I am the god of hell fire and I bring you
Fire, I’ll take you to burn
Fire, I’ll take you to learn
I’ll see you burn!
You fought hard and you saved and earned
But all of it’s gone to burn
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you’ve really been so blind
Now’s your time burn your mind
You’re falling far too far behind
Oh no, oh no, oh no, you’re gonna burn!
Fire, to destroy all you’ve done
Fire, to end all you’ve become
I’ll feel you burn!
You’ve been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you’ve really been so blind
Now’s your time burn your mind
You’re falling far too far behind
Ooh
Fire, I’ll take you to burn
Fire, I’ll take you to learn
You’re gonna burn
You’re gonna burn
You’re gonna burn
Burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, burn
Burn, burn, burn
Fire, I’ll take you to burn
Fire, I’ll take you to learn
Fire, I’ll take you to bed
Fire
Fire
“Fire” is a 1968 song written by Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker.
During live performances and in the black and white promotional television clip, Arthur 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.
Kit Lambert also managed the Who among others
The record label Atlantic, told Kit Lambert, Brown’s manager that they enjoyed the album but thought that band member Theaker could not keep time in his drumming, and wanted the drum track re-recorded, an impossibility with the drums and keyboards having been recorded on the same reel. Lambert suggested to Brown that horns and strings be overdubbed to mask the perceived deficiencies. Brown agreed, and Crane wrote the brass arrangements.
The overdub sessions took two weeks to record. Brown later said that they were mixing the album for “probably fourteen hours a day”. After the remix was done, Lambert’s business partner, Chris Stamp, played the acetate for the band during one stop that occurred on their American tour. Approximately four minutes into the acetate, Theaker “leapt across the room, took it off the turntable, smashed it on the wall”, claiming that his drumming had been “buried” in the mix.
Brenden Tarrant used “Fire” in a posted video of his deadly actions on Facebook and the live stream included “Fire” blasting while he was in his car. Tarrant sang along to the song.
After the massacre, one radical Christian web site pointed to Brown as the “Satanic connection” in the shootings while citing him, inaccurately, as “the father of heavy metal music.” The Christian web site made a connection between Brown’s onstage use of a flaming headdress with worship of a demon idol.
Tarrant’s parents separated when he was young: this, along with other events including the loss of his family home in a fire and the death of his grandfather, led him to be traumatized and to start suffering from social anxiety.
What has this all got to do with anything? I don’t know, but given that LA is currently in flames, it seems somewhat relevant. There’s nothing I can say about it. It’s all over the news.
Arthur Brown is 82 years old, still performing and making records. His next show is on January 24th in Carlisle at The Temple Of Prog Festival. You can buy a cool Arthur Brown T shirt for $US 26 on his website. I might get one.