Pete Brown

One of the key eccentrics of the Harvest stable and a successful collaborative lyricist for Cream ("I Feel Free," "Sunshine of Your Love"), poet/percussionist/vocalist/trumpet player Pete Brown was one of the many artists to arise from the British beat movement in the mid- to late '60s. Like a lot of his peers, Brown's spin on progressive rock came from backgrounds in folk, jazz, and blues.



Brown was kicking around the scene as a poet until being approached by Cream to assist in songwriting. Upon achieving chart success with the trio, Brown decided to go the musician route. Graham Bond asked Brown to help out with some songs for the Graham Bond Organisation, and he was eventually invited to sing with the group on-stage. Once they broke up, Brown helped form the Battered Ornaments, hoping to work with musicians whose skills didn't dwarf his own. The group fell in with Harvest, the progressive subsidiary of EMI that housed the likes of Syd Barrett, Deep Purple, and Roy Harper. The Battered Ornaments' only record with Brown, A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark, was released in 1969.

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