PETE BROWN
A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark ’69, Things May Come & Things May Go But the Art School Dance Goes On Forever ’70
CREAM lyricist Pete Brown had released 2 brilliant, highly influencial
conceptual solo LP’s in ’69 & 70 that are largely forgotten. Most people know him for his power trio period. Subsequently he’d ventured deep into Prog Rock waters thus remaining one of the true pioneers of the genre. It’s about time he’s credited for his addition. The first one — ‘Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments’ shares some common ground with the initial King Crimson platter, f. e. the squeaky Sax, well known to R. Fripp followers. It also features the jazzy, spoken word, mocking, 12 min piece — “The Politician” which still sounds quite relevant.
It seems Brown’d been a huge influence on Peter Hammill’s solo output. The way he’d phrazed his epic sounding voice it all comes from Brown. It might come as a dissapointment to VDGG & solo Hammill fans but it’s obvious. Listen to how’s the line ‘all trains that cry in the night’ sound in “Country Morning”, on 1970 — ‘Things May Come & Things May Go …’ and you’ll get my point. The title also reveals an absolute truth, it’s hard to argue with. After experiencing the records it becomes much more clear that 3/4 of Cream, except for Clapton, have gone Progressive, something most Blues freaks always try to disregard!