(Due to his fear of flying, Theaker was later replaced by powerhouse percussionist Carl Palmer.)īuoyed by success, Brown’s antics grew more extravagant and outlandish - and frequently came at a price. Echoing the madness that surrounded a child in war, Brown lunged into the coda with a shrill, maniacal cackle, while Drachen Theaker’s snare drum rolls exploded. Produced by Kit Lambert, the album delves into the vocalist’s piercing psychosis, and “Fire,” powered by a wailing Hammond riff, proved the obvious hit.Ī vibrant but ominous narrator opened listeners up to the proceedings before it segued into a furious portrait of man’s decline. Eager to comfort his son, Brown’s father enlisted the services of a practitioner to “help empty my mind.” According to Brown, the process brought him “staring into the heart of the fire and finding a stillness, like meditation,” from which his first album was born. He watched houses bombed to cinders and had a mother strained by PTSD. The flaming headgear quickly became a fundamental part of the act, and gave Brown his honorary title, “The God of Hellfire.”īut for bassist Jimmy Ryan, the pyrotechnics were just too warm for comfort: “As we cranked through our dark, distorted organ, pounding and pulsing bass-and-drums set Arthur, in a moment of screaming, psychotic reverie, forgot I was behind him, and hurled his lighter fluid-fueled, blazing headdress up and backward, where it came to rest beneath my cloak.”īehind the Shock Rock antics (Alice Cooper says he owes his career to Brown’s) came the piercing voice of a relic, risen from the cinders of post-war Britain. Luckily for Arthur Brown, his life was saved by the shrewdness of two passing bystanders, who quickly dampened the frontman’s headgear with the beers in their hands. However, the band’s most indelible incident occurred at Windsor when the methane that fuelled their singer’s crown burned a flame more deadly than their songcraft.
#One hit wonder fire man series
While their artistic peers dabbled in stage presentation, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown excited audiences through a series of exhilarating stunts. Tellingly, Ozzy Osbourne - one-time Sabbath vocalist and long-time rock alumnus - recorded the song on Under Cover in 2005. As if proving a point, the feisty, organ-heavy single hit lost the US top spot to The Beatles’ altogether chirpier “Hey Jude,” but the song - burning with an energy driven as much from mania as it did from sexual desire - embodied many of the proclivities realized in greater fashion by seventies metal acts Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Partly melody, mostly anarchy, “Fire” couldn’t have sounded any less out of step with the bright, buoyant singles that entered the charts in 1968.
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