The Magic of the Majestic Arrows

Dreamed up in the basement of his Bronzeville harem/ headquarters, Arrow Brown’s peerless The Magic of The Majestic Arrows album was the by-product of years operating at the fringe of Chicago’s storied Record Row. Issued on his own Bandit imprint, the LP is a string-laden fantasia straddling the street corner doo-wop of the ‘50s and the Me Decade’s studio excess.

Backed by the Chosen Few and the Scott Brothers, arranged by Benjamin Wright, sung by Brown’s 17-year-old daughter Tridia and Moroccos falsetto Larry Brown, and drawn by The Wind’s Eugene Phillips, the album is an outsider D.I.Y. soul genie await- ing the rub of a phonographic needle to reveal its immor- tal sorcery. Be careful what you wish for.