Who is Arthur White? (Part 2 of 2)

The following was written in January 2007 to introduce potential new band members to the origins and history of the Arthur White concept.

In Arthur White's Brand New Life, several of these aforementioned archetypes have developed further.

On the most superficial level, the name change follows the precedent of Arthur Brown in naming his second band "Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come."  The questions and longings expressed in the Sweet World have found answers, or at least openings.  There is the suggestion that a spiritual journey--albeit shrouded in utter obscurity like most things about Arthur White--has occurred in the intervening "lost" years.  Whereas the former Arthur White used to dress to the nines, the new Arthur White dresses to the nines except that he wears his feet bare or with sandals, sort of like a George Harrison or John McLaughlin.

Arthur White arrives on the scene like I once saw blues guitar legend Son Seals arrive.  His band had played a good 30 minutes, muttering among themselves about his whereabouts between numbers.  To that end, the band needs to be skilled enough to play fairly good blues, R&B, and/or jazz for an entire night if necessary.  In this case, Seals did ultimately arrive, plug in and play.  I see Arthur White arriving to the strains of the "Brand New Life Theme," being introduced by a member of the band and immediately launching into the next number, perhaps "Arthur White's Theme."

This seeming attitude of gracing others with his presence comes from his countless experiences being "center stage under the lights," experiences to which he makes vague but frequent references in his songs.  It's not so much that he is a megalomaniac as that he is uninterested in this kind of attention after an apparently harrowing transformational experience.  So there's a sometimes overt annoyance at the trappings of performance and fame.