04 sierpnia 2006
Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee, lead singer of Love, has died at the age of 61.Never heard of him? You should have. Love was one of the most remarkable rock bands ever. The variety of styles that they could conquer is best summed up on the single for the song "Seven & Seven Is," a straight ahead rocker backed with the song "No. 14," a mellow piece that could have easily been released in the 19th century.
They came out of the same mid-sixties LA scene that spawned the Doors and the Turtles, and was more popular locally than either band, but their reluctance to do large scale tours limited their national popularity. Nonetheless, they were very influential.
Lee was of mixed race, and his guitar player, Johnny Echols, was black. That made Love a multi-racial hold-out at a time when rock was being separated back into "white" and "black" music again.
Here are two clips from American Bandstand, "Message to Pretty" and "Little Red Book" (A Burt Bacharach cover!) Doesn't Dick Clark look so young?
Lee recently hooked up with a band called Baby Lemonade. This is him performing the song "Seven & Seven Is" with them three years ago.
Their best song was the latin influenced "Alone Again Or." The song was often covered by other bands (here and here). This is a reunited Love performing it a couple of years back.
Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.
