Arthur Brown´s Kingdom Come - Time Captives

If you've been brought up on 1960s psychedelic rock, you've probably heard "Fire", the 1968 classic from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. That band featured Arthur Brown, of course on vocals, as organist Vincent Crane (later of Atomic Rooster) and drummer Carl Palmer (later briefly of Atomic Rooster before joining Emerson, Lake & Palmer, one of the biggest names in prog rock). By 1969, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown was no more. A second album was recorded and scrapped (but later surfaced years later).

So Arthur Brown formed a new band called Kingdom Come (not to be confused with that Led Zeppelin clone band from the 1980s), in which he explored more spacy progressive rock. Already Kingdom Come released two albums, Galactic Zoo Dossier (1971) and Kingdom Come (1972) before releasing Journey. I have not heard their first two albums, so I can't comment there, but Journey really took me by surprise.

While the Hammond organ dominated the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, the dominant instruments on Journey were the Mellotron, ARP 2600 and VCS-3 synthesizers, with some great guitar work, and no real drums. Arthur Brown uses the Bentley Rhythm Ace drum machine on this album, which sounds like a cheap piece of crap toy (no wonder it took until the 1980s before drum machines were used regularly in recordings), but the totally amazing music makes up for the drum machine being used.

The album opens with "Time Captives" which starts off with the sound of Brown's drum machine, before eventually all the strange electronic effects come in. By the time the vocals come in, the music is totally in progressive space rock territory. The next cut is the instrumental "Triangles", not the most remarkable cut on the album, but the following cut, "Gypsy" totally makes up for that, because it's simply one of the best cuts on the album.

"Supernatural Roadblocks" starts off with some totally amazing use of Mellotron, of the type the Moody Blues could only dream of, before the the music starts. The next cut, "Conception" is largely instrumental, but you get treated with Arthur Brown's terrifying screams from time to time. "Spirit of Joy" is the closest thing to a hit on this album, and, unsurprisingly, the song was released as a single prior to the album's release. The last song, "Come Alive" continues in the same synthesizer dominater prog rock territory, with a great bluesy middle passage with vocals that oddly remind me of Frank Zappa.

Unfortunately, after Journey was released, Kingdom Come broke up, leaving Arthur Brown to record simply under his own name. I have heard his 1975 album Dance, and I thought that album was almost total crap (except for a cover of "We've Gotta Get Out of This Place"). So, surprisingly, Arthur Brown gave us much more than The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and "Fire", as 1973's Journey proves. Another classic album, in my book.

Year of release: 1973
- Arthur Brown: Bentley drum machine, vocals
- Andy Dalby: guitar, drums, vocals
- Victor Peraino: Mellotron, ARP 2600 and VCS-3 synthesizers, Theramin, piano, percussion, vocals
- Phil Shutt: bass, vocals, percussion

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Psycadelic
• Rock

[InuitAldebaran]

Great ! Thank you !

Is it certain, the song is called "Time Captives"?

He DOES sing: "We are Time CAPTAINS", I am positive there.

(Back in boarding school I used to wake up my roommates with a full volume version of "Fire", or Birthcontrols "Gamma Ray" when more mildly mooded.)

Makes a difference to me if we are Time-Captains or -Captives, you know...

[thomp030]

Hi,

the cover say's Time Captives, Amazon UK and many other web pages are saying Time Captives, but you're right - it sonds like Time CAPTAINS. We have to ask Arthur himself ... :-)

[zitlight73]

Thanks a million for posting this. I thought this song was lost for ever. Brings to mind a better more creative time. Is Arthur Brown still alive?

[thomp030]

Yes, he is. Have a look to my Hawkwind Clip. Guess who's the singer?

[pjohnson9109]

How does this only have 5046 views? Such a good song.

[thomp030]

Maybe it's to special to be rembered by the most listeners. It's the same with "Neu" "Can" "La Duesseldorf" "Brainticket" .... etc.

[onvarocks]

This guy was way way ahead....

[ogrebattle22763]

This guy must be a trip to see live...

[navalverde12]

@thomp030 On discogs the title does say "Time Captives", but on another Arthur Brown release from 1993 "Order from Chaos Live" there is a track titled "Time Captains".

[runway27r]

This use to get a lot of airplay on Philadelphia college stations

[laspapisdelrollo]

magnifique!!!!

[keltyk]

Drum machines were almost unheard of back then- I think the 'toy' sound on Time Captives really adds to this song and makes KC pioneering heroes of electronica

[keltyk]

KC lived in the squat next door to Hawkwind's up Ladbrok Grove- It's especially apparent in the way this tune ends- which should remind you a lot of classic period Hawkwind's use of electronics

[TheyKnowNoShame]

@thomp030 Yes your correct, of course. It "Time Captives" , and is what gives the song it's core meaning. We in life are CAPTIVES of Time, captives as in Prisoners. Peace, Max i saw Crazy World of Arthur Brown live in 68 in a tiny club, it was beyond awesome---cripes one song he performs while dressed as the pope and sitting on a toilet(crapper), his robes spread out of course LOL!

[TheyKnowNoShame]

@zitlight73 Very MUCH Alive and performing--looks quite lean and healthy, but wears hair now like Bozo the Clown as he is bald on top. Has done much new material, extremely spiritual and love committed. By the way, as i have lyric sheet from the album, the phrase is "Time Captives", period

[MegaBanne]

Some people talk about drum machines being soulles, than i would answer with this song.

Its not the instrument that have soul, its the musician that plays/creat the music who gives it soul.

[naffsharpe]

@mls300154 I have ,with a girl called Lesely.Not just this track, but the whole album. Totally mindblowing, as was she!! Those were the days/I,m old etc.

[MegaBanne]

My respect for Arthur Brown as a musician and artist just refuses to stop growing.

[smar8smar8]

I am Time traveling through this journey of soundsclouds. Love it!

[mls300154]

tRY IT TOTALLY STONED

[pokethunder]

ta cabronn 

[Veselchuna]

pro

[Photonzos]

turn it up to twelve

[professoricon]

Turn it up to eleven.

[professoricon]

We need someone to upload 'Gypsy' for the best guitar work and stunningly dramatic vocals.

[slowhand19]

its captains. just listen. many imported and discontinued cds are incorrectly engineered and produced. but anyway many thanks, i was tripping hard on this.

[Vondur]

Absolutely amazing.

[absolutebore]

@InuitAldebaran i think it's both!

[TheJoshMarch]

some next level shit!

[robbierobbo]

i actually saw Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come perform this on two occasions in 1972 - once at Reading Town Hall and once in Newbury. He just stood behind this ridiculous drum machine all night - great guitar work by Andy Dalby though (I think)

[ecopunk66]

Astralasia do a great version of this on the Mother Durga ep! Excellent!

[ecopunk66]

Astralasia do a great version of this on the ''mother durga e.p.'' excellent!