of a button…..
And the version on Archive.org ain’t as good as some of the recent remasters (possibly)
Well, that is the case with most of these SDE sets. Nature of the beast, everything in one place, pick and choose what you want to listen to.
I already have vinyl, the live album (I was there) and the double CD that came out a few years back, although the ex may have ended up with custody of that. I did pre-order but may cancel as I seem to have too much stuff.
This is the finest way The Greatest Album Ever Recorded* could have been released for its 50th Anniversary (& 5 months), decent price and good packaging.
*Don’t agree? That’s because you’re fucking deaf and why are you wasting your time reading this thread?
I’d buy the mono mix on CD for a tenner, but £42? No.
I think ‘Love’ and ‘Da Capo’ had the mono mixes added automatically ten or so years ago.
The 1 CD with the stand-alone 45 of the time is more than enough for me and, anyway, of the 4 LPs up to ‘Four Sail,’ ‘Forever Changes’ is the one that rarely gets an airing.
Whether or not Forever Changes is any good is a matter of opinion but whether or not it is “hippy” is now not open to debate.
I have just played the 2015 Remastered Version (the 2012 remasters just don’t cut it for me). I got as far as
“You know that I could be in love with almost everyone
I think that people are
The greatest fun”
before Lady W walked in. “My dearest love, if you don’t turn that hippy twaddle off not only will all your privileges be revoked but also I will fling you and your music player over the balcony”.
We are currently listening to Taylor’s “Red” and the chances of me ending up in the fountain have greatly receded.
Well yes, however those words are by Bryan MacLean, 80% of the album is written by Arthur Lee, “They’re locking them up today, they’re throwing away the key ….”
The original album is fantastic. Don’t need to hear it in mono or remixed or rehashed. It is the same songs played and sung the same way. Not wasting my money on something so already have the best version of us the one that was released to the public because it was deemed at the time go be the best.
Well I think it’s a bloody good album which I have already ordered from the tax dodgers. I have all of their albums and also “Vindicator”. I play them all and I will play this one too.
This is one of those albums that I cannot imagine anyone not liking, although clearly that isn’t true! We’ve had these differences before…Pepper, Pet Sounds et al…we all know we are right whichever side of the fence we are.
I’m driving from Warrington to Leeds tonight so I’ve downloaded it but last time I tried I couldn’t get to the end. Love Calexico’s version of Alone Again Or though
I feel quite cheerful when I read these “But surely you can’t…. end of…. I’m right and you’re wrong…” type posts because I accept and often totally understand people not liking, and even despising, music that I like. This comes from my experience of trying very hard to like` records that I thought I ought to like. This worked a treat with Forever Changes, Pet Sounds, The Band, Rain Dogs (my first TW) – all records that I now love but that initially left me with a giant cartoon question mark hanging in the air above me head.
Whereas….”Sister Ray”… you’re having a laugh. Nick Cave? Interesting guy, wish he’d sing in a register where he can stay in tune. Patti Smith – great Bruce cover, now get yourself a sense of humour please. And so on. You disagree? I know, but your enthusiasm is nonetheless a good thing in human terms.
On this thread as in many others, there is a strain of “I don’t like this record, therefore people who say they do like it are deluding themselves, what with me being the most cleverest and all”. Very nice!
I hope it’s taken as read that every time I criticise or praise a record it’s always IMHO. In my humble opinion Taylor’s Red is the finest piece of pop music ever written about teenagehood (albeit American High School teenagehood) whilst Forever Changes is dreary & twee.
I wouldn’t go so far as to state my taste is better than anyone else’s (although it clearly is, at least on Planet Wrongness) but it’s my opinion and that’s what counts for me. I love the divergence of opinions/tastes on here and sometimes, just sometimes, after careful and painful consideration I am forced to admit I am Wrong ( not with Forever Changes of course)
The perceived “classic” albums are the ones to, if not exactly ignore, leave for extended periods on the “dusty shelf.”
If it’s (a) the one album by that artist sold by supermarket chains, (b) deemed to be a “must have” by a 12 year old, (c) deemed to be a “must-have on vinly” by a 12 year old, (d) readily available for 99p in the Oxy, (e) a staple in the Top 100 Albums-type of list, or (f) the sole subject of a box set … you’re better off getting some quality rockabilly/garage punk/soul/funk reissues on Ace.
I get where you’re coming from, but there is a reason for ‘classic’ albums being popular…i.e. loads of people have heard it, liked it, and (usually) bought it. This isn’t to say that there isn’t great music elsewhere; one can appreciate both the acknowledged classic and the ignored.
I also think this one was pretty much under the radar until at keast the mid 80s, unlike Pet Sounds or Pepper. A bit like Odessey and Oracle it’s status has grown slowly over the years rather than diminished.
True and not true. It appeared in Rolling Stone’s first All Time Albums list in about 1974, and did surprisingly well (for a hippy record) in the NME list of 1985.
The reception that Arthur got when he toured this album in 2002-3 would have been unimaginable only ten years earlier.
I nearly put this in my comment above – it did get in the UK chart (I think Peel was an advocate from memory), but it bombed in the US on release. I actually didn’t hear it properly until around 1972, although I’d seen it around. I take issue with it being a ‘hippy’ record – OK, they are called ‘Love’, they are from California and it was issued in 1967, but it sounds like nothing else from the period, and the lyrics aren’t love and peace and flowers.
Just checked NME lists, was way down at 53 in 1974, gradually up to 6 by 2003, however that list has Stone Roses at no. 1 and Pixies Doolittle at no. 2!
Strikes me there are two types of ‘classic’ album- the type that people genuinely love and carry on buying despite generational gulfs (Sgt Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, Bridge over Troubled Waters, Tubular Bells etc.)
– and the type that chin-stroking rock critics decide to be ‘landmarks’ and which were only bought by wannabe muso’s and scribes.
Eno’s priceless quote that the Velvet’s debut was bought by only 30,000 buyers (but that each one went on to form a band etc. etc.) flatters the ‘ones in the know’ that they are somehow more astute and clearer in their judgement than the general horde. But time is the ultimate critic and I suspect that ‘Forever Changes’ will probably not be celebrating a 100th anniversary release.
50 years not enough to be re-evaluated? Anyway I will not be around for the 20 disc 100th anniversary (except it will be automatically delivered to one’s fridge or something).
It’s on a ‘cool’ label.
Lee was one of the ‘mavericks’ and therefore fulfills the rock journo’s wet dream of what a proper ‘rock star’ should be (even if he wasn’t one really…unlike his label mate and rival Jim).
It had the good luck to be released at the tail end of one of the most exciting decades in pop music and, as we all know, re-issued late sixties ‘cult’ product sells just enough copies to rich sixty-somethings to justify an expanded release like this.
The labels know that this is probably the last time they can do this sort of thing with their ‘cult’ items because there’s no interest in multi-disc boxes of 60s acts from anyone under forty.
Well I think it is a brilliant album and I don’t really care about age or critical consensus. I have loved it longer than that anyway. I don’t need this however, but as it is in my top 3 albums ever then it kind of feels like I should get it. If it was 80 quid or more then I wouldn’t
There’s a very small chance that I will still be alive in 2067. If I am, I confidently predict that I will be the last person in the world listening Sgt Pepper.
Of all those albums, my money’s on S&G to last the longest.
As you’re here… it’s worth hearing the plastercast-positive Bryan Maclean’s solo version of Alone Again Or (his song, after all). It’s on “If You Believe In…”
Dismissing things out of hand, just because they’re in a “100 Best..” list is rather foolish, IMO.
OK if you don’t like an album or an artist, you don’t like them and that’s fine. And ultimately, so what?
Personally, I love this album but I won’t be buying the box, because getting different versions of favourite albums and extra tracks etc. doesn’t really excite me that much any more. I’d rather spend my money on something completely new to me, or an album I no longer have and really miss.
Forever Changes truly thrills me every time I play it. It has had this effect for 50 years. There are albums released before and after that I love to listen to but none have the effect FC has.
Many of you on here will also know this feeling, maybe not with FC but with many of the great albums out there and there are as many of those as you wish.
You may be happy with one issue of FC and maybe if I had any sense I’d be happy with the dozen or so copies I own, including the sublime sounding Mofi LP & SACD. That’s me, I will never tire of listening to Forever Changes, not until I draw my last breath.
Did I ever tell you that Denis Law is kind of my second cousin removed? My Dad worked with Denis’ grandad and was a frequent visitor to the Law house in Sunnybank. Young Denis called my Dad “Uncle Ernie” cos my Dad’s name actually was Ernie. I played football with Denis in his back yard (no grass just concrete) once, he was a bit better than me. Many years later Denis told me Forever Changes was hippy twaddle.
Only one of the above sentences is untrue.
Well my dear Wrongie, when I met ‘The King’ outside the players entrance at Old Trafford in 1968 he signed the back of my only copy of FC I owned at that time.
I used to carry it everywhere with me until the late ’80’s when I bought the CD which I could fit in my back pocket.
Back to The King, upon signing it he said don’t let that hippie Best sign it because it’s the greatest album ever, better than his current fave ‘Billy Fury’s Greatest Hits’.
‘Course, Bobby Charlton was more of a Hot Butttered Soul guy. Surprising, perhaps, that Our Kid would be drawn to the work of a bald man, what with his own luxuriant barnet..
Believe it or not Bobby was more of a Velvet Underground kind of guy. He was also into Andy Warhol in a big way and is famous to those he has shown, for his collection of soup cans.
Sorry to get back on topic but I got my Forever Changes deluxe set today. The new vinyl is truly spectacular sounding. I have a mono original and stereo Chris Bellman mastered LPs (as well as 4 or 5 CD versions and the Pono hi-res) and this new master knocks them all into a cocked hat.
Moose the Mooche says
It sounds so clear, It Has Turned Into Crystal.
Tiggerlion says
There are three things that attract me to this: the mono mix, the fact the remasters are done by Botnick himself & the affordable price.
Moose the Mooche says
Heh heh. I was wondering when you would see that “M” symbol in the sky and fire up the Tiggmobile.
Tiggerlion says
1967 was peak Mono.
NigelT says
Looks lovely….will be the 4th time I’ve bought it. The mono will be interesting (haven’t heard it in mono for ober 40 years) and the new Botnik master should be terrific.
JQW says
The mono mix is apparently just a fold-down of the usual stereo one, and not a dedicated mono mix. With a fold-down the two stereo tracks are mixed straight to mono, and results in the instruments and vocals at the centre of the stereo image sounding louder than those panned left and right.
Ironically the single mix of Alone Again Or is a different stereo mix to the standard one, the purpose of the new mix was to ensure it sounded decent when played back on mono equipment. Elektra were experimenting with releasing singles in stereo at the time, Alone Again Or was one of their first batch of stereo single releases. As many radio stations were still mono, the single was remixed to make it sound good on the radio. Later many record companies would provide radio stations with two sided promo singles, containing the stereo mix on one side a dedicated mono mix on the other.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Shuffles in muttering to himself “Hippy twaddle, possibly most over-rated album ever released”. Acknowledges applause and shuffles off.
dai says
Opposite of hippies I would say
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Released in 1968 so by definition it’s hippy. Nothing wrong with hippies per se just this record, it’s dreadful. And as per the Roxy Music thread it is a crime to charge more than, say, £9.99 for a 50 year old album no matter the remixes, Dvd, booklets, locks of hair and the smell of a dead horse.
Diddley Farquar says
Because it’s the opposite of hippy peace and love as the way to go. This is Arthur Lee’s own particular, unsettling, dark vision. 1967 not 1968, a diverse year of many styles.
dai says
No, it’s awesome. Am sure it costs more than a tenner to put together and this price is reasonable in my opinion.
Baron Harkonnen says
Hey LoW been on the smelly baccy again? ; ))
Moose the Mooche says
Mate, the Karajan/Rostropovich recording of the Dvorak Cello Concerto was released in 1968. Is that hippy?
1967, anyway. Do Tesco give you a point every time you’re wrong?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Everyone knows that Dvorak was smoking dope when he went into the studio with his cello ie he was a hippy
I can categorically state without fear of contradiction that Forever Changes did not arrive in Telemech (Aberdeen’s finest record emporium – well, emporium might be a bit strong. “Dodgy shop full of dodgy characters who would sell you a dodgy tv for a tenner, some dodgy weed (oregano most likely) for five bob and a mallet to the head if you tried to nick anything” might be closer to the truth) until the spring of 1968.
As was so often the case I bought Forever Changes because of the cover and for a year I told everyone “this is bloody brilliant”. I then came to my senses – it’s pish.
“50 year Anniversary” it says up there. Gets out calculator. 1967 + 50 = hold on, that can’t be right…..
I have enough Tesco points to buy Forever Changes, Roxy Music and some Lady Doritos.
Moose the Mooche says
Herbert wouldn’t have tolerated such behaviour. The BPO even had a house barber to keep everything in check. A bassoonist once whistled a Gershwin tune while tying his shoes in the rehearsal room.
The great conductor momentarily heard this. Guards appeared. Of the poor bassonist, let’s just say… tootle again he did not.
chiz says
“A bassoonist once whistled a Gershwin tune while tying his shoes in the rehearsal room”
What a beautiful sentence that is. Four internal rhymes and four-beats-in-the-bar rhythm. I’m getting that tattooed somewhere.
Moose the Mooche says
Like the beat beat beat of the tom tom… oh no, bugger, that’s Cole Porter.
As you were.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I have to say your comments starting with “Herbert” are amongst the finest ever recorded on here. Grudging yet heartfelt admiration is coming your way…
ps who knew Electrif Lycanthrope was on Amazon Music, my cup do overfloweth. I remember unwrapping the original bootleg with trembling fingers before carefully and reverently placing it on the turntable. Now I search The Feat and there it is…. and here it is playing in my chateau. And look lots of other “rare” Feat recordings. Expect everyone else on here knows about this kind of thing but that’s me in the sweetshop.
Moose the Mooche says
Lycanthrope is on Archive.org for nowt, dude! Has been for about ten years. Quite right too – if it cost anything it should be on the NHS.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I have about 7 copies of Lycanthrope – I’m just marvelling at the age we live in where I can find it on mainstream Amazon at the press of a button…..
And the version on Archive.org ain’t as good as some of the recent remasters (possibly)
retropath2 says
Lady Dorito’s? What fresh hell etc?
SteveT says
You can keep flogging a dead horse but it is still dead.
Wtf.
Neil Jung says
Great album but who needs 7 discs of it? You wouldn’t play 5 of them more than twice tops. £42. No.
Baron Harkonnen says
7 discs? That must be the Super Duper Set? I can’t fucking wait for that.
dai says
Well, that is the case with most of these SDE sets. Nature of the beast, everything in one place, pick and choose what you want to listen to.
I already have vinyl, the live album (I was there) and the double CD that came out a few years back, although the ex may have ended up with custody of that. I did pre-order but may cancel as I seem to have too much stuff.
Baron Harkonnen says
This is the finest way The Greatest Album Ever Recorded* could have been released for its 50th Anniversary (& 5 months), decent price and good packaging.
*Don’t agree? That’s because you’re fucking deaf and why are you wasting your time reading this thread?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Pardon?
nickduvet says
“I seem to have too much stuff”
Afterword t-shirt
Gatz says
Especially if printed across the belly.
deramdaze says
I’d buy the mono mix on CD for a tenner, but £42? No.
I think ‘Love’ and ‘Da Capo’ had the mono mixes added automatically ten or so years ago.
The 1 CD with the stand-alone 45 of the time is more than enough for me and, anyway, of the 4 LPs up to ‘Four Sail,’ ‘Forever Changes’ is the one that rarely gets an airing.
Moose the Mooche says
It doesn’t seem to be currently available as a vinly, judging by the prices.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Whether or not Forever Changes is any good is a matter of opinion but whether or not it is “hippy” is now not open to debate.
I have just played the 2015 Remastered Version (the 2012 remasters just don’t cut it for me). I got as far as
“You know that I could be in love with almost everyone
I think that people are
The greatest fun”
before Lady W walked in. “My dearest love, if you don’t turn that hippy twaddle off not only will all your privileges be revoked but also I will fling you and your music player over the balcony”.
We are currently listening to Taylor’s “Red” and the chances of me ending up in the fountain have greatly receded.
dai says
Well yes, however those words are by Bryan MacLean, 80% of the album is written by Arthur Lee, “They’re locking them up today, they’re throwing away the key ….”
retropath2 says
And it is the 2 Bryan MacLean tracks I like, best. Hippy? I should cocoa.
eddie g says
Very high on my ‘meh’ list of albums although I liked ‘Alone Again Or’. If they re-issued that for a fiver I might be tempted.
SteveT says
The original album is fantastic. Don’t need to hear it in mono or remixed or rehashed. It is the same songs played and sung the same way. Not wasting my money on something so already have the best version of us the one that was released to the public because it was deemed at the time go be the best.
duco01 says
“Oh, the snot has caked against my pants
It has turned into crystal”
Marvellous.
Johnny99 says
Well I think it’s a bloody good album which I have already ordered from the tax dodgers. I have all of their albums and also “Vindicator”. I play them all and I will play this one too.
Baron Harkonnen says
…and so say all of us.
NigelT says
This is one of those albums that I cannot imagine anyone not liking, although clearly that isn’t true! We’ve had these differences before…Pepper, Pet Sounds et al…we all know we are right whichever side of the fence we are.
davebigpicture says
I’m driving from Warrington to Leeds tonight so I’ve downloaded it but last time I tried I couldn’t get to the end. Love Calexico’s version of Alone Again Or though
Moose the Mooche says
I feel quite cheerful when I read these “But surely you can’t…. end of…. I’m right and you’re wrong…” type posts because I accept and often totally understand people not liking, and even despising, music that I like. This comes from my experience of trying very hard to like` records that I thought I ought to like. This worked a treat with Forever Changes, Pet Sounds, The Band, Rain Dogs (my first TW) – all records that I now love but that initially left me with a giant cartoon question mark hanging in the air above me head.
Whereas….”Sister Ray”… you’re having a laugh. Nick Cave? Interesting guy, wish he’d sing in a register where he can stay in tune. Patti Smith – great Bruce cover, now get yourself a sense of humour please. And so on. You disagree? I know, but your enthusiasm is nonetheless a good thing in human terms.
On this thread as in many others, there is a strain of “I don’t like this record, therefore people who say they do like it are deluding themselves, what with me being the most cleverest and all”. Very nice!
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I hope it’s taken as read that every time I criticise or praise a record it’s always IMHO. In my humble opinion Taylor’s Red is the finest piece of pop music ever written about teenagehood (albeit American High School teenagehood) whilst Forever Changes is dreary & twee.
I wouldn’t go so far as to state my taste is better than anyone else’s (although it clearly is, at least on Planet Wrongness) but it’s my opinion and that’s what counts for me. I love the divergence of opinions/tastes on here and sometimes, just sometimes, after careful and painful consideration I am forced to admit I am Wrong ( not with Forever Changes of course)
Baron Harkonnen says
I’m wrong,
You’re right,
I’m right,
You’re wrong,
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.
deramdaze says
The perceived “classic” albums are the ones to, if not exactly ignore, leave for extended periods on the “dusty shelf.”
If it’s (a) the one album by that artist sold by supermarket chains, (b) deemed to be a “must have” by a 12 year old, (c) deemed to be a “must-have on vinly” by a 12 year old, (d) readily available for 99p in the Oxy, (e) a staple in the Top 100 Albums-type of list, or (f) the sole subject of a box set … you’re better off getting some quality rockabilly/garage punk/soul/funk reissues on Ace.
NigelT says
I get where you’re coming from, but there is a reason for ‘classic’ albums being popular…i.e. loads of people have heard it, liked it, and (usually) bought it. This isn’t to say that there isn’t great music elsewhere; one can appreciate both the acknowledged classic and the ignored.
dai says
I also think this one was pretty much under the radar until at keast the mid 80s, unlike Pet Sounds or Pepper. A bit like Odessey and Oracle it’s status has grown slowly over the years rather than diminished.
Moose the Mooche says
True and not true. It appeared in Rolling Stone’s first All Time Albums list in about 1974, and did surprisingly well (for a hippy record) in the NME list of 1985.
The reception that Arthur got when he toured this album in 2002-3 would have been unimaginable only ten years earlier.
NigelT says
I nearly put this in my comment above – it did get in the UK chart (I think Peel was an advocate from memory), but it bombed in the US on release. I actually didn’t hear it properly until around 1972, although I’d seen it around. I take issue with it being a ‘hippy’ record – OK, they are called ‘Love’, they are from California and it was issued in 1967, but it sounds like nothing else from the period, and the lyrics aren’t love and peace and flowers.
dai says
Someone once said that a more appropriate name for them would be “Hate”.
dai says
Just checked NME lists, was way down at 53 in 1974, gradually up to 6 by 2003, however that list has Stone Roses at no. 1 and Pixies Doolittle at no. 2!
eddie g says
Strikes me there are two types of ‘classic’ album- the type that people genuinely love and carry on buying despite generational gulfs (Sgt Pepper, Dark Side of the Moon, Bridge over Troubled Waters, Tubular Bells etc.)
– and the type that chin-stroking rock critics decide to be ‘landmarks’ and which were only bought by wannabe muso’s and scribes.
Eno’s priceless quote that the Velvet’s debut was bought by only 30,000 buyers (but that each one went on to form a band etc. etc.) flatters the ‘ones in the know’ that they are somehow more astute and clearer in their judgement than the general horde. But time is the ultimate critic and I suspect that ‘Forever Changes’ will probably not be celebrating a 100th anniversary release.
dai says
50 years not enough to be re-evaluated? Anyway I will not be around for the 20 disc 100th anniversary (except it will be automatically delivered to one’s fridge or something).
eddie g says
Reasons for re-release?
It’s on a ‘cool’ label.
Lee was one of the ‘mavericks’ and therefore fulfills the rock journo’s wet dream of what a proper ‘rock star’ should be (even if he wasn’t one really…unlike his label mate and rival Jim).
It had the good luck to be released at the tail end of one of the most exciting decades in pop music and, as we all know, re-issued late sixties ‘cult’ product sells just enough copies to rich sixty-somethings to justify an expanded release like this.
The labels know that this is probably the last time they can do this sort of thing with their ‘cult’ items because there’s no interest in multi-disc boxes of 60s acts from anyone under forty.
dai says
Well I think it is a brilliant album and I don’t really care about age or critical consensus. I have loved it longer than that anyway. I don’t need this however, but as it is in my top 3 albums ever then it kind of feels like I should get it. If it was 80 quid or more then I wouldn’t
Moose the Mooche says
There’s a very small chance that I will still be alive in 2067. If I am, I confidently predict that I will be the last person in the world listening Sgt Pepper.
Of all those albums, my money’s on S&G to last the longest.
dai says
I will be 105, I fully expect Their Satanic Majesties Request to triumph 😉
(and Keef will be still with us)
Moose the Mooche says
As you’re here… it’s worth hearing the plastercast-positive Bryan Maclean’s solo version of Alone Again Or (his song, after all). It’s on “If You Believe In…”
Mike_H says
Dismissing things out of hand, just because they’re in a “100 Best..” list is rather foolish, IMO.
OK if you don’t like an album or an artist, you don’t like them and that’s fine. And ultimately, so what?
Personally, I love this album but I won’t be buying the box, because getting different versions of favourite albums and extra tracks etc. doesn’t really excite me that much any more. I’d rather spend my money on something completely new to me, or an album I no longer have and really miss.
deramdaze says
Clunky “classic” albums / Everest analogy.
1953 you say? … erm, OK … what do I need to bring with me?
2018 … hmm, I think I’m washing my hair.
Baron Harkonnen says
Forever Changes truly thrills me every time I play it. It has had this effect for 50 years. There are albums released before and after that I love to listen to but none have the effect FC has.
Many of you on here will also know this feeling, maybe not with FC but with many of the great albums out there and there are as many of those as you wish.
You may be happy with one issue of FC and maybe if I had any sense I’d be happy with the dozen or so copies I own, including the sublime sounding Mofi LP & SACD. That’s me, I will never tire of listening to Forever Changes, not until I draw my last breath.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Did I ever tell you that Denis Law is kind of my second cousin removed? My Dad worked with Denis’ grandad and was a frequent visitor to the Law house in Sunnybank. Young Denis called my Dad “Uncle Ernie” cos my Dad’s name actually was Ernie. I played football with Denis in his back yard (no grass just concrete) once, he was a bit better than me. Many years later Denis told me Forever Changes was hippy twaddle.
Only one of the above sentences is untrue.
dai says
OK, you don’t like it. We get it. Maybe start another thread recommending non “hippy twaddle” from this era to the “massive”.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
As Denis always says “Peace and love, Dai”
Baron Harkonnen says
Well my dear Wrongie, when I met ‘The King’ outside the players entrance at Old Trafford in 1968 he signed the back of my only copy of FC I owned at that time.
I used to carry it everywhere with me until the late ’80’s when I bought the CD which I could fit in my back pocket.
Back to The King, upon signing it he said don’t let that hippie Best sign it because it’s the greatest album ever, better than his current fave ‘Billy Fury’s Greatest Hits’.
Sewer Robot says
‘Course, Bobby Charlton was more of a Hot Butttered Soul guy. Surprising, perhaps, that Our Kid would be drawn to the work of a bald man, what with his own luxuriant barnet..
Baron Harkonnen says
Believe it or not Bobby was more of a Velvet Underground kind of guy. He was also into Andy Warhol in a big way and is famous to those he has shown, for his collection of soup cans.
retropath2 says
Whereas Wor Jackie was more a Wayne/Jayne County afficianado. And Wendy O. Williams. I’m told.
Artery says
Sorry to get back on topic but I got my Forever Changes deluxe set today. The new vinyl is truly spectacular sounding. I have a mono original and stereo Chris Bellman mastered LPs (as well as 4 or 5 CD versions and the Pono hi-res) and this new master knocks them all into a cocked hat.
Just sayin’ …