Solo Career
In July 1972, Lee released his first solo album, Vindicator, on A&M Records, featuring a new group of musicians also playing as the band Love. At one point in time they would use the name Bandaid, a name originally suggested by Jimi Hendrix for a briefly considered lineup of himself, Lee, and Steve Winwood. This album failed to chart. Lee recorded a second solo album in 1973 entitled Black Beauty for Buffalo Records, but the label folded before the album was released.
Lee's next move was to credit the backing group for Black Beauty with the addition of guitarist John Sterling as a new Love for Reel to Real, which was released on RSO Records in December 1974. Once again, the album went nearly unnoticed.
A new Lee solo album, called just Arthur Lee, appeared on Rhino Records in 1981, featuring covers of The Bobbettes' "Mr Lee" and Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" and musicians Sterling on guitar, George Suranovich on drums and Kim Kesterson on bass as well as some of the members from "Reel to Real".
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were various attempts to reunite the original Love lineup. At the suggestion of guitarist John Sterling who first joined Arthur for the "Reel To Real" album, one such show from the Whisky in Oct. of 1978 was recorded by Sterling on cassette. It featuring Lee and Bryan MacLean with Sterling on guitar, George Suranovich on drums and Kim Kesterson on bass, and was released on Rhino as a live album picture disc entitled Love Live on Rhino Records in 1982. Also in 1982, MCA released Studio/Live, which was a collection of tracks from the early 1970s incarnation of Love coordinated by Rock Lawyer/Journalist Stann Findelle, including never before heard tracks recorded from Bill Graham's Fillmore East.
Save for the "Studio/Live package on MCA, the 1980s were a mostly fallow period for Lee. According to him: "I was gone for a decade. I went back to my old neighborhood to take care of my father, who was dying of cancer. I was tired of signing autographs. I was tired of being BS'd out of my money...I just got tired." Alice Cooper did record a cover version of Lee's "7&7 Is" on a 1981 album, Special Forces.
Lee did not re-emerge until 1992, with a new album entitled Arthur Lee & Love - Five String Serenade on the French New Rose label. Lee also played gigs around this time in Paris, London and Liverpool with Mick and John Head of legendary Liverpool bands Shack and The Pale Fountains.
In 1993 he played shows in New York and England. The following year he released a 45rpm single,"Girl on Fire", backed with "Midnight Sun" — on Distortions Records. He began to tour regularly with a backup band comprising former members of Das Damen, and LA group Baby Lemonade.
In 1995, Rhino Records released the compilation Love Story, a two-disc set with extensive liner notes which chronicled the period 1966–1972, and reignited interest in the band. In fact, the original Love planned to reform and tour in promotion of the compilation, but Arthur's legal troubles got in the way.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Lee (musician)
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