Bryan MacLean
Encyclopedia
Bryan MacLean was an American
singer, guitarist
and songwriter
, most known for his work with the influential rock band Love
. His famous compositions for Love include "Alone Again Or" and "Old Man".
, although he confessed to an 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 Day's Night
everything changed. I let my hair grow out and I got kicked out of high school."
. His regular set routine was a mixture between Appalachian folk songs and delta blues, and he also frequently covered Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues". 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.
With MacLean as equipment manager, the Byrds went on the road to promote their first single “Mr. Tambourine Man
”. By the time the Byrds left for their first UK tour, MacLean was exhausted and stayed behind.
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 (not to be confused with the popular rock band of the same name), 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 them at The Brave New World.
(vocals, harmonica, guitar, keyboards, drums), Johnny Echols
(lead guitar, vocals), Johnny Fleckenstein (bass), Don Conka (drums), and Bryan MacLean (rhythm guitar, vocals). Despite the success of Lee and the others at the Los Angeles club, another Los Angeles band led by P.F. Sloan was first to record under the name the Grass Roots
, which spurred Lee to change the name of his band to Love
.
's Elektra Records
signed Love
, and they had a minor hit with their version of the Bacharach
/David
tune "My Little Red Book" and released their debut album Love
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 pre-punk single "7 & 7 is", followed by their second album, in March 1967 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 create their third and final album, Forever Changes
, which is considered one of the finest rock albums ever, e.g., #40 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time, #6 on NME 's (New Music Express) 100 Best Albums Of All Time (2003) and #11 on Virgin's All-Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
MacLean’s "Alone Again Or" is the opening track with Arthur Lee providing the lead vocals. The test of time has shown that MacLean’s composition (as well as the recording itself) has become a true classic.
Bryan joined a Christian ministry
called the Vineyard, the same church that later 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 Beverly 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 UK 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 Elektra Records demo tapes were discovered by his mother Elizabeth in the family garage, and after two years of persistent shopping around record companies, a deal was struck with Sundazed, who in 1997 released the CD Ifyoubelievein
. 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
in a Los Angeles area restaurant on Christmas
Day 1998.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer, guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, most known for his work with the influential rock band Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
. His famous compositions for Love include "Alone Again Or" and "Old Man".
Early life
Bryan MacLean'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 GershwinGeorge Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, although he confessed to an obsession with Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. During his childhood he wore out show music records from Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
and West Side Story. His first girlfriend was Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
and they would sit at the piano together singing songs from The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
. He learned to swim in Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
's pool and his father's good friend was actor Robert Stack
Robert Stack
Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
.
At 17, Bryan heard The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
: "Before the Beatles I had been into folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. 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 Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
everything changed. I let my hair grow out and I got kicked out of high school."
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 TroubadourTroubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
. His regular set routine was a mixture between Appalachian folk songs and delta blues, and he also frequently covered Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues". It was there he met the founding musicians of The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, Gene Clark
Gene Clark
Gene Clark, born Harold Eugene Clark was an American singer-songwriter, and one of the founding members of the folk-rock group The Byrds....
and Jim McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, 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
Sharon Sheeley
Sharon Sheeley was an American songwriter, born in California, who wrote songs for Glen Campbell, Ricky Nelson, Brenda Lee, and Sheeley's former fiancé, Eddie Cochran.-Life:...
, who fixed him up on his first date with singer Jackie De Shannon.
With MacLean as equipment manager, the Byrds went on the road to promote their first single “Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
”. By the time the Byrds left for their first UK tour, MacLean was exhausted and stayed behind.
After an unsuccessful audition for a place in The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
, Bryan got into a car on the Sunset Strip that Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee may refer to:*Arthur Lee , U.S. envoy to France*Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham , British soldier and diplomat*Arthur Lee , American psychedelic-rock musician...
was driving. Lee’s band, The Grass Roots (not to be confused with the popular rock band of the same name), 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 them at The Brave New World.
The Grass Roots
The members of the Grass Roots were Arthur LeeArthur Lee (musician)
Arthur Lee was the frontman, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the Los Angeles rock band Love, best known for the critically acclaimed 1967 album, Forever Changes.-Early years:...
(vocals, harmonica, guitar, keyboards, drums), Johnny Echols
Johnny Echols
Johnny Echols is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. He has played in bands with performers such as Little Richard, Billy Preston and Jimi Hendrix, and was the guitarist on many recording sessions with Miles Davis...
(lead guitar, vocals), Johnny Fleckenstein (bass), Don Conka (drums), and Bryan MacLean (rhythm guitar, vocals). Despite the success of Lee and the others at the Los Angeles club, another Los Angeles band led by P.F. Sloan was first to record under the name the Grass Roots
The Grass Roots
The Grass Roots is an American rock band that charted between 1966 and 1975 as the brainchild of songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri.In their career, The Grass Roots achieved two gold albums, one gold single and charted singles a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they...
, which spurred Lee to change the name of his band to Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
.
Love
Jac HolzmanJac Holzman
Jac Holzman was the founder, chief executive officer and head of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records.-Biography:He founded Elektra Records in his St. John's College dorm room in 1950 and Nonesuch Records in 1964...
's Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
signed Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
, and they had a minor hit with their version of the Bacharach
Bacharach
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds....
/David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
tune "My Little Red Book" and released their debut album Love
Love (Love album)
Love is the eponymous debut by the Los Angeles-based rock band Love. Twelve of the album's fourteen tracks were recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood on January 24–27, 1966...
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
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico...
", which he performed live.
In 1966, Love hit #33 on the US national chart with their pre-punk single "7 & 7 is", followed by their second album, in March 1967 Da Capo
Da Capo (Love album)
Da Capo is the second album by American rock group Love, released in January 1967 by Elektra Records. The bulk of Da Capo was recorded between September 27 and October 2, 1966. "7 and 7 Is" was recorded on June 20, and had been released as a single in July of 1966 backed with "No. Fourteen", an...
, featuring MacLean’s critically acclaimed "Orange Skies
Orange Skies
"Orange Skies" is a song written by Bryan MacLean and originally recorded in 1966 by the band Love for their second album Da Capo . It was first released in December 1966 as the B-side to the band's single "She Comes in Colors"...
".
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 create their third and final album, Forever Changes
Forever Changes
Forever Changes is the third album by American rock band Love, released by Elektra Records in November 1967. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time...
, which is considered one of the finest rock albums ever, e.g., #40 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time, #6 on NME 's (New Music Express) 100 Best Albums Of All Time (2003) and #11 on Virgin's All-Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
MacLean’s "Alone Again Or" is the opening track with Arthur Lee providing the lead vocals. The test of time has shown that MacLean’s composition (as well as the recording itself) has become a true classic.
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
Christian ministry
In Christianity, ministry is an activity carried out by Christians to express or spread their faith. 2003's Encyclopedia of Christianity defines it as "carrying forth Christ's mission in the world", indicating that it is "conferred on each Christian in baptism." It is performed by all Christians...
called the Vineyard, the same church that later converted Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. 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 Beverly 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 UK tour which was to have been billed as the 'original' Love
Love (band)
Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...
. 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
Maria McKee
Maria Luisa McKee is an American singer and songwriter. She is best known for her work with Lone Justice and her 1990 UK solo chart-topping hit, "Show Me Heaven".-Music:...
and wrote the song “Don't Toss Us Away” for the debut album of her band Lone Justice
Lone Justice
Lone Justice was an American country rock band formed in 1982 by guitarist Ryan Hedgecock and singer Maria McKee.-Early era:They began their career as part of the L.A. cowpunk scene of the 1980s. Lone Justice was inspired by Hedgecock and McKee's mutual affection for rockabilly and country music...
.
In about 1996, his Elektra Records demo tapes were discovered by his mother Elizabeth in the family garage, and after two years of persistent shopping around record companies, a deal was struck with Sundazed, who in 1997 released the CD Ifyoubelievein
Ifyoubelievein
Ifyoubelievein is the first solo album by Bryan MacLean, who was previously known as the second songwriter in the original lineup of the Los Angeles folk rock band Love. The album was assembled of old demo tapes his mother Elizabeth McKee had found at home, catalogued and managed to acquire a...
. 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
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in a Los Angeles area restaurant on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
Day 1998.