Pete Brown discusses Lyrics

How did you start to write poetry?

Hearing a recording by Kenneth Patchen, one of the First Jazz and Poetry Records, was a seminal experience for me as it opened unthought of avenues for poetry and music. Other influences were Dylan Thomas and Lorca.

I started writing when I was 14 and, in 1960, when I was just 19, I turned professional - in other words I stopped having day jobs. After that I just wrote and performed, my first major collaboration was with Mike Horovitz's New Departures Group (1960-65), which included performances with musicians such as Dick Heckstall Smith.

How did you first meet Dick?

I'd already met Dick in 1960 and we'd worked together in the New Departures group. We were already friends when the New Departures Group had a residency at the Marquee in 1963 - the Alexis Korner band also had a residency at the Marquis and we used to hang out a lot more together - Dick was a member of Alexis' band. We've come a long way together, it was through Dick that I met Jack Bruce (which led to my collaboration with Jack and the Cream), Ginger Baker, and Graham Bond - when the Graham Bond Organisation was formed, I was one of its biggest fans; I still am, infact I'm in the process of producing what should be the definitive compilation of the best of the Graham Bond Organisation!

When did you start writing lyrics?

The first songs I wrote were when Cream was formed in 1966, (White Room, Politician) and immediately after they started to become successful, Graham Bond pounced and asked me to write lyrics for the third incarnation of the Graham Bond Organisation - the 3 piece band. It turned out to be a musical, as well as a poetic collaboration as I also wrote the music for these songs. My work with Graham was also the beginning of my singing career. I remember taking some exotic songs to Graham, including "You left me with the tattered fragments of the A-Z to Hell" and "Late night mental tyre service", and because there was no-one else around, I sang them through to him. It wasn't just the songs that appealed to him, I remember him asking me out of the blue "would like you to join my band as a singer?"

Anyway, that's how my association with DHS started. Incidentally Dick co-produced my first Album in 1967 "A Meal you can shake hands with in the Dark" and then I co-wrote nearly all the songs on Dick's first Album "A Story Ended". Since then I have produced Dicks records including Woza Nasu and our latest hit record 'Celtic Steppes' - so in Blake's immortal words, indeed "life has its cheerful symmetry"!!

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