In Tribute: Robert "Squirrel" Lester of The Chi-Lites

In writing about my time living in Oregon the first time around from 1970-1972, I have written a bit about The Chi-Lites. It is with sorrow that the news has begun to leak out that the great lead vocalist who gave voice to the great inspirational musical ideas that the late Eugene Record gave us has passed away. His name was Robert "Squirrel" Lester.
I have mentioned this before. It bears repeating again. but it is my firm belief that one of the greatest outro lines I've ever heard in a song is the one during the last bit of fadeout in the great single, "Oh Girl" where Lester intones with all heart-felt anguish "Have you ever seen such a helpless man?/ Oooh no."
It was Lester's voice which gave me the full o.k. to believe that it was o.k. for a guy to show his vulnerable side. This was an important element that was added to early '70s Soul music. It wasn't always the stereotype of bravado and machismo.
I think of the great 3 singles I grew up on here in Eugene (Have You Seen Her?", "Oh Girl" & "The Coldest Days of My Life") and I think to myself of how utterly important this element of thinking, through music, was to my early development as a person.
When you take a musical genius like Eugene Record and combine it with the sincerity of the vocals of a Robert Lester, it was inevitable that you would achieve musical immortality. I wrote over on a Rolling Stones webboard just a short while ago that Mick Jagger has mentioned every once i a super great while that he loved the music of The Chi-Lites. I hope that people like himself and others who are of his musical strata will take the time out over the next few days to dig out their Chi-Lites records and CD's and recall the greatness of Lester and the Chi-Lites. They all shared company together on the charts back in 1971 and 1972 and we were all made the better for it. I just read s hort while ago that there is apparently only one member left of the original Chi-Lites left. This is just so sad. But hey, just think of how great it's going to be to hear them again in the enxt life. I want to see tons of gigs of theirs and back in their prime once again.