THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN

"The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" is the eponymoustly titled debut full-length studio album by UK psychedelic rock act The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The album was released through Track Records (Europe) in June 1968 and through Atlantic Records (US) in September 1968. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was formed in 1967 by lead vocalist Arthur Brown. The remaining part of the lineup were Vincent Crane (hammond organ, piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwood (bass). While The Crazy World of Arthur Brown only released one full-length studio album in their original run (they disbanded in 1970), they were quite successful, which was largely due to the major commercial success of hit single "Fire", which sold more than one million copies. Frontman Arthur Brown had a flamboyant stage presence which included theatrical postures, customes, and facepaint, and paired with the success of the "Fire" single, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown were an almost immediate success, even touring the US.

Stylistically the music on the album is an organ and vocals driven psychadelic tinged rock´n´roll style. There is no guitar on the album, so the basis of the music is organ/piano, bass, and drums. The theatrical and versatile vocals by Brown dominate when they appear (he sings, whispers, recites poems, and screams his lungs out). Although the album features a pretty rough sounding production and the rhythm tracks are organic and raw, the album is still pretty sophisticated as a result of the way the vocals and organ are performed, often providing the album with an almost musical/theatrical performance quality. The brass- and string arrangements which were overdubbed on the request of the record label, provide some tracks with an additional musical dimension, but to my ears they don´t really fit the music, and it´s audible that they weren´t part of the original musical vision.

Upon conclusion "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" is a decent quality psychedelic rock album, and although "Fire" isn´t the most interesting track here, it´s of course a huge hit and something most people recognise when they hear it. It´s a disjointed and incoherrent album too though, sticking in many different directions, and it´s a bit hard to grasp what it is the band really want. I´ll make the postulate that The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are probably more influential because of the customes and face paint that Arthur Brown wore on stage than for their music. Still a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).