A House Is Not a Motel

Last updated
"A House Is Not a Motel"
Single by Love
from the album Forever Changes
A-side "Alone Again Or"
ReleasedJanuary 1968 (1968-01)
RecordedSeptember 10, 1967
Genre
Length3:25
Label Elektra
Songwriter(s) Arthur Lee
Producer(s)

"A House Is Not a Motel" is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released by Love on their 1967 album Forever Changes .

Contents

Lyrics and music

The song was likely inspired by the song "A House Is Not a Home" written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, given that Arthur Lee was a fan of their work. It features a descending/ascending psychedelic melody and a folk-rock rhythm. [1] Lee's vocal performance has been described as snarling. [2] According to a friend, Lee got the line about blood mixing with mud turning grey from a Vietnam War veteran. [3]

The song begins with a 12-string guitar playing a riff in E minor. An electric guitar comes in after the second verse, playing a phrase on the top two strings. After the third verse, there is a drum break and twin guitar solo with strange vocal noises. It is one of the most sparsely arranged songs on the album. [4]

Reception

AllMusic's Matthew Greenwald called "A House Is Not a Motel" " another one of Arthur Lee's meditations of his own personal world, and it's both beautiful and brutal at the same time." He praised the "acid-magnified imagery" and considered it to be one of the standouts on the album. [1] Considered to be "wonderfully dark" by The AV Club's Kyle Fowle, he wrote that it was "the most rock-oriented song, complete with blazing guitar solos that underscore the lyrical exploration of the chaos and inhumanity of war." [5] David Barker considered the song to be an inversion of "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones and believed that the house Lee was referring to was a church while the motel symbolised the decrepitude of the world. [3]

Treble magazine ranked the song as the 13th best song of the 1960s, calling it "an increasingly escalating series of apocalyptic visions sandwiched between folk-rock plucks and a fiery electric freakout." [6] The German magazine Musikexpress ranked "A House Is Not a Motel" number 429 in its list of the 700 best songs of all time. [7] Uncut listed the song as one of its 50 essential songs from the Summer of Love. [8] The Spanish magazine Hipersonica ranked the song 23rd best of the 1950s and 1960s. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Forever Changes</i> 1967 studio album by Love

Forever Changes is the third studio album by the American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. The album saw the group embrace a subtler folk-oriented sound, acoustic guitar, and orchestration, while primary songwriter Arthur Lee explored darker themes alluding to mortality and his creeping disillusionment with the 1960s counterculture. It was the final album recorded by the original band lineup; after its completion, Bryan MacLean left the group acrimoniously and the other members were dismissed by leader Lee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love (band)</span> American rock group

Love is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. Led by frontman and primary songwriter Arthur Lee, they were one of the first racially diverse American rock bands. Their sound incorporated an eclectic range of styles including garage, folk-rock, and psychedelia. While finding only modest success on the music charts, peaking in 1966 with their US Top 40 hit "7 and 7 Is", Love would come to be praised by critics as their third album, Forever Changes (1967), became generally regarded as one of the best albums of the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Lee (musician)</span> American rock musician (1945–2006)

Arthur Taylor Lee was an American musician, singer and songwriter who rose to fame as the leader of the Los Angeles rock band Love. Love's 1967 album Forever Changes was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and it is part of the National Recording Registry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live Forever (Oasis song)</span> 1994 single by Oasis

"Live Forever" is a song by English rock band Oasis. Written by Noel Gallagher, the song was released as the third single from their debut album Definitely Maybe (1994) on 8 August 1994, just prior to that album's release. Gallagher wrote the song in 1991, before he joined Oasis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Say It Ain't So</span> 1995 single by Weezer

"Say It Ain't So" is a song by American rock band Weezer. It was released as the third and final single from the band's self-titled 1994 debut album on May 15, 1995. Written by frontman Rivers Cuomo, the song came to be after he had all the music finished and one line, "Say it ain't so". Cuomo made a connection to an incident in high school where he came home and saw a bottle of beer in the fridge. He believed his mother and father's marriage ended because his father was an alcoholic, and this made him fear the marriage between his mother and step-father would end this way as well.

<i>Ride the Tiger</i> (album) 1986 studio album by Yo La Tengo

Ride the Tiger is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo. It was released in 1986 by record label Coyote.

<i>Da Capo</i> (Love album) 1966 studio album by Love

Da Capo is the second studio album by American rock band Love, released in November 1966 by Elektra Records. The album was recorded during September and October 1966 at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California, with the exception of lead single "7 and 7 Is" recorded previously in June. "7 and 7 Is" became the band's biggest commercial single.

<i>Four Sail</i> 1969 studio album by Love

Four Sail is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Love, released in 1969 by Elektra Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alone Again Or</span> 1968 single by Love

"Alone Again Or" is a song originally recorded in 1967 by the rock group Love and written by band member Bryan MacLean. It appears on the album Forever Changes, and was released as a single in the USA, UK, Australia, France and the Netherlands.

"Andmoreagain" is a song written by Arthur Lee and performed by Love. It was first released on their 1967 album Forever Changes. The song was always a part of Lee's concert repertoire, even after disbanding Love.

"The Red Telephone" is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released by Love on their 1967 album Forever Changes.

<i>The Forever Changes Concert</i> 2003 live album by Love

The Forever Changes Concert (2003) is the last album released by Love with Arthur Lee. There was a two-CD re-release in 2007 under the name of The Forever Changes Concert & More, which features extra songs, a live video of "Alone Again Or", band images and a screensaver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange Skies</span> 1966 single by Love

"Orange Skies" is a song written by Bryan MacLean and originally recorded in 1966 by the band Love for their second album Da Capo. It was first released the same month as the B-side to the band's single "Stephanie Knows Who". The original recording features band leader Arthur Lee on lead vocals instead of MacLean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)</span> 1978 single by Buzzcocks

"Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" is a 1978 song written by Pete Shelley and performed by his group Buzzcocks. It was a number 12 hit on the UK Singles Chart and was included on the album Love Bites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluebird (Buffalo Springfield song)</span> Song by the rock group Buffalo Springfield

"Bluebird" is a song recorded by the American rock group Buffalo Springfield. It was written and produced by Stephen Stills, with co-production by Ahmet Ertegun. In June 1967, Atco Records released it as a single to follow-up their hit "For What It's Worth" (1966).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">She Comes in Colors</span> 1966 single by Love

"She Comes in Colors" is a song written by Arthur Lee and released by the band Love as a single in 1966 and on their 1966 album Da Capo. It was also included on a number of Love compilation albums, including Love Revisited and Best of Love and on the multi-artist compilation album Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra 1963–1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">¡Que Vida!</span> 1967 single by Love

"¡Que Vida!" is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released in 1967 by the band Love. It was released both on Love's album Da Capo and as a single, backed with "Hey Joe". It has also been included on several Love compilation albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Knows Who</span> 1966 single by Love

"Stephanie Knows Who" is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released by Love on their 1966 album Da Capo. It has also been released on several Love compilation albums. It was to have been released as a single, backed with "Orange Skies", but the single was withdrawn, with "She Comes in Colors" replacing it under the same catalog number. The song was also covered by The Move.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvest Moon (Neil Young song)</span> 1992 single by Neil Young

"Harvest Moon" is a song written by Neil Young, and was released as the first single from his 1992 album Harvest Moon. It reached No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart.

<i>Black Beauty</i> (album) 2012 studio album by Love

Black Beauty is an album by the psychedelic rock band Love, released on February 13, 2012. Issued on High Moon Records, it compiles material from a canceled studio album, which frontman Arthur Lee—backed by a new group with an all-black line-up—planned to have released on the Buffalo Records label. Recorded after a series of unsuccessful albums, both with Love and his 1972 solo effort Vindicator, Black Beauty was intended to serve as Lee's comeback album. Among other Love releases, it is notable for its reinvention of the band as a funk group, while preserving Lee's lyrical complexity.

References

  1. 1 2 Greenwald, Matthew. "A House Is Not a Motel Song Review". AllMusic .
  2. ↑ Barnes, Ken (August 6, 2006). "Arthur Lee, the legend rock almost forgot". USA Today . Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Barker, David (2006). 33 1/3 Greatest Hits, Volume 1. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   1441112340.
  4. ↑ Rooksby, Rikky (2001). Inside Classic Rock Tracks: Songwriting and Recording Secrets of 100 Great Songs from 1960 to the Present Day. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 44. ISBN   0879306548.
  5. ↑ Fowle, Kyle (February 10, 2015). "Forever Changes is a stunning indictment of The Summer Of Love". The A.V. Club . Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Counter-Culture: The Top 100 Songs of the '60s". Treble. August 9, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Die 700 besten Songs aller Zeiten: Plätze 450 bis 401". Musikexpress (in German). March 3, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Feed Your Head: 50 Essential Songs from the Summer of Love". Uncut . April 20, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Las 101 mejores canciones de rock de los años 50 y 60". Hipersonica (in Spanish). June 17, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2018.[ permanent dead link ]


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.