| Benefit concert tonight at NYC's Beacon Theater for Love's ArthurLee [message #283571] |
Sa, 24 Juni 2006 01:28 |
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Come, feel the Love
Stars a Beacon of hope for ailing '60s hero Arthur Lee
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/story/429001p -361735c.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/308-loveband.JPG
Arthur Lee (standing) and Love in their heyday.
In the swirling history of West Coast psychedelic rock, the band
called Love holds a pivotal place.
During their most vital period (1965-69), they presaged
everything from punk (in manic ditties like "7 and 7 Is") to
Latin alterna-rock (with a flamenco-tinged track like "Alone
Again Or").
Love also ranked as:
# One of the first racially integrated rock bands.
# The creators of the first side-length album track, 1967's
"Revelation" (which beat Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" by
a year).
# One of the pioneers of art rock, integrating baroque horn and
string arrangements into peerless pop on their 1967 masterpiece,
"Forever Changes."
Unfortunately, Love never got the massive audience they deserved,
and their leader, Arthur Lee, has been plagued by personal
problems for years. Lee's woes range from legal issues - he spent
five years in the late '90s incarcerated on a gun charge - to
medical challenges. At present, the 61-year-old artist is
battling leukemia.
Worse, Lee has no health insurance. So a clutch of famous fans
have gotten together to hold a benefit show for his medical
expenses at 8 tonight at the Beacon Theater.
With everyone from Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant to
alterna-country's Ryan Adams offering full sets, it's not a show
to be missed. Tonight's event will also feature performances by
Ian Hunter, Nils Lofgren, Yo La Tengo, Garland Jeffreys and
members of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Plant considers Lee a key influence on his own writing. "On
[Love's] albums, you have this very romantic singing, delivering
a message that's ambitious and abstract," he explains. "You had
both beauty and challenge."
A key band on the Sunset Strip scene of the mid-'60s, Love
provided a missing link between the warm folk-rock of the Byrds
and the fiery psycho-rock of the Doors. In terms of public
acclaim, however, their sound had a bigger impact in England.
Even when Lee came back in the last few years to perform his Love
songs in London, Plant says, "he played to packed houses and got
the most amazing critical acclaim. Politicians invited Arthur to
join them on the balcony in Parliament. I don't see Captain
Beefheart, or even Jimmy Page, getting invited to the floor of
the Senate."
"Somehow," Plant says, "Arthur's music never got old."
Small wonder Love's music has proven just as appealing to
musicians decades Plant's junior. Neal Casal, guitarist of Ryan
Adams' band the Cardinals, says Love has become an obsession for
a whole younger wave of West Coast bands, from Beachwood Sparks
to the Tyde.
"The appeal of Arthur is how far ahead of everybody he was,"
Casal says. "He swept such a wide arc over his time."
Tonight, Plant will perform what he terms "Love songs, hate songs
and some Zeppelin songs."
He stresses that despite Lee's serious medical problems, "he can
get better. We can help, so this is a righteous night."
It's also a deserved one.
"On the great Love albums, Lee could go from this fantastic
gentility to this psychedelic scream," Plant says. "His music did
it all."
Visit www.thelovesociety.com for more information. Purchase
tickets through Ticketmaster, 212-307-7171.
Originally published on June 23, 2006
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