This is not a new album. And it’s not Arthur Lee’s masterpiece Forever Changes. So why is it my album of the week?
Lee had finished up Forever Changes, and the original band was falling apart (mostly due to drugs), but the contract with Elektra was unbreakable. Arthur Lee owed them one more album. So he hired three studio musicians, power rockers who were clearly hooked on Blue Cheer, Spirit, and Moby Grape, and they recorded “Four Sail”. (For some reason, Amazon.com calls it Foursail. Whatever.) I bought it the day it came out back in 1969. I still have the vinyl, but a year ago it was finally re-released on CD, so now everyone can enjoy it.
What makes the album work so well is the interplay – and the tension – between Arthur Lee’s songs – wistful, sardonic, pensive lyrics over jazzy, Latin-influenced melodies – and the power rock trio behind him. Michael Fremer’s review on Musicangle gets into the details better than I can, but the result is a glorious album of rock’n’roll. It can stand up to any of the great rock albums from the late 60s by folks like Steve Miller, Spirit, even the Stones. Sadly, it’s been largely ignored because it isn’t Forever Changes – but it doesn’t pretend to be.
Four Sail is one of those albums that I find myself slipping into the CD changer in my car every few months… and then no matter what else is in there, Four Sail is what I listen to. It’s a “roll down the windows, crank it up and cruise” kind of album. And that’s what I’ve been doing this week….