Founded by Arthur Lee and Johnny Echols in the first half of the 1960s, they started out as American Four, but soon changed their names to "Grass Roots". The band was formed, in addition to Lee and Echols, by drummer Don Conka and bassist John Fleckenstein. At that time the sounds of the British invasion, along with the Byrds' Folk Rock made Lee change direction away from the R&B sound of his early days.
After gaining a reputation for playing in bars and clubs in Los Angeles, they became the first rock group to sign on Elektra Records. In that same year (1966) they recorded "Love", their first album.
For his second album, "Da Capo" (1967), his style already moves between folk and rock, between psychedelia and jazz, between pop and Latin rhythms, as if leaving a glimpse of what was to come. year with his third album.
Almost at the end of that same year "Forever Changes" was published, an album with masterful songs of trembling acoustic folk-rock / jangle pop and psychedelic textures with stretches of electric acid rock, songs like "A House Is Not A Motel", " The Red Telephone "or" Andmoreagain "or the eternal" Alone Again Or ", make up a masterful album with ample and evocative orchestral arrangements and a notable presence of acoustic guitars, in this fascinating work they manage to create a colorful, calm and intense atmosphere.
However, due to the poor commercial planning of the Elektra label, more focused on the career of The Doors (band that was presented to them by Lee himself) the album went quite unnoticed by the public and critics at the time, but with the passing of the Over the years it has become a classic piece of modern music.
After recording the album, they gave up performing at the legendary Monterey Festival, due to the heroin addiction of most of the members of the band and due to tensions and drug use, ending with the disintegration of the group.
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