Bruce Arnold, co-founder of Orpheus, remembered by Worcester friends and musicians

Bruce Arnold, a founder of the Worcester rock group Orpheus and the writer and lead vocalist of its atmospheric 1968 hit "Can't Find the Time," "had a big heart and tons of passion," recalled his friend and fellow bandmate and Worcesterite Howie Hersh. Arnold was also extremely animated, "like standing next to a ball of fire," Hersh said.

On Thursday, Arnold's Facebook page had the simple words "Bruce Oliver Arnold 1946-2022" over a photograph of the singer, songwriter and musician.

"It was not all of a sudden," said Hersh. Arnold has been unwell for a while and died several days ago, but the family wanted to keep matters private before making the announcement, Hersh said.

After signing with MGM Records, Orpheus released four quite successful and well-regarded albums between 1968 and '71 and toured the country. Then in 2014, after a gap of about 40 years, Arnold, who lived many years in Marin County in California, returned to Worcester to perform a concert titled "Orpheus: The Homecoming" that was held at Mechanics Hall.

Arnold was happy at the prospect, as he related in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette. "I want to see everybody. I want to talk to everybody. I want to hear their Orpheus stories," Arnold said.

No other information about Arnold's death was immediately available, but friends and fellow musicians have been reacting with sadness to the death of Arnold, and pointing out his place in Worcester's music history.

Local Worcester music veteran Walter Crockett went to junior and high school with Arnold.

" 'Can't Find The Time' was the first hit to come out of Worcester in the rock 'n' roll era, and it was a great pop song, much in the genre of the Association, but original," Crockett said.

"A sad day," said guitarist Cliff Goodwin, another local music legend, on Thursday. He got to know Arnold on his 2014 return journey. "He was an absolutely lovely, lovely guy," he said.

"Can't Find the Time" was the first release from the band's eponymous debut LP in 1968. A love song, it had a mesmerizing flavor and flow to an orchestral arrangement and the refrain of "I can't find the time to tell you." The song had re-releases and various interpretations, including one by Hootie & The Blowfish heard in the movie "Me, Myself and Irene."

Arnold had a sense of humor. He recalled in the Telegram & Gazette interview talking with a listener who for many years had misconstrued one of the words in "Can't Find the Time." The person thought he was singing "Maybe you're wrong."

"I like 'Maybe you're wrong,' but it's 'Baby you're wrong,' " Arnold explained, with admirable patience.

Arnold's singing was clear, so the misunderstanding was a bit of a surprise.

Arnold's voice was "smooth and blended well with other voices," said Crockett. Goodwin called Arnold's voice "legendary."

Other Orpheus songs included "Brown Arms in Houston," "Love Over Here," and "Congress Alley."

On same bill with Cream, others

While together, Orpheus played on the same bill with a number of major acts of the era, including Cream, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, The Who and many others.

The original core was Arnold and Jack McKennes (guitarists/vocalists), Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen (bass guitarist), and Harry Sandler (drums). There were, however, quite a few subsequent changes of personnel. Steve Martin of Worcester was one of those who joined a slightly later version of Orpheus. Hersh, a bassist who is also a producer and moved to Los Angeles, was on board with Orpheus a little later, as was drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.

Then there seemed to be silence for a long time.

"We didn't break up, really," Arnold said of Orpheus. "I took a direction I felt we needed to go in. I think we grew to a place where the sound we needed to make needed to be made by different people."

But not forever.

In 2004 a group called Orpheus Reborn was formed by McKennes, Gulliksen, Sandler and Martin. Separate from that effort, Arnold continued to write songs with Orpheus in mind.

In 2010 Arnold put out the album "Orpheus Again," which included 10 new songs and a remake of "Can't Find the Time."

Then in 2014 Arnold organized "Orpheus: The Homecoming" at Mechanics Hall.

The band was led by Arnold and included Purdie (drums), Elliot Sherman (keyboards) and Hersh (bass) — all with Orpheus connections at various instances, Arnold said. Arnold's son, John Mark Arnold, was also in the lineup.

Orpheus also played a couple of other concerts in the area, including at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston.

Goodwin became involved, playing as a guitarist. Hersh knew both Goodwin and Arnold and introduced them to each other.

"He (Arnold) was so warm to me and inviting. It was right away, I was an honored guest rather than an interloper," Goodwin said.

Collaborating with Mass. Symphony

Arnold, with his fondness for orchestral arrangements as in "Can't Find the Time," got in touch with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra for the concert in Mechanics Hall.

"He contacted me to have MSO accompany Orpheus at Mechanics Hall and it was a tremendous experience for us," said the orchestra's executive director Paul Levenson.

Hersh helped Arnold transcribe the orchestrations.

Peter Landsdowne, reviewing the concert for the Telegram & Gazette, wrote, "After accepting a key to the city of Worcester presented on behalf of the City Council and Mayor Joseph M. Petty, Arnold strapped on an acoustic guitar and got down to business. What followed was a musical history of Orpheus from the late 1960s to the present.

"Arnold reminisced about growing up in Worcester and learning how to play guitar and sing folk songs. He then performed one of the first songs he ever learned, Elizabeth Cotton's 'It Ain't No Lie.' Describing his music as a cross between Elvis and Henry Mancini, Arnold put down his guitar and sang 'I Can't Help Falling in Love with You' in a strong and fervent voice with just some piano accompaniment from Elliot Sherman, a veteran of one of the early versions of Orpheus."

Crockett recalled that he and Arnold "went to Chandler Junior High, and my first date with a girlfriend (probably eighth grade) was a double date with him and his girlfriend. At Classical High School (which predated Doherty), Bruce and I were supposed to play a song together at their talent show at the end of our senior year in 1964, but we were kicked off the show for some reason I don't even remember, probably being long hair.

"Bruce was very talented early on and though he was in the folk scene for a while, he had an instinct for the commercial appeal of music," Crockett said.

Inspiration for 'Congress Alley'

In his early Worcester years, Arnold was part of an enclave of young Worcester rock musicians, artists and free spirits who lived on Congress Street off Pleasant Street. Martin, who was also part of the enclave, wrote the happy-go-lucky "Congress Alley." Congress Alley was a dirt road, albeit with street signs, off Congress Street.

"It was a rendezvous for girlfriends," Arnold said of Congress Street. "That's the address everybody lived on. It was just our way of being able to be in proximity of each other."

They didn't think of themselves as being particularly cool. "There were a whole lot of other people we thought were cool," Arnold said.

"I was pretty clear-headed about the whole thing back then. I remember it as being a wonderful experience with my friends. I didn't have a dream of a smoke-filled rooms and people half out of their minds. I had no interest of making myself into an altered state," Arnold said.

Arnold and McKennes started out as a folk duo called The Villagers. Most of the gigs were in Cape Cod and Boston. Gulliksen and Sandler eventually joined up to become an unnamed quartet. Arnold recalled that driving home one time, the band passed a big theater neon marquee reading "Orpheum" and members wondered if "Orpheus" would be better.

"We were definite musical soulmates," said Hersh. "It was a pure joy of my life playing off he and Bernard Purdie."

Arnold was still making Orpheus albums until quite recently. Goodwin said he recorded on one, "Man Alive," about three years ago,

"His voice. He could sing the phone book and it would sound glorious, glorious," Goodwin said.

"He kept writing," Hersh said. "And his writing got better and better."

Hersh said he's had some initial discussions with Arnold's son about what to do with his musical catalogue. There may be a commemorative concert, but it's "too early to tell." The concert would probably be in Worcester or Boston, he said.

Community activism

In Marin County Arnold was also a community activist with his wife, Judy Arnold, who has been a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

"I became a different person. My California person is a much more mellow person," Bruce Arnold said.

Still, it was clear that he relished coming back to perform in Worcester in 2014

'I woke up one morning and said, 'I think I'll put the band back together,' " Arnold said. Slight pause. "No. Kidding."

He explained, "I would love to have done it at any time. Right now it couldn't be any better. Everything has aligned."

The Mechanics Hall show "In a way, it's the first time ever (in Worcester) — it's the first time with this band, but it actually is a real homecoming," Arnold said.

"I couldn't be happier about the situation now."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Bruce Arnold brought passion and success to Worcester band Orpheus