Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come

Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come

I recently got new editions of the three proper Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come albums as little paper album cover CD’s from Japan. When I visited Japan earlier this year, I did not see these CD’s in stores at all. They are from 2005; I knew they existed, but…I did not see them at all. When I got home, I special ordered them from Wes at Soundsource, who got them for me easily. Good job!

I have loved these three albums for decades – they are among my very favorite 70’s records of all time. They’re fun, the music is hot, Arthur is wonderful – and the original vinyl editions are extremely beautiful packages. I’m happy to say that the new Japanese CD’s replicate every detail perfectly – yes, the “Galactic Zoo Dossier” comes with a CD-size two-sided poster! On all three, the Japanese CD’s even match the paper texture / composition (glossy or matte) of the original LP package. I love my Japanese Kingdom Come CD’s. They’re so pretty!

When Voiceprint did these CD’s roughly 15 years ago, I got ‘em. They sound OK, but the CD packages for these left a lot to be desired. Uh, the covers didn’t match. And the “no info at all” booklets didn’t even name the bonus tracks, nor even bother to number the tracks on the CD’s! I remember getting them out, having to figure out where the track breaks were etc. Just nightmarish! And Voiceprint flipped Side One and Side Two of “Kingdom Come” in the running order – huh? I mean, I can figure it out, but – what a slipshod treatment of some truly classic British progressive rock!

But let’s get down to brass tacks – the new ’05 Japanese CD’s are different, to whit:

Galactic Zoo Dossier UK 62:45 JPN 63:08

Kingdom Come UK 61:00 JPN 61:20

Journey UK 62:31 JPN 78:29

The biggest difference is that the new “Journey” CD adds some BBC session tracks! Yeah! It’s not everyday that you get to hear some new Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come information! I will have to take a closer look and see why the other two CD’s have times varying 20 seconds or more...hmmm…

Current bonus tracks for “Galactic Zoo Dossier” are “Metal Monster (Alternate vers.)”, “Space Plucks Dem Bones” and “Sunrise (Alternate vers.)” – bonus tracks for “Kingdom Come” are “Traffic Light Song(Alternate vers.)”, “The Hymn (Alternate vers.)” and “The Experiment (Alternate vers.)”. “Journey” is exciting, with “Spirit of Joy (Alternate vers.)”, “Time Captives (Alternate vers.)”, “Conception(Alternate vers.)”, “Come Alive(Alternate vers.)”, “Slow Rock (BBC Session = ‘Come Alive’)”, and “Spirit of Joy (BBC Session)”.