Editing Forever Changes (section)

==Background==
[[File:Love (1966).png|thumb|Love in 1966; one year before the beginning of the album's recording.]]
In 1966, Love released their first two albums in relatively rapid succession; the second, ''[[Da Capo (Love album)|Da Capo]]'', spawned their only Top 40 hit, "[[7 and 7 Is]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/love-mn0000314600|title=Love – Biography|website=[[AllMusic]]|last=Unterberger |first=Richie|access-date=May 31, 2016}}</ref> However, the group's opportunity for major national success dwindled as a consequence of frontman [[Arthur Lee (musician)|Arthur Lee]]'s unwillingness to tour, his deteriorating relationship with Love's other songwriter [[Bryan MacLean]], and the overshadowing presence of label-mates [[the Doors]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/halfway-between-watts-and-charles-manson-local-idol-arthur-lee/|title=Halfway Between Watts and Charles Manson: Local idol Arthur Lee|website=Lamag.com|last=Duersten |first=Matthew|date=May 22, 2014 |access-date=May 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/arthur-lee-1945-2006-20060804|title=Arthur Lee (1945–2006)|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|last=Sullivan|first=James|access-date=May 31, 2016}}</ref> In a 1992 interview, MacLean spoke of him and Lee "competing a bit like [[Lennon–McCartney|Lennon and McCartney]] to see who would come up with the better song. It was part of our charm. Everybody had different behaviour patterns. Eventually, the others couldn't cut it".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-bryan-maclean-1044305.html|title=Orbituary: Bryan MacLean|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=May 31, 2016}}</ref> Throughout this period, the band – reduced to a quintet with the departures of Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and Tjay Cantrelli – were known to retreat to a dilapidated mansion in Hollywood, nicknamed "The Castle", to use heroin, causing further stagnation.<ref name=mojo>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVQbF9lTBwgC&q=arthur+lee+love+da+capo&pg=PA114|title=The Mojo Collection|author=Various writers|edition=4th|page=114|year=2007|publisher=Canongate Books|isbn=978-1841959733}}</ref> The band was allowed to live in this mansion as long as they maintained it and paid property taxes. According to author John Einerson, the rumor of it being formerly lived in by [[Bela Lugosi]] is a myth.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

===Inspiration===
Rather than base his writings on Los Angeles's burgeoning [[hippie]] scene, Lee's material for ''Forever Changes'' was drawn from his lifestyle and environment.<ref name=mojo/> The songs reflected upon grim but blissful themes and Lee's skepticism of the [[flower power]] movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/253799-love-forever-changes/|title=Love: ''Forever Changes'' – Studio 360|website=Wnyc.org|access-date=April 25, 2019}}</ref> Writer Andrew Hultkrans explained Lee's frame of mind at the time: "Arthur Lee was one member of the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|'60s counterculture]] who didn't buy flower-power wholesale, who intuitively understood that letting the sunshine in wouldn't instantly vaporize the world's (or his own) dark stuff".<ref name=Hultkrans>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o17m4K0_csMC&q=love+forever+changes|title=''Love's Forever Changes''|pages=3–4|publisher=Bloomsbury|last=Hultkrans|first=Andrew|year=2003|isbn=9781441128706}}</ref> With the band in disarray, and increasingly concerned over his own mortality, Lee envisioned ''Forever Changes'' as a lament to his memory.<ref name=Hultkrans/>

Having already produced the group's first two albums, [[Bruce Botnick]] was enlisted to oversee the production of the third album along with Lee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richieunterberger.com/botnick.html|title=Bruce Botnick interview|website=Richieunterberger.com|last=Unterberger |first=Richie|access-date=June 1, 2016}}</ref> Botnick, who had just finished working on [[Buffalo Springfield]]'s ''[[Buffalo Springfield Again]]'', invited [[Neil Young]] to co-produce the album, but Young, after initially agreeing, excused himself from the project.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aw6kSkR3eXgC&q=forever+changes+neil+young&pg=PA52|title=''Eight Miles High: Folk-rock's Flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock''|last=Unterberger |first=Richie|page=52|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|year=2003|isbn=0879307439}}</ref> As Botnick recalled "Neil really had the burning desire to go solo and realize his dream without being involved in another band".<ref name=congress/> According to the liner notes of the compilation album ''Love Story'', Young was involved in ''Forever Changes'' long enough to arrange the track "The Daily Planet"; Young, however, has denied such involvement.<ref>{{cite book|title= Shakey: Neil Young's biography|last= McDonough|first= Jimmy|year= 2002|publisher= [[Random House]]|location= New York City|isbn= 978-0-679-42772-8|oclc= 47844513|url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780679427728 |page=160}}</ref>

The title of the album came from a story that Lee had heard about a friend-of-a-friend who had broken up with his girlfriend. She exclaimed, "You said you would love me forever!" and he replied, "Well, forever changes." Lee also noted that, since the name of the band was Love, the full title was actually ''Love Forever Changes''.<ref name="Einarson, John 2010">{{cite book |last=Einarson |first=John |title=Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love |publisher=A Genuine Jawbone Book |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-906002-31-2}}</ref>