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Andrew Hultkrans

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Forever Changes (Thirty Three and a Third series) Paperback – October 1, 2003

by Andrew Hultkrans (Author)

3.8 62 ratings

Part of: 33 1/3 (161 books)

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Conceived as the last testament of a charismatic recluse who believed he was about to die, 'Forever Changes' is one of the defining albums of an era. Here, Andrew Hultkrans explores the myriad depths of Love's bizarre and brilliant record. Charting bohemian Los Angeles' descent into chaos at the end of the '60s, he teases out the literary and mystical influences behind Arthur Lee's lyrics, and argues that Lee was both inspired and burdened by a powerful prophetic urge.

Part of series

33 1/3
Print length

136 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Continuum
Publication date

October 1, 2003
Dimensions

4.72 x 0.29 x 6.62 inches
ISBN-10

0826414931
ISBN-13

978-0826414939
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I love a critic who doesn't profess to be infallible, so Andrew Hultkrans immediately won me over by admitting he was previously "absolutely, laughably wrong" about Forever Changes Hultkrans takes the record very, very seriously; accordingly, his book is a reverential, fastidious tome." Seattle Weekly

"This former Bookforum editor openly identifies with this most apocalyptic of 60s El Lay albums, but he keeps his head in the game, fearlessly splashing around in lead Love-r Arthur Lee's disturbed psyche. He's sharp on the lyrics (maybe too sharp, given Lee's confused state) and slightly less so on the music, but he's killer on context: the album's fear, its overwhelming strangeness, its death-drive in a culture that only Lee knew was suffused with it. A-" Austin American-Statesman, 10/17/04

From the Publisher

"Thirty Three and a Third" is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. What binds the series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors musicians, broadcasters, scholars, and writers are huge fans of the album they have chosen.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Continuum; 0 edition (October 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0826414931
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0826414939
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.72 x 0.29 x 6.62 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #734,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,768 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- #1,886 in Rock Band Biographies
- #2,535 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

Customer Reviews:
3.8 62 ratings

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3.8 out of 5

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Kirk Curnutt

Summers of love, prophets of apocalypse

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2003

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I've been having a great time reading the books in Continuum's 33-1/3 series. They're intelligent but not pompous, easily digested in a single sitting given their 100-page length. Of those I've looked at, I have to say this one on Love's Forever Changes is my favorite. Part of it is the exotic choice of subject---the original album remains a cult "nugget" of 60s rock, even after its 2002 reissue and Arthur Lee's recent tours. But Andrew Hultkrans' thesis that Lee is a "crank prophet" whose 67 opus was an apocalyptic portent of what would come two years later with the Manson murders, Altamont, and the overall collapse of the 60s youth culture is fascinating and informative. The range of scholarly reference here is impressive; you'd expect a mention or two of Greil Marcus, but I give the author props for associating Arthur Lee with Sacvan Bercovitch's work on the jeremiad tradition. I also found the interviews and histories excerpted refreshingly new; although Todd Gitlin's The 60s is well-known, Barney Hoskyn's Waiting for the Sun isn't, though it deserves to be. Maybe the ominousness of the Summer of Love that Arthur tapped into is best epitomized by the fact that a future Manson family murderer, Bobby Beausoleil, tried out as the group's rhythm guitarist. That fact alone seems to confirm a malevolent design to fate. The book made me do what good books on music should: it made me want to study the music more. I've been reading and listening at the same time, in fact.

11 people found this helpful

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Kurt Harding

A Thinking Man's Guide

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2005

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Forever Changes is one of my all-time favorite albums and is one of the few I listened to as a youth that I never tire of hearing. So naturally I am as interested in reading about the enigmatic Arthur Lee and his band as I am in listening to them.

I just recently got around to reading this book having had no idea what to expect of the author. At first, I was annoyed by his hard left political rants but then as I read on, I became engrossed by his obviously educated take on the album and its meaning. Make no mistake, if you are expecting airy gossip, then pass this book by. Hultkrans' Forever Changes is a thinking man's guide to the album. You may or may not agree with what he says, but you will come away at the end of the book listening to the album with a different mindset. You may even come away wanting to explore the writings of Kierkegaard, Huysmans, Woolf, and other referenced writers to see where Lee may have gotten existential inspiration.

Some reviewers didn't find much about Forever Changes in these pages. I found a great deal, not only about the songs, but about the peculiar cultural milieu that spawned Lee. I don't understand why several of the reviewers complain about the elevated tone of Hultkrans' exegesis. Most people I know who really like Forever Changes are of a thoughtful bent, so I would think that most who want to get beneath the surface of Lee's lyrics would be delighted by the approach here. After all, taken literally many of the songs seem nonsensical. However, when they are examined from the viewpoint of the arcane philosophies that seemed to animate Lee, then they begin to make some sense.

I enjoyed reading Forever Changes and would recommend it to anyone interested in looking at a great album in a radical new way. It would have gotten five stars had Hultkrans managed to keep his off-topic political biases to himself.

20 people found this helpful

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Grimston

scholarly work on an Outstanding album.

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017

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Love's Forever Changes, often over shadowed by Sgt. Pepper, is one the greatest albums most people have never heard of. The best way to describe Forever Changes is Hauntly Beauty. A complex work that demands to listen to over and over.

Hultkrans work sometimes reads like a PhD thesis. It can become over reaching in its analysis. Sometime a cigar is just a cigar. Where this book really shines is to put Forever Changes into the context of its time. The "Summer Of Love" give way to the Manson Family and the death of the Hippy.

One person found this helpful

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Hans Pfaall

Great album, strange book

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2014

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Make no mistake about it, Love’s Forever Changes is an album deserving of intellectual study. Not many albums are. With all the cerebral (and pseudo-cerebral) literary comparisons undertaken with Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison lyrics, it’s clear that Arthur Lee should receive some of the same treatment.

Hultkrans’ enthusiasm is obvious, but his analyses are often overwrought. On the positive side, a number of worthy sources and ideas are scattered throughout this short book. Hultkrans discusses how “Alone Again Or,” though written by Brian MacLean, was in line with some hermetic tendencies exhibited by Lee. Also, note the “count me out” line and mysterious double-words in Lee’s “The Red Telephone,” as well as the “locked in my armor” and “secrets are your own” lyrics in Lee’s “Andmoreagain.” The strain of social alienation is apparent in many of the songs.

Another interesting area explored by Hultkrans was prophesy – the idea of the bard (or even a preacher) gazing over the city, warning others in cryptic fashion of the impending doom. The third verse of “A House Is Not A Motel” can certainly be interpreted along those lines. Lee lived at the top of Lookout Mountain in 1967, and with the chilling opening lines of “The Red Telephone,” one could imagine Lee perched in deep thought, distraught with his surroundings.

On the other hand, I don’t believe Arthur Lee actually studied Gnosticism. Hultkrans would have been better off making it clear that he was drawing comparisons in his analysis – between Lee’s vision and some of these literary traditions, NOT stating how Lee actually was inspired.

Additionally, MacLean’s contributions are glossed over. “Alone Again Or” is analyzed, but I don’t recall “Old Man” receiving the same treatment. While not thematically in line with concepts explored by Hultkrans, “Old Man” is a strong song, and part of the album.

Ultimately, it’s best to view this as a chaotic book of ideas. There are wild tangents and many of the connections are dubious, but they at least make the reader think. Unfortunately, there is no bibliography, not much information on what actually inspired the songwriting, and absolutely nothing about how the album was recorded from a technical standpoint. This makes the book something of an anomaly in the 33 and a third series. Despite this, I recommend the book to readers not exclusively interested in the technical aspects of recording. That’s probably most people who are reading this, frankly, though this book is far from the final word on Forever Changes.

5 people found this helpful

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Mr. Martin J. G. Dawson

Forever Changes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

Insight to the group Love and it's musicians a very detailed account of that classic studio recording. It was such a long time ago but it was the most creative time ever by artists.

Regards,

Martin

D. Enzo

sans beaucoup d'intérêt

Reviewed in France on October 23, 2011

Verified Purchase

Les livres de cette collection sont très différents les uns des autres et leur intérêt dépend beaucoup de la personne qui l'a écrit. Or dans ce cas on a un livre qui n'essaie pas de comprendre ou d'expliquer vraiment le genèse musical de cet album mythique du groupe californien Love, mais l'auteur, sur la base de ses conjectures, lui accroche une vision personnelle basée sur l'analyse des textes - et pas un mot sur la musique - et sur la biographie du fondateur du groupe Arthur Lee, pour dévoiler une sorte de vision psychologique/psychanalytique qui n'est que la sienne.

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Nlck

... I did not know about one of my all-time favourite bands and their enigmatic leader

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2015

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Much here that I did not know about one of my all-time favourite bands and their enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee.

David

Hugely disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 8, 2023

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Having read several books in this series I was looking forward to learning more about this incredible album.
The other books detail the recording processes and break down each track giving an explanation about each track so that you learn about the entire concept and structure of the finished album. This book doesn't attempt that at all and gives you virtually no insight into the record whatsoever. What information he does give seems to have been lifted from other books especially Barney Hoskyns' excellent 'Waiting For The Sun'. As other reviewers have also mentioned this book reads like a student's thesis on Gnosticism and Marat and Sade and tries to link Arthur Lee's mindset to the author's own interests rather than delving into the recording of the album. I read the whole book in the hope that by the end I would learn something about the album but unfortunately found it a complete disappointment. Read the extended sleeve notes in the deluxe edition of the record and you will learn much more.

Jb Mills

Love? More a lukewarm affection . . .

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2005

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First of all, if you 'love' the album as much as I do then you won't want to miss this book, which tells the story of the band and how Forever Changes was made.
BUT the writer fancies himself as a bit of a social commentator (fair enough, I suppose, as Love weren't exactly the Monkees, and reflected the often very dark side of the Summer of Love - there's that word again - in California) and sometimes his efforts to make Lee's lyrics fit his theories seem forced.
I think I'd rather have had a more factual account, with less of the highly conjectural analysis. This is more of a college textbook than an appreciation of an incredible band and an incredible album.

9 people found this helpful

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