Influential rocker Arthur Lee dies in Memphis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arthur Lee, the eccentric singer/guitarist
with influential 1960s rock band Love, died in a Memphis hospital on
Thursday after a battle with leukemia, according to a Web posting by
his manager. He was 61.
"I am very sad to report that Arthur Lee died this afternoon in the
hospital with his wife, Diane, by his side," Mark Linn said on a Love
fan Web site. "This is still very much a shock for me as I had hoped
Arthur would recover."
The news was also relayed by Love's MySpace page. A telephone call to
Linn was not immediately returned. An official at the Methodist
University Hospital in Memphis declined to comment, citing patient
confidentiality.
Lee, a Memphis native who referred to himself as "the first so-called
black hippie," formed Love in Los Angeles in 1965, emerging from the
same scene as groups like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors
and the Mamas and Papas.
The first multiracial rock band of the psychedelic era, Love recorded
three groundbreaking albums fusing traditional folk rock and blues
with symphonic suites and early punk.
Bands as diverse as Led Zeppelin, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Siouxsie
and the Banshees cited Love as an influence.
The band's self-titled debut yielded the hit single "My Little Red
Book," written by Hal David and
Burt Bacharach. The 1967 follow-up, "Da Capo," was one of the first
rock albums to feature a song, "Revelation," that took up an entire
side.
A third release, 1968's "Forever Changes," which boasted adventurous
horn and string arrangements, is considered Love's bold response to
the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's" album. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it
at No. 40 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
But Love, which rarely left Los Angeles, lost momentum as Lee hired
new musicians and pursued a solo career. Various reunions amounted to
little, and Lee's eccentricities landed him in a California prison for
six years during the 1990s for firing a pistol into the air.
After being released in late 2001, Lee assembled a new version of Love
and toured Europe and North America, often playing "Forever Changes"
in its entirety.
Earlier this year, Lee was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. In
May, facing certain death after three rounds of chemotherapy failed,
he became the first adult in Tennessee to undergo a bone marrow
transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord, according to The
(Memphis) Commercial Appeal. Doctors said the procedure lifted his
chances of survival only moderately, the newspaper said.
Several benefit concerts were held in Britain and the United States to
help Lee with his medical bills. Former Led Zeppelin singer
Robert Plant headlined a benefit in New York in June.
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