Arthur Louis entered the public imagination in 1974 with his debut album "Knocking on Heavens' Door" featuring both Eric Clapton and Gene Chandler. These facts alone attest to his standing amongst fellow musicians. Arthur played and continues to play the white Fender Stratocaster guitar given to him by Jimi Hendrix on this album to this day.

Always walking on the fringes of greatness, Arthur's story is more about his central role in enabling the success of other players in the music industry, than focusing on his own. Key amongst these is the entwined success of both Mike Oldfield and Richard Branson. Arthur Louis was the first artist to hire Branson's Manor studios close to Oxford, and recommended the tapes that became "Tubular Bells" by his bass player Mike Oldfield to Richard Branson. After a trip to Italy, Arthur came back to England to find that he had lost his bass player, and that Virgin Records had a multi-million album seller on their hands, without even an acknowledgement from either Branson or Oldfield. History records that "Tubular Bells" sold in excess of 25 million copies, kick-starting the Virgin Empire.

Arthur's story of missed opportunities continued by demonstrating to Eric Clapton how to mix his love of Blues, Rock and Reggae into a wonderful new cocktail of sound. Arthur loved Bob Dylan and wanted to introduce Dylan to a black audience, so used Reggae as the perfect vehicle. Clapton went on to record his own version, and acknowledged Arthur's arrangement, also recording the Arthur Louis composed "Someone like You" as a "B" side. But Arthur, back in America, was so disillusioned with his treatment by his fellow musicians that he stopped playing during the late 1970's and early 1980's and turned to painting to express his creativity.

But although Arthur tried to move from his musical past, the past would not forget him. The album "Knocking On Heavens' Door" had achieved cult status in the West, and reached no. 6 in the International Charts in Japan in 1976. Arthur started recording and performing again in the late Eighties. This resulted in 5 albums worth of unreleased material. Interest from Japan encouraged Arthur to release an album entitled "Back From Palookaville" in 1998 which further established him as one of the finest interpreters of Bob Dylan with an incredible blues version of "I shall be released"

Arthur is blessed with a unique voice, as all great singers are, and this has improved with age. He still performs and records around the world, having recently been "discovered" in Italy where he outsells many other named artists, and has a new album in the pipeline. A Musicians' musician, Arthur is invited to events like playing at the London launch of "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues".

Having being a musician for over 45 years and working with some of the best known names in the business, the Arthur Louis story is an untold one. The fact that wider recognition has sidestepped such a distinctive talent tells its' own story. This website tries to redress that balance.

Arthur Louis was, and still is, a well respected composer and guitar player a familiar face at the height of the Speakeasy's hey day, jamming and supporting many of the legends that we know today.

"Knocking On Heavens' Door" – Original Album Sleeve Notes

To have Gene Chandler singing on your first album is quite an achievement. To have Eric Clapton playing on seven tracks as well goes against all rules of natural progression, assuming of course that the artist is good enough to attract such illustrious company after a successful career. However, such an album exists, and you have it in your hands.

Arthur Louis was born in Jamaica and moved to Brooklyn when he was four years old. Traces of both roots can be found in his music; on the one hand, the laid back natural rhythm of the Caribbean, and on the other, the vibrant energy of New York. Music has always been in the family; his elder sister played keyboards semi-pro for a while, and it wasn't very long before his parents had traded his sets of congas for a guitar in order to pacify their neighbors.

A track scholarship at Michigan University introduced Arthur to musicians and soon he had joined a band called "Terminal Stations" with whom he went to Brazil and Germany. Since then he has toured all over Europe and the Orient.

This album was first released in Japan in 1976, where it got to No 5 in the album charts - but was never released in Europe, so here it is, available for the first time. For a debut album it shows great maturity coupled with a fine compliment of musicians; a good introduction to an artist who we will be hearing a lot more from. Phil Parker 1974

Tracklist Side A 1. Come and Love Me * 2. The Dealer* 3. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door* 4. Go out and make it Happen* 5. It Feels Good* Side B 1. Been on The Road Too Long 2. Train 444* 3. Someone Like You* 4. Plum* *Eric Clapton on Guitar SPECIAL REMASTERED AUDIOPHILE RECORDING on 180 gram Virgin Vinyl Audiophile Information. Arthur Louis’ LP “Knockin’ on Heavens’Door” is, I think, one of those rare recordings which blends the three major musical directions of the later Seventies - Blues, Rock and Reggae – together perfectly. These three elements are mixed together like the best of cocktails and shaken to distinction by Arthur Louis and Eric Clapton. The original recording was done in 1976 and it is quite apparent where Eric Clapton’s’ Reggae influence came from. With Arthur Louis on guitar and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar and backing provided by Arthur’s’ band, who provide such an excellent rhythm and groove, that you automatically begin to start moving to the music when listening to the record. Ulli Posselt and Thomas Erkelenze did the remastering of this record in the RASHTONSTUDIO. They have again succeeded in performing an incredible transition from the original. I thought that the original was very good, but when comparing it to Ulli and Thomas’ remaster, I was absolutely over the moon with the results. It sounded as if I had been listening to two different recordings – the remaster from which I got Rhythm and atmosphere, and the original from which I only picked up some notes, just HIFI unbelievable! With the remaster you easily notice ‘Slowhands’ typical guitar style and Arthur’s’ incredible sense of timing and feeling for the right guitar riff at the right time. You can also ‘listen’ to the dimensions of the recording room and the equipment used for the original recordings without any serious problems. It now feels as if you are in the actual studio, accompanying Arthur and Eric. And the version of ”Knockin’ on Heavens Door” is the best besides Robert Zimmerman’s original that I know of. NOW SOME WORDS ON THE RECORDING PROCEDURE: Ulli and Thomas needed two 12-hour days to set up the Telefunken T9 tube tape machine as well as the Studer A820 to match the music program on the original master tape. This time all the tones and levels were absolutely precise on the original master and it was much easier to adjust the Dolby’s AS and SRs on the Telefunken M10A recording machine. During the remastering process Ulli Posselt and Thomas Erkelenze used only four channels of the 32 Channel Nerve mixer and the Spectral Processor DPR 901 and a summit DCL 200 Dual tube compressor. This equipment was used to get back the full dynamic range and tonal balance which had really suffered, due to the long storage of the original master tape. VINYL HDR1002