Editor’s Letter
You couldn’t have asked for a more bitter example of serial demise than the death one month of Syd Barrett, followed the next by the passing of Arthur Lee, the astonishing architect of Love’s ravishing psychedelic soundscapes.
Permit me a bit of manly throat-clearing at this point, because few records have meant so much to me as Love’s 1967 masterpiece, Forever Changes, an album of eternal mysterious beauty. When I first got it as a 14 year old, I played it until the vinyl warped and the spindle hole grew big enough to drive a bus through.
I was almost pathologically eager to hear what Arthur would do next, and was sensationally disappointed by the news that the last release by the version of Love that had recorded Forever Changes would not be another album – just a single, the two surviving tracks from an apparently aborted album. It seemed too meagre. But I bought the record anyway – and was, of course, duly gobsmacked by “Laughing Stock” and the immortal “Your Mind And We Belong Together”, a song so far out we are still waiting for it to come back.
Finally, thanks to your response to our invitation last issue to share your memories of Syd Barrett with us. A selection of your letters appears in this month’s Feedback, starting on page 175.
OPINION - Michael Eavis
YOU HAD TO BE THERE - Jimi Hendrix’s UK debut
IN HIS OWN WRITE - Motörhead’s Lemmy
CH-CH-CH-CHANGES - Noddy Holder of Slade
FIGHT CLUB - Floyd post Syd: Jake Shears vs Noel Fielding
THE STARS THAT FAME FORGOT - Wreckless Eric
MY LIFE IN MUSIC - Punk poetess Patti Smith
FROM THE VAULT - Elton John talking dirty back in ’95
THE MAKING OF… - Derek & The Dominos’ “Layla”
I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD - Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs
JON WILDE INTERVIEW - Adam Ant
AN AUDIENCE WITH… - The Manics’ Nicky Wire
FEEDBACK - Readers’ letters
STOP ME… - The Waterboys’ Mike Scott