CREAM

Cream are often regarded as the most perfect of proofs that super-groups do not make for actual super groups. "Having a band full of virtuoso talents does not guarantee that the band will be a good one - just look at Cream", we're told. Now I don't really go along with that. Cream were not a bad band. They probably weren't a great band, all told, and perhaps the overall worth of the band was less than the sum of its parts (which is rather unusual) but they weren't a bad band by any stretch of the imagination (although when listening to the sixteen minute version of "Toad" you don't have to stretch too far). On the other hand, they were not that great either. They did constitute an important element of the rock revolution in the sixties, mainly bridging the gap between psychedelia, blues and hard rock, but purely on music alone I would class them as a somewhat second-tier artist. On my rating system they sit along side the likes of the Police, Deep Purple (mk II) and the Eels. Which seems about right.

Now this super-group consisted of only three members (pictured above) and each were a veritable master of their trade. Ginger Baker was a powerful and talented drummer, Jack Bruce a phenomenal bassist, a superior harmonica player and an all-round decent vocalist, but the real super-star, of course, was guitarist Eric Clapton. And not much more needs to be said than that. I believe they were pretty much the first rock super-group and probably the most successful. I guess, given the egos involved, super groups are destined for a short and rocky existence and that is exactly what happened to Cream. A mere four full albums (and the last one barely counts) were released during their three year duration. They did contribute some fairly memorable compositions to the soundtrack of the sixties, though - not least, hippy anthem "Sunshine of Your Love".

Perhaps unusually Cream consisted of two different musical entities. There was the experimental, poppy and relatively concise studio band and the bloated, self-indulgent live band. Thus many of their songs exist both as a three minute burst of psychedelic pop and a fifteen minute extended jam. It is also interesting that Cream themselves might think they never got the respect they deserved. Starting in 1966, before Hendrix and certainly Led Zeppelin, they were undeniable pioneers in inventing rock music as a re-interpretation of blues. Clapton, in particular, almost throughout his career has been a single white voice championing the blues. Indeed his dedication to the blues often sees him ignored at the expense of the more progressive guitarists like Hendrix, Page and even Jeff Beck. Anyhow, personally I reckon it was the appealing to the pop market and the dated psychedelia that has obscured Cream's legacy in the hard rock stakes.

From: David Kellogg

Thanks for the Cream reviews.
I have to say I have a very different perspective having been born in 1944. It's so very difficult to pass judgment on what people did it in the past, what they were thinking, what situation they found themselves in and the meaning of their actions to the people living at the same time in relationship to what had gone before.
I hear Cream getting ripped for playing long jams. In fact they were told directly by their audience "Just play and don't stop."
To hear psychedelia called silly chaffes quite a bit. Imagine that at some time in the past everyone thought it was a good thing for one to stick beans up one's nose and then some leader decided it was a bad thing. And now much later someone decries the practice when in fact, had that person been there at that time they would have been putting more beans up their nose than anyone else.
I guess what I'm saying is that from my perspective you just don't get it.

[That's all well and good but did they eat the beans afterwards? - JF]

From: Steve Johnston

Live Cream were excellent!
End of story!

From: Harry Falik

I couldn't believe that Jackasses could write until I read your unbelieveably ignorant tripe about Cream. Feeble as in Feeble minded should be your name not Feeny. Go eat some hay.

Overall it is probably this first album that you are most likely to argue represents a bridging between the blues and rock. Certainly their silly psychedelia hasn't been allowed to cloud the issue yet. For the most part this is a combination of traditional blues (some might say too traditional) and concise pop songs. The underrated harmonies of the band are in evidence on some of the more poppy numbers like "I Feel Free", "N.S.U." or "Dreaming". Indeed the album seems to be somewhat split between the Bruce-penned pop songs on the first side and the traditional blues arrangements (often dominated by harmonica) on the second half of the album. I guess "Four Until Late" (on the second side) is quite poppy but it was written by blues pioneer Robert Johnson; and arranged by Eric Clapton, incidentally. This album was originally released as separate versions either side of the Atlantic with "Spoonful" but not "I Feel Free" on the British version and vice-versa for the American version (released a month later in January 1967). Thankfully the remaster series have included both songs on the same album. And thank God for that as they are two of the best tracks on here. It would have been a shame to have excluded either. As well as the absence of psychedelia Eric Clapton seems more peripheral here with Jack Bruce really taking centre stage. Indeed, his guitar sounds as if it was recorded in the far corner of a large room. In any case both "Cat's Squirrel" and Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'" feature prominent use of the harmonica. On the latter Clapton engages in a furious duel with Bruce's harmonica making it one of the most intense, and indeed heaviest, rock songs recorded up to that point. It is interesting that it isn't particularly the guitar which gives the song its intensity and thus heaviness. I guess Baker's drums are equally furious and pounding throughout that song. The pop songs are all fairly decent with "I Feel Free" and "N.S.U." being the pick of the bunch. "I Feel Free" is presumably the most famous song on the album, Cream original anyway, and deservedly so. Like I said earlier, the band's harmonies are top-notch and Clapton certainly shows off his unique guitar playing, the like of which nobody, at this point in time, had rivalled. I really think Clapton doesn't get enough credit sometimes for inventing the hard rock guitar tone. The best showcase of it, though, is probably his blues album with John Mayall. Suffice to say nobody was playing guitar like that in 1966, although they all were afterwards. "Dreaming" is actually less than two minutes long which is almost shocking if you are only familiar with the live behemoth version of Cream. Again it is a pleasant pop song. That said, a couple of live staples are present on here. "Spoonful" is stretched out for over six minutes (probably a good length for it) and the album ends with the drum solo "Toad". Clapton is allowed to take precedence on "Spoonful" although Bruce still throws in plenty of harmonica licks. A good version, anyway. "Toad" goes on for five minutes but, as elucidated in my Led Zeppelin II review, I don't actually mind drum solos as long as they keep it relatively brief and I think Baker just about manages it. It also helps that he is a talented drummer so it sounds suitably impressive. To be honest I've run out of things to say now so I guess this is as good a time as any to wrap it up. A competent and probably pretty revolutionary album. What it sometimes lacks in excitement it makes up for with, er, harmonica playing.

Just take a look at that album cover. Suffice to say the band have now fully embraced the wonderful world of psychedelia. It is also a far more polished album than the blues-dominated debut. In fact, it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to declare this Cream's greatest album. Certainly this album is close to, although not touching, 10* quality. In actual fact, there is still a little too much of generic blues on here for it to be a complete masterpiece. The rest, though, are mainly psychedelic pop songs (all basically short of the four minute mark) easily up to the quality of "I Feel Free" and "N.S.U." from their debut album. I'd also venture the Cream present on here are far preferable to the Cream present on the live CD from Wheels of Fire. Most of their famous songs are on here, most notably the great anthem "Sunshine of Your Love". It is certainly up there with the likes of "All Along the Watchtower" and "Dazed and Confused" as a psychedelic hard rock masterpiece. That riff is so perfectly simple and the chorus crunches like nobody's business. What a masterpiece. "Strange Brew" is also a pretty famous song although it is less rock-based than "Sunshine of Your Love"; going more for straight pop. My two favourite numbers on this album, though, are two of the more underrated tracks: the gorgeously psychedelic "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and the eerily desolate "We're Going Wrong". "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is another hard rock song with Clapton overdubbing plenty of wah-wah solos (easily rivalling Hendrix in the psychedelic stakes). "We're Going Wrong", on the other hand, is a more subtle number with a gentle escalating chord sequence and a climatic, acidic guitar solo. Bruce's falsetto is sinister yet desperate, adding as much to the song as Clapton's guitar parts. My only complaint regarding the latter number is that it is perhaps a bit short (and I don't often say that). I'm sure it could have made a brilliant climatic epic, perhaps extending Clapton's guitar solo. Still, given the nature of their live performances, I'm sure a longer version does exist. Like "Tales of Brave Ulysses" "SWLABR" is also a good mixture of psychedelia and hard rock. Unfortunately, it is not as strong a composition and the lyrics are quite simply ridiculous. In this day and age it is hard to really enjoy songs about rainbows with beards. Like the equally silly King Crimson Cream often relied on an outsider to write the lyrics, in this case Pete Brown. I just can't understand why you would rely on someone else to write such appalling lyrics. Surely Bruce or Clapton could have done equally badly off their own backs. To be fair, "Sunshine of Your Love"'s lyrics aren't all that terrible. "Dance the Night Away" is another psychedelic pop masterpiece, without the more aggressive guitar parts of "Sunshine of Your Love" or "Tales of Brave Ulysses". Again it features Bruce's affecting falsetto and some nice harmonising. All this material thus far is definitely 10* material. Unfortunately that would only make up about twenty minutes, so something has to fill the time. And what better to fill the time than filler. A conceptual gag for you there. Yes, the likes of "Blue Condition", "Outside Woman Blues", "Take it Back" and "Mother's Lament" are all distinctly filler-ish. "Blues Condition" is composed and sung by Baker, neither of which he does particularly well, while "Outside Woman Blues" is sung and arranged by Clapton which is slightly better although still nothing spectacular. The album ends with the traditional song "Mother's Lament" about babies going down plug-holes with the band affecting silly cockney accents as if they were working-class Londoners. Believe me, they're fooling no-one. The ordinary, final trio of "Outside Woman Blues", "Take it Back" and "Mother's Lament" definitely closes the album on an anti-climatic note, after the psychedelic masterpieces that came before. Still, if you are going to buy any Cream album it might as well be this one. It is, after all, the best.

From: stray_toasters@juno.com

I just wanted to say I'm glad you like "We're Going Wrong". It isn't often that I find someone else praising it. I accidently downloaded a track where Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce play with Gary Moore called "Why Does Love Have to Go Wrong", and Ginger drummed on there just like he drummed on "Wrong". But I don't know what album it's on. A song search on CDNow turned up nothing. Strange.

From: stray_toasters@juno.com

I got that song I mentioned on your Cream page. It's on an album called Around the Next Dream from 1994 and the artist is BBM (Baker, Bruce, and Moore). Apparently a Cream reunion with Clapton replaced by Gary Moore. Some of the songs are pretty good, and Jack Bruce is still a great singer and bassist, but I can barely stand that 90's production style, especially when Bruce is using the same chord structure he used on Cream songs (which makes me wanna listen to the real thing anyway).

Still psychedelic and I'd probably venture that the studio part of this album is even more polished than Disraeli Gears. Obviously that doesn't necessitate that it is a better album but there are certainly no generic blues on here, and just less filler in general. The most notable aspect of Cream's third album, though, is that it is actually a double album. The first CD is a normal studio album whilst the second CD represents a complete live performance. Thus both facets of Cream are encapsulated in this product. Indeed, the studio album is Cream at their most experimental and quirky. Again one bona fide hit is included, namely the opening "White Room". I have to say that the verse to "White Room" doesn't seem wonderfully far removed from the verse of "Dance the Night Away". Still, let's just call it the Cream template so such a good song's name isn't besmirched. Anyway, do you know what the "White Room" is? A waiting room in a train station. Not very psychedelic, is it? The other truly great original on here is the political satire "Politician". Again Pete Brown contributes the lyrics and personally I find it far more satisfying that he attempts to tackle something a bit more serious than facial hair on meteorological occurrences. Indeed it is cynical enough to make the likes of Jello Biafra jealous. Well, not really, but it is a good song anyway. A great funk-inspired riff from Clapton driving it on. Retreating back to their debut there are couple of straight blues covers on the first disc. There is the excellent Howlin' Wolf's "Sitting on Top of the World" and the increasingly famous "Born Under a Bad Sign". Indeed, the popularity of "Born Under a Bad Sign" is based mostly on the version on here. I actually think they play "Born Under a Bad Sign" a bit fast, not making the most of the arching, ominous riff. Still, a good song. The rest of the songs feature the most extended use of weird instruments of any Cream album. Glockenspiels, tubular bells, trumpets, cellos and so on all feature on various compositions. What's the most psychedelic song on here? Well, the silliest would certainly be "Pressed Rat and Warthog" which is a Wind in the Willows type tale narrated by Baker. Very, very odd at any rate. The cello elevates both "Deserted Cities of the Heart" and "As You Said", although neither are startlingly brilliant compositions. The best of the rest is almost certainly "Passing the Time". It begins at a very lazy tempo, accentuated by a glockenspiel, before, out of nowhere, it bursts into a furious rocker with Clapton driving it along with an unusual one-note riff. The riff actually sounds something like the Pixies which, on a Cream album, is somewhat surprising. Well, that will do for the studio album, even in its own right not quite up to the standard displayed on Disraeli Gears. The live album, though, is something of a disappointment. Forty-five minutes and four songs is clue enough. It begins with Clapton singing the Robert Johnson original "Crossroads". Perhaps surprisingly I was actually familiar with Johnson's version before I heard this one, so it was an unexpected delight to hear Clapton cover it. It is also relatively brief and thus supremely enjoyable. The other three songs seem to represent a solo spot for each member. "Spoonful" is an indulgent sixteen minutes long, mostly consisting of Clapton soloing away for a good long time. I guess it is enjoyable in parts but something so long is inevitably going to try the patience. "Traintime" is Bruce's solo spot and is probably the most interesting of the latter three songs. Baker keeps a quiet beat while Bruce alternately sings and plays harmonica without a guitar in sight. Again, seven minutes is pushing it but it is alright overall. The real monstrosity on the album is a modest sixteen minute rendition of the drum solo "Toad". If you don't own this album just try and imagine it: sixteen minutes of drum solo. Who on earth wants to listen to that? At a live show there is an inkling of visual stimulation but when you are staring at your stereo there is nothing at all to justify it. I just can't understand why the band want it to go on for so long in the first place. You can almost picture Jack Bruce coming into the dressing room before the gig and saying: "I hear John Bonham did a twelve minute drum solo yesterday" to which Baker replies "hmm...twelve minutes, eh? I'll show them, I'll show them alright!" It makes you wonder who'd actually want to go to a Cream gig. Think of the number of pure rock'n'roll blasts MC5 or the Ramones could fit in during Baker's musical masturbation. Well, "Toad" aside I'll just about give this album the benefit of the doubt. The studio album is pretty good and you can always press stop when track three on the second disc ends. Still, though, I'm sure they could have come up with a better live document than this.

From: Electriclad7184@aol.com

It was nice to see something about Cream after all these years. I still listen to the albums although as you pointed out, not to "Toad" off Wheels Of Fire too often. It just seemed to be a fad of the time loads of bands doing drum solo's (yawn) at least ginger could play .

To be honest I think Cream had already broken up in 1968 before this was released in March 1969, making it more a two year duration than three. You will no doubt be shocked into shame to discover that this is pretty much a shameless cash-in by the record company. A modest three new tracks are on here with the rest of the album being filled out with more live tracks. But, to be fair, one of the new tracks is really good ("Badge", obviously) and the live material I think is preferable to the performances on Wheels of Fire. At least there are no drum solos and only one of the songs is stretched out into a lengthy jam. Thus it is the opening live rendition of "I'm So Glad" that stretches out into the ten minute jam. It is a rather odd rendition as it begins and ends like the bluesy pop song on Fresh Cream with the jam coming in a lengthy middle section that seemingly bears no resemblance to the actual song. That said, I really quite enjoy this jam. Being almost half the length of "Spoonful" (the jam section, mind, not the entire song) it doesn't tire too much and Clapton's ferocious guitar soloing is perfectly complemented by Bruce's heavy bass. The song itself, "I'm So Glad", is hardly anything special, something of a throwaway number, but, for once, it is the bloated instrumental that makes it worth-while. On the other hand, the remaining two live tracks, "Politician" and "Sitting on Top of the World" (both from Wheels of Fire), are given standard renditions. For "Politician" this doesn't really make much of a difference. A slightly longer guitar solo, perhaps, but nothing extraordinary. "Sitting on Top of the World", on the other hand, is possibly elevated above its studio counterpart, primarily on account of Bruce's bass tone. For want of a less silly term, it is truly phat. At any rate, it perfectly underpins the structure of the song. So the live performance is actually pretty satisfying, perhaps surprisingly. The disappointment is in the new songs, or at least lack of them. The songs themselves aren't particularly poor, but it is hard to give out a particularly high rating when there is such a cynical dearth of new material. All three tracks are relatively novel, however, in that they feature prominent piano by Bruce. They also sound distinctively Beatles-esque, "Badge" in particular. Now why could that be? Who is this G Harrison who co-wrote it with Clapton? I just can't work it out... Yeah, anyway "Badge" was famously co-written with George Harrison of "Piggies" fame and Clapton also takes vocal responsibilities. It is a nice, pleasant tune with a typically Beatles-esque melody. It is perhaps a bit short, though, and it does end very abruptly. As for the other two new tracks, "Doing that Scrapyard Thing" is almost certainly the lesser with a silly, uninteresting melody whilst "What a Bringdown" does, at least, give us a memorable chorus. The prominent piano really does make them seem less like Cream songs. But given that they were recorded just as Cream were ceasing to exist perhaps that is unsurprising. There are a couple of live albums available which I might get, whilst Eric Clapton was the only member to really become more successful afterwards through a variety of short-lived groups (Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominoes notably) and his soft-rock solo career. As for this album, a fairly cynical and ill-conceived cash-in, but still pretty enjoyable nonetheless.