New DVD documentary on Arthur Lee: "Love Story"

When I think of the peak concert attending experiences of my life, two of the top ten shows were Arthur Lee and Love. In the early 90s, I saw a pre-jail Arthur do a nearly all-acoustic set at a small bar in North Hollywood because the electricity went out. He made up for the loss of the band with inspired skat singing and the audience left the show grinning from ear to ear. The second time I saw Lee play was even more memorable. After spending 5-1/2 years in prison, Lee was released and began a tentative series of gigs around Los Angeles playing Love's classic 1967 album "Forever Changes" in its entirety. When he walked onstage that night, at a packed Henry Fonda Theater, he looked tiny, frail, old, scared even. His clothes looked too big. Everyone was pulling for him, we all wanted this to be amazing and triumphant, but it didn't look promising. Within seconds, however, he strapped on his hollow body electric guitar and became the great Arthur Lee. It was a magical musical event. Lee's voice had lost none of its beauty and range; the songs none of their power. Audience members were moved to tears. Yes, it was that good (and thanks to the Internets, here's a clip from that very night's highlight, "You Set the Scene").

Now, two years after his untimely death, there is a new feature-length documentary, Love Story that tells the tragic trajectory of the life and times of Arthur Lee. It's a great film and thank the gods that someone got Lee on video talking about his life's work before he died. The dramatic power of Lee's story hasn't been diminished from constant retelling on Vh1 rock docs and "Love Story" is gripping from start to finish. Mostly it focuses on the band's first three records, especially "Forever Changes." And of course it also covers Lee's notoriously difficult personality and the drug use that split the band wide-open. The only criticism I have of "Love Story" is that there isn't more footage of Lee and and the band in their prime, but it's not like the filmmakers had much of an option as there is virtually no footage of Love that exists from that era save for this wonderful clip of them on Dick Clark's American Bandstand performing a blistering version of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book." Arthur Lee and Jimi Hendrix "Everlasting First" unreleased demo

Love Story DVD documentary

(Richard Metzger is a guestblogger)

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by fyodordos , October 8, 2008 3:00 PM

I saw him do a Forever Changes show at the Fillmore (the night after your clip) that was awesome. He was even better a year later opening for the Zombies, where he did an a capella "Tell Her No" intro to "7 and 7 Is" . I also saw his last show at the Cafe Du Nord in SF, which was a very sad night.

#2 posted by markfrei , October 8, 2008 3:21 PM

Thanks for bringing up this video - I can't wait to see it.

The show he did with Baby Lemonade at Double Door in Chicago right after he got out of jail was awe inspiring - it was the success of this tour that lead to the performances of Forever Changes with full strings and brass.

Worth mentioning is the fact that his jail time was a result of the three strikes rules - so he ended up with a the full, rather long sentence for a fairly minor infraction (arms possession).

#3 posted by Michael A. Banks , October 8, 2008 4:21 PM

Wish it had come sooner. There are some glimpses of Love on TV at YouTube.
--Mike

#4 posted by Wigwam Jones , October 8, 2008 5:12 PM

Forever Changes is one of my favorite albums. 'Andmoreagain', and 'Signed DC' from their first album are a pair of my favorites. Thanks for the info on the documentary!

#5 posted by ill lich , October 8, 2008 8:51 PM

I once credited "Forever Changes" for saving my life once when I was a teenager and very despondent. That may have been a slight hyperbole, but it's hard to tell now from the distance of so many years.

BTW-- "Everlasting First" is not 'unreleased'-- it was the first song on Love's last LP "False Start" (and perhaps the only truly good song on the LP). Supposedly there was a full album that Lee recorded with Hendrix (Lee claimed so), but no evidence of it has ever been found, and some friends/bandmates of Lee's from that era discount the story as fantasy.

#6 posted by hassan-i-sabbah , October 9, 2008 3:01 AM

My love ,she comes in colors,
you can see that
from the clothes she wears...

#7 posted by mikelotus , October 9, 2008 10:49 AM

I will watch it, but I gather part of his issues stemmed from his mixed race. Funny we may have a president of mixed race. The Doors once wanted to be "as big as Love." Forever Changes is one of the all time great albums.

#8 posted by PeaceLove