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Sorry about the brevity of the first post, I'm at work and not at liberty to go off on one.
So, Arthur Lee. I'm not sure how to start. Anecdotes and general musings, that's it.
1. My most prized possesion is my original Elektra records pressing of "Forever Changes", which I "inherited" off my Mum. It's got the original back cover, is pressed on lovely thick vinyl and contains an additional thrill of me being able to imagine my Mum, sometime in the late 6ts, at University, in love beads, stoned out of her gourd, sitting on a cushion somewhere singing along. It is something that I've always felt brings me a bit closer to her.
2. A friend of mine met him once and asked him to sign his copy. The exchange went like this:
My Friend: You've made a young man very happy.
Arthur Lee: (furiously) YOU CALLIN' ME OLD, BOY?
3. I saw him live several times. The greatest of which was at the Concorde in Brighton. He'd just got out of prison and was doing his first British gig as a free man, with a new, young backing band. It will remain one of the most emotional, exciting experiences of my life.
The band, far from "respectfully" going through exacting motions of replication, on what is one of the "classic" back catalogues, rocked like their hair was on fire, and Arthur was right there with them; pulling faces at the audience, cracking jokes, doing Pete Townshend windmill arms, engaging the audience in call-and-response chants of "Freedom!". It was a gig that left you glad to be breathing, glad to have blood in your veins, just ecstatic about the process, the grind, the rolling, the coasting, the tears, the freedoms, the sheer fucking ALIVE-NESS of life.
4. When I saw him the next time after that, however, he unveiled one of his "New songs" (DANGER! ALERT!). Hitler-on-a-hoverbike! It was so utterly WRETCHED that I couldn't stop laughing for about three days. It almost EXACTLY replicated none-other than "Centrefold" by the J. Geils Band. C'mon, man, I know you've been in prison a long time, but really...
Still, thanks for the laughter.
5. He was a fighter. Right to the fucking end. Didn't have it easy like a lot of the other boys of the Psychedelic revolution. Black and angry and confused, he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the contented, idiot HIPPIES of Sunset Strip. The only artist from the same period who comes close to Arthur's level of friction is Roky Erikson. If Arthur had been in Texas, like Roky, they wouldn't have locked him away, they would've fucking killed him.
6. He was the coolest looking motherfucker of the 6ts. That photo of him standing on the steps with the other Love boys, with a fag in his ear? Legend.
7. He wrote "7 and 7 is". I named one of my bands after that song.
That's Seven. That's a lucky number. I'll stop there.
Thank you Arthur, for absolutely everything.
Yours, "Sitting on a Hillside..." |
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