Arthur Lee & Love

[Droombolus]

I've been reading Arthur Lee's bio by John Einarson and finished it, purely by chance, this tuesday which was the 4th anniversary of his passing. Throughout the read I've been playing lots of his music of course and it made me wonder: any Love affectionados here ?

When I mentioned his passing on the dutch bass forum 4 years ago I got no reaction whatsoever, a man who's name should be up there with the rest of the 60s biggies IMO. Or did he just die too late ?

[uwe]

I only heard Love comparatively recently - a couple of years ago and was quite stricken by it, especially the melancholy melodies. I then bought the Live CD where he performs their classic album in the Royal Albert Hall after Arthur Lee had done his time in prison. A couple of years I finally bought the studio version. So I guess you can call me a fan then. I might even like the live versions a little better - his voice had matured nicely.

[Hornisse]

I was relatively late getting into Love.  Only during the mid 1980's I heard about them through a friend.  I have an original vinyl copy of Forever Changes which is just wonderful. 

[Dave W]

Hard to say why he never made it beyond a cult following. He was very erratic and that had to be part of it. OTOH it could mainly be that his music didn't have broad appeal.

[uwe]

I think Forever Changes came out at the end of the hippie era when that type of eclectic music - however well compsed, arranged and playes - fell out of favor with the general public. Music became more segmented and less encompassing, you were either a hard rock band or not, you played long guitar solos all the time or not at all, you were a singer/songwriter ... Lee and Love fell through all the cracks. I venture to proclaim that had Sgt Pepper been released in 73 it wouldn't have dented the charts.

[clankenstein]

i saw arthur lee and love in london in 2004 i think.wicked gig.arthur was in fine form.

[dadagoboi]

I've been a fan since hearing Little Red Book in '66, I still have my vinyl of the 'Love' album.  Will have to check out that bio, thanks for the heads up.

[Dave W]

My Little Red Book: the only Burt Bacharach song to become a garage rock cult classic.

[dadagoboi]

My Little Red Book: the only Burt Bacharach song to become a garage rock cult classic.

Used to cover it as part of what we called our 'punk medley' in '74.  You Really Got Me, All Day and All of the Night, Little Red Book, I'm a Man and All Right Now.
Who knew punk would take on a new meaning 2 years later.

[Freuds_Cat]

I have a CD version of Forever Changes wich gets played a few times a year. Not sure if that qualifies me as a fan but I enjoy it when I play it.

[Droombolus]

I've been a fan since hearing Little Red Book in '66, I still have my vinyl of the 'Love' album.  Will have to check out that bio, thanks for the heads up.

Glad to see there's even an earlier fan than me here ! Love never did get much airplay in Holland back when. I first got Da Capo and Forever Changes out of the Elektra UK MONO sale in '69 ( together with some other cherished gems like Tim Buckley's Goodbye And Hello, Butterfield Blues Band's Pigboy Crabshaw & Incredible Stringband's 5000 Spirits ).

The bio's a great read, John Einarson's a very fine writer ! Buffalo Springfield & The Byrds' Gene Clark are among his earlier subjects ........

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

1966~ I was in jr. high & started smokin' & drinkin' & we loved LOVE cuz they were a L.A. band.
Copied the painting on the cover of Forever Changes & it turned out goood.
Did a cool drawing of the Chambers Brothers too. Wonder what ever happened to those. Alas

Cool that Arthur made a comeback with that Royal Albert Hall show.
I'd love to see that. ...or hear it at least.
The Bio sounds interesting too!!

[Droombolus]

Cool that Arthur made a comeback with that Royal Albert Hall show.
I'd love to see that. ...or hear it at least

It's been released as The Forever Changes Concert, both on DVD and CD .......

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Ah~ Very nice!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQspFesT3E

[uwe]

A classic.