The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - The God of Hell Fire!

First, a bit of background. During the summer holidays in 1968, I would sit on the low front wall of the house across the road, with the neighbours’ kids, all of us around 10 years old, and we'd listen to the radio.

We would wait for our favourite songs to come on, like 'Itchycoo Park' by The Small Faces, 'Pictures of Matchstickmen' by The Status Quo, 'Green Tambourine' by The Lemon Pipers and 'Jesamine' by The Casuals.

But our very favourite that psychedelic summer was 'Fire' by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. A pretty freaky song for a 9 year old boy. It begins with Arthur bellowing "I am the God of Hell Fire!"

That was precisely why we all liked it, of course. It was slightly scary and it had this organ sound, like something out of a horror movie.

As 'Fire' entered the singles charts, The Crazy World... appeared on Top Of The Pops, so we could see that Arthur wore a crown of fire while singing and gyrating like some demented wizard.

Arthur Brown sings 'Fire' on Top Of The Pops

I hadn't started buying records at this point and in those days you couldn't just summon your favourite song out of the ether. You had to wait for BBC Radio One to play it. And if you missed it, you might have to wait several hours for them to play it again.

Thankfully, 'Fire' got a fair bit of airplay that late summer, as it captured everyone's attention when the Crazy World appeared on TOTP - Arthur with his crown of fire. The song jumped up the charts, hitting the number 1 spot (pop-pickers!) in August 1968.

Down at the local park, we decided to form a club, The Fire Appreciation Society, membership of which was confirmed by pledging allegiance to Arthur Brown - The God of Hellfire! I felt like this was proper rebellious behaviour for a young boy.

Arthur Brown in full voice was, and still is amazingly, a thing to behold. He had a terrific vocal range, with a natural deep speaking voice, but he was also capable of some blood-curdling screams. Deep Purple's singer Ian Gillan has said he was inspired by Arthur to incorporate screaming into his own style.

Here's a clip of Arthur performing the 'Fire Suite' song 'Nightmare' in a British film of 1968 called The Committee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KlQLJri-a4

And here's a live clip from the period, with a very rare sighting of original Crazy World drummer Carl Palmer, later of ELP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bBpWW3eizY

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, with Vincent Crane on Hammer Horror Hammond organ (Crane later formed Atomic Rooster with Carl Palmer)  - were a feature of London's psychedelic rock scene in 1967 and '68.

Review of Arthur at the Middle Earth club

They appeared with bands like The Soft Machine and The Pink Floyd at psychedelic underground clubs like UFO and Middle Earth. The band were signed to The Who's record label, Track, so would also have appeared at shows with The Who and Jimi Hendrix in this period.

Interviewed by Record Collector magazine in 2013, Arthur said, "UFO was quite short-lived. It was an old Irish club for most of the week. The psychedelic light shows that began there were run by Mark Boyle, who was an adventurer in all those oil wheel projections that you see in photographs.

"Middle Earth was a scene where poets, dancers, political extremists, hippie radicals - like Yoko Ono and her 'Bag-In' - all did their thing. It was really everybody influencing everybody else. Out of all that came a lot of the experimentation we did."

After The Crazy World came to an end, Arthur fronted the band Kingdom Come. His performance at Glastonbury in 1971 - a highlight of the film 'Glastonbury Fayre' - shows how much he put into each performance. It really is a wonderful snapshot of the period, full of long-haired hippies stoned out of their minds.

Arthur recalled, "There were only 2,000 people there. The Maharishi spoke from the first pyramid stage and taught us his spiritual path. David Bowie appeared at dawn but strangely didn't appear in the film."

The cameraman was probably asleep. Bowie told how he had been up all night smoking dope at the Worthy farmhouse in the company of Terry Reid and Linda Lewis. So getting to the stage at 5am, he would not have been in the best shape, but nonetheless he seems to have captivated those who were awake.

Audio of Bowie's Glastonbury appearance exists, in which he thanks the audience for appreciating him, at a time when he was considering giving up playing live altogether:

"I just want to say that you’ve given me more pleasure than I’ve had in a good few months of working. I don’t do gigs any more because I got so pissed off with working, and dying a death every time I worked, and it’s really nice to have somebody appreciate me for a change.”

Black and Brown

Arthur moved to America for a few years in the 1970s and, among other things, had a decorating business with Jimmy Carl Black, the drummer from The Mothers of Invention.

He described Jimmy as "a fantastic character. His favourite line was  'God-dammit Arthur, why can't I make any money in music. I never got paid and I don't suppose I ever God-damned will!"

Frank Zappa meets Arthur Brown in London

He met Frank Zappa too and described him as "a visionary who worked harder than anybody I knew, in terms of recorded music and how to present it."

Through his connection with The Who, Arthur was invited by Ken Russell to play the role of The Preacher in Russell's film of 'Tommy'.

Arthur claims that Pete Townshend actually wrote 'Tommy' with him in mind to perform it, rather than Roger Daltrey, which would have been interesting. But in any case, The Who's co-manager Kit Lambert persuaded Pete that he needed to let The Who perform it.

Arthur as The Preacher in Ken Russell's 'Tommy'

In later years, Arthur would tell how he had burned himself so many times wearing the crown of fire. You can see in the TOTP clip, how he removes it in the middle of the song. That hasn't stopped him from wearing variations of the crown of fire in performances down the years. Well he is The God of Hellfire - his audience expects nothing less!

He says, "People still like to hear 'Fire'. We did it with a string section. We did it with a ska band, with Jerry Dammers, and with Johnny Clegg and 20 piece reggae orchestra at the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury."

In this clip, Arthur tells the story of how he wrote 'Fire' - drugs were not involved apparently - and he uncovers his old fire crowns in a shed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqeXoAk4PR4

Arthur's still doing his thing

And so, being a long-time member of the Fire Appreciation Society, I have always had a soft spot for Arthur. He's an eccentric for sure, but quite sane for all that and he has stayed true to his roots as a theatrical musical act. Except for him it's more than an act. He has pursued a lifestyle that conforms to many of the original hippy ideals of communal and sustainable living.

He's also a good storyteller and with a strong and committed spiritual side.

I met Arthur very briefly in Victoria Station about 20 years ago. He's very tall and thin, with a deep voice. I didn't get the chance to tell him about the Fire Appreciation Society, but maybe if he reads this...

Here are some examples of Arthur Brown playing live back in the day and right up to this year.

Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come - live at Glastonbury, 1971
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUjo7iZPkMA

Arthur talks about the Glastonbury Festival in 1971
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAbZhmSqlDg

I Put A Spell On You - Live 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjw_ZLF8lhg

Fire Poem, Glastonbury, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSSWiMyxJps 

Arthur interviewed by Steve Jones, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75DT21Kb0w0

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - live in 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcMb363Rp-I
The Fire suite starts about 33 minutes into the set.

The back cover of my CWOAB album

Audio of the original album by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Track Records) in 1968

See also on this blog:

There's a lot to like in the 'Zappa' movie
https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2021/03/theres-lot-to-like-in-zappa-movie.html

Syd Barrett's last recordings with Pink Floyd
https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2014/09/vegetable-man-musical-anarchy-of-syd.html