Pete Brown made a huge impact to rock in the late 60's yet you'll rarely hear his name today when progressive rock is the topic. Of course it will be fans of Cream that know the name best as he wrote the lyrics in collaboration with Jack Bruce on some of the most potent and progressive music of the time.
Progressive rock at the time wasn't an established or as easily identifiable sound as we can recognise it today. In the latter years of the 60's rock music was evolving almost by the month as new groups looked to expand their ideas and the length of their recordings, and 'progressive' was just a lose term to describe these new sounds.
There'd even become a split in how audiences were perceiving rock bands and those that followed the new experimental and often expansive performances on record as well as live were seeing themselves and the groups as evolving further and further away from what was seen as the mainstream.
Pete Brown had always been somewhat of an outsider having begun the early 60's as a performance poet in Liverpool, first forming The First Real Poetry Band (John McClaughlin being the guitarist then). Through the Poetry Band came the meeting with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce and then on to the co-writing for Cream ("I Feel Free", "White Room").
His own group, Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments were formed in 1968 and lasted until 69 when he was, amusingly in hindsight, sacked by his own group the day before they were due to play at the Stones' Hyde Park gig. Gawd only knows how that band meeting played out.
Anyway, undeterred Brown went onto form Pete Brown & Piblokto recording several albums on the leader of progressive rock record labels 'Harvest'.
The 1970 and third album, "Thousands On A Raft" is a classic lost or forgotten prog rock album.
Here's the first track "Aeroplane Head Woman".
Brown as ever a master conjurer with words always had the most unusual and evocative titles. You can also hear how later in 1971-73 Jack Bruce's voice would sing simliar melodic lines in songs for his solo albums which were also co-written with Brown.
Personnel on the album were:
- Pete Brown - vocals, percussion
- Jim Mullen - guitar, bass, percussion
- Dave Thompson - keyboards, soprano saxophone, mellotron, percussion
- Steve Glover - bass, percussion
- Bob Tait - drums, percussion
