unionman
2006-08-07 16:49:55 UTC
From the BBC......
Obituary: Arthur LeeArthur Lee: big musical influence
Arthur Lee, with his band Love, was one of the seminal
singer-songwriters of the psychedelic 1960s.
In particular, the band's Forever Changes album of 1967 became a cult
classic and Rolling Stone listed it as number 40 in its best 500 albums
of all time.
With his rich voice and his wide stylistic range, Lee became a big
influence on later generations and helped ensure that Arthur Lee's
recent world tours were a huge success.
Arthur Lee described himself as "the first so-called black hippie". He
was born in Memphis but moved to Los Angeles when he was five.
He was part of the same scene that produced The Byrds, The Doors,
Buffalo Springfield and The Mamas and the Papas.
Indeed, Lee's first band, Arthur Lee and the LAGs (Los Angeles Group)
were modelled on Booker T and the MGs. This developed into Love which
began playing Byrds-influenced folk rock.
First hit
But, as the psychedelic era got into full swing, Lee's songs became
more drug-influenced and incorporated broader styles including rhythm
and blues and hard rock.
One of the tracks from their first album, the Bacharach-David penned
Little Red Book was a minor hit, though the authors were said not to
have liked the interpretation.
The band's second album, Da Capo, was one of the first to include a
track, Revelation, which, at 20 minutes, covered the whole of one side.
It also brought the band a Top 40 hit, 7 and 7 Is.
Love's third album, Forever Changes, is regarded as their best. Using
string and brass orchestrations alongside surrealist lyrics, the album
still sells and is regarded as having influenced later '80s bands such
as Monochrome Set, Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen.
Forever Changes was Love's most acclaimed album
One of the band's most popular tracks, Alone Again Or, with its
distinctive Latin-style trumpet break, was actually penned and sung by
guitarist Bryan MacLean, a former roadie with The Byrds.
Love's original format broke up after this, though MacLean occasionally
teamed up with Lee in the future. The inclusion of Jay Donnellan as
lead guitarist on Four Sail (1969) improved the band technically and
Arthur Lee's voice was on top form.
But Love began to lose momentum as Lee hired more musicians and pursued
a solo career.
Various reunions amounted to little, and Lee's eccentricities landed
him in a Californian prison for six years.
Changed line-up
During the 1990s, he had fired a pistol into the air after pointing it
at a neighbour.
Although no one was injured and no property was destroyed in the
incident, Lee had fallen foul of the "three strikes and you're out"
policy, having been convicted of assault and drugs charges during the
1980s.
After his release, Lee assembled a new version of Love and toured
Europe and North America, often playing Forever Changes in its
entirety.
The tour went down well with audiences, and in 1995 Rhino Records
issued a two-disc compilation set of Love's best work.
In 2002, Arthur Lee toured again under the name Love with Arthur Lee,
once again to critical acclaim.
Earlier this year, Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. He
underwent a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical
chord, even though doctors told him that his chances of survival were
still slim.
Several benefit concerts were held in Britain and the United States to
help Lee with his medical bills, including one by the former Led
Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, one of many performers who cited Arthur
Lee as an influence.