Albums That Should Exist: Love with Arthur Lee - BBC in Concert, Manchester Academy, Manchester, Britain, 3-21-2004

Monday, February 27, 2023

Love with Arthur Lee - BBC in Concert, Manchester Academy, Manchester, Britain, 3-21-2004

Yesterday, I posted a Robert Plant concert that was part of a benefit concert for Arthur Lee, the leader of the band Love. I actually found that recently while doing some research for this. So it's fitting that I post them back to back.

Arthur Lee was a musical great, in my opinion, who rarely lived up to his full potential. Some of his troubles were not of his own making. A big one was that in 1996, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the negligent discharge of a firearm. The evidence of this relatively minor charge didn't even point to him. A court later reversed the charge, and the prosecutor was found guilty of misconduct, but nonetheless Lee ended up spending five and a half years in prison.

By the time Lee was released at the end of 2001, there was a growing interest in the music of Love. He began touring all over the world using the name "Love with Arthur Lee," which is a bit odd and redundant in my opinion since he basically was Love, having written and sung the vast majority of the band's songs. His musical skills were still intact, and he even was writing the occasional new song that were worthy of the ones from the 1960s.

Unfortunately though, he didn't have long to enjoy this career resurgence. He toured through 2005. But he was diagnosed with leukemia, and his health started to fail fast. He died in 2006 at the age of 61.

There's one really excellent official album from this late stage of his career, called "The Forever Changes Concert," recorded and released in 2003. The songs chosen here are pretty similar, with a heavy emphasis on the classic 1967 album "Forever Changes." Still, I enjoy both concerts. Because this one was recorded by the BBC, the sound quality is excellent, probably as good as the official live album.

Unfortunately, there is only one song here that was written recently at the time, "Rainbow in the Storm." But in my opinion it fits in well with the others, showing he still had his creativity intact. Perhaps if he'd lived a few years longer he would have released an acclaimed album of new material.

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
02 Live and Let Live (Love with Arthur Lee)
03 Your Mind and We Belong Together (Love with Arthur Lee)
04 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
05 Alone Again Or (Love with Arthur Lee)
06 Andmoreagain (Love with Arthur Lee)
07 Seven and Seven Is (Love with Arthur Lee)
08 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
09 Old Man (Love with Arthur Lee)
10 The Daily Planet (Love with Arthur Lee)
11 The Red Telephone (Love with Arthur Lee)
12 Orange Skies (Love with Arthur Lee)
13 My Flash on You (Love with Arthur Lee)
14 Signed D. C. (Love with Arthur Lee)
15 A House Is Not a Motel (Love with Arthur Lee)
16 Bummer in the Summer (Love with Arthur Lee)
17 You Set the Scene (Love with Arthur Lee)
18 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
19 Rainbow in the Storm (Love with Arthur Lee)
20 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
21 Singing Cowboy (Love with Arthur Lee)
22 Singing Cowboy Band Intros (Love with Arthur Lee)
23 talk (Love with Arthur Lee)
24 Can't Explain (Love with Arthur Lee)
25 Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale (Love with Arthur Lee)