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Love singer Arthur Lee dies at 61

 
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blahblahwoofwoof



Joined: 28 Apr 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:42 am    Post subject: Love singer Arthur Lee dies at 61 Reply with quote

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By Mike Boehm
Los Angeles Times

Arthur Lee, who forged a legacy as one of rock's great visionaries and forbidding eccentrics while reigning briefly with his band Love as princes of the mid-1960s Sunset Strip, died Thursday of leukemia in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital. He was 61.

Mark Linn, a longtime friend, said Mr. Lee learned in February that he had leukemia and spent most of his remaining months in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy and an experimental umbilical-cord blood treatment.

Mr. Lee, who established himself as the first black rock star of the post-Beatles era, fronted Love through astonishing musical changes that have continued to resonate for other rockers and a cult of critics and fans.

Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant cited the influence of Mr. Lee and Love in his acceptance speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

But Love also became one of the first burnout bands of the 1960s, and with Mr. Lee's death, only three members survive of the eight who were in the band between 1965 and 1967.

Dogged by internal rivalries, substance abuse and Mr. Lee's reluctance to tour, the first version of Love was finished by 1968, although Mr. Lee continued using the band name to record and perform at least sporadically for the rest of his life.

He was imprisoned from 1996 to 2001 on a third-strike weapons charge, but after his release he had new energy and a new story to tell that led to a resurgence for a time in concerts, including a 2003 performance in London, available on DVD, in which Mr. Lee was able to re-create Love's masterpiece album, "Forever Changes," backed by a sharp, four-man rock band and an orchestra of horns and strings.

Love's first three albums were indeed forever changing. They yielded eloquent folk-rock on the 1966 debut, "Love," the first rock record ever released by Elektra Records, and jazz-inflected rock with a flute player added to the lineup on the follow-up, "Da Capo." That album also included the explosive hard rock of the band's lone Top Forty single, "7 and 7 Is" — a song that ended with the sound of an atom bomb exploding and foreshadowed late-'70s punk rock by 10 years. In 1967 came "Forever Changes," a gorgeous, haunting song cycle infused with classical horns and strings.

"Forever Changes" ranked 40th on a list that Rolling Stone magazine compiled of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Yet it has remained an overlooked treasure, reaching no higher than No. 154 on the Billboard albums chart after its original release, and selling 103,000 copies since 1991 on CD reissues, according to SoundScan.

Love played a crucial role in Los Angeles' early rock history. By 1965, the Byrds had created a Hollywood folk-rock scene at Ciro's. When Mr. Lee and his guitar-playing boyhood friend, Johnny Echols, saw the Byrds, they decided folk-rock was the way to go, rather than the Booker T & the MGs-style rhythm and blues they had been playing.

They quickly enlisted the Byrds' guitar-strumming road manager, Bryan MacLean, who became second-chair singer-songwriter to Mr. Lee.

Love's racially integrated lineup — Mr. Lee and Echols were black, while MacLean, bassist Ken Forssi and drummers Don Conka, Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and Michael Stuart-Ware (his married name) were white — forged a model that the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Sly and the Family Stone and War would follow to much greater stardom; Echols said he and Mr. Lee met Hendrix while he was still R&B sideman Jimmy James, and that Hendrix took fashion cues from the flamboyantly dressed Mr. Lee.

After the first version of Love disbanded, Mr. Lee found new musicians and made a pair of albums, "Four Sail" and "Out Here," that showed continued songwriting strength. Hendrix accompanied him on "False Start," from 1970.

Mr. Lee then fell from the spotlight for the better part of two decades. He re-emerged in 1989, booked on a Psychedelic Summer of Love package tour.

In 1993, he connected with a new set of young admirers, the interracial Los Angeles pop-rock band Baby Lemonade, who became the next and last incarnation of Love, billed now as Love With Arthur Lee. It became the steadiest, most enduring lineup of Mr. Lee's career. He toured regularly until his 1996 sentencing, then picked up with the same players after his release in 2001.

Mr. Lee was born Arthur Porter Taylor. His mother, Agnes, was a schoolteacher; he saw little of his father, Chester Taylor, who was a cornet player. At age 5, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles. Six years later, she married Clinton Lee, a carpenter and plumber. Mr. Lee began taking accordion lessons as a child, and was playing keyboards in Los Angeles clubs by his midteens.

In June, Plant, Ian Hunter and Ryan Adams headlined a benefit concert in New York that Linn said raised $50,000 for Mr. Lee's medical expenses. Linn said Mr. Lee married his longtime girlfriend, Diane, near the end of his life.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003178705_leeobit06.html

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blahblahwoofwoof



Joined: 28 Apr 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Monday, March 13, 2006

Love History Lesson Part 1 : Jimi Hendrix & The Vindicator


A fact about Arthur Lee is that he first met Jimi Hendrix in 1964. Lee was producing a song for a woman named Rosa Lee Brooks. The song was called "My Diary", it became a hit on Black radio stations in California. Hendrix was hired as a session guitar player.

Arthur would not come in contact or hear about Jimi Hendrix again until 1967 while Love's second album (Da Capo) was out. Lee was performing at the Fillmore and during an intermission all of a sudden Jimi's "Purple Haze" came on. Later on that year the two would run into one another again while in Los Angeles. It caused a stir because now the perception was "there's two of them".

Arthur Lee and Jimi Hendrix would remain friends for years, and it was obvious to most that Hendrix had definetly been influenced by Lee and even used Lee as the role model for his persona before truly settling into his own. As years would pass Hendrix would usurp Lee due to Love's reluctance to tour outside of California.

Eventually the two would collaborate on some sessions and the only song however to emerge from these sessions was titled "The Everlasting First" which appeared on 1970's Love album, False Start. The album was on Blue Thumb records.

The two were also going to start a new band called Band-Aid. This super group would have featured Arthur Lee, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Winwood, and African percussionist Rebop. Unfortunately the death of Jimi Hendrix would prevent this from happening. On Lee's 1972 solo album Vindicator it says in a small caption "A Band-Aid production".

It is without question a fact that Arthur would influence Jimi, but on the other hand Jimi would highly influence Arthur as well. The solo album Vindicator is a tribute of sorts from Lee in honor of Hendrix. It is a hard rocking album any Hendrix fan would die for, even a Black Sabbath fan would love (Led Zepplin for that matter as well). It is an album with curious artwork that suggests Arthur has a lot of frustration and creative fury that needs to be released. A sort of dual personality fighting with itself. It features a lightning bolt seperating two pictures of Arthur. One Arthur dressed as a janitor with a spade on the back of his jumpsuit, holding his hand out to a second Arthur sporting a blonde wig with a bright red silk bathrobe and a clear guitar all the while with his trademark one shoe on and one shoe off. The inside artwork is a completely surreal journey as well illustrating some of the good times, with friends and family as well as certain artistic visions that seemed to haunt him.

Ironically when Jimi was found dead, Da Capo was one of the records found in his collection. Needless to say anyone who knows music can see Arthur Lee is the archetype for the psychedelic Black man that Hendrix would popularize. (Not just the psychedlic Black man, but psychedelic period).


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Georgina



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had no idea he was sick. What a shame. 61 is no age really.

I remember Arthur Lee playing the Glastonbury festival last year, I think-or one of the big festivals over here last year-he seemed really well!
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blahblahwoofwoof



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I heard that he had leukemia, and that he was in and out of the hospital, but I didn't know he was near death.

People are dropping like flies these days.. Billy Preston, Johnny Jenkins, Syd Barrett, Arthur Lee.. RIP...
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Georgina



Joined: 20 Dec 2005
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Location: London

PostPosted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And the record companies are having a field day re-releasing all their stuff!. Ker- ching!

I have never seen so much Syd Barrett on the shelves! Before his death I should imagine you had to order it. They re-released all his solo albums, any subsequent compliations and everything he did with Pink Floyd plus also sorts of DVD documentaries. This was a guy he who lived in obscurity most of his life. Anyway hopefully royalties will go to his family at least.

Although Jackson Spires from Blackfoot died not so long ago. And its difficult to get their stuff. I guess all the whole band would have to die for that!
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