"Cream" Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Tone, Jun 18, 2008.

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  1. CBC

    CBC Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Coast,USA
    LOL...but still a "vocal"..er...sort of. :laugh:
     
  2. fortherecord

    fortherecord Senior Member

    Location:
    Rochester, NY
    Disraeli Gears is the ultimate Cream album for me. I am still torn over Mono versus Stereo for this album. Both mixes have their strengths and weaknesses. I tend to listen to it in Mono more because I like the drums better in Mono. On the Stereo, Baker's drums sound like he's hitting cardboard boxes.
     
  3. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    I think he is hitting cardboard boxes. We used to think they recorded his practice pads instead of his drum kit.

    Imagine how s****y GEARS must have sounded on my little Zenith fold-out stereo. Loved the album to death though...
     
  4. mr_mjb1960

    mr_mjb1960 I'm a Tarrytowner 'Til I die!

    The Box Set "Those Were The Days" has the song with Dialog that was shorn from the "Wheels Of Fire" Lp set..the Box has it,along with the song that follows it "Sunshine Of Your Love",too..that one later appeared on the "Live Cream,Vol. 2" set. The only track that was cut for time was Ginger's "Toad"- that appears,for the very first time unedited,on the Box,too.Michael Boyce
     
  5. Oliver

    Oliver Bourbon Infused

    Those were the days is a nice set!
     
  6. MBERGHAU

    MBERGHAU New Member

    I think what made Cream so great as a trio was the fact that they played "as a trio" in the truest sense. In other words, each member had an "equal" role, similar to how a good jazz trio plays with no one instrumentalist out front so to speak (i.e. Hendrix). I've often compared Cream to the rock version of the Bill Evans/Scott Lafaro/Paul Motain Trio, truely remarkable and proficient in every way.
     
  7. Oliver

    Oliver Bourbon Infused

    The really cool thing I remember hearing was when Pete Townshend was discussing Cream on and old radio special and described Eric's live sound as being so loud that when you heard Cream play you were also literally hearing tons of overtones from the notes that Clapton was playing to fill out the sound.

    I guess Pete would know something about that. :)
     
  8. keifspoon

    keifspoon Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey, USA
    I remember reading an interview with Jack saying Cream wasn't the best band he was apart of. Anyone guess who he said was?
     
  9. I saw Cream at The Cellar in Arlingto Heights, Illinois, in 1968. The Cellar was a small teen dance club. The stage was only about 2 feet above the main floor and there was no such thing as body guards back then so it was possible to get really close to the performers.

    My favorite recollections of the concert are:

    1. The roadies nailed Ginger's base drums to the stage floor with 16d nails:eek:

    2. Cream did not play anyway near as loud as I expected. In fact, they played at what I consider to be a moderate volume.

    3. Eric was so stoned, that he forgot to sing during Sunshine of Your Love.

    4. Eric played a Gibson Firebird. I was able to stand as close as 10 feet to Eric. Awsome:D

    5. Jack's bass on a recording sounds nothing like it does live. His bass has a strange "burping" sound.

    6. It is impossible to fully appreciate Ginger's playing unitil you see him play live. The fact that he is a jazz drummer is obvious. He is not a "slammer" or a "pounder". His playing is very subtle.

    7. They were able to put aside their differences and egos and played like a real trio od musicians.
     
  10. Big Al

    Big Al Active Member

    Location:
    DFW, Texas
    Abso-freakin-lutely YES!!!:goodie:
     
  11. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    You saw Cream there Friday April 26th 1968.

    It's funny, because as you mention, the Cellar was a small teen club, but Cream played the NEXT night after your show at the Coliseum in Chicago, which was pretty huge. It doesn't make sense. It's like if the Beatles playing the Cavern one night and then playing the Royal Albert Hall the next night, size-wise.
    Weird huh ? How did that happen ? Was it really packed wall to wall to see Cream at the Cellar that night ?

    I saw Cream later in the year at the Coliseum but was just a little too young to get myself to the Cellar the night that you saw them . Six months or a year is a big difference age-wise when you are a kid as far as getting to drive, etc. :)

    It's too bad that the Shadows of Knight didn't open for them because as you know, they played there all the time. That would have made a great show even more spectacular. You didn't take any pictures did you ?
     
  12. Trebor

    Trebor Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    I wonder if Paul Sampson recorded it? I was there that night as well but I never made it inside. We'd go to the Cellar every weekend and hang out in the parking lot until it was time to go in and many times we'd hear about a party somewhere and ditch the Cellar for the party. I remember going to some kids house who's parents were out of town in Rolling Meadows and meeting a cute girl there that I dated for a while afterwards. I guess I should have chosen Cream instead though...
     
  13. Tone

    Tone Senior Member Thread Starter

    Could we get some recommendations for the best pressings on vinyl (mono and stereo) and CD for "Cream".


    ~ Cream Discography ~

    Studio albums

    "Fresh Cream" - December 1966 (RIAA: Gold)
    "Disraeli Gears" - November 1967 (RIAA: Platinum)
    "Wheels of Fire" - July 1968 (double album - In the Studio and Live at the Fillmore.) (RIAA: Gold)
    "Goodbye" - March 1969

    Live albums

    "Live Cream" - April 1970
    "Live Cream Volume II" - March 1972
    "Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005" - October 2005


    Compilations

    "Best of Cream" - 1969 (RIAA: Gold)
    "Heavy Cream" - 1972
    "Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream" - 1983 (RIAA: Platinum)
    "Creme de la Cream" - 1992
    The Very Best of Cream - 1995 (RIAA: Gold)
    "Those Were The Days" - 1997
    "20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Cream" - 2000
    BBC Sessions - 2003
    "I Feel Free Ultimate Cream" - 2005
    "Cream Gold" - 2005
     
  14. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I was a huge Ginger Baker fan and a big Cream fan. Badge is my favorite song of theirs. Wheels of Fire my favorite album. Loved hearing Toad for the first time with the great drum solo....
     
  15. zobalob

    zobalob Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland.
    I prefer the studio Cream, especially WOF, not that I dislike the live stuff, I just find it a bit long-winded.
    I saw them in July of 1967 at the Locarno Ballroom here in Glasgow and they were great, this was before they would stretch the numbers out ad infinitum. I remember that at the end of "Toad", Ginger leaped up from the drums to lean against one of the amps as if he'd got an electric shock from his kit.
     
  16. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    Apart from a few tracks on WoF (maybe), Cream were terribly recorded. I recall clearly how blown away me 'n' my chums all were upon hearing Led Zeppelin, and Bonham's thunderous sound.
     
  17. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    Cool Jim ! Any memories of the show ? Were they really loud or not ?

    Thursday June 8th 1967

    Here's what the blues book that I mentioned has to say about the gig you saw :

    Locarno, Bristol

    The venue attracts a different audience compared to Bristol's Corn Exchange where Cream usually play, as Clapton complains to Disc (June24) :
    "We played this gig in Bristol last week and these kids started pelting us with pennies, which wasn't very nice."

    Is this the show you were at ? Jim, were you whipping pennies at Cream ?
    Shame on you ! :laugh:
     
  18. Saturday's Children was the opening act.

    I have some photos somewhere. I'll post them in a week or so.
     
  19. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    Great ! Please do.

    I have Saturday's Children on a Sundazed Best of Dunwich Records comp.
     
  20. Tony Williams Lifetime.
     
  21. Keith Moon

    Keith Moon Active Member

    Location:
    PA, USA
    I love Cream and own their first two albums. As a drummer you can just tell that Ginger Baker has "it." He just knows when to hit everything!
     
  22. John Buchanan

    John Buchanan I'm just a headphone kind of fellow. Stax Sigma

    Regarding Toad on "Those Were The Days" - there was a part of a performance from another night inserted into the original "Wheels Of Fire" version of Toad that produced the "Those Were The Days" Toad. I'm not sure which version replicates how it was played on stage (i.e. whether the original was edited or not). Bill Levenson or Steve might know this.
     
  23. Drawer L

    Drawer L Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Long Island
    The Grande Ballroom show?:righton:
     
  24. zobalob

    zobalob Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland.
    :laugh: :wave:
    No, no, no! Aaaaargh! It was the Locarno in Glasgow, in July, second week in July I think, as I was in England that year for the last two weeks in July, on holiday. They were loud, but not ear splittingly so and the set list was closer to, say, the Marquee gig from May of that year, including things like "World of Pain", "Strange Brew" and "Dance the Night Away", very Disraeli Gears oriented set list which changed considerably in the USA later in the year. I was only about ten or twelve feet from the stage, I don't think it was a particularly well attended show, no seats, everyone standing.
    Clapton looked like David Crosby, with the droopy moustache and I seem to remember that he even wore a fur cossack style hat throughout the show....(though I now doubt my remembrance of this as I've never seen a photo of him wearing one, possibly the Crosby connection).
    They were very very good, really tight and IIRC most numbers were stretched out a bit during the instrumental breaks, but not to the extent that they would in their later explorations.
    No pennies were thrown, no musicians were harmed. :)
     
  25. J_D__

    J_D__ Senior Member

    Location:
    Huntersville, NC

    Great drummer.. He just seems to come off as a bit a an A-hole in interviews and in person...
     
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