Bryan MacLean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bryan MacLean (born 1947 in Los Angeles, died December 25, 1998 in Los Angeles) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter, most known for his work with the influential rock band Love. Some of his famous compositions for Love include "Alone Again Or" and "Old Man". Arthur Lee is thought to be the main creative force in Love's music, but Bryan MacLean influenced many of Lee's songs, and the band's arrangements.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Bryan's father was an architect to the Hollywood stars and his mother an artist and a dancer. Neighbor Frederick Loewe, of the composers Lerner & Loewe, recognized him as a "melodic genius" at the age of three as he doodled on the piano. His early influences were Billie Holliday and George Gershwin, although he confessed to a strong obsession with Elvis Presley. During his childhood he wore out show music records from Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, South Pacific and West Side Story. His first girlfriend was Liza Minnelli and they would sit at the piano together singing songs from The Wizard of Oz. He learned to swim in Elizabeth Taylor's pool and his father's good friend was actor Robert Stack.
At 17 Bryan heard The Beatles: "Before the Beatles I had been into folk music. I had wanted to be an artist in the bohemian tradition, where we would sit around with banjos and do folk music, but when I saw A Hard Days Night everything changed. I let my hair grow out and I got kicked out of high school."
[edit] Early Music Career
Bryan started playing guitar professionally in 1963. He got a job at the Balladeer in West Hollywood playing folk and blues guitar. The following year, the club changed its name to the Troubadour. It was there he met the founding musicians of the Byrds, Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn when they were rehearsing as a duo. Bryan became good friends with Gene Clark. During that time Bryan also became friends with songwriter Sharon Sheeley who fixed him up on his first date with singer Jackie De Shannon.
Meanwhile, David Crosby joined Clark and McGuinn and the new trio named itself The Jet Set. Bryan became good friends with David Crosby. Crosby happened to have a friend who gave a Jet Set vinyl dub to Miles Davis, who was impressed by the Beatle-esque sound of The Jet Set. Davis put in a good word for the trio at Columbia Records and on a fluke, they obtained a record contract. Soon, with the addition of Chris Hillman (bass), and Michael Clarke (drums) the band began rehearsing in the basement of a well-established beatnik sculptor named Vito Paulekas. Vito’s sculpture classes were very popular and his wife had opened up a store selling handmade gypsy clothing.
[edit] The Byrds
By 1965, the group, now called the Byrds, was attracting a sizeable following of Vito’s colorful crowd who danced to the music. After only two small performances outside of the basement, the group was booked at Ciro’s nightclub which was attempting to stay in business by changing over to rock and roll. With the addition of Vito and his wildly dressed beatniks freaking out on the dance floor, the act began to pack the club (now called It's Boss) with Hollywood’s in crowd.
Meanwhile Terry Melcher of Columbia assisted in getting their first single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”, released and the whole troupe, The Byrds, Vito and his dancers, with Bryan MacLean as equipment manager, went on the road to promote the record.
They opened for the Rolling Stones on the California leg of their tour, and after that traveled cross country to New York, playing 30 one nighters. And that is how Columbia Records with the help of Vito and his dancers inadvertently spread what later became known as the “Hippie” look across America.
By the time The Byrds left for their first U.K. tour, Bryan was exhausted and stayed behind. So did Vito and the dancers. After an unsuccessful audition for a place in the Monkees, Bryan got into a car on the Sunset Strip that Arthur Lee was driving. Lee’s band, The Grass Roots, was the house band at a club called the Brave New World. Lee knew that the colorful dancers and the scene that had followed the Byrds would follow Bryan, if Bryan joined his band, so Lee took Bryan to sit in with the Grass Roots at The Brave New World. Afterward, Bryan said, "I'd give my right arm to be in your group," to which Arthur responded, "No - you're going to need it!"
[edit] The Grass Roots
The members of the Grass Roots were then, Arthur Lee (vocals, harmonica, guitar, keyboards, drums), Johnny Echols (lead guitar, vocals), Ken Forssi (bass), Don Conka (drums), and Bryan MacLean (rhythm guitar, vocals). After a couple of weeks with Bryan in the lineup, and Vito and his colorful followers on the dance floor, the crowds at The Brave New World were lined up down the block.
The sudden popularity of The Grass Roots went to the heads of the band members a bit. So much so, that when prominent record producer Lou Adler came to see them, and was introduced, they brushed him off with “you can talk to our manager”. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before a group that Adler was producing had a hit single using the name “The Grass Roots”.
[edit] Love
MacLean’s group then changed its name to Love. Jack Holzman's Elektra Records snapped them up and they hit big with their version of the Bacharach/David tune "My Little Red Book" and a very successful first album to which Bryan contributed the melodic "Softly To Me" as well as co-writing two other songs. He also contributed The Byrds arrangement of "Hey Joe", which he performed live.
In 1966, Love hit #33 on the US national chart with their storming pre-punk hit single "7 & 7 is", followed by their second album, in March 1967, entitled Da Capo, featuring MacLean’s critically acclaimed "Orange Skies".
In November 1967, amidst the destruction of the band by an addiction to hard drugs, the main line up of Love held together long enough to come out with their third and final album, Forever Changes, which is reputed by music critics to be one of the finest rock albums, and possibly the best psychedelic album ever made. MacLean’s "Alone Again Or" is the opening cut on Forever Changes and although Arthur Lee mixed MacLean’s lead vocal under his own harmony, MacLean’s song and the recording have become regarded as a classic.
[edit] Spiritual Conversion and Solo Music Career
Bryan was offered a solo contract with Elektra after the dissolution of Love, but his demo offerings were rejected by the label, and the contract lapsed. Subsequently, he wrote a film score that was not used. Thereafter he tried without success to record an album for Capitol records in New York. "I was alone in a hotel room in New York and I had lost practically everything,” Bryan was quoted as saying. “It occurred to me that I was in a tail-spin so I thought ‘'well, why don't I pray?' So I did, and nothing happened for about two or three weeks. At the end of that time, I was sitting in a drug store on 3rd Avenue having a drink, and suddenly the drink turned to sand in my mouth. I left the bar and when I reached the pavement and the daylight I knew something had changed. From that point on my life has been totally different.”
Bryan joined a Christian ministry called the Vineyard, that was the same church that converted Bob Dylan. During Friday night Bible readings Bryan took the concert part of the session and was so amazed at the positive reaction he received, that he gradually assembled a catalogue of his Christian songs. His next move was to open a Christian nightclub in Beverley Hills called The Daisy. When it closed in 1976 Bryan considered going full-time into the ministry but decided once again to devote himself to music.
He played an unsuccessful reunion with Arthur Lee in 1978 on two dates but wasn't paid, so he turned down an offer for a U.K. tour which was to have been billed as the 'original' Love. Ironically the Bryan MacLean Band got a gig supporting Arthur Lee's Love at the Whisky in 1982. Bryan also worked with his half sister Maria McKee and wrote the song “Don't Toss Us Away” for the debut album of her band Lone Justice.
In about 1996, his Love demos were discovered by his mother Elizabeth in the family garage, and after two years of persistent shopping record companies, a deal was struck with Sundazed, who in 1997 released the CD '”If You Believe In”. The CD was critically well received. MacLean then completed a spiritual album of Christian music and was about to record another album, when he died of a heart attack on Christmas Day, 1998.
[edit] External links
- [1]Bryan MacLean Official Website
- [2]Letter from Bryan's sister Maria McKee
