Arthur Lee has died according to the BBC.

Arthur Lee, with his band Love, was one of the seminal singer-songwriters of the psychedelic 1960s.

In particular, the band's Forever Changes album of 1967 became a cult classic and Rolling Stone listed it as number 40 in its best 500 albums of all time.

With his rich voice and his wide stylistic range, Lee became a big influence on later generations and helped ensure that Arthur Lee's recent world tours were a huge success.

Arthur Lee described himself as "the first so-called black hippie".

There was a time you could form quite a band with dead rock stars. Now there's a whole orchestra.

I recall owning only a single album by Love. I don't think I played it much. However, I noted Arthur Lee's passing because I actually saw him in person at the Fillmore East.

It must have been around 1970. Some friends and I had traveled into the big smoke to see the Kinks. I guess "big smoke" is a British term for city. At least the Kinks used it that way in one of their songs. But in this case, big smoke more aptly described the interior of the Fillmore.

Being a smalltown kid I'd never seen spliffs the size of my Uncle Dave's stogies. You could hardly make out the light show through the fog.

Love was one of the opening acts. I guess Arthur had left on one of his solo artist forays because he wasn't with the band, but mid-way through the set they announced that a special guest was going to join them for a few songs and Arthur strolled out onto the stage to wild applause.

Maybe that was my one real experience of the sixties, even if it was 1970, because beyond that I don't remember a thing.