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Love biography
LOVE BIOGRAPHY
The Doors may have had the jump on hard-edged, '60s LA psychedelic rock but for a brief period, Arthur Lee's enigmatic Love combo ran them a close second with their paranoia-inducing, trip-out rock.
Fronted by the charismatic but troubled frontman Arthur Lee, a man who laid down the psychedelic black man archetype for rockers like Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, Love reached their artistic peak with the critically acclaimed Forever Changes album in 1967. Despite its relative lack of commercial success, the album's deftly arranged, trippy, folk-rock has endured for more than 40 years and remains one of the most startling musical missives ever to come out of California.
Raised in Los Angeles, Lee formed his first band, Arthur Lee and The LAG's (Los Angeles Group) in 1963, an instrumental band, they were inspired by Booker T and The MG's. As well as experimenting with a variety of styles, Lee also wrote songs for other artists including R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks who scored a hit with the Lee-penned My Diary. The recording is notable for one Jimi Hendrix on electric guitar, quite possibly his first appearance on vinyl. With the emergence of The Byrds in the mid 60s Lee felt vindicated as he had been recording songs in a folk rock vein with his new outfit The Grass Roots. Formed with former Byrds roadie Bryan Mclean, the pair went on to recruit the lineup that would become Love (John Echols, Ken Forssi and Don Conka, eventually replaced by Snoopy Pfisterer). They had to change their name when a band of the same name hit the charts.
Renaming themselves Love, Lee's combo signed to Elektra Records and in 1966 released their eponymous debut album which saw them performing Byrds inspired folk-rock material with a a fiery mixture of electric guitars, insistent drums and acoustic guitars. the album spawned a minor hit single with a snarling cover of Burt Bacharach's My Little Red Book. Elsewhere there was a cover of Dino Valenti's Hey Joe, which would later become a hit for Jimi Hendrix and the menacing ballad, Signed D.C.
The following year, 1967 saw the band release their powerful Da Capo album. On a series of tracks on which Lee sung in a pitch somewhere between a slick crooner and a demonic blues veteran, the album contained the ambitious 20-minute track, Revelation, alongside minor jewels Orange Skies, She Comes In Colours and Stephanie Knows Who. The album also yielded the band's only ever Top 40 hit with 7 And 7 Is.
The band then retreated to Lee's LA mansion to record next album, Forever Changes. It was a psychedelic tour de force, combining acoustic musings, Latin rhythms and Lee's eerie lyrics. It contained lush, mysterious ballads (Andmoreagain), hippie philosophy (Old Man) and an LSD assisted call to arms anthems in Maybe The People Would Be The Times. Tied together with swirling mariachi horns, exotic string arrangements and cutting edge production techniques the album was barmy but brilliant. Mysteriously it failed to chart in the US. In the UK it made the Top 30.
In a bizarre move Lee then sacked the rest of the band claiming they "couldn't cut it." He subsequently formed a new Love, cutting a fourth album, the disappointing Four Sail. Two further disappointing albums followed in the early 70s, Out Here and False Start. Eventually Lee left the band and decided to carve out a solo career with the album, Vindicator in 1972. It received a lukewarm reception, leading Lee to to re-create yet another Love in 1974 for the album, Reel to Real. it was another poorly received set which inadvisedly touched on disco.
The 80s became a fallow period four our misunderstood psychedelic genius. According to Lee: "I was gone for a decade. I went back to my old neighbourhood to take care of my father who was dying of cancer. I was tired of signing autographs. I was tired of being swindled out of my money. I just got tired."
Lee didn't re-emerge until 1992 with a new album, Arthur Lee & Love. The following year he played his first shows in New York and England in almost 20 years.
But more troubles were ahead when, in 1996 Lee was sentenced to 12 years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. He eventually served five years, and when he was released in 2001 he learned of the deaths of Love's original members Bryan MacLean and Ken Forssi. In 2002 Lee began touring under the name ‘Love with Arthur Lee’, playing throughout Europe and the UK. The band began to perform the Forever Changes album in its entirety but Love left the band in August 2005 while the rest continued the tour as the 'Love Band.'
Sadly there was no escaping bad news when, in April 2006, Lee discovered he was suffering from acute leukaemia. A series of benefit concerts will help pay for his medical bills.
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