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Also interesting is that I saw a quote from Jac Holzman claiming that Arthur was a genius who could play every instrument better than anyone in his band, and yet Michael Stuart-Ware wrote in his book that Arthur was-- at best-- a mediocre guitar player whose only real instrument was the organ.

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..it's fair to see he was multi-talented musically and instrument wise - he played a lot of the drums on the first album according to Snoopy. Prodigious harmonica player too, of course, and most talented on the keyboards, according to legend.

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Originally posted by rsdmems

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..it's fair to see he was multi-talented musically and instrument wise - he played a lot of the drums on the first album according to Snoopy. Prodigious harmonica player too, of course, and most talented on the keyboards, according to legend.

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Lol, and don't forget the tambourine!

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Originally posted by Grumpy Craig

Hello People,I would say I,m new here but I,ve been reading this forum for many years but only recently felt the need to register and express my few, and what a depressing one it is.

I , like so many of my generation (ie middle aged) here in the uk first got to know Arthur and Love when Rhino released a best of in the early 80s.It seemed like every musician I met or played with knew of the band ,had a copy of Forever Changes ,was influenced by Love.Any one who didn't was meant to be avoided,not trusted,they had no taste.

Years later reading these pages I like every one else could hardly believe it had come to pass and Arthur had taken Forever Changes on the road, and with a full orchestra ! ! ! !
This was a positive place to come and read about love and like all the very best forums was a great resource to boot.


Now all these years later Arthurs gone and what a sorry state the world is in these days,and on top of this what a sad negative place these pages have become and some of the spitefulness shown does not serve Arthur and Loves memory well

There are people here who you would think from there posts had actually written and recorded Forever changes them selves if it was to be believed from their posts when they actually conradict some of the very musicians who were REALLY THERE.
These are not OPINIONS ,these are SYMTOMS............symtoms of a condition of not living life ,so taking things you oviously know nothing about so seriously your prepared to argue with the people who really were
We,ve all got "opinions" its just that some people have more delusional OPINIONS than others,and they tend to be the people who dismiss everyone else.

As for Michael Stuart-Ware being just the drummer with an "axe to grind" I find that at best direspectful and at worst worringly neurotic and I a feel this is no place to work your own personal angsnt out.
Who really comes across with "issues" and an axe to grind here ?

As for Michael and my own limited contact with him I,ve noticed him to be a very staight and level guy who just gets on with his life.

But hey what, part of that life just happened to as the drummer for Love and one of the particients recording one of the very best records ever made. He was there.

His personal story is obviously not the be all and end all but it has alot more wieght than any one elses on this page apart from Johnny and Diane.

Sorry rant over........ move on people nothing to see here....

What I would like to see if we could move this site on and have more people take part is more positive and factual dicussion.

So.......

1/ can we all get together and petition High Moon to either release Black Beauty or if they can,t then licence their work on to a record company that can.Ditto the Gene Clark record.

2/Can we petition Johnny Echols to write his music memoirs and publish it in a volume rather than it comeing out in dribs and drabs on the inter net and it all becomeing hear say. Theres a lot of people out here want to read that book.

3/Can we please stop going on about Gethsemane until theres actual music to hear.I feel Johnnys backed him self into a corner here as no matter how good any fianl release is , if it happens, just won,t live up to expectations.Which would be a shame because I would LOVE to hear a Johny Echols record.

4/Can we be a bit more loveing on this site then a few more people like me might contribute more and keep this place alive.
Its become a bit like the place Arthur was singing about in A House Is Not A Motel !

.....where the light shines dim all around you......

Do you not wonder people that love is more than words..........?

My Flash on YOU Craig McTaggart Hatfield Herts UK


Love and Music

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Originally posted by lemonade kid

Thanks Grumpy...what a fine post. You have said what I've struggled to say in answer to the negative posts...perfectly. The strange thing is the "others" believe WE are the negative ones...so strange.

Michael is a friend of mine, and as fine, fair, & honest an individual as any I've known. He has no axe to grind. He has written his memoirs of his oWN experiences. They seem to match everyone from Love, including Arthur.

Michael sued for a very small sum for royalties due him, and the rest of the band--in response to a very strange & dysfunctional payment arrangement between Elektra & Arthur that was doomed to fail-- what musician can ever keep track of who's owed what in such circumstances.

No one loves Artur more than me (and US here!!!), and we all begged for the truth about the history of LoVE, debunking the myths....we got it from Arthur & Einarson in the amazing Diane Lee endorsed "Forever Changes", and from Michael's "Pegasus Carousel".

If anything, my (and I would guess "our") love & respect for Arthur has GROWN immensely due to the insights of Johnny, Michael, & the memoirs of Arthur, and the intensely detailed research of John Einarson.

Arthur overcame his demons to give us the best music ever--we don't love him less, but MUCH MUCH more, for the knowing of his struggles, and triumphs.

So let's get back to what matters. Here's to Michael, Johnny, Kenny, Bryan (who contributed MUCH more than a couple decent songs to the creative genius of Love--who were never quite the same after that dynamic duo broke up...a fact!), and especially to Arthur..the man behind all that is LOVE.

Here's to Love--what other Love line up do we conjure up when we hear the name, but Arthur, Bryan, Johnny, Kenny, Michael and Snoop...and for a while Teejay.

OH YEAH!!

Peace and LoVE!



________________________________________________

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.

~ Cree Prophecy

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...Bryan (who contributed MUCH more than a couple decent songs to the creative genius of Love--who were never quite the same after that dynamic duo broke up...a fact!)

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Originally posted by Signed RW

Hey Craig, thanks very much for your excellent, refreshing posts, the contents of which make it clear that there truly are folks here who are really a "voice of reason," as opposed to those who are self-declared as such, but by point of example are about as far from it as possibly imaginable. That would be those who might be considered a "voice of reason" only in Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" or in Superman's "Bizarro World." It is so unfortunate that such a tiny number of noxious (and obnoxious) individuals here have managed to drive away former contibutors to these forums such as Johnny Echols, Michael Suart-Ware, and John Einarson, the former two of whom were actually there, each key particpants in the making of the music that drew us all here in the first place, and that keeps us coming back, and the latter, an accomplished, published, real author, as opposed to a fan with a dream of writing book, but no clue as to how to make it happen beyond said dream. John Einarson managed to locate Johnny Echols (and many, many others) without "hiring a detective," and I would venture to guess that the Arthur Lee/Love story as presented in his book may be the closest we will ever get to the actual, and the factual history of what really did take place, based on first hand accounts from people who were there, as opposed to ideas and concepts formed by fans who had listened to the records and read those reprints of not exactly always fact-based stories in "The Castle" over and over, eventually coming to the Bizarro World conclusion that now, they understood and knew everything. Anyone wonder why it is that we no longer have input from those like John Einarson, or Michael Stuart-Ware, or Johnny Echols here? Surely it couldn't be that they ultimately tired of having their integrity attacked and of being repeatedly personally insulted by individuals here, who, guess what?, were more than likely not there to witness things first hand. How hard is it to realize that nobody who even visits this board, let alone ever posts on it, is not already a major, major fan of Arthur Lee and his remarkable musical achievements, both with and without the "original" band? So in what alternate universe has this site ever been a place where people come to in any way bad mouth or denigrate Arthur or his accomplishments? So we now need a self-appointed Don Quixote, clearly incapable of being remotely able to just agree to disagree, to not only tilt at those windmills on our behalf, but also, far more sadly, to effectively cause former contributors to the site to simply decide to no longer participate? Thanks so much for that; really appreciate you looking out for us. How about this; if we agree to acknowledge the one and only, loyal and true, ever vigilant defender of Arthur Lee, might we then please just give it a rest?

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Originally posted by Grumpy Craig

Waxburn Ive never posted here before >lol<
What does that mean ?

Does the fact that Ive never posted here make any difference to what I had to say ?.........Yes ? No ? Does it really matter ?

What does matter is this place used to be a positive place about the music of LOVE.

I finally posted due to my frustration over the rerelease of Black Beauty and Two Sides...... both of which have had two full reviews in the British press but still no sign of a proper release ,and the spitefull negativity on here of which theres no reason.

Sorry and I apologize for not introducing my self properly .

Today I,m a Flamenco guitar player but in my youth a member of a couple of very good local garage bands .
Oh to be twenty again and playing our extended medley jam of Feel awhole lot better, Hey Joe,My Flash on You.Then to stop dead the moshing and play to a still and opened mouthed audience She Comes In Colours.
We were a good band but what we were doing was reproduceing adequete version of Arthurs great songs and Loves great arrangements ,and god did they come through load and clear.
"You I,ll Be Following" yes they did "Message To Pretty" .Thats where I started playing harp.
Remember Forever Changes was a top thirty LP in UK

Dispite playing Spanish Guitar I still have my old Telecaster and amp and would love to form a West Coast type band with any forum members interested in playing the music of THE BYRDS,BUFALLO SPRINGFIELD,MOBY GRAPE,etc .........and of course LOVE.

Lets keep music postive , the music scene is bad enough as it is here inthe UK

As a better man than me sang "Live and Let Live"

Craig Hertfordshire

Love and Music

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Originally posted by rsdmems

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...Bryan (who contributed MUCH more than a couple decent songs to the creative genius of Love--who were never quite the same after that dynamic duo broke up...a fact!)

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Lemonade,

I don't want to be lumped in with the real negative guy ('cause I'm not!), but Bryan and Arthur (unlike, say, Jagger and Richards) seemed to write completely independently, and as I recall even Johnny (in the documentary) said something about most of Bryan's songs being too much about 'rainbows and candy canes and unicorns' (or something like that). Thus, I don't think that you can tie Arthur's dearth of post-Love songwriting to the demise of the group itself-- in fact, perhaps Arthur felt his muse deserting him and that was one of the reasons he broke up the group. There are very, very few successful rock composers who wrote more than two excellent albums plus one masterpiece (as Arthur did) and I can't think of ANY who did their BEST work past the age of 30 (although admittedly, Arthur wasn't yet close to 30 when the group broke up). Do you think that "Forever Changes" would have been less wonderful if Arthur and "The Wrecking Crew" had done the whole thing? I suspect not, although I'm not a musician so I don't say that with any certainty.

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