Arthur Lee RIP!!!!

dr.bollocko

Doors fans and Love fans, Arthur Lee died today.
Just found out, though I am sure it happened a while ago.


This is the link to the story on Sky news.

Love were the alternative / trippy rock band that inspired the doors and at the start of the doors career they opened for LOVE in the whiskey.
Love. What a name for a band! Their most famous album is Forever changes, its a fantastic album.

ifconfig

Sorry to hear that. Even though I should have known about him - I didn't
and I had to resort to Wikipedia and allmusic.com to check out who Arthur Lee was. Very interesting and inspirational musician, mentor and mould breaker it would seem. I went onto the iTunes store and had a listen to a few of the clips and my first impression was of a would-be Jimi Hendrix. Then, after reading the entry in wikipedia I realised it was Lee who was instrumental (excuse the pun) in getting Hendrix onto his first vinyl cut !
Between that and his inspiring the Doors this guy is (excuse the cliche) someone who should be inducted posthumously into the Rock&Roll hall of fame.

I noticed he had a hard enough life too and that he spent 12 months in prison on a fairly dubious firearms charge.

The guys in Zeppelin (especially Robert Plant) seemed to have a particular fondness for Lee by organizing those benefit gigs on account of his terminal illness.

Thanks for bringing this musician to our attention.
I, for one, would probably not have as easily stumbled upon him amid all of the mainstream mediocrity that is out there on the airwaves nowadays.

--ifc

dr.bollocko

Wow thats a great post man! Mine was more sort of "ohMyGod! He's dead! and kinda blurted my post to put it on boards," But that, thats a lovely measured response. And I found out a lot about him from your post, THanks!

mike65

Love along with Spirit were proberly the best of the late 60s west coast psychedelic inspired bands.

The greatest thing about Lee was his brilliant songwriting - most artists have a style and stick with it adding the odd variation. Lee could go from a-z and back again within a single tune, its proberly why Love never hit the big time and ended up a cult/critics favourite.

Success tends to be based on being pridictable.

Mike.

stovelid

Good post IFC. The music speaks for itself. Try out Da Capo and especially Forever Changes to see just how special AL was...

Great clip of him doing Little Red Book in their heyday:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/Arthur_Lee_of_Love_Dead_at_61

dr.bollocko

Has anyone else got that re-issue release of forever changes? With the recording room tapes for that one song, they just replay the same intro over and over for three quarters of an hour. I fell asleep listening to that last night and this very track inspired one of the trippiest dreams i have ever had!

I love the sweeping guitar sound that love have, its the flowing acoustic fingering, very melodic, bluesy sounding.
Actually had a chance to see arthur lee live a few years back, Im led to believe he used to gig here quite a bit.
Nuts.

stovelid

Yeah the reissue rocks.

Missed him when he was here last

You're right re: Forever Changes. The great minor sound ofrom the guitars. Its one of the best 60s albums around cos its of it's time (swinging and whatever) but has this lovely sense of poignancy or regret.

Its amazing they went from being "nasty hippies" (cf: jon savage) on the early stuff to FC.

condra

Forever Changes is a fantastic album, better than anything The Doors ever did IMO.

RIP

ChuckProphet

womoma wrote:

Forever Changes is a fantastic album, better than anything The Doors ever did IMO.

RIP

Better than anything anyones ever done.

magpie

They're locking them up today, they're throwing away the key - I wonder who it'll be tomorrow? You or me?

RIP Arthur

dr.bollocko

womoma wrote:

Forever Changes is a fantastic album, better than anything The Doors ever did IMO.

RIP

Whoah there.
Hang on now.
Though I suppose music is a matter of taste, but the Doors are in my opinion untouchable in this realm.
Love are fantastic, but they are no Doors.

condra

dr.bollocko wrote:

Whoah there.
Hang on now.
Though I suppose music is a matter of taste, but the Doors are in my opinion untouchable in this realm.
Love are fantastic, but they are no Doors.

....in your opinion.

Either way, I didnt say Love were better than The Doors, just that Forever Changes has some of the best stuff Ive ever heard, and better IMO than anything Ive heard from The Doors.
Like The Doors, Love made some pretty awefull crap too.

What songs by Love are peoples favourites?
Id like to say Little Red Book, but appearantly it was penned by Bacharach.
I love Loves version though.

Amazotheamazing

Did the Doors ever produce the one classic album like forever changes? Would any Doors album get into the top 20 records of all time, as Forever Changes often does?

I'm not knocking the Doors, they were a great band, but did they ever have that one out and out classic?

dr.bollocko

Im a bit of a total doors freak I'm afraid.

Ever since I heard The doors first album I have loved them. I reckon that once you listen to any album by whoever your favourite band is, you could argue a reason as to why most of them are classics, and at this stage I am totally biased...

I love the Doors because the same stories thrive through many albums, The lyrics reference the same things, from themes of songs, to actual images. I like the way they merge songs, like when riffs are re-treated, slowed down, etc. years later on a totalyl different album, and the song means something entirely different...
I like the way I have a demo disc of the doors recorded by some producer who isnt Paul Rothschild and they sound like the kinks / beatles. I like the fact that every musician who forms the core of that band has a chance to shine on virtuallty every song. I like it when I listen to the doors on different speakers, or headphones, or on the radio, I hear something new every time...

I could go on for pages. But with your favourite band tis always that way...

stovelid

Calm down, calm down

I would hazard a guess that the Doors may have been more innovative (whatever that means) but I prefer Love.

Maybe the difference is that the Doors are a band that are best known for individual songs, Jim Morrsion and a certain essence of the 60s as opposed to a cohesive, defining album, whereas Love are not really widely known outside of Forever Changes...

Not taking sides, both great bands....

Fav Love tunes:

7 is and 7 is (actually found the 7' of this in a market in manchester for about 50p )

She comes in colors

Number 14

And More

Alone Again or

Daily Planet

You set the scene

Maybe the people would be the...etc

womoma wrote:

....in your opinion.

Either way, I didnt say Love were better than The Doors, just that Forever Changes has some of the best stuff Ive ever heard, and better IMO than anything Ive heard from The Doors.
Like The Doors, Love made some pretty awefull crap too.

What songs by Love are peoples favourites?
Id like to say Little Red Book, but appearantly it was penned by Bacharach.
I love Loves version though.