Music from the Hawkwind family tree

Music from the Hawkwind family tree - Part 12

This piece was kindly written by Adriano Troiano, to whom my grateful thanks. Seeing as it concentrates on Arthur Brown, your best bet for further details on his work would be either http://www.arthurbrownmusic.com (official site) or http://www.godofhellfire.co.uk (great fan site)

Some of the best: Arthur Brown – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)

This is it! The original line-up (Brown, Vincent Crane and Drachen Theaker) and the legendary stage show (including the famous fire helmet) that inspired many artists and musicians like Alice Cooper and more importantly, Dave Brock and our Hawkwind. Some say they were the only truly original band to come out of London. Surely they were one of the first to mix poetry, stage props and pop music.

Everybody knows the hit single “Fire” which put the German-born Brown on the number one spot in the English charts. The famous opening phrase “I am the god of Hellfire...” is known around the world and is a timepiece of the era.

The stage show, Arthur recalls, developed out of sheer boredom. They played 3 shows a day in clubs in London and Paris (Brown returned to Paris on several occasions), so he started to mime to the songs and use whatever was lying around as stage props. Pete Townshed of the Who (who?) produced the album and the two singles (Devils Grip / Give Him A Flower and Fire / Rest Cure) the first of which is now finally available on the “Fire – The Arthur Brown Story” double CD by Sanctuary.

The original line-up split because they were offered a major deal and Arthur didn’t want to sell out and leave behind the people who put him there. (This anti-commercialism is what both Dave and Arthur have in common). Both Theaker and Crane were understandably disappointed by this decision and soon after they dropped out. Crane went on to form Atomic Rooster (very recommendable!!!!) and Arthur returned to Paris with Drachen to play his “Puddletown” material that remains unreleased to this day.

The songs :

1.Prelude – Nightmare: this opens the concept side of the album (Arthur and the band had to split it in this way, because the record company insisted on inclusion of standards). The song starts mystically, soon going into typical Crane organ, which makes the album very 70’s-esque. This combined with Arthur’s variable voice give the listener an eerie feeling. A good opening number, both mystical and up-tempo.

2. Fanfare – Fire Poem: actually the intro to Fire. After the trumpets we go into another of typical organ line (note: there’s no guitar on this album) with Arthur telling us a story about how he met the god of hellfire.

3. Fire: although Arthur never liked the song, it’s his big hit and he’s still identified as the god of hellfire by the vast majority of fans and vintage music enthusiasts. What can I say about the song ? I guess everybody knows it. Brilliant organ, maniacal vocals and catchy chorus. The “little girl” – part cools things down, only to come back to the chorus which slowly starts to go out of control. A true masterpiece and pure 70’s nostalgia.

4. Come And Buy: I really like this song and lyrics. The dramatic build up and a weird rhythm pattern make this one unusual. The bridge, again, slows the song down before the finale, where we get to hear a “possessed Arthur”. Brilliant!

5. Time / Confusion: a mysterious slower-paced song with Arthur using his extraordinary voice to give matters an almost spell-like atmosphere. The Hawkind version of this (as matter of fact all the Arthur Brown numbers on their 2002 live CD) is inferior to the originals here, which are far more organised and thought through than Hawkwind’s “jam” versions. But hey, they got better, just compare the DVD (first gig) to the CD (last gig), what a difference!

6. I Put A Spell On You: standards, here we go. The band manages to do their own version of this Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic. Actually this is the best version I’ve ever heard - you really buy into the notion that he’s going to put a hex on you. It remains in the set list down to the present day, throughout all of Arthur’s incarnations. Could be an original number. Great !

7. Spontaneous Apple Creation: a jam-like piece, as the title suggests. Nothing spectacular, but it shows what Brown would be doing with Kingdom Come years later.

8. Rest Cure: the B-Side to Fire. An up-tempo track complete with yells and bells. Catchy chorus and dominant organ, similar to Fire. Good.

9. I’ve Got Money: another standard - Arthur Brown doing James Brown. It just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the album. It’s a one-to-one copy as they fail to put their essence into it, but then, it’s really hard to do blues differently. No psychedelics here.

10. Child Of My Kingdom: the epic of the album, and a fascinating song. The chorus is followed by whistles from children, quite good. The middle part is bluesy, showing off the band’s roots. Almost every aspect of the band is shown off in this song, naturally with Arthur doing his in-character voices. Great!

The album is and always has been available on CD (Polydor). Included are mono mixes of the first six songs, as in 1968 there were two versions of the LP available - mono and stereo. I don’t bother with the mono version, I start playing the CD from track 7.

Highly Recommended: Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come - Galactic Zoo Dossier (1971)

After being offered a deal with Polydor in Germany, Arthur put together a new band consisting of Slim Steer on drums, Andy Dalby on guitar, Des Fisher on bass, Michael Harris on organ, plus Arthur on vocals. With the addition of guitar and mellotron they became more Hawkwind-ish in appearance and soundwise, too. A freaked out bunch of hippies led by the god of Hellfire himself - scary!

They were using a lot of LSD as Arthur explains: just listen to the album for a minute and this is confirmed! Sadly, after this one came out they never played these tracks live again (anti-establishment), so I guess that cost them a lot of followers at the time. Kingdom Come only recorded three albums, and nowadays, much like Hawkwind, they’re

highly underrated.

1. Internal Messenger: starts off heavy, after the spoken word intro, with a full-frontal guitar assault. This is their “Brainstorm”, I guess. Arthur sings theatrically about the end of the world. A standout track and a good warm-up for what’s to come.

2. Space Plucks: a number penned by Brown/Crane, weird rhythm and more spoken words here. Complete with eerie mellotron. Very Crazy World-like.

3. Galactic Zoo: a very “different” piece of music with Mr.Brown doing his high-pitched screams . The end part gets more and more into this mystical space-rock feeling.

4. Metal Monster: a rhythm piece with this great intro where it seems that there’s something wrong with your stereo, but it’s programmed. I believe they might be the first to have done this, to shock the listeners I suppose. A voice-tube allows Arthur to deploy yet another mysterious voice. Pure Kingdom Come!

5. Simple Man: a simple song for a simple man? Well, it’s a laidback number with a cool chorus. Pink Floyd-ish effects on the middle part. Good!

6. Night Of The Pigs: one word: LSD. There’s no other way a human being would deliberately put this on record. A chaotic collage of a song (well, an intro, if you like). Shades of what’s to come on the next record.

7. Sunrise: a Masterpiece. Slow and soulful with a real “ballad” feeling. Arthur’s voice gives you the creeps on this one and his desperation that the listener can hear is very haunting. It slowly builds up to the dramatic ending.

8. Trouble: similar to Simple Man. Very 70’s indeed, acoustic guitars and wonderful lyrics : “I would like to write a song and tell the world what’s wrong with it today.” That’s what they’re (we’re) all doing, Arthur, to this day!

9. Brains: vocals only, overloaded background vocals. A weird small intermezzo piece.

10. Medley: strangely enough, this is a medley from parts of Galactic Zoo and Space Plucks. It’s an interesting mixture, but somehow I don’t see the similarities with the constituent numbers.

11. Creep –and- 12. Creation: these two are actually one number. Creep serves as the intro. Famous for the live performance when, at the end, Arthur did his high pitched scream and the first two rows fainted away! It’s a bombastic, slowly creeping number about the creator, who is neither good nor evil.

13. Gypsy Escape: another favourite of mine, this almost instrumental number prefigures what was to come on the next couple of albums. Full of different organs and interesting, interchanging rhythm parts. Again, an epic piece to close the album.

14. No Time: wait, there’s one more, a Crazy World-style song. Almost a commercial number, with some boogie feeling. Time to groove again!

Highly Recommended: Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come- Kingdom Come (1972)

The eponymous second Kingdom Come album is even more full of weird and crazy noises, tic-tocs, psychotic screams and out-of-this world breaks. Photos from this period show members of the band dressed up as trees, with boats hanging from their shoulders, and even as a traffic light (which in one song acquires a brain). Talk about LSD. This entire album is a full-blown, 70’s zeitgeist and works brilliantly as a discussion subject or as the soundtrack to a drug-fuelled life. It’s mad! By the way, bass duties here were undertaken by sensible married man Phil Sutt!

1. The Teacher: another Crane/Brown Number to begin with. A short rap-styled vocal about the traffic light who gets a brain. Not really a

real song.

2. A Scientific Experiment Featuring “Lower Colonic Irrigation”: this is the core of the album. A cool 70’s number with heavy rhythm parts, spaced-out mellotron & organ sounds and the weird noises as part of the song. All of a sudden a voice breaks in and the whole song changes, never getting back to the original line until the end. There is even a Christmas-like jingle included. Arthur does it all, from little boy voices to glowering dark tones or hearty light ones. This is a song that no cover band could even attempt!

3. The Whirlpool: my favourite number, as it has a fantastic groove, right after the “jungle” intro. The lead guitar is brilliant here. The rhythm gets interrupted by noises once again and it’s only by dint of sheer madness that they manage to get back to the song. There were no Pro-Tools around in those days - now it would be easier to do, but back then this was an insane bit of recording! In the chaotic breakdown with which the song ends you hear water noises, presumably the whirlpool referred to in the title.

4. The Hymn: I prefer the alternate take, because it leaves out the whining vocals and just lets you groove to the music. Arthur sings or reads a poem about his body being a home for his spirit and so on. The chorus leaves the guitar out, with only organ and voice remaining.

5. Water: more of a noise piece, really. Lots of people talking, followed by some strange grunts and tide-noises in the background.

6. Love Is (The Spirit That Never Dies): the best-known song on the album. A very heartfelt and soulful ballad. Without any middle eight, I guess it was too delicate. Similar to “Sunrise”.

7. City Melody: a stage-piece, I suppose. About the characters taken by each band member. Complete with voices overlapping in the end.

8. Traffic Light Song: a faster song about our dear traffic light. Again a groovy beat and Arthur’s voice is different yet again. Included is a cool guitar solo

Some Of The Best: Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come - Journey (1973)

What do you do if the drummer runs away with the bass player’s wife? You make sure that it will never happen again. Look for a ugly drummer? No! For a drum machine? Yes!

Journey uses electronic drums throughout, and you know what? It works very well on this album, and I guess they were one of the first bands to do it (Ash-Ra and Kraftwerk being in their infancy at the time). It totally fits the style of the album and gives the songs a touch of eeriness and a real Space Rock feel. A real forgotten masterpiece of the 70’s (and rare until the remastered reissues) - timeless.

1. Time Captives (not Captains !!): the All-Time-Favourite-Song and a

classic. I got hooked on Arthur by this song (the rendition on his Live ’93 album). This version has nothing in common with HW’s live 2002 effort - this is not a jam song, you have to build up slowly, very slowly. The beat of the drum machine goes on for several minutes and is actually pure techno (I use this song to scare my Heavy Metal friends off). The organ comes in with this majestic line. Arthur’s verses are powerful and glorious. Then there’s total silence and just an “Ooh-ooh” line from Arthur, which builds up again to the Grand Finale. 7-plus minutes of total mayhem. I kneel at the feet of King Arthur for this one.

2. Triangles: an instrumental number, where Andy tried to play only triplets on his guitar. Cool idea, try it with trapezes! [Wot?!] A cool, meditative number.

3. Gypsy: again, another epic piece with a slowly building rhythm part. The second section of the song features a intense melody line and dramatic vocals. A true original.

4. Superficial Roadblocks: this one is divided into three parts. The guitars are amazing and Arthur does some good character-voices. Strange but very good.

5. Conception: a very odd beat to accompany Arthur’s very different voice. Very wild.

6. Spirit of Joy: almost pop-like. The usual Soul Ballad (every album has one). But this one is up-tempo and commercial. This one still gets played live. This is the most recognized song by the masses (not us).

7. Come Alive: Arthur singing, whining and screaming his lungs out in quest of the Meaning Of Life. A heavy guitar solo in the middle. Interesting but nothing new here.

The three Kingdom Come Albums were remastered and re-released through Castle / Sanctuary Records in 2003. These are the versions I have, as they were very rare beforehand. The tracklists differ from the original LP versions, which I don’t have so I can’t draw a comparison of old to new. But the newly remastered CD’s come with enhanced versions of the original booklets (with some interesting interview snippets) and bonus tracks - but these are mainly different mixes. On “Journey” there are some BBC live performances including “Slow Rock”, but I think this may be a misinterpreted song title by the BBC and is really a Kingdom Come medley or an improvisation.

Also worth getting is the 2003 Castle / Sanctuary best-of entitled “Fire – The Arthur Brown Story”, which includes rare singles (Devil’s Grip / Give Him A Flower) plus the best Kingdom Come songs and the pick of Arthur’s side projects ( Song Of The Gremlin / Silver Machine Live 2001 ).

I can heartily recommend these albums as they are very much in the Hawkwind vein, musically and spirit-wise. They are closer to the early “Space Ritual”-era sound, than any other band I’ve heard so far (including original bands from the 60’s / 70’s).

So there, you go: Arthur Brown, God of Hellfire and the most underrated singer-songwriter in the world. Pay homage, hairy–arsed Hawkwind fans!

-Adriano Troiano