Arthur Lee

[LadyDay]

Arthur Lee has leukaemia. Get well soon


http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002313682

[trotsky assortment]

That's a shame.  

I don't know a great deal about the man, but have found myself enjoying Love's 'Forever Changes' quite a bit of late.  I must investigate that band a bit further.

[bennyprofane]

This is a shame, forever changes is one of those 60s classic albums that actually lives up to its hype, and by all accounts the reunion gigs were excellent for a year or so.
Still not sure I can forgive him for the single worst performance I've ever seen though (Love at benicassim 2004).

[Paaaaul]

It's a shame Love and Arthur Lee will always be associated with one album.
Their first self-titled album is a stone cold jangle-pop classic.
Their second, Da Capo, shows hints of Forever Changes, but throws it away with a cack 18 minute crudfest of a last track.
Four Sail, their follow-up to FC, is nearly as good an album, but with less mystical-ness and more down to earthness.
Out Here is a great double album, apart from the fact that two tracks finish with a ten minute drum solo, and a ten minute guitar solo.
False Start is also great and features Jimi Hendrix on one track.

Post 1970, they were fairly patchy, but always capable of genius.
Get well Arthur.

[trotsky assortment]

Actually, yeah...I've heard good things about 'Four Sail', but haven't heard it with my own ears yet.  Must rectify that.

[Paaaaul]

It's often in sales for £4.99 - well worth checking out - remastered +bonus tracks.

[Marvin]

Four Sail is a great album.

Sad news anyway, I've heard that he's not been so good live recently but back at Glasto 04 he was incredible, and Love have really stood the test of time.

[TheWizard]

Arthur Lee RIP

http://love.torbenskott.dk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1125

Forever Changes on the way to work it is then.

[alan strang]

Very very sad news.

RIP

[Neville Chamberlain]

Oh, I had no idea he was even ill.

Don't know much about Love apart from Forever Changes and I can confidently say that The Red Telephone is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded.

Sad to hear this news...

[Paul's Boutique]

RIP Arthur.

Forever Changes is definitely one of my top ten favourite albums ever. The first half of Da Capo is almost as good, and Four Sail aint too shabby.

I saw him live about 3 years ago with Baby Lemonade. It was a great show and he looked in fine fettle - resplendent in headband and shades.

At least he could bask in the glow of public and critical acclaim for a few years before his illness.

[LadyDay]

Oh fuck, I was just about to post details of the single on sale to help with his medical bills. Such sad news.

RIP Arthur

[Jemble Fred]

I've only just tentatively started to get into LOVE (Well, apart from Alone Again Or which everybody knows, and actually works incredibly well on the ukelele...). So this is a bit odd for me, as they seem like a new band.

And a good one. RIP.

[Paul Dee]

Oh fuck, as soon as I saw this thread at the top of SE I had an awful feeling that this had happened. I saw Love last year and he had one of the most charismatic and mesmerising stage presences I've ever encountered.


RIP Arthur.

[mrClaypole]

Ive got out of bed and checked the NME news as I do every morning and read about the legendary frontman of the 60's pyschadelic rockers "Love" has lost his battle with Leaukimia.
This is tragic news, I was hoping he would make a recovery so I could have the pleasure of seeing him live again at some point in the future.
My love of "Love" started when I was still at college back in 1995, I had heard about them from my love of The Damned as they had covered "alone again or" which was on one of their compilation albums that I had bought, I loved the song and decided to find out more of the band that had wrote it.
I ventured into my local HMV not expecting not to find anything from this mysterious band as the Damned had a kncak of covering unusual songs from obscure bands that no one out of David Vanians bedroom had ever heard of.
I nervously asked the assistant if they had "forever changes", expecting the usual blank response I used to get when I asked for albums by one shot Reggae artists from yesteryear, my jitters turned to joy as I was told that they had one copy in stock.
I picked the CD from the shelf and started to read the cover and was bowled over by some of the titles of the songs that included
"bummer in the summer", "a house is not a motel". "the good humor man he sees everything like this" and more intrigingly "maybe the people would be the times or between clark and hilldale", I fell in love with the album right there and then as any album that contained song titles like that must be good.
What also appealed was that I was only 17 at the time and was on a college course with people who were much more mature and into some very exotic things and I was just fresh out of school and desperate to try and assert my own personality on the full bodied richness of these eccentric college jugababands.

I went off to the youth club that I used to teach photographic development and technique to disadvanteged and disturbed kids on Monday and Tuesday nights, I did this inexchange for a pittance at the end of the month, but more importantly the use whenever I wanted, the darkroom facilities that were always full at college.

I get in and greet Don the head of the place and tell him I have some work to do and could I borrow the CD player and take it down to the darkroom so I could listen to this CD I had bought.
He asked what it was and because he was a child of the 60's I showed him the album expecting him to tell me more about the band. He looked blank and thought I was the product of a disturbed mind as he read back the titles and looked at the painting on the front, again I took this as a good sign that this album was going to "blow the minds of the authority" and I hadnt even heard it yet, my instincts turned out to be correct.

So the album is on in the background and I am in total darkness developing my latest project. At 1st I dont register as the album starts with the aforementined track "alone again or" that the Damned had covered. It starts so quietly compared to the electric guitar drenched cover. The the lyrics kick in and its a lovely spanish guitar lead Latin tinged boogie.
I am bowled over by the subtle vocal delivery and go off into a trance as Im drawn further into it. Then comes the killer, a trumpet plays an instrumental and strings flow in the background and the song comes to a crashing triumphant end after a short retread of the 1st verse.

I am hooked and the tracks go by, each one a masterpiece of madness and  beautiful tranquilty untill the end track which completely changes my mind totally about what 60's summer of love music really is. Untill this point I had thought the eptimone of cool was the middle section of "A day in the life" by the Beatles, but this track called "you set the scene" blew that out of the water, then picked up the what was left and blasted it too the moon for oblivion.
The track is 7 mins or so long and is in three sections, each one intertwined but so different in style, its hard to think how this could work, but it does and you dont notice the transitions as each part blends seamlessly into the other.
The end section ends with some uplifting trumpet and violin music backed by some ambigious lyrics, that to this day I dont know quite if they are meant to be happy or dripped in drug induced paranoia, but after all these years from the 1st time I heard it to the 1000+th plus time, still holds a certain magic and I have long since given up trying to find meanings in the lyrics as they are meant to be deliciously vague and for that hold an hypnotic power.

I played this album to everybody I knew, all my college friends loved it and all the authority figures couldnt quite get their tiny brainwashed minds around it as it dosent to the line of the ordinary that they have got used to in their lives.

So fast forward 11 years and Im sitting in my front room with my brand new guitar on my shoulders and Im trying to decipher the musical tapestry that is this fragile work of art, I am not getting far so I decide to break state and look up whether their is going to be any more "love" gigs in the UK soon as it was about the time of year when the UK festival line ups are announced, I was hoping to see if they were going to be doing a summer one as it would be nice to hear this album live in the open air as the sun is going down over the horizon as I always thought this was the ideal setting for the music. Instead I read that Arthur Lee, lead singer and only original member left of the group is seriously ill.
I go back to my sitting room and put my guitar down and I press play on the CD player and listen to the album the whole way through again. As every track played through, I was trying to project "strength and love" thoughts to this sometimes troubled frontman in the hope that I could catch a riff in a song and my positive vibes would somehow catch onto a soundwave and find its way back to its creator and give him strength....I hope they did, as Im sure the thoughts of the other 10000's  of fans around the world who were touched by his music did also and kept him going for that bit longer.
Sadly it could never last as to quote his own words "this is the only thing Im sure of, is that all that lives is gonna die" and he passed away August 3rd.  
As the follow up line to that last one just quoted "and there will always be people here to wonder why", I ask myself why?, but Im so glad that your star shined bright enough to create something that touched my life so deeply and over the years has lifted me out of depression, been my soundtrack to wilder times and has also given me inspiration. May you continue to inspire....

Arthur Lee - "for every happy hello, there will be goodbye".

[Why I Hate Tables]

First Syd,now this.

The other day I played Forever Changes, and thought "When's he going to do something new? Will he recover? Or at least live long enough do something else?"

Now the Johnny Cash of psychedelia (as much as that word is useless) has gone.
Who next? People are dropping like flies and there's nothing left to say but how they will be missed.

Just as Jugband Blues is Syd's epitaph, The Red Telephone is Arthur's.

"We are normal and we want our freedom"

I saw him live about 3 years ago with Baby Lemonade

There's a bitter irony for you. The man his backup band are named for a song by is dead, and now their frontman is.

"I wonder who it'll be tomorrow,you or me?"

[oceanthroats]

RIP
Forever Changes is a wonderful album. The red telephone, the castle, live and let live. You set the scene is the one that amazes me these days. I'd heard and enjoyed pretty much every other trackon forever changes dozens of times before it finally sunk in, and now it's one of the ones I rate above all the others. With Mclennan, Barrett, and Lee, there's three of maybe my ten of fifteen favourite musicians down in only a couple of months. I've no idea what to say about that.

[fat_abbott]

A very sad day, when the man that made your favourite ever album ever dies.

RIP Arthur.

I am so glad I got to see Love perform, and so sad I won't see them again.

[Huzzie]

I'm heartbroken.


I am trying so hard not keep my eyes dry, many of you will ridicule me for that but I am sure some will understand. I need to be alone for a while now, why won't everyone go out somewhere?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEC4LWbI1VU

That was from the tour where I went to see him. The whole crowd showed their admiration with chants of "Arthur Lee, Arthur Lee, Arthur Leeeee"  (like "ere we go, ere we go, ere we goooo). That was Manchester and when he thanks us his voice was breaking with emotion, he told us he had never had such an emotional feeling at a gig before and he was so genuine.

Anyway, the guy was a true innovator, he really was.

As we know, these things tend to come in three's (PLEASE Hang on to Your Ego (Brian Wilson!) )and coincidentally Arthur was a huge influence on Syderney (coincidentally, on the above track, Arthur has a backing band called "Baby Lemonade" which was the name of a Syd Barrett song from his second solo album). I just hope there is no other death round LOL NO corner of someone I care a lot for.


Please, get your Forever Changes, Love,  Da Capo, Four Sail and the other 2 or 3 out tonight, get your self a decent bottle of vgino and just think how important and how great he was. Or, get your mates round, stick Da Capo and Changes, get some trips in and let them blow your mind again!


Sorry for such a pretentious post but I love the guy, the band and it is horrible to think how ignorant the vast majority of Brits, Euros and Yanks are of him now adays. Do you have any idea where we would be now musically without Arthur Lee?

I mean... Tell me, how far ahead of it's time is this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEC4LWbI1VU

From the first Love album!
EDIT: Some more vids for you

This is footage of the original band (I reckon this would be in 1967, please correct me if I am wrong). The song is called Little Red Book and seems to be on an Ed Sullivan type show (poss even Ed's show). ENJOY!

For those who don't know, Arthur is the Black guy, he was the singer and guitarist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS51SbZ0ngk&mode=related&search=

This is from an American show called Bandstand (the last  clip may have been from the same show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpLEAPGowNY&mode=related&search=

Very bad quality this one but  interesting none the less. The song is called Your Mind and we Belong Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK2f8fihK1k&mode=related&search=
Seems to be some kind of Love home movie with the track over the top of it. Maybe they were trying to beat Beefheart in making the first music videa (Diddy Wah Diddy).

Anyway, please habve a look around youtube, I doubt you will find any more from their 60's hayday (Please share if you do) but there is lots from his recent band who were very good!


RIP Special man!

..........................................................Seven and Seven is............................................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEC4LWbI1VU&mode=related&search=


And lets all just hope and prey that Brian Wilson remains well or they are all gone. AT least I got to see them all live though. Minus Syderney:-(

[hands cold, liver warm]

forever changes is a work that will last (as it where) forever

thanks arthur

[Peking O]

Yeah, I saw one of the Baby Lemonade shows. The show itself was only ok, but it was nice to see Arthur enjoying himself.

The highlight of the concert (for me) went something like this:

Arthur Lee: "Does anyone here like Bruce Springsteen?"
Audience: roar of approval (this was in Manhattan, just around the corner from the Boss's beloved New Jersey)
Arthur Lee: "Oh yeah? Well he can suck my DICK!"
Audience: Silence so loud you could hear a pin drop

Edit: R.I.P. Tony Ogden from World of Twist as well

http://www.nme.com/news/twist/23821

[The Boston Crab]

I only recently dug this one out again, I hadn't listened to it in about two or three years after I almost ruined it by three years of overplay. I only discovered Love when Forever Changes had that excellent re-release back in about 2000, a great friend I'd just made at university had played me his ancient tape copy of it only about two weeks earlier and it just sparked something off. I thought it was quite a coincidence about the re-release but I think my mate might have timed his introduction just nicely for me on purpose...

The record (and Da Capo) followed me around for the next few years and suited every moment, the deliriously celebratory alongside the eerie and contemplative...the lyrics fit the music so well, they're both very elusive for a long time but when everything sinks into place it's a record to return to forever.

I'm also very happy that Arthur received so much support, praise and long overdue recognition from the fans in the last few years of his life.

RIP

[Colin Sanction]

"Sometimes instead of Arthur Lee, i'd much prefer some Arthur Lowe" Mate of the Bloke who does the PA - Half Man Half Biscuit.

Must admit i've only ever heard of Love but after the previous comments, i think its time i checked Forever Changes out.

After Syd and now Arthur is seems we are at a time when the people from the 60's bands are getting on and we are going to see a growing trend of legendary artists from that era passing away.

Heaven is getting more psychedelic by the day.

[Marvin]

Oh fuck, that's really sad news.

Love were responsible for one of my favourite gigs at Glastonbury a few years back and Forever Changes remains a favourite album.

RIP Arthur Lee - a true legend, just listening to Alone Again Or now - what a truly incredible song it is.

[Paaaaul]

RIP Arthur Lee - a true legend, just listening to Alone Again Or now - what a truly incredible song it is

Ironically, it's one of the few Love songs he didn't write, yet it's probably their best known.

[Peking O]

Alone Again Or is defintiely one of my favourite songs of all time.

Yeah
I heard a funny thing
Somebody said to me
You know that I could be in love with almost everyone
I think that people are the greatest fun
And I will be alone again tonight my dear

[Paaaaul]

One of his best, Signed DC, from the Out Here album. If you've only heard the debut album version, this is very different, but equally good.

RIP

[bennyprofane]

A real loss to songwriting, 4 great albums.  And the worst gig I've ever seen (Love at Benicassim 2004).  Wish i'd got round to catching him in better form between then and now.
RIP

[Paul Dee]

RIP Arthur Lee - a true legend, just listening to Alone Again Or now - what a truly incredible song it is

Ironically, it's one of the few Love songs he didn't write, yet it's probably their best known.

Or sing on it really. Unlike this version from the Forever Changes live album:


Love - Alone Again Or (live)

I do prefer this version incidentally, it sounds more vibrant and upbeat.

[Steve Thompson Dance Mix]

I'll  regret the time a couple of years ago when he came to Manchester to do a gig at the Academy and being one of those bands I felt I could take or leave, I didn't go because it was pissing down.

Quite rightly I've felt like a twat ever since but as with everyone, I fucking love Forever Changes, especially 'You set the scene.' I can't think of many more genuinely life-affirming songs.

Although it wasn't a big surprise given his poor health this news was no less shocking.