“Fire” and Arthur Brown, The God of Hellfire

[luisam]

Arthur Brown starts this song screaming, "I am the God of Hellfire", the lasting catchphrase of his song "Fire"; it ends with the sound of a wind from Hell. “Fire” was released with the album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in August 1968. The song was written by Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane; however, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker successfully sued for co-credit and royalties based on melodic similarities to their song "Baby, You're a Long Way Behind". Arthur and Vincent lost most of their royalties as a result and waved goodbye to unforetold riches. I couldn’t find anywhere a record of this claim-winner song so can’t credit how much “Fire” really resembles to it but did find some references about Finesilver and Ker actually collaborating directly in their own right with Brown and Crane as co-writers of “Fire”.

"Fire" is a typical product of the rock psychedelia of the late '60s, an incendiary, psychedelic nightmare that opens with Brown, an unknown singer and performance artist from Britain, growling "I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you … fire!!". Few who heard this shouted-word intro at full volume ever forgot it, but without Jimi Hendrix, pioneering shock rocker Arthur Brown may never have lived up to his reputation as the self-proclaimed "God of Hellfire." It initially fell flat in the U.S., since underground-friendly FM stations stuck up their noses to it. AM stations accepted it as a novelty record, which piqued the interest of FM DJs, but it was Hendrix, the group's American label-mate, who put the song over the top.

"We did concerts with him and got on really well, so the label persuaded Jimi to go 'round to what were then called 'black stations,'" Brown told Rolling Stone Magazine. "He walked in and said, 'Play this motherfucker.' With Hendrix being the star he was at the time, they did. And suddenly, all the radio stations are playing 'Fire', and it became a big hit."

In no time it reached Top 1 in the UK, Nº 2 in the US and top positions around the world. Having sold over one million copies, it was awarded a gold disc.

The lead instrument in "Fire" was Vincent Crane's Hammond organ, augmented by an orchestral section featuring prominent brass. It lacks of guitars or bass guitar. More recently, in Ronnie Wood's radio-show of 14 November 2011, both Wood and Alice Cooper claimed that the bass in "Fire" was performed by Ron Wood. Funny, because there is no bass guitar in “Fire” only bass pedals, so obviously both of them confounded the original recordings with the later BBC session of 8 April 1968.

“Fire” is an absolutely irresistible stuff from an incredibly influential band that has been largely forgotten. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown was built on the talents of manic showman Arthur Brown and his even more talented cohort organist Vincent Crane, two of the greatest (and ultimately unfulfilled) talents in the world of psychedelic rock. In 1968, it must have sounded like nothing else around at the time (come to think of it, it still sounds pretty damn unique!). Despite significant chart action, the group imploded after this one near-perfect album. Vincent Crane was one of the first great organists in rock music and his musical contributions to The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown cannot be underestimated. Aside from co-writing most of the songs with Brown, he also did all the crucial orchestral arrangements on the album. Musically he was the main man in what was essentially a keyboard-based trio.

While performing the song, Brown wore some kind of a burning helmet. The helmet was improvised with a leather skull cap onto which was bolted a metal dish that held lighter fluid or petrol. As the cap was not insulated, the heat from the burning fuel quickly conducted through the fixing bolt to the top of Brown's head, causing him considerable pain. All the ''craziness'' of the man was depicted in this three minutes smash hit.

This trick really was not new; looks Brown always had this obsession of performing set on fire. Actually, since years before launching "Fire", the flaming head became an Arthur Brown signature. He never had a serious accident but occasionally it led to mishaps, such as during an early appearance at the Windsor Festival in 1967, where he wore a colander on his head soaked in methanol. The fuel poured over his head by accident and caught fire; a bystander doused the flames by pouring beer on Brown's head, preventing any serious injury.

He was also notable for the extreme make-up he wore onstage, which would later be reflected in the stage acts of Alice Cooper and Kiss. He was also famed for his powerful operatic baritone voice and his high-pitched screams. On occasions, he also stripped naked while performing, most notably at the Palermo Pop 70 Festival in Sicily, Italy, July 1970, where he was arrested and deported.

Brown created the perception that he was always on the verge of setting fire to the stage, leading some concert organizers to demand he post a bond with them, if he could not show he was adequately insured against uncontrollable fire and fire damages.

Pete Townshend, who saw himself as an A&R man for the Who managers’ new Track Records, caught the Brown trio at the historic happening “The Technicolor Dream” in London, spring of 1967.

The rock opera king associate-produced “Fire” and the rest of “The Crazy World of Arthur Brown” album with Who manager Kit Lambert.

The bizarre act fit in with Townshend’s self-appointed mission of finding “a stable of eccentric misfits” for the new label, which already had landed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. And the hit-making songwriter knew he heard a No. 1 single in the Brown trio’s song “Fire,” which he recorded at Ryemuse Studio (Pink Floyd, Cream) in Mayfair.

“Fire” was the centerpiece of a side-long, five-track rock operetta once called “Tales From the Neurotic Nights of Hieronymous Anonymous.” (Now, it’s mostly known as “The Fire Suite.”)

This raises the question of where “Fire” properly begins. Let’s say with “Fanfare: Fire Poem,” in which our hero Hieronymous begs to be released from some fresh new hell.

Brown raps over a groove-intensive Mose Allison-style riff, flashing back to when he was lying in the grass by a river that suddenly turned into an inferno.

The horrified hero sees “all these shapes being sucked into the flames, writhing and trying to escape.”

A giant being invites him to “come on home” before plunging him into hell.

“I am the god of hellfire and I bring you fire!” opens the famous hit, in which the vengeful satanic creature belittles the life of man — “fire — to destroy all you’ve done … to end all you’ve become.”

"The Crazy World of Arthur Brown" band disintegrated in June 1969 when Arthur Brown temporarily disappeared to a commune and its brilliant organ player Vincent Crane was incapacitated by mental health problems. Unfortunately, the roar of “Fire” was followed by radio silence. After The Crazy World of Arthur Brown collapsed Brown carried on as an avant-garde rock artist, but the trio classifies as a one-hit wonder these days; “Fire”, its self-penned epitaph, still gets play on classic oldies stations.

 

http://misterdanger45.es.tl/Arthur-Brown%2C-The-God-of-Hellfire.htm

 

 

 

 

[jabrwky]

The story I recall is that Frank Zappa tried to promote Arthur Brown, but Brown thought Zappa was making fortunes from his (sic) *talent* and owed him huge amounts of money. His paranoia drove him to stalking and threatening Zappa's life. High-profile personalities often have some genetic component which is not always advantageous.

[CORRECTION]:  Memory fault--I was thinking of "Wildman Fischer", performer of "Merry-Go-Round"--not Arthur Brown. If you sue me, can I have half the money?

[Chancer]

I saw him perform Fire a couple of times. The last being at Glastonbury when he was crucified on stage! Happy days.

[luisam]

15 hours ago, jabrwky said:

Memory fault--I was thinking of "Wildman Fischer", performer of "Merry-Go-Round"--not Arthur Brown. If you sue me, can I have half the money?

 

Well, you can have half of the royalies I'll get for telling the strory of "Wild Man" Fischer...

 

I've been trying to get more info about that presumpted incident between  Frank Zappa and Arthur Brown, of course with no result because,  as you've corrected, it was with "Wild Man" Fisher. According to Wikipedia,  Lawrence Wayne "Wild Man" Fischer (November 6, 1944  – June 16, 2011) was an American songwriter. I wouldn't say that he had a high-profile personalitiy. He was institutionalized at age 16 for attacking his mother with a knife. He escaped from the hospital and looks no one ever bothered to take him back there. He was later diagnosed with two mental disorders, severe paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Fischer wandered Los Angeles singing his songs on the streets a capella for 10¢ US to passers-byes.  He was discovered by Frank Zappa who released an album with him and with musical accompaniment by Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. The release was a flop, with critical reaction ranging from bemusement to Rolling Stone's conclusion that it was of interest only to the "socially callous".

Zappa ceased contacting him as result of an altercation with Zappa's wife Gail, Fischer threw a glass jar which smashed dangerously close to the couple's baby daughter. 

Fischer took the rejection hard, claiming later that Zappa consistently withheld his recording income ("Frank's got my publishing rights. You could say he's on my mind all the time").

There is no commment in wikipedia about Fischer stalking Zappa or  threatening him later, but it's possible. I've made no further research about the case, not really worth to lose time.

In 1988 a judge awarded him royalties for his song "Merry-Go-Round", a track from the album recorded with Frank Zappa and included in the soundtrack of the movie Medium Cool, but the attorney representing Fischer did not know how to reach him, as he had become homeless again.

Fischer eventually moved in with his aunt Josephine, but three weeks later she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Larry and his family consented to move him into an assisted-living mental institution. The medications he was prescribed helped him control his behavior. He died at the age of 66.

I found this YouTube video, you may watch it, just to "understand" his music. If it's typical to the rest of his songs, I don't believe there was neither much money nor fame involved about his discussion with Frank Zappa over royalties..

 

 

[jabrwky]

Fischer was a one-man-band when he performed Merry-go-round on the street. Amazing.

[funkyy]

I remember this from my childhood (can't believe I was 13 when I first heard it...thought I was younger). The intro is everything in this song and it's the only part that sticks in the mind. He looks like a cross between Alice Cooper and a box of matches!!! I was too young to "appreciate" psychedelic music, but I always remember the intro.

[luisam]

Years ago I read that Arthur Brown went mad interpreting "Fire", but looks he was crazy all the time, even before Fire was first set on scene, and still he is, but now he uses some "safer" ways to set himself on fire. He is still presenting his show. Last one was in June 17 at STONEFREE FESTIVAL in London and next will be on Thursday 12 October 2017 in Festhalle, Dudenhofen, Germany.