The Bandit Records legend could almost be fiction. The house passing as a home, the harem passing as a family, the rising star brutally murdered in his prime, the dream, the con: The end. Arrow Brown inhabited the same south-side Chicago landscape as Afro-Noir author Iceberg Slim's ghetto characters, taking inspiration from the same sources that shaded Airtight Willie, White Folks, and Blue Howard.
Drawn to the underground and fancying himself a rogue entrepreneur, Brown and his Bandit label operated somewhere in the space between money laundering outfit and sex cult. Brown poured proceeds from straight jobs held by his many "daughters" into sumptuously rendered, forward-looking soul records by the egotistically named Arrows and the Majestic Arrows, as well his seven-year-old son Altyrone Deno Brown, whose father hoped to push to Jackson-style child-fame heights. Putting beauty and genius in front of commercial viability, Arrow laid down lush, sweeping strings to lure the listener into a hipster fantasy world, sharply incongruent with the sometimes-criminal reality of the city that dreamt it.
Our triple-LP unabridged edition brings 40 tracks to the CD's 20, and the 14,000-word accompanying book, crackling with odd and dazzling imagery, makes our original notes read like a Babysitter's Club entry. In 2005, novelist and essayist Jonathan Lethem called the entirety of the Bandit Records tale "Haunting... haunted... Like a little novel." In its darker corners, 003 Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label may more closely resemble true crime.
A1 -Arrows, The (3) We Have Love 2:45
A2 -Arrows, The (3) The Love I See Now 2:43
A3 -Arrows, The (3) Boogedy Boogedy 2:40
A4 -Arrows, The (3) Bring Back The One I Love 2:16
A5 -Johnny Davis (3) You've Got To Crawl To Me 3:30
A6 -Sandy Cleveland My Heart Will Never Lie 2:40
A7 -Sandy Cleveland We Love Together 4:04
B1 -Linda Ballentine* You're A Hard Habit To Break
B2 -Linda Ballentine* Glad About That
B3 -Altyrone Deno Brown Sweet Pea 2:21
B4 -Altyrone Deno Brown If You Love Me 3:35
B5 -Chosen Few* Lift This Hurt 2:30
B6 -Chosen Few* You've Been Unfair
B7 -Hassan (17) Ghetto King
C1 -Majestic Arrows* One More Time Around 3:04
C2 -Majestic Arrows* Love Is All I Need 5:13
C3 -Majestic Arrows* Doing It For Us 3:28
C4 -Majestic Arrows* Going To Make A Time Machine 3:28
C5 -Majestic Arrows* Ladies And Wonderful Girls 3:42
D1 -Majestic Arrows* I'll Never Cry For Another Boy 6:01
D2 -Majestic Arrows* We Love Together 3:20
D3 -Majestic Arrows* Another Day 3:02
D4 -Majestic Arrows* The Magic Of Your Love 3:15
D5 -Majestic Arrows* Going To Make A Time Machine (Instrumental) 3:28
E1 -M.A.S.O. Poon Tang Thump 3:27
E2 -Altyrone Deno Brown I Will Find You 3:21
E3 -Altyrone Deno Brown The Eclipse Of Love 3:20
E4 -Wind (15) Don't Let Them Tell You 3:55
E5 -Wind (15) People 3:36
F1 -Majestic Arrows* One More Time Around
F2 -Majestic Arrows* Love Is All I Need
F3 -Majestic Arrows* If I Had A Little Love
F4 -Majestic Arrows* Make Yourself Over
F5 -Majestic Arrows* I'll Never Cry For Another Boy
F6 -Altyrone Deno Brown Thought I Was A Playboy
F7 -Darnell Jones (2) Come Back Home
