US news This article is more than 17 years oldObituaryArthur Lee
This article is more than 17 years oldFlower-power myth maker who captured the dark side of the summer of loveIn the mid-1960s, it looked as if Arthur Lee and Love would become one of the dominant bands of their era, alongside fellow Los Angeles groups such as the Doors and the Byrds. Yet despite recording at least one masterpiece, Forever Changes (1967), Love were plagued by personal problems and infighting. Lee, who has died aged 61 of leukaemia, never quite lived up to his own mythology, although he had been rebuilding his career after time in jail.
Lee was born in Memphis, the son of white trumpeter Chester Taylor and Agnes, a black schoolteacher. His parents divorced after moving to Los Angeles and he took his stepfather Clinton Lee's name. He began playing piano at 10, and was educated at Dorsey high school.
His musical career started in the early 1960s with him playing surf music, dance numbers and novelty tunes, sometimes with a band - such as Arthur Lee & the LAG's or the American Four - or as a jobbing songwriter. He wrote My Diary for r&b singer Rosa Brooks, I've Been Trying for Little Ray and Slow Jerk for Ronnie & the Pomona Casuals.
Love evolved out of folk-rock group the Grass Roots and by late 1965 were building a reputation for their dynamic live shows around the Sunset Strip and at Bido Lito's in Hollywood. They were the first rock group to be signed by Jac Holzman's folk label, Elektra.
Original guitarist Johnny Echols was a childhood friend from Memphis and Lee was proud to have formed rock's first mixed-race band. "I lived in Tennessee until I was five years old, and it was segregated," said Lee. "A multiracial band was my thought from the beginning."
The first album, Love (1966), sounded like a compilation of styles borrowed from various US and British invasion groups, but a cover of the Bacharach-David song My Little Red Book (from the film What's New Pussycat?) earned some airplay. In September 1966, the single 7 and 7 Is - later dubbed "the first punk song" by Lee - pierced the top 40, and was a trailer for Love's second album, Da Capo (1967). This elaborate work reflected the scale of Lee's ambitions, a little too much so in the case of Revelation, which filled all of side two. It climbed no higher than 80 on the charts.
The band, living in a decrepit Hollywood mansion once owned by Bela Lugosi and absorbing copious quantities of drugs, pressed on with their next album. A mix of sublime melodies, haunting arrangements and lyrics veering from blissed-out to almost-psychotic ensured that Forever Changes has been considered a classic artefact ever since its late-1967 release. Several songs, notably Alone Again Or, And More Again and A House is Not a Motel, came to define the possibilities and menace of flower-power Los Angeles: "Sitting on a hillside watching all the people die," sang Lee, "I'll feel much better on the other side."
Love's masterwork wasn't a bestseller and Lee expressed his frustration by rebuilding the group. Four Sail (1969) was their last Elektra album, and material left over formed the basis of the 1969 double LP, Out Here, on Blue Thumb. Yet another line-up made 1970's aptly-named False Start, but shortly after its release Lee sacked the band.
A solo album, Vindicator, in 1972 divided opinion but there was still no commercial breakthrough. Lee recorded Black Beauty for the Buffalo label, but the company's collapse torpedoed its release (it belatedly appeared in 1997).
Lee continued to assemble new versions of Love, sometimes featuring co-founder Bryan MacLean, but their appeal grew increasingly nostalgic. In 1987, the Damned had a British top 30 hit with a cover of Alone Again Or.
In 1996, Lee struck up a musical rapport with a young LA rock group, Baby Lemonade. However, the accident-prone singer was arrested for firing a gun outside his apartment. Previous convictions earned him a 12-year jail sentence in Pleasant Valley state prison, California, but he was released early in December 2001. The experience seemed to focus Lee's mind, and he emerged with new musical ideas which he set about developing with Baby Lemonade, who became the newest Love. Exploiting the vogue for reviving classic albums, pioneered by Brian Wilson with Pet Sounds, Lee also assembled a 15-piece orchestra to perform Forever Changes, which played to packed houses.
Lee's illness prompted outpourings of support from musicians including former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, who headlined a benefit concert in New York in June. An experimental stem cell transplant failed to halt Lee's illness.
He is survived by his wife Diane.
ยท Arthur Lee (Arthur Taylor Porter), musician, born March 7 1945; died August 3 2006
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