Arthur Lee 1945-2006

Love & Arthur Lee

Love was a critically adored American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee and the group's second songwriter, guitarist Bryan MacLean. One of the first racially diverse American pop bands, their music reflected a remarkable array of influences, combining elements of rock and roll, garage rock, folk, showtunes and psychedelia. The band's critical reputation far exceeds the limited success they experienced: their 1967 album Forever Changes is consistently cited by critics as one of the outstanding albums in the history of rock music. Lee said he was exposed to and inspired by all kinds of music. He has often been compared to Syd Barrett and Roky Erickson. Barrett, early on in the brief pop star phase of his life, freely let it be known that Love was an influence on his band, Pink Floyd.

Lee, who'd lived in Los Angeles since the age of five, had been recording since 1963 with his bands the LAGs and Lee's American Four. As a songwriter Lee composed the surf songs "White Caps" and "Ski Surfin' Sanctuary". "My Diary" is the first Lee composition that came near to being a hit. It was written for the R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks, who performed and recorded it. This recording included Jimi Hendrix on electric guitar. Lee had seen Jimi as a session man backing up the Isley Brothers. It is possible that this is the first appearance of Hendrix on vinyl and, indeed, the first known Hendrix recording session.

A garage-outfit, The Sons Of Adam, which included future Love drummer Michael Stuart, also recorded a Lee composition, "Feathered Fish". However, after viewing a Byrds performance, Lee determined to join the newly-minted folk-rock sound of the Byrds to his primarily R'n'B style. Lee said when he first heard The Byrds, he felt vindicated since he'd already been writing music that had a similar folk rock sound. In 1965, The Grass Roots, his folk rock unit, was renamed Love because there was already a signed act called the Grass Roots. Several other names were considered, including Summer's Children, The Asylum Choir, Dr Strangelove and Poetic Justice. The name Love was chosen after a club audience voted it as the best choice.

Love's music is difficult to categorize, and has been described as a mixture of folk-rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, Spanish-tinged pop, R&B, garage rock, even protopunk. Though Lee's vocals have garnered some comparisons to Johnny Mathis, his lyrics often dwell on matters dark and vexing - though often with a wry humor matched by few. The group's cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" (first recorded by Manfred Mann for the soundtrack of "What's New, Pussycat?") received a thumbs-down from Bacharach: Love had altered the former Marlene Dietrich bandleader's chord changes. Nonetheless, the record was a Southern California hit and won Lee and Love a spot on American Bandstand.

Love started playing the L.A. clubs in April, 1965 and rapidly became perhaps the city's hippest unit. Already they were playing extended numbers such as "Revelation" (originally titled "John Lee Hooker") and getting the attention of such luminaries as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. The band lived communally in a house once owned by horror actor Bela Lugosi, and their first two albums included photos shot in the garden of that house. They were also alienating the press with their cryptically uncooperative approach and this may have been partly responsible for their failure to achieve the commercial impact many had predicted for them.

Signed to the Elektra Records label, the band scored a minor hit single in 1966 with their version of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book". In the meantime, Lee (who had a svengali-ish relationship with the group) had dismissed Conka and Fleckenstein, replacing them with Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and Ken Forssi (from a post-"Wipeout" version of The Surfaris). Their debut album, Love, was released in May 1966, and sounded decidedly Byrds-ish but with an added garage element. Highlights included the elegiac "Signed D.C" (reputedly about Conka's drug habit) and Maclean's gorgeous "Softly To Me". The album sold moderately well and reached #57 on the album charts.

In August, 1966, the apocalyptic single, "7 and 7 Is", hit #33 and proved to be their commercial peak. Two more members were added around this time, Tjay Cantrelli (aka John Barberis) on woodwinds, and Michael Stuart on drums. Pfisterer, never a confident drummer, switched to harpsichord.

Love - Live Show 1969

Their musical reputation largely rests on two albums issued in 1967, "Da Capo" and "Forever Changes". "Da Capo", released in January of that year, included proto-punk rockers like "Stephanie Knows Who" and "7 and 7 Is", as well as melodic songs such as "¡Que Vida!" and "She Comes in Colors". Gone were the Byrds influences and jangly guitars, replaced by melodically airy and elusive art-songs with predominantly jazz and classical influences. Some critics have derided it as a one-side album, with the six meticulously-constructed songs on side one contrasting markedly with the lack of focus displayed on the flip-side, which was devoted entirely to the rambling, unfocused, 19 minute "Revelation". Cantrelli and Pfisterer soon quit the band, leaving it as a more manageable five-piece once again.

"Forever Changes", released in November 1967, is an integrated suite of songs using acoustic guitars, strings and horns. Recorded while the band was falling apart with various abuses, it shows little evidence of this. Producer Bruce Botnick originally planned to record the entire album with session musicians backing Lee and Maclean but after two tracks had been recorded in this way the rest of the band were stung into producing the discipline required to complete the rest of the album in only 64 hours. The result is uncategorizable, with an eerie mix of sweetness and menace. David Angel's orchestration remains a benchmark in rock music and the collection of songs is one of the strongest ever recorded in the rock oeuvre.

Writer Richard Meltzer, in his The Aesthetics of Rock, comments on Love's "orchestral moves", "post-doper word contraction cuteness" and Lee's vocal style that serves as a "reaffirmation of Johnny Mathis". Forever Changes included one modest hit single, the MacLean-written "Alone Again Or", while "You Set the Scene" would go on to receive airplay from some progressive rock radio stations. "Forever Changes" is regarded by critics and fans alike not only as Love's finest recording, but as one of the best albums of the 1960s. At least one critic called it the finest disc of its year - also the year of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Despite this acclaim, Love were far more popular in the UK, where the album reached #24, than in their home-country, the record there only making a lowly #154.. Nonetheless, its cult status grew.

Soon after, the band's music became somewhat eclipsed by Arthur Lee's behavior. His frail physical and mental health fuelled a rock myth which, like those of Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett, possibly served to keep the memory alive. After Forever Changes, Arthur Lee split up the band, only to reform it, this time with a new lineup and a harder-edged sound. This version of the band released three albums: Four Sail in September 1969, and the two-record set Out Here in December of the same year. Neither record made the top 100 in the US, though Out Here hit #29 in the UK in May of 1970.

MacLean, suffering from heroin addiction, soon left the band, as did all the other members save for Lee. Echols and Forssi ventured into crime, committing a series of holdups, and served time in San Quentin as a result. Arthur Lee and a reconstituted Love continued to record fitfully until the late 1970s before finally disbanding. The new version of Love, which included Jay Donnellan and Gary Rowles on guitars, Frank Fayad on bass, and George Suranovich on drums as well as Lee, played in a style very different to the "classic" lineup of the band and their three albums are not regarded with the same affection.

After spending six years in prison in the 1990s due to gun offences, Arthur Lee began to play Love's classic songs in concert with a new band, "Love with Arthur Lee", which included original lead guitarist Johnny Echols as well as members of the band Baby Lemonade. This reformed group toured for several years, frequently performing "Forever Changes" in its entirety. However, in August 2005, the band fractured: Echols and Baby Lemonade split from Lee, citing his alcohol abuse and chronic unreliability; the group renamed itself The Love Band. Lee partisans charged Echols and Baby Lemonade with a power play designed to gain control of the Love catalogue and further their careers, and further claimed that Love without Arthur Lee was a contradiction in terms.

Ken Forssi died in Tallahassee, Florida, on January 10, 1998, from a brain tumor, aged 54. Bryan MacLean died in Los Angeles of a sudden massive heart attack on December 25, 1998, while having dinner with a young fan who was researching a book about the band. He was 52. Arthur Lee died in Memphis, Tenn., on August 3, 2006, of complications from leukemia. He was 61 years old.

Article courtesy of www.wikipedia.org