Pete Brown, Cream lyricist and poet dies aged 82
Pete Brown, the lyricist of psychedelic pioneers, Cream, has passed away aged 82. He had been living with “various forms of cancer” over recent years.
The family of his long-time collaborator and Cream vocalist/bassist, Jack Bruce, wrote on social media: “We are extremely saddened to learn of the death of Jack’s long-term friend and writing partner Pete Brown who passed away last night. We extend our sincere condolences to Pete’s wife Sheridan and Pete’s children as well as all his family and friends. Love from the Bruce family.”
Brown is remembered for his long-term creative collaboration with Bruce, which commenced in 1965 until Bruce’s passing in 2014. Brown was invited to assist Cream in finishing their debut single ‘Wrapping Paper’ by their drummer Ginger Baker in 1966, which resulted in them fully converging.
Brown would then pen the lyrics to some of the band’s most successful songs, including ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ and ‘I Feel Free’. After Cream disbanded in 1968, Brown remained Bruce’s go-to lyricist for most of his solo albums, working from 1969’s Songs for a Tailor to 2014’s Silver Rails.
Notably, Brown formed the First Real Poetry Band in the early 1960s and delivered poetry in front of a quartet of jazz musicians, including John McLaughlin, who would work with Miles Davis during his electric period, including Bitches Brew. After working with Cream, he gradually embraced singing, and formed the psychedelic jazz and blues band, Pete Brown and the Battered Ornamets before departing after 1969’s A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark.
After the mid-1970s, Brown moved away from music and entered the world of scriptwriting. He wrote the 1989’s children’s film Felix the Cat: the Movie. He then took work in the 1980s as a singer and percussionist with jazz pianist Mervyn Afrika and the Barrelhouse Blues Orchestra.
Notably, director Martin Scorsese was an admirer and used Brown’s Cream songs in the likes of Goodfellas and Casino. “Pete was a great songwriter,” he says in the trailer for a presently unreleased documentary about Brown (per The Guardian). “Whenever the lyrics are repeated in my head … these images stay with me.”
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