When this arrived for review, I made myself two promises. Firstly, I would not let nostalgia interfere with my review and it would be 100% objective; this promise I kept. Secondly, I would not mention THAT song. For the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with Arthur Brown and his work I was going to introduce the reader to his long and prolific career as a musician and performance artist, without mentioning THAT song. I was going to point out the massive influence he has had on the music the readers of Ave Noctum likely listen to: along with blues weirdo and occasional collaborator Screaming Jay Hawkins, Mr Brown laid the foundations for Shock Rock and onstage theatricality that bands employ to this day; if you like the aesthetics corpse paint image of extreme metal, well, without mentioning THAT song, I was going to point out Mr Brown had employed that image long before anyone from Norway, let alone those tedious dinosaurs Kiss had. I was even going to expand on how he has crossed genres from proto-metal, Prog, Space Rock, Blues, and psychedelia, and not mention THAT song, but then the crafty old showman put my best intentions to the torch by having the cover of ‘Long Long Road’ being the flaming head dress that has appeared on so many clip shows over the years as he performed THAT song, ‘Fire’. Yes, Arthur Brown is that painted loony with the flaming helmet, screaming voice, and seemingly elastic body that is ‘The God of Hellfire’, but he is so, so much more.
Album opener ‘Gas Tanks’ blasts out of the speakers like a direct sequel to ‘Fire’, a swirling and screaming Hammond organ matching the screams that belay the years that Mr Brown has been performing; those demonic wails surely can’t be coming from the larynx of an eighty year old man, but on this album released on that particular milestone date, they do. His performance art comes to the fore with musically accompanied poem ‘Coffin Confessions’, all before ‘Going Down’ swaggers mystically forth with jazzy saxes mixed into the cocksure Blues that channel the spirit of the aforementioned Mr Hawkins, with Arthur having apparently built a time machine to go back to 1970 and magically possess the voice of Ian Gillan. Hell, the Hairy Scream himself has been working the lower register of his voice for a decade plus as time marches on, but I think Arthur Brown could recreate a note perfect ‘Child In Time’ if he ever decided to do covers rather than continue with his own work.
‘Once I Had Illusions (Part 1)’ takes the album down a dark country path, the mix of acoustic guitar and simple percussion evoking to me a steam train working its way across the desert landscape of the Old West, the starkness of the lyrics and their impassioned delivery sounding a thousand times more genuine than all the ‘God, Guns, and Trucks’ rhinestone encrusted flag waving stereotyped rubbish that passes for so much of Country music these days. I’d like to believe that Johnny Cash would give this dark tail of hangings and death his nod of approval. This journey into Americana continues with the plaintive harmonica and slide guitar lead ‘I Like Games’, his grinning tribute to games “two can play late at night” continuing a licentious tradition plied by generation after generation of bluesmen since Robert Johnson first met the Devil at the crossroads, and delivered with a dark promise that any man half his age could barely hope to match. How do you follow that? Well, with the sleazy jazzy beats of ‘Shining Brightness’ of course which ebbs and flows from the quiet and dirty to the howls of Jim Morrison in heat. Hell, in some alternative universe when the Lizard King left this earth rather than continue without a dedicated vocalist Messrs Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger recruited Arthur Brown to front the band to even greater heights. Sounds like an impossibility? Well, let me again remind you, as you would not believe it from the timeless power of his performance, The Crazy World were contemporaries of The Doors, so it could have happened.
Things then get more mellow and traditional, ‘The Blues and Messing Around’ having the atmosphere of being recorded in a smoke filled London basement club with John Mayall producing and Peter Green wielding his Gibson Les Paul as The Rolling Stones nodded along in the audience, the number then bleeding into the gospel inspired title track ‘Long Long Road’, an uplifting song of hope and exultation for redemption that is not just a product of the summer of love, but something so needed in our current decade of uncertainty. The entire exercise in excellence that is ‘Long Long Road’ closes with ‘Once I Had Illusions (Part 2)’, the extension of the first version adding a wailing electric guitar, layered keyboards, and fuller percussion to evolve the song from dark Country to the bombastic Prog of Pink Floyd’s heyday.
To give ‘Long Long Road’ the praise it truly deserves requires a more erudite writer than I, and the achievement it represents is a testament to the creativity and musical ability of Arthur Brown. The fact that 80 years on this planet has not sapped his energy or creativity is a testament to his spirit, and the fact that all the instruments on the album are handled by just him and Rik Patten makes it even more remarkable. The only question would be why after all this praise am I only awarding nine out of ten? Well, I’ve got to leave somewhere to go when he releases an even better album on his ninetieth birthday, surely?
(9/10 Spenny)
https://www.thegodofhellfire.com
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