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This interview with
BRUCE BOTNICK,
co-producer of “Forever Changes” by Love,”
was conducted by the Library of Congress
on August 10, 2016.
Bruce Botnick
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: Legend has it that there was a lot of in-fighting among the members of Love at the start of this album’s recording. Is that true? Did you know that going in? And how did you mitigate that?
BRUCE BOTNICK: I tried not to get too involved in the drama. The reason we brought in the Wrecking Crew [a group of talented studio musicians working in LA at the time] was that the band really was just not together; they didn’t have a common purpose. Arthur [Lee] was actually starting to look to replacing parts of the band but never verbally said it out loud, but the band could feel it.
So, in this instance, when we brought in the Wrecking Crew, it rattled the band’s cage a bit, causing them to come to the front and then they played really well. They didn’t want to end up not being part of the album.
LOC: You have worked with both the Doors and Love. Can you compare your studio experiences with both groups?
BB: With the Doors you had four individuals who were one. With Love, you had one individual—Arthur Lee. Arthur wrote most of the music and the lyrics. The record was all Arthur’s, except for the two songs Bryan MacLean wrote, “Alone Again Or.” and the beautiful and haunting “Old Man.”
But Arthur was it. It was Arthur’s vision from the beginning.
LOC: Who made the decision to bring in some members of the Wrecking Crew to record two of the songs?
BB: I’m guilty here. The band was really listless and uninspired. I sat down with Arthur and said we weren’t going to get anything—get a record—if we didn’t do something to shake things up.
I had been working a great deal with the Wrecking Crew, so I said, “Let’s go into the studio with them and see what we get.” We did one three-hour session and recorded two songs: "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet." Both Arthur and Johnny Echols played on the session.
LOC: Was Arthur Lee onboard with the idea of bringing in these other musicians?
BB: Oh, yes, if Arthur hadn’t had been, it wouldn’t have happened. I couldn’t have done it without his participation. LOC: What do you think sets the string and horn arrangements on “Forever Changes” apart from others of the period?
BB: It was what Arthur heard in his head, he sang his melodies and counter melodies to David Angel, the arranger, and they became the templates for the arrangements. This wasn’t a matter of hiring an arranger to come up with arrangements without the artist’s involvement. Before bringing David Angel into the fold, I had approached Jack Nitzsche, who had created the arrangements for Phil Spector. Jack liked the music but was busy on another project that he was producing.
At that time, The Tijuana Brass were very popular all over the radio and TV, and it was common to have a “tip of the hat” to another artist in their style on your album. Beyond bringing David Angel into the mix, that was my contribution to the taste and feel of the arrangements.
LOC: What was Arthur Lee like? How did he compare to some of the other artists you have worked with throughout your career?
BB: Well, Arthur was, first and foremost, a terrific poet. I mean he was just brilliant. The only person I know of that I could compare him to was Jim Morrison.
As a lyricist, he could really take you on a trip. He never sat in a room and made believe that he was a 13-year-old girl. Arthur had a broad imagination and a great sense of humor; which stands out mightily in his lyrics.
“The snot has caked against my pants, it has turned to crystal, There’s a bluebird sitting on a branch, I think I’ll get my pistol….”
He was also always open to new approaches and interpretations with his songs. I’d say to him, “Did you mean this in this lyric” and he’d be like, “Yeah, I guess I did, I hadn’t given much thought about it,” he was totally collaborative and open.
But he was a benevolent dictator with his band.
LOC: Is “Forever Changes” a “political” record?
BB: Oh, some of it, yes. There’s a running commentary on the state of society throughout the album. I think that’s one of the reasons that the music has proven to have legs. It’s the depths of the words. You hear it and you immediately relate to it, it doesn’t matter about the age group or ethnicity.
You know, we were all in our low 20s when we recorded “Forever Changes.” Later, when I taught at USC, I’d play it for 18 year-olds and they immediately locked into it.
Arthur was really a jazz and blues musician at heart and was influenced by Miles Davis and other great jazz musicians of the time. When you listen to the album, you can really hear the jazz in Arthur.
A lot of the West Coast jazz musicians had started following Love from the first album, they really connected with it. At the time, they were looking to move jazz into the lexicon of the modern listener. Later, while I was recording a Jazz album with Bud Shank and a who’s who of the West Coast Jazz scene, the musicians were asking all sorts of questions about Arthur and Love. It was interesting the influence Arthur had on the guys that influenced him.
