The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown: Zim Zam Zim

First album in a decade from the psychedelic fire starter.

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An inspiration to everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Marilyn Manson, the 72-year-old Brown is on defiantly crackpot form here.

A cosmic slop of swamp reggae (The Unknown), voodoo blues (Jungle Fever) and lecherous boogie (Muscle Of Love) laced with psilocybin-inspired babble about time travel, eco-awareness and the nature of existence, it would be a tour de force even without Brown’s extraordinary pipes.

Great lines abound: ‘Don’t urinate in my microwave!’ he growls in Junkyard Blues, but it’s Touched By All where he lays his cards on the table. ‘Stay unknowable, but evident/ Touched by all, but owned by none,’ he smoulders.

Others may have tried to wrestle away his (flaming) crown, but Brown remains the king of the crazies, even after all these years.

Paul Moody

Paul Moody is a writer whose work has appeared in the Classic Rock, NME, Time Out, Uncut, Arena and the Guardian. He is the co-author of The Search for the Perfect Pub and The Rough Pub Guide.