The frontman, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the Los Angeles psychedelic band Love, best known for the critically acclaimed 1967 album, Forever Changes.
Lee was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of a white cornet player and a black school teacher. The family moved to LA when Lee was 5. In 1952, his mother married Clinton Lee, whose last name Arthur subsequently adopted. Lee started played organ with an instrumental band called The LAGs around 1963.
By 1965, his songwriting was more in the folk-rock vein, and he had a band called The Grass Roots. This band later became Love and flowered briefly between 1966 and 1967, although a new version of the band continued to perform and record until the beginning of the 1970s.
In July 1972, Lee released his first solo album, Vindicator, on A&M Records, featuring a new group of musicians called Band-Aid, 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 for Buffalo Records entitled Black Beauty, but the label folded before the album was released. Lee's next move was to credit the backing group for Black Beauty as a new Love for the soulful Reel to Real album which was released on RSO Records in December 1974. Once again, the album went nearly unnoticed.
A new Lee solo album - just called Arthur Lee - appeared on Rhino Records in 1981, including a cover of Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were various attempts to reunite the original Love lineup. One such show from 1978 featuring Lee and Bryan MacLean was released as a live album 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.
The 1980s were a mostly fallow period for Lee and he didn't re-emerge until 1992 with a new album entitled Arthur Lee & Love on the French New Rose label.
In 1993 he played his first shows in New York and England in nearly 20 years. 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, 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. In the autumn of 1996, Lee was jailed for 12 years for illegal possession and negligent discharge of a firearm. Former bandmates MacLean and Ken Forssi both died while Lee was incarcerated, forever ending any speculation of a Love reunion.
Lee was released from prison in December 2001, having served 6 years of his original sentence. He then toured with yet another new incarnation of Love in 2002 as 'Love with Arthur Lee', including members of Baby Lemonade, playing to enthusiastic audiences and critical acclaim throughout Europe, North America and Australia. The band often played Forever Changes in its entirety with the addition of a string and horn section.
In August 2005, Lee split with the band and the remaining members continued to tour as the Love Band. Lee carried the band name forward, putting together a new lineup in Memphis, but in April 2006 it became known that he was being treated for acute myeloid leukemia. Despite aggressive treatment, including three bouts of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from an umbilical cord, his condition worsened and he died in Memphis, Tennessee on 3rd August 2006. He was 61.