ATOMIC ROOSTER Sleeping For Years: The Studio Recordings 1970-74
CHERRY RED 7/10 Four-disc boxset from Vincent Crane’s spooked progsters IN the Chinese zodiac, 1969 was the Year Of The Rooster. It was also the year that Vincent Crane, keyboardist with The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Banstead, Surrey, following an LSD-induced breakdown. When he re-emerged he set out to form a keyboard-driven heavy-rock trio with ex-Arthur Brown/future ELP drummer Carl Palmer.
In search of a name, they turned for ‘inspiration’ to one of Crane’s fellow casualties, a former Iron Butterfly/Rhinoceros bassist who had taken too much acid and believed that he had turned into an ‘atomic rooster’. To complete the trio they targeted Brian Jones, a plan that ended at the bottom of his swimming pool. Ric Grech turned them down in favour of Blind Faith, Jack Bruce declined and Greg Ridley opted to join Humble Pie. After placing an ad in Melody Maker, they found Nick Graham, a civil engineering student from Southampton, who could play bass and sing a bit.
The new trio’s self-titled 1970 debut mixed prog workouts with an unusual emphasis on groove, pastoral passages and doom-laden lyrics. Unlike, say, the cod demonism of Black Sabbath, Crane was driven by an all-to-real neurosis, epitomised by the harrowing “Banstead”, which chronicled his time on the psychiatric ward.
No fewer than 15 musicians passed through the Rooster’s ranks over the next five years, with Crane the only constant. Obsessed with Tarot readings and the paranormal, Crane harnessed his manic depression into a crazed but often inspired prog-funk fusion on songs with titles such as “Death Walks Behind You”, “Satan’s Wheel” and “Time Take My Life”.
The recruitment of Chris Farlowe as the band’s fourth vocalist in three years added a further soulfulness, and he sang strongly on the band’s fourth and fifth albums, Made In England (1972) and Nice And Greasy (1973). But like everyone else, he found it hard to deal with Crane’s psychosis and described visiting his home as “entering Dracula’s castle”.
Following Farlowe’s departure, there was one final single, with a B-side titled “OD”, a more terrifyingly deranged vision of madness than anything dreamed by Syd Barrett, Skip Spence or Sky Saxon.
After Atomic Rooster broke up, Crane bricked up his front door and was sectioned again several times. There was a brief attempt at reviving the band in the early 1980s and he was even more fleetingly a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, before he committed suicide in 1989 at the age of 45, by swallowing several hundred painkillers. Extras: 7/10. The 43 tracks from the original five albums are augmented by a dozen more, including three versions of “The Devil’s Answer”, heard in demo form and with two different vocalists, plus various other rarities and non-album singles.