For me, true greatness generally requires a little more meat on the compositional bones — but I won't argue!
Great stuff. Just finished the recent Mal Evans bio (largely based on his unpublished memoirs) and it's really easy to visualize how all of this went down.
The other thing that always struck me about Badge is that it didn't sound like anything else Cream did. It really sounds like another band. Imagine if they'd done an entire album of that kind of music? I mean songs about banging your favourite head are all well and good but there was an opportunity to cut a really cutting edge album.
I think the Mellotron setting on “Badge” is the same/similar to the mandolin Tron settings heard during the verses of “Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.”
Whenever I think of a “template” song for what we might consider Classic Rock of the 1970s, I think of “Badge.” A prototype.
The mellotron angle has been argued that it was Felix overdubbing real violin... or viola overdubs. Not mellotron. And indeed (as a mellotron owner since 1970...which is irrelevant of course), those string-dubbed areas against the triple-tracked guitar note overdubs on White Room....and particularly during the last verse of Badge... have movement that a mellotron can't do. imo. I've always felt the notes are a little high for viola compared to violin....but...viola/violin were instruments Felix knew how to play. Maybe Felix did an interview at some point about the topic. What I've always liked about the compressed piano on Badge is that....every time there's a stop....Felix really jacks up the fader on the recorded piano.....you hear the volume.....and increased tape hiss! Fills in the stopped-spots so nicely.....especially at the end of the song. Really cool......you also clearly hear the piano sonic fingerprint...... sort of the approach taken a year earlier for stretching piano drones out at the end of Day in the Life. Badge.....one of those perfect little pop singles
So maybe I’m stating the obvious, but I think I hear three guitars on this -Harrisons choppy rhythm on the left, which turns into some cool riffs as they get to the bridge, and then chords through the solo - the heavily Leslied guitar doing arpeggios during the bridge ( I guess played by Clapton) -the outstanding solo, heard left center, played by Clapton, (it took me a ton of practice to learn that one!) Love Claptons “playing for the song” in a melodic pop/ rock song like Badge. It would have been very interesting to hear Beatles music if Clapton took Harrison’s vacated seat as Lennon had suggested at the time.
The YouTube video is a fan creation. This is the actual mix of the live backing track: Badge backing track
I always thought it was George playing those arpeggios on "Badge", it was so reminiscent of the fade out of "You Never Give Me Your Money". I was shocked when I found out it was Eric. That sound is just one that people associate with George. How about those Harrisonesque arpeggios in Badfinger's "Baby Blue"? God, I love the guitars on that track. Trivia - the Gibson SG Standard played by Pete Ham (on the right) was given to him by George, and was later sold for $500,000 (or something like that) at auction after Pete died, with proceeds going to Ham's family.
I've always liked George's 1969 conversation about "fast" guitarists and his appreciation of how fast, fluid playing can really add to a track. While he specifically pointed to Eric (and specifically expressed non-interest in LedZep in one of the conversations)....this clip shows George's thinking on the subject. He was super-aware of all the fast guitarists on the scene. I personally think (and I've seen discussed) that George momentarily considered practicing to get into fast-fluid-playing territory himself in those days.....but....for whatever reason....didn't go there.....but DID decide that slide work could be a way to re-identify his personal playing style.
It's EC. The phrasing and his timing are different from GH's. It's not a huge difference but you can tell that it's him.
Interesting; to my ears though I have to say they don’t sound like real strings. In fact after listening to the song about half a dozen times today (inspired by this thread), it even has a Moody Blues-ish texture to it (of course, used completely in a different context).
