Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever

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Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever is the first album by Pete Brown and Piblokto!, released in 1970 on Harvest Records. The title and cover celebrate Brown's art school background.

Video Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever

Background

Having previously worked with Cream and Jack Bruce, Brown had been fired from his previous band, Battered Ornaments, the day before supporting The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park in July 1969. He quickly assembled another band including guitarist Jim Mullen, to make more commercial music. The song "High Flying Electric Bird" had been released as the B-side to the group's first single, "Living Life Backwards".

Maps Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever

Cover

The title is based on Ernest Holmes' quotation "Things may come and things may go, but creation goes on forever" and refers to Brown's enthusiasm for art schools in postwar Britain, which was a fertile ground for creativity and artistic influence in the 1960s. The front cover includes photographs of former art school students, including Syd Barrett. The inner sleeve includes various cartoons of the character Piblokto.

The album was promoted on inner sleeves throughout the Harvest Records catalogue, along with albums by Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Kevin Ayers, Barrett and Roy Harper.

The phrase "the art school dance goes on forever" was later used by the fine art movement.

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Release

The title track was featured on a Harvest retrospective, Harvest Festival, in 1999. The album was remastered and reissued on CD in 2009 by Repertoire Records, which added the two sides of the single "Flying Hero Sandwich" as bonus tracks.

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Track listing

All tracks written by Pete Brown, except where indicated.

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Personnel

Pete Brown - vocals, talking drum, Cornish slide whistle
Jim Mullen - guitar
Dave Thompson - organ, piano, mellotron, harmonium, soprano saxophone, bass pedals
Roger Bunn - bass, acoustic guitar
Rob Tait - drums