Yes! Before I do this segment I always refer to my master list of the top 100 lyricists formulated by Digitaldreamdoor (Give them a lot of credit). I had previously gone through 100-80 and adjusted the list to my wants and needs. I really needed to get Axl Rose out of there, I’m sorry. Soon enough, I will need to go through 79-50 and that will sure be interesting, but, for now, we are at #83 and I am excited. Why? Pete Brown. What, you don’t know who he is? Let me give you a few lyrics you may recognize.
“Ive been waiting so long
To be where Im going
In the sunshine of your love.”
Wait, isn’t that Clapton and The Cream? Well, yes, myself it indeed is, yet, Mr. Pete Brown, a performance poet, wrote the majority of Cream’s songs with bassist Jack Bruce and guitar-god (that is for you Josh “I love Eric Clapton” Lampert) Eric Clapton (for “Sunshine of your Love.”) Cream is my favorite Eric Clapton project and I love their music and specifically Brown’s lyric for one incredible song and that is “White Room.”
Since Brown is a “Performance Poet” he like Jim Morrison (The Doors) paired his lyrics with vocal performances. Brown has been paired with numerous musicians over his career like Graham Bond, Chris Spedding, and even Arthur Brown recently. “FIRE.” He is a very talented poet and his work shows this. Let’s analyze “White Room” like we do best.
Ah, in a white room with black curtains, near the stations
Blackroof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings
Silver horses, run down moonbeams in your dark eyes
Drawnlight smiles on your leaving, my contentment
I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines
Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves
You said no strings could secure you at the station
Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows
I walked into such a sad time at the station
When I walked out, felt my own need just beginning I’ll sleep in this place where the sun never shines
Wait in the dark where the shadows run from themselves
At the party she was kindness in the hard crowd
Consolation from the old wound now frogotten
Yellow tiggers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes
She’s just dressing goodbye windows, tired starlings
I’ll wait in the queue when the trains come back
Wait here with you where the shadows run from themselves”
A lot of people reading the lyrics probably just went oh! that’s what is said after the first line. I know I did after I first looked at the lyric many years a go. So, what do you think this song is about? Personally, and I don’t usually like to reach for songs, I think this one is about Vietnam, where a young man is at a train station during “a sad time at the station,” because young men are saying goodbyes to their families. They end up in Vietnam in combat with “yellow tigers crouched in jungles,” where “Shadows run from themselves.” My favorite lyrics in the song,
“Silver horses, run down moonbeams in your dark eyes
Drawnlight smiles on your leaving, my contentment.”
The imagery is just stunning, plus I always love when musicians use words like contentment in songs and do not sound stupid. Pete Brown is one of those who just never will sound stupid.
As much as he may look a little stupid... Just Kidding
“White Room” Cream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRqjpuLFXek
The Music Court 
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