Various Artists: Forever Changing: The Golden Age Of Elektra Records 1963-1973 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

This outstanding five-CD set is a study in consistent adventure and excellence in which the star is not a particular artist, genre or epoch (despite the subtitle here) but a logo: the capital E that was Elektra Records' signature of quality in the second half of the Sixties. Jac Holzman, who founded Elektra in 1950, went through a few designs (including an iconic drawing of a seated guitarist) on his way to the art-deco-style letter that appeared on historic LPs by the Doors, Love, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Judy Collins, the MC5, the Incredible String Band and the Stooges, among many others. More than a logo, the E stood for an eclecticism that included the country blues of Lonnie Mack, Earth Opera's psychedelic folk and the power glam of Queen. And Holzman defended that forward motion with a hands-on commercial savvy until he left the label in 1973. You could buy with assurance when that E was on the cover -- something that's hard to imagine today from a large label.

Forever Changing focuses on Elektra's second decade of independence, as Holzman rapidly moved beyond his early folk purism. The above artists are all present with seminal performances, along with cult-hero pillars of Elektra's roster, such as singer-songwriter David Ackles, folk-blues singers Tom Rush and Judy Henske, and progressive-bluegrass band the Dillards. Sometimes Holzman was too far ahead of the zeitgeist. The Byrds and Blue Oyster Cult are in this set with pre-fame misfires as the Beefeaters and Stalk-Forrest Group, respectively. And some of Holzman's best acts never issued a second album for Elektra, including the L.A. acid-thunder outfit Clear Light (the first band I ever heard with two drummers), songwriter Steve Noonan and folk guitarist Pat Kilroy, who died a year after his brilliant, only album, Light of Day, was released.

Strangely, there was no space on these five discs for the Butterfield Band's epic raga "East West," an essential Elektra peak. But you can find it out there on CD or good old vinyl. Just look for the E.