"A House Is Not a Motel" is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released by

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

on their 1967 album ''

Forever Changes ''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 and orchestration, while primary songwriter Arthur Lee expl ...

''.

Lyrics and music

The song was likely inspired by the song " A House Is Not a Home" written by

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

and

Hal David Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David ...

, given that Arthur Lee was a fan of their work. It features a descending/ascending psychedelic melody and a folk-rock rhythm. Lee's vocal performance has been described as snarling. According to a friend, Lee got the line about blood mixing with mud turning grey from a

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

veteran. The song begins with a

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

playing a riff in

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: : Changes needed ...

. 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 sparsest arranged songs on the album.

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'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. 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." David Barker considered the song to be an inversion of "

Sympathy for the Devil "Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones and the opening track from the band's 1968 album ''Beggars Banquet''. The song is a product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' songwriting partnership. It is consid ...

" by

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

and believed that the house Lee was referring to was a church while the motel symbolised the decrepitude of the world. 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." The German magazine ''

Musikexpress The ''Musikexpress'' is a monthly German magazine that mainly writes about the rock and pop music. In addition to detailed interviews and articles about important rock, electro, hip-hop, pop, and independent musicians, the magazine offers reviews ...

'' ranked "A House Is Not a Motel" number 429 in its list of the 700 best songs of all time. ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' listed the song as one of its 50 essential songs from the

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...

. The Spanish magazine Hipersonica ranked the song 23rd best of the 1950s and 1960s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:House Is Not a Motel Songs about hotels and motels Song recordings produced by Bruce Botnick Love (band) songs Elektra Records singles 1967 songs Songs written by Arthur Lee (musician)