Arthur Brown

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the intro of “A tous les enfants” (To All the Children) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll start figuring out the verses. 

            On my Christian’s Translations blog I published “Hope in a Bottle”, my translation of “Qui lira ces mots” by Serge Gainsbourg. I also posted the lyrics on Facebook. I searched through the rest of the 1966 Gainsbourg file for any songs I’ve yet to translate. There were a couple of titles for which there are no lyrics or audio online. I moved on to 1967 and there are also titles with no song or lyrics that can be found. I found that I had the first verse of the Gainsbourg song “Au risque de te déplaire” and remembered that I found it on a blog. The audio is available and so I’ll try to transcribe the other verses. If I can’t I’ll just learn the first verse, work out the chords and publish that for now. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions. Hopefully Alex Wood will call me next week to let me know he has room in his shop for my guitar. 

            I weighed 86.25 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since April 30. 

            I’ve been listening to the Arthur Brown discography. Brown studied Philosophy and Law at the Universities of London and Reading. At reading he started his first band Blues and Brown. He moved to Paris in 1966 where he started developing his theatrical skills. He contributed two songs to the film The Game Is Over. In 1967 he formed The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and in his performances started using his iconic burning helmet. But his frenetic dancing while singing caused the methanol to spill and on a few occasions he set his hair and scalp on fire. His use of extreme make-up in his performances influenced Alice Cooper and Kiss. In 1970 he got arrested in Palermo, Italy and deported for stripping naked onstage. His voice influenced Ian Gillen in the way he sustained his notes but Brown had more range. His first album was executive produced by Pete Townsend of the Who and contained Brown’s only big hit, “Fire”. The second drummer for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was Carl Palmer, later of Atomic Rooster and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Brown’s second band was called Kingdom Come. He appeared as The Priest during the song “Eyesight to the Blind” in Ken Russel’s film adaptation of the rock opera Tommy. In the 80s he moved to Texas where he earned a masters degree in Counselling. He collaborated with former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black on the album Brown Black and Blue. He toured in 2001 and 2002 as a guest vocalist for Hawkwind. His album Long Long Road was released on his 80th birthday in 2022. 

            Around midday I strapped the back tire of my vintage Raleigh to my bike trailer and headed for Biseagal to pick up my bike. I played it very safe and stopped several times to pee along the way: at Long and McQuade at Ossington and Bloor; at Chipotle near Church and Bloor; and at the Second Cup between Broadview and Logan. When I got there I had a hard time finding the door since there is no sign for Malcolm’s shop on the outside of the building. I ran into Ted, who I know from helping me out as a volunteer at Bike Pirates. He was getting some work done as well. Malcolm looked at the back wheel and said the frame would have to be adjusted for it because modern wheels are wider and that’s what broke my frame. I was pretty disappointed that my whole trip had been just to bring a wheel and not to be able to leave with my bike. He said it would be ready tomorrow and so it looks like I’ll have to skip my usual trip to No Frills and go grocery shopping on Sunday instead. This time I headed back along Dundas rather than going all the way up to Danforth. I went south on University to Queen and to play it safe again I stopped at the Rivoli to pee. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos at 16:15. That’s the least I’ve tipped the scales in the early afternoon since April 17. 

            I weighed 85.85 kilos at 19:39. April 20 was the last time I was that hefty in the evening. 

            I grilled two very thin inside round steaks and had the larger one with a potato and gravy while watching episode 16 of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. 

            In the first Birdman story, Birdman is giving Birdboy a chemistry lesson when they hear from Falcon 7 of a monster in the Himalayas. When they get to Tibet they find some people evacuating their village. Suddenly there is an avalanche so Birdboy throws up a solar shield to protect the villagers while Birdman tries to destroy the rocks. Birdman gets buried in snow and Birdboy has to uncover him. Birdman finds the monster’s tracks and follows them to the monster who looks something like a yeti but also breathes fire. Birdman gets knocked out and Birdboy fights the monster but gets captured. Birdman recovers and follows the monster’s tracks to a cave where Birdboy is tied to a stake while a villain named Chang tells him his mechanical monster will chase the villagers away so he can have the uranium to his self. He also tells him he must die for knowing this. Birdman distracts Chang and frees Birdboy. Birdman is capable of recharging Birdboy’s power. Chang has the monster attack them but they combine their solar blasts and destroy the robot. Chang threatens them with his uranium gun but is hit from behind by Birdman’s eagle Avenger. 

            In the Galaxy Trio story, the population of the capital of the Planet Nova is threatened by normally small lizards and insects that have grown gigantic because of Growliath’s growth spray. All of the creatures somehow feel an urge to follow his commands. The king sends out an SOS and the Trio answer it. They see Growliath riding a giant butterfly and demanding they surrender. Gravity Girl makes Growliath very heavy and causes the butterfly to fall. He is caught by something like a giant ape of that world. Meteor Man kicks the ape and chases it away. An insect attacks and Vapour Man turns himself into insect repellent, then they follow the bug back to Growliath’s lair. Growliath turns the spray on himself to make himself a giant that can fight Meteor Man. He says, “Compared to me you are a baby and the baby needs a spanking”. He’s too strong for Meteor Man now but Meteor Man gets hold of Growliath’s antidote and shoots it at him with a sling. It causes him to shrink smaller than normal and they put him in a bird cage.

            In the second Birdman story Vulturo returns and has developed a robot copy of Avenger. Meanwhile Birdboy is still searching for his lost father and goes out alone. He is met by the robot Avenger, which he mistakes for the real one. It signals him to follow and so he does, only to be trapped by Vulturo. Avenger lures him to a cave where Birdboy sits in a chair that drains his powers. Birdboy turns on his radio collar to call Birdman for help but that’s just what Vulturo wants. Vulturo suspends Birdboy on a conveyor that is moving towards a bottomless pit. Vulturo flies his Vulture Plane to meet Birdman and captures him in a lock ray. He too is suspended on the conveyor. But Avenger flies in to attack Vulturo who backs against the controls, inadvertently stopping the conveyor. Birdboy adds his solar energy to Birdman’s so he can break free. Vulturo breaks the chains suspending Birdboy so he falls into the pit but Birdman catches him at the last minute. Together they defeat Vuturo and he is taken to prison.