Imagine the scene. It’s London 1969, you are poet singer Pete Brown and the band you’re in (Pete Brown And The Battered Ornaments) has a support slot on the bill of The Rolling Stones’ free concert in Hyde Park.
That’s the good news. The bad news is your band has just voted to fire you and will wipe your vocals off their forthcoming album.
By his own admission in the copious sleeve notes that accompany Living Life Backwards, Pete Brown could sometimes be a right royal pain in the ass. Best remembered as the principal lyricist for Cream and Jack Bruce’s post-Cream solo albums, this “best of” collection sheds welcome light on Brown’s alternative career as an unexpectedly credible underground rock singer with side orders of prog, jazz, and hallucinogenic words to go.
On the evidence presented here it looks as though The Battered Ornaments (which featured Chris Spedding) did Brown a favour by giving him the push as clunkers such as the R&B footstomper, “Dark Lady” from A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark, stretch Brown’s vocals to the absolute edge of their capacity.
These are thankfully few and instead the bulk of this collection is rightly taken up with the two more convincing albums he made with Piblokto! – Things May Come And Things May Go But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever and Thousands On A Raft (both 1970).
Though Piblokto! lacked any kind of chart success in the UK (damned instead by the faint praise of being big in France), Harvest showed an almost touching loyalty in releasing a clutch of non-album singles, all collected here, including the languid ballad “Broken Magic” and its progtastic six-minute Hammond-heavy A-side, "Can’t Get Off This Planet" where Brown tries out a touch of Family’s Roger Chapmanesque strangulated warbling.
Article comments
1 - anna regan
the Swanny Whistle is a fabulous instrument. I didnt hear the solo but it could have been fantastic. Did he use it to its advantage or no? are you a musical audience?