Fire (Arthur Brown song)
| "Fire" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown | ||||
| from the album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown | ||||
| B-side | "Rest Cure" (2:44) | |||
| Released | June 1968 (U.K.) September 1968 (U.S.) |
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| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | London, 1968 | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 2:54 | |||
| Label | Track (U.K.) 604022 Atlantic (U.S.) |
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| Producer | Kit Lambert | |||
| The Crazy World of Arthur Brown singles chronology | ||||
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"Fire" is a 1968 song by Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker. Performed by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, it was released as a single and on the band's debut album, also called The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The single made #1 in the UK (in August 1968) and Canada. In October, it made #2 in the US Billboard charts and #19 in Australia. It also made #6 in the Netherlands. "Fire" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[1]
The song is an example of the psychedelic rock of the period, though its lack of guitars or bass guitar[2] distinguished it from many of its contemporaries. The lead instrument in this case was Vincent Crane's Hammond electronic organ, augmented by an orchestral section featuring prominent brass. The singer's opening proclamation of himself as "the god of hellfire" became a lasting epithet. The song's other memorable line is "You're Gonna Burn!!". The song ends with the sound of a wind from hell.
During live performances and in the black and white promotional television clip, Brown performed the song wearing 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.
Two studio mixes of "Fire" have been officially released, one in stereo and one in mono. The mono mix features no brass. Both versions are included on the CD reissue of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The single B-side, "Rest Cure", was another track from the album.
Credit for the composition of "Fire" on the original vinyl single was to Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane only; 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".[3]
In Ron Wood's radioshow of 14 November 2011 both Wood and Alice Cooper state that the bass is performed by Ron Wood,[4] but Polly Marshall's biography of Arthur Brown states that's not the case ("According to the-faces.com, Ronnie claims he played on the Track Records studio sessions recording Fire, but he must have confused it with the BBC session [of 8 April 1968].").[5]
The song is briefly featured in the films Hot Fuzz (2007) and The Boat That Rocked (2009). It is also referenced in Julie Hearn's debut novel Follow Me Down, and was used in the episode "Burn Victim" of My Name Is Earl.
[edit] Personnel
- Arthur Brown – vocals
- Vincent Crane – keyboards, orchestral arrangement
- Drachen Theaker – drums
[edit] Cover versions
- The Ventures covered the song on their 1969 album Underground Fire.
- Lizzy Mercier Descloux covered "Fire" on her album Press Color (1979), drastically changing the mood and style of the track.
- Pete Townshend, the single's associate producer, covered "Fire" as a member of The Who on his 1989 album The Iron Man: A Musical.
- Cirith Ungol covered the song on their 1991 album Paradise Lost.
- The Prodigy sampled the track for "Fire/Jericho", which was otherwise a completely different song, on their 1992 album Experience.
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer covered the song on their 1993 4-disc compilation album The Return of the Manticore.
- German dark electro act AmGod covered the song several times. The most well-known version is "Fire v.2" featured on the 1994 album Half Rotten and Decayed.
- Though it was not a true 'cover', Marilyn Manson's "Lunchbox" (1995) heavily samples "Fire".
- UK doom metal band Cathedral covered the song on their 1996 EP Hopkins (The Witchfinder General).
- Die Krupps covered the song on their 1997 album Paradise Now.
- Dutch death metal band God Dethroned covered the song on their 1997 album The Grand Grimoire.
- Ozzy Osbourne included a version on his 2005 album Under Cover.
- The song is used in one episode of Series 3 of Monkey Dust (2005) as the Paedofinder General burns the wrongly accused paedophiles with this music in the background, complete with bastardised lyrics.
- US Hip hop duo Cunninlynguists sampled the song for "Hellfire" on their 2006 album A Piece of Strange.
- Leningrad Cowboys covered the song in a metal style and included it on their 2006 album Zombie's Paradise.
- Appears in the musical Disco Inferno, when the character Duke reveals himself to be Satan in disguise.[citation needed]
- Death Grips, an experimental hip hop group backed by drummer Zach Hill, sampled "Fire" in their song "Lord of the Game"[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 236. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ the pounding bass was made with bass pedals played by Vincent Crane
- ^ John Kutner & Spencer Leigh (2005). The 1000 UK Number One Hits: p.142
- ^ http://www.ronniewoodradio.com/2011/11/show-81/
- ^ Polly Marshall, The God Of Hellfire, the Crazy Life and Times of Arthur Brown, ISBN 0-946719-77-2, SAF Publishing, 2005, page 64
| Preceded by "Mony Mony" by Tommy James & the Shondells |
UK number-one single 14 August 1968 |
Succeeded by "Mony Mony" by Tommy James & the Shondells |
