The project was (and still is) known as 'The Crazy World of Arthur Brown' in the rest of the world but for some reason the Canadians weren't having it. I had assumed that chart compilers were lazily crediting the individual but even the label on the Polydor single has it as a solo effort. Perhaps my countryfolk figured 'The Crazy World of Arthur Brown' was a stupid name for a band (which it is) or they felt it ought to have been an album title instead (which it should have been).
Arthur Brown. Not a very rock 'n' roll name, is it? Had he been on the scene a decade earlier, a shifty impressario would have talked him into using a stage name. Indeed, some of the acts he influenced would also spurn the use of their real names (though, to be fair, 'Alice Cooper' is no less mundane than 'Arthur Brown' though the gender swapping no doubt helped). On the other hand, I can imagine cooking up a backstory about this very normal English bloke who had a few pints down at the local pub where some illicit substances were slipped in his pint. He then became convinced that he was Lucifer reborn and, thus, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown came into being with "Fire" as their anthem.
"The first time I heard this — age 14 or so," remembers Tom Ewing, "I thought it was hilarious." There are stages to appreciating the pop-rock's more outlandish subgenres, such as glam, metal and shock rock. When I was about four, I visited the small (and, sadly, short lived) record store attached to the Calgary Co-op near where I grew up. Still a bit too young to appreciate all the album covers, I was instead scared shitless due to their many Kiss posters. Had I been five or six years' older, I might have been captivated by them; had I been in junior high or high school at the time, I probably would've laughed at those knuckleheads. Timing is everything.
As a grown man in his late forties who'd been largely unaware of "Fire" up until now, I feel I can admire his one and only hit and even enjoy it up to a point but there's simply no getting into it. It's cool listening to it draw upon mid-to-late sixties' trends (psychedelia most obviously but also Continental film soundtracks, free jazz and even Quincy Jones' magnificent "Soul Bossa Nova") while also pointing to the future. Like fellow recent RPM number one "Born to Be Wild", it would become the blueprint for a generation of metal acts but its influence spread much further. Considering the reach of such figures as Elton John and David Bowie, it's possible that Brown's legacy extends to a handful of groups who may never have even heard of him. Not bad for a one-hit wonder. Meanwhile, I might be tempted to blame my lack of engagement on the song not aging well but that's much more on me. I'm too old for this shit.
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