VINCENT CRANE FEATURING ARTHUR BROWN
''TARO ROTA''
1997
48:26
********************
1 - Part 1/22:24
2 - Part 2/3:17
3 - Part 3/22:25
Music By Vincent Crane, Lyrics By Jeannie Crane
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL
Vincent's Unfinished Project, Jeannie Crane, 1997
Vincent and I composed this piece way back in 1976, especially for Arthur Brown. There is a ten minute demo with Arthur on vocals, but unfortunately, due to contractual reasons, at the last minute it couldn't be included on the CD. At the moment the Taro Rota Suite is an impressive 23 minutes of Vincent doing the whole thing! Hopefully this will be amended later this year!
One day a charity bazaar was held in the grounds of a very large and beautiful house and Vincent and I went along to do Tarot Readings.Inside the conservatory, surrounded by lush hangings of grape vine, we spread the cards time and time again. We told story after story for an endless queue of people but the day was just was not long enough to be with everyone. So, when everyone else had left, the remaining books had been packed, the paintings put away and the money counted, we lay out a spread of cards for all the people we didn't see. It told us your story and it told you ours. We called it Taro Rota...
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Dave Thompson
Properly termed a Vincent Crane solo album, but so dominated by Arthur Brown's preternatural vocals that the billing has been totally flipped, the oft misspelled Taro Rota album was originally conceived around 1975, when Crane and wife-to be Jeannie Crane found their shared interest in Tarot cards spilling over into their songwriting. (The pair used to offer Tarot readings at fetes and fairs.) A 22-minute opus arranged for orchestra and more, Taro it was a fascinating piece of work, but far too ambitious to ever be realized. Even Crane's otherwise-enthusiastic publishers were willing only to fund a ten-minute demo, which was recorded later in 1975 with Arthur Brown and a full band -- it is this piece which leads off the 1997 Voiceprint CD, alongside Crane's own piano demo of the full work. The original Taro Rota did not remain entirely unheard. Atomic Rooster's valedictory Headline News album lifted elements for the songs "Time" and "Machine," although little more than the melody will prepare the listener for the full Taro Rota experience. Nor, of course, does the music presented here. Despite a spellbinding Brown recital, the band performance is just a shade too clunky to capture the full dynamic of the Cranes' vision, while the piano rendition is by necessity too Spartan. But both allow one to dream of what could have been -- and it is a wonderful dream.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA/VINCENT CRANE
Vincent Crane (21 May 1943 – 14 February 1989) was a self-taught pianist, who studied theory and composition at Trinity College of Music, and graduated in 1964. He was best known as the organist for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.
Born Vincent Rodney Cheesman in Reading, Berkshire, he taught himself boogie woogie piano as a teenager before attending Trinity College of Music between 1961 and 1964. Influenced by Graham Bond, he took up Hammond organ and in 1967 teamed up with Arthur Brown in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Their eponymous debut album, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968) contained the song "Fire", a chart-topping hit single in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, with Crane's organ and brass arrangement to the fore.
During their first tour of the USA in 1968, Crane suffered a nervous breakdown and returned to the UK where he spent 3 or 4 months in the mental hospital at Banstead. Crane rejoined the band but on a subsequent tour of the USA, the band disintegrated in June 1969 when Arthur Brown temporarily disappeared to a commune and Crane and drummer Carl Palmer (later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer) left to form Atomic Rooster, playing their first concert at the Lyceum in London on 29 August headlining over Deep Purple. Atomic Rooster enjoyed success in 1971 with two hit singles, "Tomorrow Night", and "Devil's Answer". Crane was the one constant member of the band through their almost constantly changing lineups, and wrote a slim majority of their material.
Crane suffered from bipolar disorder from at least 1968 onwards, periodically necessitating treatment at both out- and inpatient mental health treatment facilities.
He collaborated with other musicians on a number of albums, including Rory Gallagher (Rory Gallagher, 1971), Arthur Brown (Faster Than The Speed Of Light, 1979), Peter Green, Richard Wahnfried and Dexys Midnight Runners (Don't Stand Me Down, 1985). In 1983 he was part of the one-off blues outfit, Katmandu, with Ray Dorset, Len Surtees and Peter Green, who recorded the album A Case for the Blues.
Crane died of a deliberate overdose of Anadin tablets in 1989 at the age of 45.
********************
MORE ABOUT VINCENT CRANE
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/ARTHUR BROWN
Richie Unterberger
One of the most electrifying one-shot artists of the '60s, British singer Arthur Brown briefly set the charts alight in 1968, as well as thrilling audiences with his theatrical performances, which saw him wearing helmets of fire and outlandish costumes. His debut album was surely one of the most left-field commercial successes of the late '60s, if not of rock history. In addition to topping the British charts (and reaching number two in the U.S.) with his brilliantly demonic single "Fire," the self-proclaimed god of hellfire actually scored a Top Ten LP with his 1968 debut. Unveiling Brown's demented, fire-obsessed lyrical visions and swooping, theatrical vocals, it showcased his band's manic, agitated psychedelic sound, which was anchored by incendiary drumming, Pete Townshend's production, and an organist who could be best described as Jimmy Smith on acid. Brown's original band broke up in early 1969; in the early '70s he released several albums with Kingdom Come, which saw him pursuing a maddeningly obscure and less exciting brand of art rock. He recorded off and on after, with an additional flash of fame springing from his role as a priest in the film Tommy.
********************
WEBSITE
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
''TARO ROTA''
1997
48:26
********************
1 - Part 1/22:24
2 - Part 2/3:17
3 - Part 3/22:25
Music By Vincent Crane, Lyrics By Jeannie Crane
********************
ABOUT THE ALBUM/OFFICIAL
Vincent's Unfinished Project, Jeannie Crane, 1997
Vincent and I composed this piece way back in 1976, especially for Arthur Brown. There is a ten minute demo with Arthur on vocals, but unfortunately, due to contractual reasons, at the last minute it couldn't be included on the CD. At the moment the Taro Rota Suite is an impressive 23 minutes of Vincent doing the whole thing! Hopefully this will be amended later this year!
One day a charity bazaar was held in the grounds of a very large and beautiful house and Vincent and I went along to do Tarot Readings.Inside the conservatory, surrounded by lush hangings of grape vine, we spread the cards time and time again. We told story after story for an endless queue of people but the day was just was not long enough to be with everyone. So, when everyone else had left, the remaining books had been packed, the paintings put away and the money counted, we lay out a spread of cards for all the people we didn't see. It told us your story and it told you ours. We called it Taro Rota...
********************
REVIEW/AMG
Dave Thompson
Properly termed a Vincent Crane solo album, but so dominated by Arthur Brown's preternatural vocals that the billing has been totally flipped, the oft misspelled Taro Rota album was originally conceived around 1975, when Crane and wife-to be Jeannie Crane found their shared interest in Tarot cards spilling over into their songwriting. (The pair used to offer Tarot readings at fetes and fairs.) A 22-minute opus arranged for orchestra and more, Taro it was a fascinating piece of work, but far too ambitious to ever be realized. Even Crane's otherwise-enthusiastic publishers were willing only to fund a ten-minute demo, which was recorded later in 1975 with Arthur Brown and a full band -- it is this piece which leads off the 1997 Voiceprint CD, alongside Crane's own piano demo of the full work. The original Taro Rota did not remain entirely unheard. Atomic Rooster's valedictory Headline News album lifted elements for the songs "Time" and "Machine," although little more than the melody will prepare the listener for the full Taro Rota experience. Nor, of course, does the music presented here. Despite a spellbinding Brown recital, the band performance is just a shade too clunky to capture the full dynamic of the Cranes' vision, while the piano rendition is by necessity too Spartan. But both allow one to dream of what could have been -- and it is a wonderful dream.
********************
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA/VINCENT CRANE
Vincent Crane (21 May 1943 – 14 February 1989) was a self-taught pianist, who studied theory and composition at Trinity College of Music, and graduated in 1964. He was best known as the organist for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster.
Born Vincent Rodney Cheesman in Reading, Berkshire, he taught himself boogie woogie piano as a teenager before attending Trinity College of Music between 1961 and 1964. Influenced by Graham Bond, he took up Hammond organ and in 1967 teamed up with Arthur Brown in The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Their eponymous debut album, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968) contained the song "Fire", a chart-topping hit single in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, with Crane's organ and brass arrangement to the fore.
During their first tour of the USA in 1968, Crane suffered a nervous breakdown and returned to the UK where he spent 3 or 4 months in the mental hospital at Banstead. Crane rejoined the band but on a subsequent tour of the USA, the band disintegrated in June 1969 when Arthur Brown temporarily disappeared to a commune and Crane and drummer Carl Palmer (later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer) left to form Atomic Rooster, playing their first concert at the Lyceum in London on 29 August headlining over Deep Purple. Atomic Rooster enjoyed success in 1971 with two hit singles, "Tomorrow Night", and "Devil's Answer". Crane was the one constant member of the band through their almost constantly changing lineups, and wrote a slim majority of their material.
Crane suffered from bipolar disorder from at least 1968 onwards, periodically necessitating treatment at both out- and inpatient mental health treatment facilities.
He collaborated with other musicians on a number of albums, including Rory Gallagher (Rory Gallagher, 1971), Arthur Brown (Faster Than The Speed Of Light, 1979), Peter Green, Richard Wahnfried and Dexys Midnight Runners (Don't Stand Me Down, 1985). In 1983 he was part of the one-off blues outfit, Katmandu, with Ray Dorset, Len Surtees and Peter Green, who recorded the album A Case for the Blues.
Crane died of a deliberate overdose of Anadin tablets in 1989 at the age of 45.
********************
MORE ABOUT VINCENT CRANE
********************
BIOGRAPHY/AMG/ARTHUR BROWN
Richie Unterberger
One of the most electrifying one-shot artists of the '60s, British singer Arthur Brown briefly set the charts alight in 1968, as well as thrilling audiences with his theatrical performances, which saw him wearing helmets of fire and outlandish costumes. His debut album was surely one of the most left-field commercial successes of the late '60s, if not of rock history. In addition to topping the British charts (and reaching number two in the U.S.) with his brilliantly demonic single "Fire," the self-proclaimed god of hellfire actually scored a Top Ten LP with his 1968 debut. Unveiling Brown's demented, fire-obsessed lyrical visions and swooping, theatrical vocals, it showcased his band's manic, agitated psychedelic sound, which was anchored by incendiary drumming, Pete Townshend's production, and an organist who could be best described as Jimmy Smith on acid. Brown's original band broke up in early 1969; in the early '70s he released several albums with Kingdom Come, which saw him pursuing a maddeningly obscure and less exciting brand of art rock. He recorded off and on after, with an additional flash of fame springing from his role as a priest in the film Tommy.
********************
WEBSITE
********************
TO THE TOP
********************
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