All the best, Arthur Lee

We all know about Brian Wilson. He used to sing "I may not always love you...", and just that sequence of words is still able to melt the hearts of millions nearly 40 years later. But now he doesn't really seem to know what he's doing. He shivers and looks slightly bewildered and he reads his lines even that line off an autocue.

Well now we have the news that Arthur Lee, that other demi-god of '60s pop, is suffering from Leukaemia. Lee was the producer, main songwriter and singer in Love, who claimed to have invented punk, and rapping, but really just introduced hippies to realism. Where 'Pet Sounds' was the shimmering golden unicorn of hope, Love's 1967 magnum opus 'Forever Changes' was its less optimistic cousin. 'Forever Changes' was fragile and beautiful too, but it didn't melt hearts so much as chill them.

Leukaemia isn't a mental thing of course, Lee's surely still as blunt as he ever was. It is, in basic terms, that cancer of the blood that afflicts thousands of young children every year, whose treatment bloats their faces and sweeps the hairs from their heads. There are few sights that pinch the heart harder than the sight of such a bald kid, but Arthur Lee? He's already bald as a billiard ball, and has been for at least 20 years. And besides, he's an old man – what's he doing going and getting Leukaemia for? There's no sense in this world.

But here's the really amazing part. Arthur Lee, despite having made, at the age of 22, one of the truly greatest albums of all time, - one that has influenced virtually everyone you've loved ever since; and despite presenting several other excellent albums including the greatest near-miss of all time in 'Da Capo' - Arthur Lee has no health insurance! Which means Arthur Lee is struggling to pay for the chemotherapy he needs, and really struggling to cover the cost of the Bone Marrow Transplant he may also require. Doesn't that just make you glad you live in the UK, where such important healthcare will be taken care of without you having to arrange benefit concerts for the priviledge?

Well Arthur Lee has had to arrange a benefit concert so that he can live, because he lives in a country with a serious welfare policy problem. And, OK, because he's blown all his money. On June 23rd, Robert Plant, Yo La Tengo, Ian Hunter and various other current indie-kids who have also grown up in awe of the man will perform Love songs, ahhh, to a New York crowd who don't want to see their hero die just yet. Do you realise? That one day all your musical heroes must die? One day, Marvin Gaye, he died. One day, Joe Strummer, he died. One day, Arthur Lee, will die. These men who make immortal music are not themselves immortal. He's served his time, served it well. He's made our hearts swell. Fingers crossed big man. God only knows where we'd be without you.