"Cream" Appreciation Thread

I couldn't agree more, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying Eric Clapton's music since then.

Whenever my sons hear Cream's music playing, they always say to me they would have loved to have grown up in that period when rock music was evolving! What more can I say!

JG
PS: Jack Bruce was no mean bass player!

 

I've heard kids and/or blues officiandos bag them over the years, but I can't IMAGINE the 60's without Cream. Jimi clearly loved them, too. I've ALWAYS been amazed that Clapton seemed to walk away with all their glory, when clearly SO much of their sound was Jack Bruce's great songs and singing. Life can be cruel!

 

I regard Cream as Jack Bruce with the others thrown in actually.

 

My 2 cents: Cream is a weird group...

Now I have only heard so far the famous singles, Fresh Cream and Wheels of Fire. FC did not leave any impression on me, so I sold it back, but that was too long ago - I wasn't much into British blues - and I would need to find me a nice copy and try again.

I thought when I finally heard WoF last year (an original, NM Polydor LP set from Canada) I will finally make up my mind about them with a maturity album... and I still can't! I decided it was a keeper because of the BEAUTIFUL contributions of Jack Bruce as a writer, an arranger, a singer and also a stage performer (that harmonica bit!!), and even for Baker's weird little Pressed Rats... Clapton I thought was a mere ghost all over the studio half... Is he just mixed out of the thing, or was he, simply, spiritually "out" of it?... Ginger Baker I still don't quite grasp the genius of, and I am a drummer fan. I am not putting him down, because so many people love him, just that I ain't there yet, and I am just a slow learner perhaps... So all in all, WoF feels to me basically like a (wonderful) Jack Bruce studio album backed by a couple of RnR stars... The live portion I probably need to listen to again... Aside from the Bruce harp piece, it felt longish and didn't do much to me.

 

I swear to God (...Eric?) that I hadn't read that one before posting mine!!

 

My sentiment exactlly too. To me Jack was the heart of Cream.

 

Gingers main problem when he was interviewed on the 'Cream - their fully authorised story' DVD. The fact that Jack Bruce and Pete Brown both earnt more out of the band than both he and Eric. But as he well knows, if you write the songs then you shall earn the most cash.

I've always admired Ginger for the fact he writes songs. He's got at least one of his songs on every one of Creams studio albums, and some of them arent bad. He knows thats where you get the money but Jack was the main writer and main lead singer. Therefore he is seen as the leading light of the band. Eric is the one who's reputation was raised the highest by Cream, though.

Did Clapton ever play a 12 string again on record other than for the recording of 'Dance The Night Away' on the 'Disraeli Gears' album??? I love that track.

 

Hmmm.... I thought that Eric was seen as the leading light of the band. Cream was thought of by the public as "Eric clapton's New Band"

Personally I think Jack's reputation was raised the most-before Cream he was just a blues/ jazz bassist (held in high esteem by musicians though) shuffling around between different pretty high profile groups.

But-"Clapton is God" was already in full force at that time


Just my thoughts though-I could be wrong. I wasn't alive at the time so what do I know.

 

I always heard Ahmet considered Cream to be Jack's group and encouraged him to write more.

 

I read Eric saying he originally thought it would be a "Buddy Guy" trio thing, with himself as the front man. When they did get to gether, he wasn't confident enough to be the front man and carry it all... Plus obviously Jack was a very strong force, and not going to be content to be Eric's bass player. Jack was the dominant writer, so he became the front man, in a band of three huge egos.

I'm surprised to see a few say they don't care for Wheels. To me it's such a natural progression across the four albums. One of the smartest bands around. They did a lot to raise the bar, but ironically inspired a lot of lunk head music... Also inspired some great bands like Free.

Jack's solo career points to the direction the band might have headed had they continued. In some ways, so did Blind Faith. The rest of Eric's early solo career was heavily influenced by his new pals Delaney and Bonnie. Cream could have done that Band style American stuff, but I don't think Eric wanted to stick around to find out.

 

I like the reunion concert very much too. Perhaps part of it is relieve in the sense that they did not turn out to be parody of themselves when they were still young and cooking. Instead, they appear as a truly a mature band that has a lot of offer to the listener.

 

Actually, to me Wheels of Fire is their best album. I love the mix of songs, studio and live. It would have made a perfect LP instead of a double album with a few not so great songs.
My all-time Cream favourite is White Room. While some people argued that the sound of ECs guitar is not as appealing as on the earlier albums, I just love it. The way he builds up the solo is really honey to my ears.
However, I very much agree with somebody said earlier in the thread: Cream also had good songs, which were a suitable platform for their instrumental explorations, and White Room is certainly one of them!
While some people love this version of Crossroads - not least due to ECs solo, I was completely blown away by Spoonful. To this day, after having listened to lots of the surviving live tracks, I think it is one of their best. And to link up with another comment on a comparison with the Hendrix Experience - I think they were much more a band of equals (I have no intention to put down Mitchell and Redding but Hendrix simply overshadowed them).

 

I remember hearing/reading that the "Crossroads" solo was edited down substantially. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Steve, I had heard that too-any idea where this rumor came from?

 

Any chance of them being released? The boxset pretty much exhausted the studio recordings (the version of 'Blue Condition' with Eric on vocals, excepted.) Just wondered if they'd plunder some more of the live stuff. A deluxe edition of 'Disraeli Gears' has been released. What about the same for 'Fresh Cream' and 'WOF.'???

 

Absolutely spot on!
The three were perfect foils for one another in a live setting, pushing each other in interesting directions. Jack's growling bass sound (he used Marshall full stacks on stage, & kept adding more until the entire planet went deaf
is quite unique.
I always enjoy hearing a good trio work out - if they have their chops together (as Cream did), you never really miss any additional players, and there's enough space for great improvisation.

 

For some reason, rumors started that Crossroads was usually played for 10 minutes, probably by people who were injesting psychedlic substances. I believe this even found its way to print several times. I have never heard anyone say that a long version of Crossroads has EVER been found on any recording of Cream.

 

Maybe that was just assumed and became legend because everything else they did was so "extended" live.
I quickly searched around the net and could not find any listing of a show where they did this song much longer than the 4-5 minute version.

 

That's him on "Blue Condition," is it not?

 

Yep. The only solo lead vocal he did. I still havent heard the Eric Clapton vocal version of that tune. Surely it has to be better than Gingers version. I like the song and i'm okay with Ginger singing it BUT i'd imagine Clapton's version is better.

 

someone's forgetting "Pressed Rat & Warthog"

 

That's rap.

I saw them at the Fillmore in early '68 or so; unbelieveable. I don't even remember who else was on the bill now! (Tickets were $3 or so, and you got 3-4 bands on any given night!)

 

The week we saw them at Winterland, it was Cream, BS+T, Jeremy And The Satyrs, and James Cotton.