Love History Lesson Part 2 : The Doors & Perceptions
One interesting thing about Love is the fact they were the first rock band ever signed to Elektra records in 1966. Elektra is largely viewed as being possibly the greatest American record label for rock music, especially in the golden era of the psychedelic movement (the 1960's going into the 1970's). For many when they think of Elektra they think of the legendary roster which has included The Doors, The Stooges, MC5 (their first album anyways), Carly Simon, Queen, Rhinoceros, and even big failures such as Jobriath.
When Love was still called The Grass Roots, Jim Morrison and the rest of the future members of The Doors would always try and catch Arthur Lee. The Grass Roots/Love was easily their favorite group, and Ray Manzarek has even stated how Jim once told him that if they could be half as good as Love and in essence emote what they had, he would be satisfied.
Arthur has stated many things throughout the years in reference to his relationship with The Doors, but Morrison in particular. Apparently original Love member Bryan MacLean (singer/songwriter/guitar) was one of the first within the group to befriend Morrison. At this point in time around late 1966 early 1967 Bryan and Arthur were living in a bi-level house in which they shared a swimming pool. Arthur did not much approve of Jim's lifestyle or the fact that he hung around so much. Some sources say that there was a time when Arthur was interrupted by the fact that Jim Morrison and Chris Hillman (The Byrds) were skinny dipping in his pool, and Arthur had to chase them out with a gun. Another tale is about a time when Jim Morrison had a bad acid trip in the downstairs of Arthur/Bryan's house and started disrupting a practice in which Arthur had to physically slap around and throw Jim out of the house.
At one point it is said that Jim's obsession with Arthur was so great that he not only began to dress like him, but he went out and bought a black lab retriever like Arthur's, and even hooked up with his ex-girlfriend Pam Courson (played by Meg Ryan in the Oliver Stone film). One can see the influence Lee had on Morrison especially with the Native American antics, and the overall persona of intrigue.
Ironically however, desptie all of this Arthur Lee would be a great influence in getting The Doors signed to Elektra. He had to persuade president Jac Holtzman to see the group twice after not being impressed by them the first go-round.
The irony would continue in the fact that when The Doors self titled debut would arrive in 1967 (the same year as Love's second album Da Capo), Elektra's flagship group, the Sunset Strip's flagship group was Love. That would change very quickly. A contributing factor was the fact that Arthur Lee did not like to tour outside of California very much. He turned down many large gigs throughout 1967 and 1968 and had a growing reputation of being a physically imposing figure. A very anti-social type.
Jac never truly gave up on Love, he wanted The Doors to open for Love once at a huge performance he was planning in order to get Love to where The Doors were and Arthur angrily declined it.
The thing about Love is they were basically viewed as a group of thugs, or physically violent people with Arthur being the ring leader. Add in the fact Arthur is a Black man from South Los Angeles running around in a predominately non-Black hippie scene and the myths will grow. The Doors were looked at as being mysterious but not actually dangerous. Arthur had once been discribed as a "ghetto punk covered with beads and wearing moccassins".
By the end of 1967 going into 1968 Arthur Lee would desperately want to separate himself from Elektra feeling they were giving too much support to The Doors, while leaving Love behind especially considering Love put Elektra on the map. This may or may not be true, considering some of the lack of promotion given to their various Elektra releases, but again Arthur Lee has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, and did things his way thusly adding to his cult status and the fact he is the most worshipped rocker of any era you may not have heard of.
By the beginning of 1968 the original and most famous lineup of Love which would include Ken Forssi (bass), Bryan MacLean (additional vocals, guitar), Johnny Echols (childhood friend to Arthur and guitarist), and Michael Stuart (drums), would disassemble.
There would be no Love album until 1969 when Arthur Lee assembled a completely new group that believe it or not actually toured outside of the United States.
There is more.
SOURCE
When Love was still called The Grass Roots, Jim Morrison and the rest of the future members of The Doors would always try and catch Arthur Lee. The Grass Roots/Love was easily their favorite group, and Ray Manzarek has even stated how Jim once told him that if they could be half as good as Love and in essence emote what they had, he would be satisfied.
Arthur has stated many things throughout the years in reference to his relationship with The Doors, but Morrison in particular. Apparently original Love member Bryan MacLean (singer/songwriter/guitar) was one of the first within the group to befriend Morrison. At this point in time around late 1966 early 1967 Bryan and Arthur were living in a bi-level house in which they shared a swimming pool. Arthur did not much approve of Jim's lifestyle or the fact that he hung around so much. Some sources say that there was a time when Arthur was interrupted by the fact that Jim Morrison and Chris Hillman (The Byrds) were skinny dipping in his pool, and Arthur had to chase them out with a gun. Another tale is about a time when Jim Morrison had a bad acid trip in the downstairs of Arthur/Bryan's house and started disrupting a practice in which Arthur had to physically slap around and throw Jim out of the house.
At one point it is said that Jim's obsession with Arthur was so great that he not only began to dress like him, but he went out and bought a black lab retriever like Arthur's, and even hooked up with his ex-girlfriend Pam Courson (played by Meg Ryan in the Oliver Stone film). One can see the influence Lee had on Morrison especially with the Native American antics, and the overall persona of intrigue.
Ironically however, desptie all of this Arthur Lee would be a great influence in getting The Doors signed to Elektra. He had to persuade president Jac Holtzman to see the group twice after not being impressed by them the first go-round.
The irony would continue in the fact that when The Doors self titled debut would arrive in 1967 (the same year as Love's second album Da Capo), Elektra's flagship group, the Sunset Strip's flagship group was Love. That would change very quickly. A contributing factor was the fact that Arthur Lee did not like to tour outside of California very much. He turned down many large gigs throughout 1967 and 1968 and had a growing reputation of being a physically imposing figure. A very anti-social type.
Jac never truly gave up on Love, he wanted The Doors to open for Love once at a huge performance he was planning in order to get Love to where The Doors were and Arthur angrily declined it.
The thing about Love is they were basically viewed as a group of thugs, or physically violent people with Arthur being the ring leader. Add in the fact Arthur is a Black man from South Los Angeles running around in a predominately non-Black hippie scene and the myths will grow. The Doors were looked at as being mysterious but not actually dangerous. Arthur had once been discribed as a "ghetto punk covered with beads and wearing moccassins".
By the end of 1967 going into 1968 Arthur Lee would desperately want to separate himself from Elektra feeling they were giving too much support to The Doors, while leaving Love behind especially considering Love put Elektra on the map. This may or may not be true, considering some of the lack of promotion given to their various Elektra releases, but again Arthur Lee has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, and did things his way thusly adding to his cult status and the fact he is the most worshipped rocker of any era you may not have heard of.
By the beginning of 1968 the original and most famous lineup of Love which would include Ken Forssi (bass), Bryan MacLean (additional vocals, guitar), Johnny Echols (childhood friend to Arthur and guitarist), and Michael Stuart (drums), would disassemble.
There would be no Love album until 1969 when Arthur Lee assembled a completely new group that believe it or not actually toured outside of the United States.
There is more.
SOURCE
