RIP, Arthur Lee
Hi everyone, Ross Lincoln here, again.
GFD*, it turns out that while I was busy sitting around doing nothing, Arthur Lee died today.
(Now Playing: The Red Telephone, by Love)
The VH1 version of his life is as follows: Arthur Lee was a genius, there’s no doubt of that. He was also a violent drug addict who ruined his gifts, his health and his sanity over the course of nearly 30 years of various addictions, and then managed near the end of his life to defy the odds and resurrect his reputation, career and life before dying anticlimactically, today, of cancer.
The personal version is as follows: Arthur Lee was for a very short period of time, the lead singer and songwriter of Love, a band of a godlike genius whose music changed my life. Arthur Lee also had some tremendously awful flaws which, thankfully, didn’t end up killing him and unlike too many mad geniuses, he actually lived to experience the adulation and respect his good work deserved.
The band he’s famous for, Love, experienced approximately 2 years of noteworthy creative brilliance – their first success was a cover of Burt Bacharach’s “My Little Red Book” in 1966. 1967 they released two albums, the experimental Da Capo, and their masterpiece Forever Changes. Soon after, Arthur flipped out, fired everyone and went insane for 3 decades.
Love, along with the music of The Left Banke, (about whom I’ll talk about some other time,) changed the way I thought about the late 60s. This didn’t happen immediately, unfortunately. The first Love song I ever heard was The Damned’s brilliant cover of Alone, Again, Or, which you can find on their 2 disc compilation The Light At The End of the Tunnel.
I first heard the Damned’s version of this song in 1989, and being somewhat musically ADD, it wasn’t until 1996 that it actually occurred to me to go looking for the original version, to find out who this band was that the Damned (and Pulp, and other bands I respected) were so hungry about. Thanks to a used import version of one of their CDs I borrowed from a friend even nerdier about music than I am in early 1998, I heard the original version of the song, and I’ve been in love with them ever since.
I had always felt that despite so much good music immediately prior to it, the late 60s period was filled largely with the worst American Music had to offer. (Yes, I really hate Janis Joplin, the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and any doors song where Jim is allowed to act like the Douche laureate.) I still feel that this period is the most pathetically self-congratulatory era in popular music. It was, let’s be frank, a time when even Jim Morrison peeing into Paul McCartney’s ears would be hailed as a work of transcendent genius.
That’s why to my ears, it’s the music that defies the era’s conventions that is the most riveting, and with the exception of Scott Walker, Love is the period’s most convention defying band. When I say that Forever Changes is a masterpiece, I don’t say so lightly. It is one of the few records released during the era absolutely worthy of the title.
If you haven’t heard Forever Changes before, I suspect it’s because it’s an interesting album that contains virtually no hippie cliches, which means self congratulatory baby boomers ignore it, and oldies stations won’t play it. At the time, it was released largely to the sound of crickets chirping. Fortunately, over the decades to come it would be recognized for the brilliance it is and would end up influencing everyone from Pulp and Belle and Sebastian to pretty much every modern Los Angeles Based band. (See Greg? Your love of B&S really was long overdue!) Forever Changes is amazingly timeless, filled with surreal lyrics, beautiful string arrangements, rhythmic unpredictability and studio experimentation that were decades ahead of its time.
Unfortunately, Arthur Lee also had a cocaine habit decades ahead of its time too, and it pretty much fried his brain. He melted down in 1968, fired the entire band and hired scabs. Love’s next recordings sounded like Grateful Dead San Fransisco Sound bullshit and Love received the punishment the Dead richly deserved but never got: nobody listened to them. Lee spent the 70s and 80s drifting in and out of drug induced stupors and brushes with the law until 1996, when he threatened a neighbor with a gun, was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm and was third-striked into a prison sentence.
The only good thing about that is that he cleaned up, and when he got out of lock down in 2001, he formed a new version of Love and discovered that during the 5 years he was in jail, his reputation and critical evaluation had drastically improved. He formed a new version of Love that was actually good and achieved a small measure of the success that eluded him during his lost decades.
I wish I had more to say. While I never realistically expected Arthur Lee to again create on the level of his youth, I’m sad that he didn’t get more time to enjoy the fruits of his faded brilliance.
If you haven’t listened to Love before, go out and purchase Love Story 1966-1972, which is a pretty comprehensive and also, coincidentally, pretty amazing box set. If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with them and wants to dabble before purchasing, send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to send you an MP3 for your enjoyment.
UPDATE. Friend of the Talent Show Steveaudio has a great post about Arthur Lee over at his site, and it has the added benefit of being from the perspective of someone who actually experienced Love during their Sunset Strip Days. (Also interesting to note they were contemporaries of the Doors, who I don’t hate as much as I think Jim morrison was a wanker extraordinaire.)
*It’s ancronym. Figure it out.
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Seconded. Those two Love albums are shining beacons of joy, quality and innovation in the sea of awful and retrograde Rock of the time; music that for some reason has not received half the debunkings it deserves.
We’ll miss ya, Arthur.
Comment by John E Thelin — August 3, 2006 @ 11:33 pm
The only problem with your thesis is that just about every hippie who could scrape together $5 had a copy of Forever Changes, and it could be heard nightly in just about every crash pad I ever was in (quite a number, unfortunately).
I will miss Arthur Lee.
Comment by CN — August 4, 2006 @ 7:45 am
This really is too bad, though cancer is a bitch, and I think those who have been watching the story knew this was coming.
I was very, very fortunate to have been able to see him play dozens of times with Baby Lemonade (who played Wondermints to Arthur Lee’s Brian Wilson) in the years since he last got out of jail, including his first appearance after getting out, and I’m very proud I was able to DJ (for free) at several of his shows at Spaceland and the Knitting Factory.
Some people who saw him recently saw him on his “off nights” and may not have realized that when he felt the calling, he could still sing pretty well for a senior citizen who’d been in prison multiple times.
Anyway, yes, it is a shame, and I feel a bit upset about the whole thing.
Once comment I want to make, Ross, is that you should give his post-FC material a chance. Much as the post-Smile Beach Boys stuff has some great moments, the more electric Love stuff also has great vocals and occasionally some great hooks. Even if the band changed up, it’s often great music.
Also, those 30 years weren’t all spent wandering in the desert. Sure, there was his 80’s “smoking crack with Sky Saxon” period, but prior to that he was playing live shows with a band that fucking killed. Seeing a man sing his heart out about “carnivals and cotton candy” with more intensity than Henry Rollins but with a better voice than Barry Gibb is quite something, and he was doing it in the 80’s. Anyway, bootleggers have it on video, so check it out.
Comment by dAnimal — August 4, 2006 @ 10:01 am
Those were definitely much cooler hippies than the ones I grew up knowing and experiencing. I was shocked at the number of hippies who’d never heard of them, or who mentioned that there is apparently a passing reference to Arthur Lee in The Doors.
Still, my sympathies go out to you – hippie crash pads are never pretty places.
And Dan, thanks for the extra information. I admnit that I was giving the summarized cliff notes bio. Everyone, pay attention to what Dan says.
Comment by Ross Lincoln — August 4, 2006 @ 12:32 pm
UFO covered “Alone, Again” in the mid 1970s.
I disagree that the late 60s was the worst time in American pop music; the last few years have that beat. The endless parade of talent-less emo/garage boys admiring their shoes, the “soft is the new loud” crowd, and the rediscovery of all things Moog have rendered much of the new crop of American pop music as forgettable as the last Buggles record.
Comment by Pat Offender — August 4, 2006 @ 2:10 pm
Yikes, where to start with all the nonsense in Ross’ post?
Worst period in American pop music? Apparently, you were in a deep, deep, coma for the late 80’s corporate rock/power ballad/hair metal/WhitneyMaria Diva thing.
Forever Change is wildly overrated IMO. To me, it sounds like easy listening music on acid; it could have been done by the Wrecking Crew in between Mamas & Papas sessions. There wasn’t a damn thing about that record that was innovative or out there. The Airplane’s After Bathing At Baxter’s took way more experimental chances, and had them pay off, than that album.
would end up influencing everyone from Pulp and Belle and Sebastian to pretty much every modern Los Angeles Based band
Wow, overstatement much? Love is pretty obscure and since the Paisley Underground thing in the 80’s, they’ve pretty much not been a factor in Los Angeles except to Jon Brion.
Frankly, you sound like a guy who got freaked out by people who didn’t take baths for three days and transferred that to the music that those people listened to.
RIP, Arthur Lee, hopefully you’re in a peaceful place.
Comment by Henry Holland — August 4, 2006 @ 3:56 pm
The whole “American music blew goats except for Love” thing got me curious. So a quick trip to AllMusic shows that the first album, Da Capo and Forever Changes were recorded/released in 1966/67. I don’t think anyone but the most avid Arthur Lee fan would make a claim of greatness for the subsequent Love albums.
So, here are some of the American albums released in that time frame:
Dylan: Blonde on Blonde/John Wesley Harding
Velvet Underground: With Nico/White Light, White Heat
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
The Byrds: 5D/Younger Than Yesterday
Jimi*: Are You Experienced?/Axis: Bold as Love
* he could probably be claimed by the British, but still.
etc.
And that leaves out all the amazing records being cranked out by the Motown and Stax hit factories.
Now, if you wanted to argue 1970, sure. But the period when Love mattered even a little? No way.
/music geekism
Comment by Henry Holland — August 4, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
Robert, I don’t know if I wasn’t clear but you’ve somewhat misinterpreted what I said:
I’m sorry if I didn’t sufficiently emphasize that I began to change my mind about the era, but please have another look.
In the meantime, for credibility’s sake, I’ll be happy to list my favorite American artists from the era:
Love
The left banke
Marvin gaye
The Beach Boys
Aretha
The Velvet underground
The Beau Brummels
The Monkees (Yeah I said it. The Monkees ruled)
The Temptations
As for the 80s, here’s the difference: We haven’t had to endure 40 years of aging 80s types telling us that their music was the greatest music ever recorded. That’s why I don’t hate on it very much. Hell, it’s a waste of time, even artists from the era are self deprecating about it.
I reserve my true scorn for what I see as undeserved mythologizing. Hence, my scorn for the late 60s.
I happen to think the pre 67 Beatles were better than the post 67 Beatles too (with the Exception of Abby Road). Obviously, we’re not going to agree since you and I have vastly divergent views of Love.
You’re wrong, actually. Love were always very popular in England. It was here that they tanked. And I don’t know if you’ve actually been to see any LA bands, but you’re just wrong. No disrespect intended, I swear, but you’re wrong.
Even though Jon Brion rules.
Well no shit. Dirty hippies suck. But so does their music. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Stupid yuppies suck too, as does their music.
You’re definitely right about one thing – I was stupid not to exclude soul from my tirade. So I definitely appreciate your reminding me.
But for the record, Dylan is an overrated blowhard, the Byrds are music for dirty hippie cokeheads, and Jimi Hendrix, talented as he was, was a masturbatory bore.
Comment by ROss Lincoln — August 4, 2006 @ 6:26 pm
Henry Holland? Mightn’t you be Henry “I Fuck My Dad” Holland, who takes shits on himself while drooling in the corner?
Sorry, I’m tired and cranky. But I am confused where you’re getting your “Love are so obscure and nobody in L.A. cares” facts. Literally every modern band I know of in L.A. has Forever Changes on their shelf. The BJM opened for them on tour, the Alaska! guy jostled to do an acoustic set for them, hipster girls were sewing “free arthur lee” onto their t-shirts for a couple years in L.A., and “Love”’s first post-prison show, a secret show at Spaceland, was packed to the gills with bands and their actress girlfriends. Members of W.A.C.O. played with Lee when he did the Forever Changes tour. And I’m still only talking about the L.A. bands!
Billy Bragg, Belle and Sebastian, the Damned, and about a bazillion other bands from all eras have covered Love… just at random I’m listening to the Move’s singles collection today, and lo and behold, “Stephanie Knows Who” is there as a cover, one of their last releases. And did you see the celebrity turnout at the fundraiser to get Arthur Lee’s medical bills paid?
It sounds like you’re saying the traditional San Fran bands are somehow more relevant and experimental than Love. Well, just because “A Good Package of Some Value Something Something Will Come to You Shortly” is a great song does not mean that “After Bathing at Baxter’s” really added to music in the same way that Love did and continues to do. Also, the Wrecking Crew DID play on Forever Changes (about two songs of it), and the Mamas and the Papas were actually good, so your jokey comparison sucks.
However, I’m not letting Ross off the hook, either. The Byrds are awesome, and Arthur Lee always acknowledged that when he did “Hey Joe” (then a popular Byrds staple) on the first Love album. Ross just don’t know because he doesn’t have any of the Byrds’ excellent catalogue (in fact, Love’s sound on the first album sounds a helluva lot like the Byrds). Dylan also has great stuff for anyone who’s been paying attention. And Arthur Lee and Hendrix played together on a couple songs, so I don’t see how you can totally love Love and not see any goodness in Hendrix.
Comment by dAnimal — August 4, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
I also put up a post about Arthur Lee. As I grew up in the ’60s, I think I have some insight…
Comment by SteveAudio — August 5, 2006 @ 5:58 pm
As much as a I agree that Albert Lee and Love were one of the great, underrated bands of the late 60’s….”Dylan was an overrated blowhard”?!?!?!
Sorry, you lost me there. We can agree to disagree about whether the Byrd and Jefferson Airplane and even the Grateful Dead are good, great or indifferent, but if you are going to argue that minor footnotes to the history of music such as the Damned are to be championed ahead of the greatest lyricist of the 20th century….well, obviously we are living on different planets, and yours has much shittier music.
Comment by rev.paperboy — August 6, 2006 @ 3:29 am
Dylan: Blonde on Blonde/John Wesley Harding
Whiny three-chord predictability on a stick (even if the guy had timing and could write lyrics)
Velvet Underground: With Nico/White Light, White Heat
Incompetent and horriffically overrated three-chord droning.
Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Clever and well-arranged surf music; a gilded turd.
The Byrds: 5D/Younger Than Yesterday
Passable, if a little prone to those interminable and overdone Blues/Rock tropes that so many US Rock bands seem to be unable to steer clear of.
Jimi*: Are You Experienced?/Axis: Bold as Love
Inarguably great, if occasionally self-indulgent. Might well be the noted British influence.
And as for the 80’s, the UK had many, many great acts during that period, from The Jam, The Smiths, Aztec Camera, Lloyd Cole, David Sylvian, Talk Talk, The The, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds (until Derek Forbes left), XTC, Nick Cave, Prefab Sprout, The Lilac Time, The Cardiacs, Furniture, The Blue Nile and Momus to Terry Hall’s various ventures, and on and on.
Comment by John E Thelin — August 6, 2006 @ 8:24 am
Yeah, this was more a post about American bands, and the era Love created during, which is why I didn’t mention it. So thanks definitely for naming such incredible bands.
One thing I will say is that when I mentioned the horribleness of the 80s, I was referring solely to what our douchey friend said. I happen to think some of the greatest music ever made happened in the 80s, but sadly, the cliche is true, that in the 80s none of them got on American radio. (Which is why the indie scene has its true roots in the college rock scene.)
England was pretty much batting a million during the decade. Every band you mention, (ESPECIALLY Momus. Momus is pretty much my patron saint, and ESPECIALLY The Smiths), but I’d add New Order, The Cure, Cleaners from Venus, Would Be Goods, Stone Roses (the first album came out at the end of the 80s), My bloody Valentine, and many others.
I’ll also say that we’ve forgotten to mention the rise of rap music. Jesus, New York in the 80s is like London in the 60s for the conflagration of amazing music changing styles and evolving practically every day. The Golden age of rap is incredible and incredibly important.
Perhaps the next time I do a music post, I’ll be much more thorough in my discussion.
As regarding rev.paperboy, I’m sorry but I do happen to like The Damned over Dylan. Your comment is exactly the kind of mythologizing that annoys the shit out of me (No offense personally mind you). I’m supposed to like Dylan better because the damned are “musical footnotes”? Um, no thanks.
Just because a band is fellated on the cover of every baby boomer nostalgia magazine doesn’t mean they weren’t great. And just because someone is more than a musical footnote doesn’t mean they were. And I think I made my proclivities clear in this regard – I like less popular bands.
Scott Walker, for example, will never be more than a (hugely celebrated) footnote, and he’s a vastly superior lyricist, the complexity and depth of his words makes Dylan look like an uneducated nursery rhymer. Or, more like one.
So maybe the planet I live on has shitter music than yours. At least we’re not a bunch of boring, 60s worshipping cliches.
Comment by Ross lincoln — August 6, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
Scott’s my birthday boy, and Momus stayed at my house once. Good to see someone take a stand against the common wisdom of what constitutes unassailable musical royalty, Ross.
Comment by John E Thelin — August 6, 2006 @ 6:40 pm
My best musical comfort food tends to be those mid-late 60s oldies, although I like music of the 70s, 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, teens, oughts, 1890s, Civil War, Romantic, Classical, Baroque, and on back to Gregorian chant. I won’t bore you with my opinions of music from the 80s on, though I do occasionally find something I like in it. Hey, you kids! Get the hell off my lawn!
I’ll take a wild guess here and say we all prefer the music we were listening to when we were ten or twelve or something like that.
Comment by Kip W — August 10, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
The follow-up album to Forever Changes, Four Sail, was a damn fine album. Often overlooked in discussing Arthur Lee and Love.
Comment by Steve Cooper — November 12, 2007 @ 6:51 am
I’m reading a fantastic book at the moment (Behind the Scenes on the Pegasus Carousel with the Legendary Rock Group LOVE) – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Behind-Pegasus-Carousel-Legendary/dp/1900924595
The above book is a fantastic window to the band and indeed the 60’s west coast scene, esp LA, by their drummer Michael Stuart.
I regard their first 3 albums as exceptionally enjoyable listening and Forever Changes, like the rare great albums takes a few listens before it really becomes apparent how good it is. Get the updated version with one of my favourite Your Mind and We Belong Together. Arthur did indeed lose it a bit but as per the book, when you realise how much coke, smack, weed and acid was available, LOVE were survivors. It’s a shame Arthur, for whatever reasons only he knows, didn’t take the band touring more and headlining more shows as more promotion would have found them a wider audience even today.
I watched a great documentary film, think its actually called Love Story Documentary Film. Last interviews with Arthur, he gives the directors a tour of LA, his old houses and haunts, talks them through his teenage walks up to Capitol and Elektra – the rest of the surviving members are all present and hopefully this great piece of footage will be on dvd at some point
Comment by Paul McShane — January 8, 2008 @ 8:06 am
Jim Morrison hated hippies. You can’t associate Doors to the hippie kind of music. The Doors, Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, etc, were the dark side of the 60’s, the opposition to the “flower power generation”. You should learn more about it before you can write about that subject, really.
Comment by Sara Soares — January 13, 2009 @ 5:04 am