"A House Is Not a Motel" | |
---|---|
Single by Love | |
from the album Forever Changes | |
A-side | " Alone Again Or" |
Released | January 1968 |
Recorded | September 10, 1967 |
Genre | |
Length | 3:25 |
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.
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]
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]