Brown, Pete & His Battered Ornaments Meal You Can Shake Hands With CD - Import

MEAL YOU CAN SHAKE HANDS WITH from Pete Brown's Battered Ornaments contains the tracks "Dark Lady" and "High Sorrow," among others.

Pete Brown's debut album may not have been as accessible as those of Cream (for whom he often helped write material) or even the early Jack Bruce (for whom he continued to collaborate as a songwriter). There are similarities, however, though more to Bruce's solo work than to Cream. For one thing, there are those lyrics, which are of a far higher standard than heard on most rock songs, ranging from ominous impressionism to take-out-the-piss political satire. Then there's Brown's voice, which rather resembles a gruff Jack Bruce, and is effective though certainly not as smoothly melodic as Bruce's vocals. And then there's the music, which grew out of the same jazz-blues-rock community that gave birth to the Graham Bond Organisation, Cream, and Colosseum. In fact, two other alumni of that scene, Bond (on organ) and Dick Heckstall-Smith (on saxophone), are among the supporting players, as is a young Chris Spedding. There are also unusual psychedelic and Middle Eastern accents here and there in the arrangements, though tasteful and subdued. Because there aren't the pop hooks of the songs Brown had a hand with in Cream, and because Brown's voice is not that of your average rock frontman, it's not something that ever got a wide audience. But it has its rewards for those looking for something a little more avant-garde and intellectual than much late-'60s psychedelic-prog rock, including the fairly grooving "Dark Lady" (which musically resembles Graham Bond's work), "Station Song" (where the likeness to some of Jack Bruce's more mysterious tracks is highest), and the beguiling downward-spiral melody of "Rainy Taxi Girl." Some of the bluesy tunes are more functional, but the 12-minute "The Politician" -- not the same as the Cream classic "Politician" penned by Brown and Bruce, though there are similarities -- is a highlight, as a very witty and scathing anti-establishment spoken word poem segueing into an off-kilter blues-rocker that exposes the "politician" for the lecherously hypocritical geezer he is. ~ Richie Unterberger

This two-disc set from Beat Goes On Records features a pair of out of print LPs by Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments: A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark and A Mantlepiece, both originally issued on Harvest Records. Highlights among these 18 slightly eccentric tracks include "The Crosswords and the Safety Pins," "Rainy Taxi Girl," and the bonus track "The Week Looked Good on Paper." ~ Al Campbell

There was a real jazz-rock exhilaration about the Battered Ornaments, even if their tenure under leader Pete Brown didn't last long. But with players like guitarist Chris Spedding, saxman Dick Heckstall-Smith, and drummer Rob Tait, there was no shortage of talent in the band. Singer/trumpeter Pete Brown had already established a reputation as a poet and lyricist (penning many songs for Cream), and had a deep love of jazz and blues, which was reflected on A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark in tracks like "Dark Lady" and "Station Song," albeit refracted through the prism of the '60s and rock & roll. In other words, it was adventurous, with three tracks stretching over eight minutes -- two of them passing 12, absolute epics by the standards of the time. But both "Travelling Blues" and "Politician" warranted the extended workouts, as Brown allowed his musicians to blow -- something they could do very well. In some ways, the band stood as an antecedent of outfits like Colosseum, albeit less well-organized, and more in the spirit of the times, but topped by Brown's poetry and enigmatic lyrics. ~ Chris Nickson

The German edition comes with two bonus cuts.

Includes 2 Bonus Tracks.

2 LPs on 1 CD: A MEAL YOU CAN SHAKE HANDS WITH IN THE DARK/MANTLE-PIECE.

Liner Note Author: Mark Brennan .Mojo (Publisher) (p.128) - "A MEAL...was particularly adventurous. 'Dark Lady' is ostensibly a straight-ahead soul-stomper, but is galvanised into something else by Khan's ferocious sax and Spedding's skidding slide guitar."