As I dig back through rock's history, I am amazed at how many landmarks I come across that just surprise me. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's Fire is definitely one of those landmarks. I have been familiar with the song for some time, through samples and the original, but I never had the proper context to hear it through to appreciate it for how awesome it was. Thanks to those cable music stations that give you facts about the artist as music plays, I have begun to appreciate this gem for more than the campy, psychedelic, blasphemous funk that it is.
The song opens with the line, "I am the god of hell fire and I bring you. Fire." And the song became a number one hit in the UK and Canada in 1968. I learned some things from that fact. The UK was way cooler than the US. Can you imagine a number one single in the US in 1968 that starts like that? This was the original shock rocker. Alice Cooper, Kiss, Ozzy, Marilyn Manson, you all owe a nod to this guy. That video is from 1968 as well. In 1968 that was on Top Of The Pops on British TV! If they had tried to air that in America then, the religious right would have gone nuts.
Hats off to you Arthur Brown and your crazy world. You rock!
By the way, these cable music channels are such a great invention. They are not the be all, end all, but I love the variety and tid-bits of information about the music and artists. It makes me think, "Hey, remember when MTV was cool like this?" And then I think, "No. I don't remember MTV being cool like this."
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