Following Forever Changes, however, Lee decided to fire the band. In all likelihood, this was done with an eye towards both finding musicians with enough chops to back Lee's vision, and also to get rid of the recurring drug problems that were holding the band back. Whatever the reason, this decision marked the sudden end of Lee's ascendency as a critical musician; as early as the next album, Lee's talents seemed to have deserted him.
Four Sail, released in 1969, was the first album released with the new Love, little more than an amalgamation of sessionmen. Lee's songwriting and singing, which take on an urgent, manic bent, are still in good form here, but the new band leans heavy on their instruments; Four Sail, despite some good songs, sounds like pedestrian hard rock in too many places, losing the eclectic virtuosity that graced their first three releases. The album did little to help Love's waning commercial fortunes, peaking at #102. Out Here, from 1970, followed in a similar hard-rock style, with Lee's songwriting skills deteriorating farther, the band given over to long psychedelic jams and Steppenwolf-sounding rockers. While Lee remained quirky and unpredictable, neither of these albums offered any of the transendent pleasures of Da Capo or Forever Changes. Out Here peaked at #176.
Lee must have known things weren't working out; for Love's next album, he moved to London for the recording sessions, and met up with Jimi Hendrix, who he talked into guesting on the opening track of False Start, called "The Everlasting First". A loose, bluesy jam, edited together from a longer session, the song works well; it remains one of Hendrix' last works. "Keep On Shining" is another good song from the album, a peace and love sentiment that found a place in Lee's solo live shows. But by this point, Love no longer had the critics on their side, and the album managed a weak #184 on the charts.
And that, for all intents and purposes, was that. Lee cut a solo record in 1972, Vindicator, that failed to chart, and then revived the Love name for what essentially was another solo disc, Reel To Real in 1974. Neither charted nor received any positive critical notice. A final solo disc, Arthur Lee, appeared in 1977, and since then Lee has been limited to sporadic performing, both solo and with new versions of Love. Some of these latter-day shows have been released on CD and sound pretty good, but they're little more than exercises in nostalgia. Lee spent 6 years in prison in the 1990's for firing a gun at a neighbor during an argument; he had other brushes with the law just prior to this incident.
Lee remains an enigma; a hard-to-pigeonhole artist in the 60's, a tragically underachieving solo act in the 70's, a solid oldies performer between trips to jail in the 90's. Lee is currently free, and performing again.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
Great informative mini-history of a band I knew very little about, thanks!
2 - Eric Olsen
super job uao, love the is feature (no pun intended) - very frustrating band Love, greatness and a lot of filler. Teh reissues a few years back reminded me how overproduced much of it was. "Alone Again Or" and "7 and 7 Is" are two of my favorite songs, period. I love the Damned's version of "AAO" also
3 - Vern Halen
I used to hear rumours that Lee cut an entire album eith Hendrix, but it was all tied up in red tape. Anybody know if there's anything to this juicy tidbit?
4 - HW Saxton
Vern, I don't know too much about this
but I'll offer what I know.On Love's LP
"False Start", Jimi H. was supposed to
appear on several cuts.His(Jimi Hendrix)
playing CAN be heard on the Love tune:
"Everlasting First". But because of many
contractual and/or other legal reasons
his(JH's)contributions were either just
rerecorded over or just completely mixed
out of the session entirely.Why? is any
one's guess.But its most definitely both
Jimi and Arthur playing on "Everlasting
First".The LP is on Blue Thumb Records
and ended up being released in 1971. It
is not too hard to find if you don't
mind digging around in dusty old used
record stores(MY favorite hobby)and the
likes. It's not their best work but it
shows a pleasant and new direction for
Arthur and the band.I wish that I could
offer more info but that's all I got for
you. Hope it helps.
HW Saxton
5 - Evan
From: Black Gold - The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix
The Arthur Lee and Love False Start Session
"Although Hendrix is credited with playing on "Everlasting First," there is still more unreleased material from this session, as Lee revealed in a BBC radio interview on July 4, 1980. "We did a long jam as well as we did 'Everlasting First,'" Lee said. "We did about three versions of that. We did 'Ezy Ryder'... and a couple of other things." Crawdaddy magazine (June 1970) reported that 'Ezy Ryder' was once planned as a 1970 Love single on the Blue Thumb label, but was canceled.
I asked Lee what had become of these "lost" tapes. "The last I've seen of the audiotapes was when I gave the master reels to Bob Krasnow, who was then president of Blue Thumb Records," Lee responded. "I asked him to hold them for me and I never got them back. He was the one who was all jazzed about Jimi and I being together." Lee added that he had hoped to start a new band with Hendrix at the time.
STATUS: The 1970 Lee-Hendrix jams remain unreleased. False Start was released in December 1970 on LP (BTS 22) and later on compact disc (MCAD-22029). At one time, it was rumored that Hendrix played guitar on "Slick Dick" and "Ride That Vibration," two additional tracks from False Start, but the guitarist is Love band member Gary Rowles. Black Beauty, a bootleg of Love studio recordings, erroneously identified Hendrix as the lead guitarist."
----------------------------------------
Date: March 17
Event: False Start Recording Sessions
Performer(s): Jimi Hendrix, Love
Song(s): Unknown
Location: Olympic Studios, London, England
In 1970, Arthur Lee asked Hendrix to be guest artist on the Love album False Start. During my interview with Lee in 1992, he stated that the recording session was videotaped: "Someone just told me that the session was videotaped, and they have seen the tape."
STATUS: Missing. So far, no videotape of this recording session has surfaced."
6 - Shark
Great stuff, thanks for the work you put into this.
PS: Forever Changes was great.
7 - Vern Halen
Thanks, everyone. Maybe the great lost whatever will show up one day.....
8 - Tron
If you ask me, Four Sail has aged better than Forever Changes and is the superior album... But, someone decided that Forever Changes was THE Love album (because it has strings?), and all the critics fall in line. Even De Capo is better, imho...
9 - bertolotti
expecting rain - bob dylan