18. Live and Let Live
Album: Forever Changes (1967)
There are eight tracks from
Forever Changes in my top 18. These songs form the crux of the case for why
Forever Changes is one of the best albums of its time.
This may not be apparent at the beginning of "Live and Let Live," which opens "Oh the snot has caked against my pants/It has turned into crystal". This can't be a serious song, it's just hippie foolishness, right? Wrong.
"Live and Let Live" is Arthur Lee's haunting meditation on America's ugly history of violence, obsession with firearms and seizure of land. "Live and Let Live" is one of many songs on
Forever Changes whose title does not appear in the lyrics, and in this case instead functions as the moral of the story Lee tells -- horrible things happen when we try to take what belongs to other people, so let's leave each other alone.
There's a bluebird sitting on a branch
I guess I'll take my pistol
I've got it in my hand
Because he's on my land
And so the story ended
Do you know it oh so well
Well should you need I'll tell you
The end-end-end-end-end-end-end-end
And...
Yes I've seen you sitting on the couch
I recognize your artillery
I have seen you many times before
Once when I was an Indian
And I was on my land
Why can't you understand
And so the story ended
Do you know it oh so well
Well should you need I'll tell you
The end-end-end-end-end-end-end-end
And...
Served my time
Served it well
You made my soul
A cell
Write the rules
In the sky
But ask your leaders
Why
Why
The song begins pleasantly with a simple acoustic guitar punctuated by punchy notes from Ken Forssi's bass, but soon speeds up in tempo as the other instruments come in. After the bridge, John Echols provides a searing guitar solo that's a taste of the fireworks to come at the end. After a repeat of the first verse, chorus and bridge, the tempo picks up even further and Echols resumes soloing, at first echoing what he does in the middle of the song and then, backed by flourishes from drummer Michael Stuart-Ware, accelerating into a frenzy of blues-rock fretwork at its finest.
This song took on extra resonance after Lee was released from prison, as crowds delivered an overwhelming response when they heard him sing "Served my time/Served it well/You made my soul/A cell". In fact, there were no documented live performances of it before Lee's prison term, but it has been played at pretty much every show for which there is a known setlist since his release, including at the concert I saw in 2002 and by The Love Band with Echols after Lee's death.
Alternate mix:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0sgnB4wHq2bZpK2gi6kDtI?si=ba7eba0bb1e44fae
Live version from Liverpool in 2002:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0COPgyXkHtE
Live version from the Glastonbury Festival in 2003:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzxx-UYbL7E
Live version from London in 2003 (appears on
The Forever Changes Concert):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-oeMIpl-V8
Live version from Cambridge, UK in 2004 (appears on
Coming Through to You: The Live Recordings (1970-2004)):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw2R_ZEbEGc
The Love Band with John Echols live in London in 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew5cZnEzCpg
At #17, a rager from the debut album.