Everybody's Gotta Live

"Everybody's Gotta Live"
Single by Arthur Lee
from the album Vindicator
B-side"Love Jumped Through My Window"
ReleasedJune 1, 1972 (1972-06-01)
Genre
Length3:31
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)Arthur Lee
Producer(s)
  • Arthur Lee
  • Allan McDougall

"Everybody's Gotta Live" is a song written by the American musician Arthur Lee. It was performed by Lee and released as a single in June 1972, coupled with the track "Love Jumped Through My Window";[1] both tracks also appeared that year on Lee's album Vindicator.

"Everybody's Gotta Live" was later re-recorded and released on the 1974 album Reel to Real by the rock band Love, a group in which Lee served as frontman.

A cover version by rapper Mac Miller, simply titled "Everybody", was released on Miller's posthumous 2020 album Circles.[2][3][4]

Release

"Everybody's Gotta Live" was written, performed and recorded by Lee, and released in June 1972 as a 45-rpm disc single, with "Love Jumped Through My Window" as its B-side.[1] Both tracks were also released that year on Lee's album Vindicator.[5] In 1974, a re-recording of "Everybody's Gotta Live" appeared on the album Reel to Real by Love.[6]

Reception

From the A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed site: "An acoustic shuffle that builds in intensity, the cut is surely one of the finest things that Lee ever wrote and the kind of song that warrants purchasing this album if you were even a bit on the fence about it. Direct, poetic, and communal in the best possible way, the cut is positively invigorating."[7]

In 2022, Eoghan Lyng of Far Out Magazine called the song "[a] meditation on harmony," in which Lee "exposes the beauty of the world in a series of damning strokes. Sunlight must always follow darkness [...] The composition remains one of Lee's most evocative and impactful, growing in popularity like the canon it represented."[8]

The version of the song by Love was featured in the 2019 film Jojo Rabbit.[9][10]

The version of the song by Love was featured in the 2024 television series A_Man_on_the_Inside, season 1, episode 4.

References

  1. ^ Empire, Kitty (January 18, 2020). "Mac Miller: Circles review – a last look inward for a complex talent". The Guardian. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  2. ^ Cooper, Leonie (January 20, 2020). "Who is Arthur Lee, the hippy icon Mac Miller covers on 'Circles'?". NME. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  3. ^ Pascual, Jam (March 3, 2020). "Mac Miller's posthumous 'Circles' is a monument to the late musician's lust for life". ABS-CBNnews.com. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  4. ^ "Billboard FM Action". Billboard. Billboard Publications, Inc. July 1, 1972. p. 52. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  5. ^ "Billboard's Top Album Picks". Billboard. Billboard Publications, Inc. November 16, 1974. p. 61. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  6. ^ Griffith, Glenn (2015-11-17). "Everybody's Gotta Live: Remembering The Genius Of Arthur Lee Thanks To 2 New Love Reissues On High Moon Records". A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  7. ^ Lyng, Eoghan (February 21, 2022). "Watch Arthur Lee perform 'Everybody's Gotta Live' in 1990". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
  8. ^ Griffith, Glenn (November 17, 2015). "Everybody's Gotta Live: Remembering The Genius Of Arthur Lee Thanks To 2 New Love Reissues On High Moon Records". A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  9. ^ Wetherall, Greg (October 6, 2019). "'Jojo Rabbit' review: Taika Waititi's hot streak continues". NME. Retrieved April 15, 2022.