Two years ago, Pete Brown‘s passing robbed the world of one of the greatest lyricists – or, rather, poets, because that’s what he was: a British Beatnik without whom many CREAM songs wouldn’t have been so great. But while Peter’s collaborations with Jack Bruce are well-celebrated, even though his contribution to the final PROCOL HARUM album deserved to be known much better, Brown’s own musical oeuvre, with various collectives, is often overlooked – criminally so. Which is why the forthcoming box set of the late wordsmith’s early works should not go unnoticed.
To be out on July 25th, “Can’t Get Off The Planet: The Recordings 1968-1973” comprised six CDs that include the albums Pete issued with THE BATTERED ORNAMENTS and PIBLOKTO! – the latter ensemble’s single “Living Life Backwards” would be covered by BECK, BOGERT & APPICE on their unreleased second platter – as well as "Two Heads Are Better Than One" that he laid down in the company of Graham Bond. All if it has been recently remastered from the original master tapes and augmented with quite a lot bonus cuts, some of which have never seen the light of day, with concert numbers and pieces by the BROWN AND FRIENDS project featuring Jack Bruce and Jeff Beck giving the collection additional value. What’s unexplainedly not there is “The ‘Not Forgotten’ Association”: it could round off the comp rather nicely, because Brown’s next longplay hit the shelves only in 1982, yet the rest of his early classics, bound together, look good.
Can’t Get Off The Planet:
The Recordings 1968-1973
CD 1 –
PETE BROWN AND HIS BATTERED ORNAMENTS –
A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark:
1. Dark Lady
2. The Old Man
3. Station Song
4. The Politician
5. Rainy Taxi Girl
6. Morning Call
7. Sandcastle
8. Travelling Blues (Or The New Used Jew’s Dues Blues)
bonus tracks:
9. Then I Must Go And Can I Keep (Morgan Studios 1968)
10. Sandcastle (Morgan Studios 1968)
11. Security Blues (EMI Abbey Road Studios 1969)
12. The Week Looked Good On Paper (single)
CD 2 –
PETE BROWN And PIBLOKTO! –
Things May Come And Things May Go, But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever:
1. Things May Come And Things May Go, But The Art School Dance Goes On Forever
2. High Flying Electric Bird
3. Someone Like You
4. Walk For Charity, Run For Money
5. Then I Must Go And Can I Keep
6. My Love’s Gone Far Away
7. Golden Country Kingdom
8. Firesong
9. Country Morning
bonus tracks:
10. Living Life Backwards (single)
11. Can’t Get Off The Planet (single)
12. Broken Magic (B-side)
CD 3 –
PETE BROWN AND PIBLOKTO! –
Thousands On A Raft:
1. Aeroplane Head Woman
2. Station Song Platform Two
3. Highland Song
4. If Only They Could See Me Now, Parts One And Two
5. Got A Letter From A Computer
6. Thousands On A Raft
bonus tracks:
7. Flying Hero Sandwich (single)
8. My Last Band (B-side)
CD 4 –
PETE BROWN AND PIBLOKTO! –
Studio & Radio Sessions 1969-1971:
1. Prophet (demo 1969)
2. Country Morning (demo 1969)
3. High Sorrow (demo 1969)
4. Aeroplane Head Woman (demo 1970)
5. Dawn Of A Night Wasp (demo 1970)
6. Raining Pins And Needles (Abbey Road, January 1970)
7. Christmas Party In A Deserted Seaside Station (Station Song Platform Two) (Abbey Road, January 1970)
8. Aeroplane Head Woman (BBC radio session, August 1971)
9. Dawn Of A Night Wasp (BBC radio session, August 1971)
10. Got A Letter From A Computer (BBC radio session, August 1971)
CD 5 –
PETE BROWN AND PIBLOKTO! –
Live In Paris – October 1971:
1. Aeroplane Head Woman
2. Golden Country Kingdom
3. Got A Letter From A Computer
4. The Politician
5. Milk Is Turning Sour In My Shoes
CD 6 –
GRAHAM BOND and PETE BROWN –
Two Heads Are Better Than One:
1. Lost Tribe
2. Ig The Pig
3. Oobati
4. Amazing Grass
5. Scunthorpe Crabmeat Train Sideways Boogie Shuffle Stomp
6. C.F.D.T. (Colonel Fright’s Dancing Terrapins)
7. Mass Debate
8. Looking For Time
bonus tracks:
9. Macumbe (EP)
10. Milk Is Turning Sour In My Shoes (B-side)
PETE BROWN and FRIENDS:
11. Nights In Armour (Decca Studios, 1973)
12. Barbed Wire Night Dress (Decca Studios, 1973)
13. Night At Joan And Roy’s (demo 1973)
14. She Used To Come And See Me When I Slept On The Floor (demo 1973)
