| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| abraxas |
Posted - 14/09/2014 : 06:56:57
This is not thread asking about who did the most drugs or glamorizing drug use. I am just clearing this up before people accuse me of romantizing drug use. I am not.
The reason I put this thread because I just wanted to know something about the band's drug use. I know that the band dabbled into drugs and alcohol use and used it beyond recreationally post-1966. I always wondered if the band's managers or label execs in Eleketra ever were concerned about the band's drug use at all. I mean I am not sure if their drug use had played some role in the tension in the band. What I've read in the band is just the stuff with Arthur and Bryan over Stephanie and the songwriting stuff.
1967 they could've taken some break before Forever Changes. If Elektra learned of the conflicts and tensions within the band and learned of the escalating drug dependence they could've financed the band's rehab. All of the guys could've walked out sober and healthy and made a comeback and maybe even had a gold record with Forever Changes.
I am not sure if you took the drug element if the tensions in the band would've ended.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| abraxas |
Posted - 15/09/2014 : 21:23:59
@lemonade kid. That probably explains the riff Bryan had with his step dad in the 1960s. I assume Bryan's step dad Jack was a conservative/old money gentlemen that probably had considered the rock music/counterculture of the 1960s in some negative terms and probably listened to the singers like Sinatra.
I don't get why in the 1970s how Arthur was at Bryan's parents house for Thanksgiving. I see a picture someone posted on the official Arthur Lee fan Facebook last year. Either by 1977, Bryan's step dad Jack had a change of beliefs or accepted Bryan as being as a musician or something.
I know Liz McKee had been at some Love concerts in LA in '66 she mentioned that in an interview she gave. So she probably knew of his drug use, but she does infer that Bryan had problem started to using drugs around the time he was with the Byrds.
Then again if Liz McKee knew or had noticed how he was in the 1960s why didn't see had done something. Then again I'll assume that she cared and that probably most of users on this message board have mothers that have an unconditional love. She probably couldn't help financially at the time men where the main breadwinners still at that time and as the patriarch of a family had the "say". I'll assume that Liz McKee was a homemaker and stay-at-home mom. In the 1960s she gave birth to Maria and probably had to do the typical household chores and child rearing of the day. I mean she probably did care about Bryan but couldn't help him financial due to the reasons I just mentioned.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 15/09/2014 : 15:44:17
quote:
Originally posted by abraxas
@lemonade kid. Bryan had bi polar and I think in the early 1970s was proscribed lithium which he had some bad side effects and he had relapsed and drank until the 1990s when his mom sent him to Victory Outreach, that Christian-based rehab place. I was wondering where Bryan's parents relationship was with him in the late 1960s-early 1970s. I was wondering why they didn't financed him to go to a decent rehab place like Hazleden. I know Bryan's step dad was somewhat as "old-money" conservative gentlemen and I am not sure if he cared he about his own step-son. I know Bryan's mom Liz had cared about him. Bryan's parents had a real complicated relationship. His parents divorced when he was a kid, his mom marries another guy Jack McKee(is that is name?). I think his mom had sided his step dad whenever he had punished Bryan or something(I had read something about that).
The head of the household(the dad/or husband) was the one that head the say on matters in the 1950s I assume. I always thought Bryan lived in a Ozie and Harriet household of the typical 1950s White suburban household.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile
Bryan was actually in a more upper class Hollywood world...must have been pretty upper crust if a friend he noodled around on the piano with was Liza Minnelli!
But as a teen he probably had little contact with the folks, being in that Byrds/Love rock and roll world tends to separate kids from their parents---it's breakaway time.
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"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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| abraxas |
Posted - 14/09/2014 : 21:42:04
@lemonade kid. Bryan had bi polar and I think in the early 1970s was proscribed lithium which he had some bad side effects and he had relapsed and drank until the 1990s when his mom sent him to Victory Outreach, that Christian-based rehab place. I was wondering where Bryan's parents relationship was with him in the late 1960s-early 1970s. I was wondering why they didn't financed him to go to a decent rehab place like Hazleden. I know Bryan's step dad was somewhat as "old-money" conservative gentlemen and I am not sure if he cared he about his own step-son. I know Bryan's mom Liz had cared about him. Bryan's parents had a real complicated relationship. His parents divorced when he was a kid, his mom marries another guy Jack McKee(is that is name?). I think his mom had sided his step dad whenever he had punished Bryan or something(I had read something about that).
The head of the household(the dad/or husband) was the one that head the say on matters in the 1950s I assume. I always thought Bryan lived in a Ozie and Harriet household of the typical 1950s White suburban household.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/09/2014 : 21:14:15
quote:
Originally posted by abraxas
@lemonade kid. AA was around since the late 1930s so it existed in the late 1960s and I'm sure Los Angeles and the surrounding areas probably had some AA groups. NA(Narcotics Anonymous) was around since 1953 it might've been around but it was about 14-15 years in 1967-1968 at the height of Love's popularity.
If Elektra cared about the band's health and welfare they could've financed the band's rehab stay at palace like Hazleden in Minnesota(that's the place Eric Clapton went in the 80s when he was trying to get sober from cocaine and alcohol).
But I do know in the 1960s psychiatric hospitals were still a stable to send someone with mental illness/and or substance abuse problems and the condtions in those particular places were just as bad as the psychiatric hospital in One Flew over the Cucko Nest. Maybe the guys thought if they went to rehab it would've been some psychiatric hospital and experienced that level of mistreatment. I can't speak for the guys from Love so I don't know their views on that.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile
Right...asylums were many times where they were sent for drug problems--Skip Spence sent to Bellevue. Roky of 13th Floor opting for a mental institution to avoid jail time on a pot bust--they destroyed him there! Shock therapy was the treatment of the day.
________________________________________________
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley
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| abraxas |
Posted - 14/09/2014 : 20:18:47
@lemonade kid. AA was around since the late 1930s so it existed in the late 1960s and I'm sure Los Angeles and the surrounding areas probably had some AA groups. NA(Narcotics Anonymous) was around since 1953 it might've been around but it was about 14-15 years in 1967-1968 at the height of Love's popularity.
If Elektra cared about the band's health and welfare they could've financed the band's rehab stay at palace like Hazleden in Minnesota(that's the place Eric Clapton went in the 80s when he was trying to get sober from cocaine and alcohol).
But I do know in the 1960s psychiatric hospitals were still a stable to send someone with mental illness/and or substance abuse problems and the condtions in those particular places were just as bad as the psychiatric hospital in One Flew over the Cucko Nest. Maybe the guys thought if they went to rehab it would've been some psychiatric hospital and experienced that level of mistreatment. I can't speak for the guys from Love so I don't know their views on that.
This is the time and life that I am living
And I'll face each day with a smile |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 14/09/2014 : 18:42:23
It was more than drugs...creative differences AND laziness, Arthur's unwillingness to travel or even gig around California, or go in to the studio to record unless "the traffic light winked at him"  , Arthur not willing to share top billing with ANY band...
And let's not forget the possibilities of undiagnosed mental disorders that plagued so many creative artists of the day, like Bryan, Gene Clark, Syd Barrett...mostly self-medicated with booze or drugs.
Arthur liked to get "high", the others preferred downers (like "H") and that could have caused a terrible chasm too. Pawning instruments by band members for a much needed fix...there really was a mess of problems. I don't know if record labels cared or even were aware, as long as there was production when required, and FC showed they could get it together when cornered! I wonder if there were effective drug programs back then anyway--many were just labeled as alcoholics when it was their only way of self-medication with booze to help control their bipolar (or whatever) symptoms.
Love's albums didn't sell well enough for the band and Arthur was in control of paying them, so it was as much a case of economics and frustration as anything.
...Just some gathering of thoughts, with no more facts than you guys...
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"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music".
-Aldous Huxley |
