3 Review(s)

Arthur Lee and the band he fronted, Love, are widely acknowledged to be one of the most influential groups of the late '60s and their psychedelic-folk masterpiece, Forever Changes, regularly appears high in polls of the greatest albums of all time. Lee led this erratically brilliant group throughout a tempestuous history of dissolutions and resurrections, while also releasing three solo albums.Amazingly, the Love story has never been properly told - until now. In his superb biography of Lee, acclaimed music writer Barney Hoskyns paints a portrait of a musician who delivered (some) great things, yet promised so much more. With Lee, it has always been difficult to shake the feeling of what might have been.Including in-depth interviews with Lee, guitarist Bryan Maclean (who died in 1998) and many others involved in the LA scene of the time, this fascinating tale reveals the dark side of the Summer of Love - heroin, crime and bitter ego battles - while also tracking Lee's musical career through the post-Love years to his present incarceration in a US jail. As a story, it's as rock'n'roll as they get.