THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN

Even if I was quite young, I still remember the promoting clip which went along with ''Fire''. I must have seen it in '71 for the first time.This song is of course the highlight of this album and the organ riff will always be in the minds. All the ''craziness'' of the man was depicted in this three minutes smash hit.

But this delectable style was already available on the opener ''Prelude-Nightmare''. A fully psychedelic rock track with loaded Hammond organ. Brown is actually also showing the whole of his vocal range during the more complex and disjointed ''Come & Buy''. A six minutes mini rock-opera with heavy organ and bass; and the ''crazy'' feel that prevails on several songs here (''Time - Confusion'').

This is an excellent preview of the later work of ''Atomic Rooster'' (except the vocal department of course). The cover of the great ''I Put A Spell On You'' which has been immortalized by Creedence, offers a different angle here of course. No gorgeous guitar but a superb and heavy organ play. A very good version even if it is a bit odd on this album.

The rest of the album is somewhat weaker (''Spontaneous Apple Creation'') and is filled with less psychedelia and more rhythm & blues / funk (''I've Got No Money'') which is not quite my cup of tea. And the jazzy-spacey ''Child Of My Kingdom'' can't really compete with the early songs from this album either.

The music played here was quite pioneering in '68 and their stage performances were sought after. There will be unfortunately no follow-up album from this line-up. But we'll get the Rooster to console.

Three stars.