Of the three, Arthur Brown is perhaps the least hokey
It must have been genuinely alarming for parents and middle-of-the-roaders to see this witch-doctor prancing in the Top of the Pop studio, fringed with flames.
Taunting the squares in their sitting rooms:
"You fought hard and you saved and earned
But all of it's going to burn...
You've been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world
Also, this is 1968 - riots and sit-ins and disorder in the streets. "Burn baby burn!"
It's like a frightfully English mummer show / Medieval carny type version of the Doors's Dionysianism (keyboard-dominant sound too)
That strange, hip-dislocating jive Arthur B does at one point! The demonic laughter!
Of course those three do not exhaust the rock thematics of Hell, the Devil, Satan, etc
Huge amounts more in the metal area
Hmmm, doing the Stones or Sabbath seems too obvious
What else?
I was about to say Killing Joke were an genuinely infernal band (before they shlocked out)
And then saw that actually have a song on this topic, or near it
Revelations is the ungodly peak
I assume "pandys" is some kind of reference to pandemonium in its original / literal meaning
Probably crops up a lot in soul and country and reggae and such
Ah, how could I forget? Not hokey at all this, absolutely terrifying. I tried to listen to this album in the dark when I first got it, but had to turn the lights back on.
Had a very pleasant conversation with La Galas in, I think, late '86, interviewing her in cafe in Queensway.
