White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns is an impressionistic journey through the life and career of Pete Brown, songwriter, poet, singer, bandleader, record producer and (originally encouraged by Martin Scorsese's love of his lyrics) screenwriter. It is about youth, age, success, failure, mortality and perseverance. Touching on Brown's wartime and postwar childhood, and his second generation Jewish immigrant roots, the film explores the social and political backgrounds which stimulated the development of this groundbreaking artist and performer. Partly responsible for the sale of 35 million + albums, Brown as a rock poet is thought by some to be in close company to Bob Dylan in chronicling the post war/60's era, but his horizons have continued to expand beyond music and lyrics. The film boasts a stellar cast, both pro- and anti- Brown, including Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce (in his last major filmed interview), Ginger Baker, Martin Scorsese, Arthur Brown, Robert Wyatt, and Fay Weldon. Director Mark AJ Waters (Brown's regular screenwriting partner) respectfully depicts the events, imagery and culture that he was not a part of, but from which he and many of his contemporaries drew considerable inspiration. WRIW is more than a rock documentary, as its subject is not only a musician; it crosses as many boundaries as Brown himself does. It is a fast moving and entertaining portrait of an intriguing and often limelight-shunning personality, still a creative force in his mid-70s.
