Short Bio by Richie Unterberger

Lee Michaels
Born : Nov 24, 1945 in Los Angeles, CA

One of the most interesting second-division California psychedelic musicians, keyboardist
Lee Michaels was one of the most soulful White vocalists of the late '60s and early '70s. Between 1968 and 1972, he released half a dozen accomplished albums on A&M that encompassed baroque psychedelic pop and gritty White, sometimes gospelish R&B with equal facility. A capable songwriter, Michaels was blessed with an astonishing upper range, occasionally letting loose some thrilling funky wails. In 1971, he landed a surprise Top Ten single with "Do You Know What I Mean," one of the best and funkiest AM hits of the early '70s.

But Michaels was really much more of an album-oriented artist, from the time he began recording in the late '60s. Michaels started playing music in Southern California, where he was in a band with
future members of Moby Grape, the Turtles, and Canned Heat. By the time he signed to A&M,
however, he'd moved to San Francisco, joining the management stable of Matthew Katz (which also included, at various times, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and It's a Beautiful Day). Michaels was unusual for a San Francisco act in that he relied mostly on an organ-based sound, especially after the first pair of albums, when for a time he played, live and in the studio, with the mammoth drummer"Frosty" as his only accompanist.

"Do You Know What I Mean," ironically, was a throwaway tune that Michaels wrote hurriedly.
Though Lee himself didn't think much of it, the song was a first-rate blast of White boy soul; around this time, the gospel influence that had often informed his sound come to the fore. His albums in the mid-'70s for Columbia, however, were both critical and commercial disappointments. Michaels moved to Hawaii for an extended retirement from the music business; aside from a self-released album in the early '80s, little's been heard from him since.
-- Richie Unterberger, All-MusicGuide

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Chord chart for Do you know what I mean

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