The name Arthur Lee rebounded back to life this week with High Moon Records' announcement that his lost album Black Beauty will emerge from bootleg glory as a new release this summer. Love will once more be alive and Arthur Lee risen from the grave.
The founder of Love started the band in 1965. Hollywood was their home. They played up and down Sunset Strip; the Brave New World, Hullabaloo, Bido Lito's and the Sea Witch. An appearance at the Whisky a Go-Go earned Love a recording contract with Elektra Records. The group scored a Southern California hit with a cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition "My Little Red Book" and hit the US charts with "7&7 Is". FOREVER CHANGES (1967) is considered the pinnacle of Love's musical career.
They might have been bigger if they had a hit single, but success eluded kaleidoscopic members of Love. Arthur Lee was the star. He dismissed drummers, guitar players, and bassist whenever they threatened his genius.
Drugs were involved in his paranoia.
It was the late-60s.
The 70s began with the break-up of Love after the failure of their 1971 LP to chart on Billboard. Fame was followed by apathy. Acid rock gave way to more commercial guitar god bands. Arthur Lee's final recording effort was abandoned to the bootleggers. Trouble with the Law in the 90s earned Arthur Lee a 12-year sentence for illegal possession of firearms. The harsh punishment stemmed from previous convictions for drugs and assault. A judge released the musician in 2001 after the court determined that the DA in the 1995 trial had been guilty of misconduct.
Another black man imprisoned by 'legal error'.
Arthur Lee was grateful that his DNA didn't connect him to 9/11. A punk band approached the singer about playing his old hits with them as back-up. I was lucky enough to see two shows of Arthur Lee and Love in Williamsburg. AP, my friend/architect accompanied to the second concert. The Polish Meeting Hall was packed with rock and roll aficionados. We sang every song and I cried out for I'M DOWN, the dirge ballad about heroin addiction. Arthur Lee stayed away from that song. I couldn't blame him.
Heroin is trouble.
Sadly Arthur Lee died in 2006.
But dead or not he will come to life with BLACK BEAUTY.
Not only him, but Jimi Hendrix too, because Arthur Lee was trying so hard to be a god.
The only god known to play the left-handed guitar.
The critics hate BLACK BEAUTY, but those flacks are in it for the money.
They certainly don't get the glory.
I can't wait
In 1971, Lee was signed to Columbia Records and spent the better part of the summer recording, all of the songs were deemed unworthy of issue. (The entire Columbia project, along with a handful of demos were released for the first time in 2009 on Sundazed as "Love Lost.")Arthur Lee’s 1973 album ‘Black Beauty’ is finally being released
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On December 12, 2001, Lee was released from prison, having served 5½ years of his original sentence. A federal appeals court in California reversed the charge of negligent discharge of a firearm, as it found that the prosecutor at Lee's trial was guilty of misconduct. After Lee was freed, he put together a new incarnation of Love and planned a Forever Changes 35th Anniversary Tour, to kick off at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 2002, Arthur Lee began touring in earnest under the name "Love with Arthur Lee". This new phase of his career met with great success, and he performed to enthusiastic audiences and critical acclaim throughout Europe, North America and Australia. Arthur Lee and The Love band (aka) Baby Lemonade, who first performed with Lee in May 1993 at Raji's, began performing the Forever Changes album in its entirety, often with a string and horn section. A live CD and DVD of this material was released in 2003.
Nils Lofgren performing at the Beacon Theater Benefit For Arthur Lee, June 23, 2006
Johnny Echols joined the new group for a special Forever Changes 35th Anniversary Tour performance at Royce Hall, UCLA, in the spring of 2003. Lee and the band continued to tour throughout 2003 and 2004, including many concerts in and around hometown Los Angeles, notably a show at the outdoor Sunset Junction festival and a headlining date with The Zombies. Echols occasionally joined Lee and the group on the continuing and final tours of 2004 to 2005.
Because of Arthur Lee's illness (acute myeloid leukemia), the details of which were not known by the band at the time, he could not participate in the final tour in July 2005. Since no one knew of his illness, Arthur's decision to forgo the final tour was met with angry, confused reactions. The remaining members of the band, along with Echols, continued to perform at the venues of the last tour (July 2005) without Lee, under the name The Love Band.
Arthur Lee
Black Beauty
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Love, the 1973 incarnation.
Arthur Lee’s lost album Black Beauty is finally receiving an official release after nearly 40 years of being in bootleg limbo. Newly launched label High Moon Records is releasing it on June 7.
Originally planned to be released by Buffalo Records in 1973, Black Beauty was shelved when the label went bankrupt. It was recorded by one of Lee’s various incarnations of his band Love: Robert Rozelle, Bass Guitar ~ Joe Blocker, Drums ~ Melvan Whittington, Lead Guitar.
High Moon founder George Wallace stated in a press release that Black Beauty is “that rarest of rock artifacts: a never-before-released, full-length studio album, from an undisputed musical genius.”
To hear MIDNIGHT SUN from BLACK BEAUTY, please go to the following URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Eb1zEMlAY
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