Songwriter and poet Pete Brown tells the story behind the song 'White Room' by Cream. A short documentary by Top 2000 a gogo from 2018 (Dutch Public Television).
White Room has been one of my all time favorite songs since I first heard it way, way back when. 1969 or 70? I can't quite remember anymore. It's great to get the background story now. I never thought I'd be loving & appreciating it even more 50 years later🤔😍
Imagine going to a pub and hearing some random band play "a cover of White Room" only to realise that the guy singing wrote it. I wonder how many people in the clip knew who Pete Brown is!
Kinda hard to say; European people tend to take music and musicians very seriously, and they will recognize and speak to musicians who are famous or that they like. I admire this, and I loved seeing him singing at the end; the people who were there were probably thrilled, and bragged to their friends that they saw and heard Pete sing it, and didn't have to pay a lot for tickets, or have a wasted teenager vomit on them. A lot of the rock concert experience can be overrated. Fortune passes everywhere.
To me, White Room has a slow build until Clapton's wah comes in to lay down a heaviness that blows my mind! He progressively ratchets up the intensity until the all-out assault in the final stanza. Everything works here, not surprised to find there was extra talent in for songwriting help with their greatest stuff.
@@tomcoryell Yes me too!! Jack's voice was/is so versatile that I honestly haven't heard another who can mimick it...he could sing rock,blues,soft love songs,and opera!! I'm not an opera fan but he could sing ANYTHING and his voice never gave out until he fell ill...God Bless him🙏His music and soul will live on forever in his songs🎶✌️
White Room...my all time favourite Cream song ,first heard it played on our record player at boarding school in 1969 (Cream had already split by then but our dorm prefect was a fan and Spoonful was HIS favourite!) I loved W.R. Especially the AAHs over the 5/4 time, and the mention of trains! This video had a nice twist at the end, seeing Pete singing. If I hadn’t seen the person singing initially I would have guessed at Jack!
Great story. I started playing guitar and bass 8 years ago and I'm now 57. The joy playing in a band brings me is really indescribable. So I relate to Pete performing at 77 and having a great time! We just added White Room to our set and I am grateful to know what it is about. I play bass on this one and it's a blast to play.Thank you!
I was glad to read your comment. Although I jammed with people in my 20's, I never really gigged until I started a band in my late 40's. I want to add this tune. Here is "Let it Rain" from our first gig. I hope you enjoy it, and KEEP ON ROCKIN! 🎸 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uhLThWy6EMQ.html
Thanks for writing White Room, one of the greatest classic rock songs of all time, been a favorite of mine since I first heard it back in 68!!! I hope you don’t mind that I play it in my shows!!! We have to keep these great songs alive and in the ears of new fans!!!
Probably the tightest drumbeat of any song i have ever heard. Doubt any drummer can play White Room drumbeat anywhere close to Ginger Baker. He was one of the best ever.
Clapton and Jack were brilliant on this song, but what Ginger played to underpin the song is genius stuff...This also has, to me, Pete Brown's best lyric.
I have very fond memories of this song. When I was in Junior High we had to pick a song that had poetry in it and I chose this one. It was a challenge to get the lyrics off of the 45, but well worth it!
I heard this song when the record was first released in Australia when I was in grade 9. They were such a controversial band back then with swearing on one of their albums! 😱 But in general Cream opened me up to the world and changed me forever, from the shy rural girl. This song still gets me in the pit of my stomach. Its the downward cords.
I am sure you are right, but can you please tell me which Cream album has any swearing on it? I have all of them, and I can't think of any. Do, please, let me know.
I never had any idea what the lyrics to "White Room" meant and it took me years to even appreciate Creams music but now I simply love this song. It has really grown on me as one of my favorite songs from the 60s. I love Ginger Bakers bolero style drumming and the beginning, Clapton wah wah guitar solo and rhythm playing and Bruce's tortured singing and the way his bass bounces around especially when he does those minor key runs towards the end of every verse line.
Pete Brown is such a song writing KING!!! 👑I just absolutely fell head over heels in L💖VE with cream and Pete Brown,and the whole entire story that evolved around that wonderful magical musical era that will never be again...It truly is like a fairytale that I never really knew existed until I came across the 1968 farewell concert from The Royal Albert Hall...I watched it multiple times and researched everything I could on the band...Of course I knew of Cream,had heard the radio versions of their songs,but this was magical!! Live Cream music takes me away to places that I never knew were possible...thanks Pete for being such a huge part of this musical magic!! 💜☮️💜
As a Big Cream Fan from the 60's I remember memorizing every inch of the Albums and wondering who Peter Brown was. Thank you! Marvelous Poet and Song's! If you only knew how many times in 53 year's I've played those, not to mention the hours just trying to learn them- well worth every Second!
Thank you, never knew much about Peter Brown before this. His collaboration with Jack Bruce was top-notch. Songs For A Tailor is IMHO one of the 20 best albums in rock history. Thank you, thank you!!!
White Room - Without doubt, hands down the best song that Cream ever recorded. The thumping drum intro, the melodic and whistful verses of surreal lyrics, and to top it off, the wah-ing guitar solo that has to rank up there as 1 of the best that Clapton ever played - It's all there with this song and is by far my favourite Cream song. It was a shame that it wasn't released as a single until after Cream had split, otherwise I'm sure it would have been a bigger hit than it was. 👍
Never Eva be a band like cream ever again!!!! My favorite group of all time!!! Seen their las t concert @ Madison Square Garden In 2005 ( October) a fund raiser for Jack, it was as if they never split apart.. “ phenomenal show all their hits simply awesome!!! Miss I Ginger & Jack May you both Rest In Peace, & God bless!!!👍👍👍
It's an absolute hit, that. Love the song, and love cream. Fresh Cream and Disraeli gears are, in my opinion, among the best records to have been released in the 60's.
I sang this song a bunch of times when it was a hit, and fifty years later I still have no idea what the lyrics mean. America’s “Horse With No Name” is equally puzzling to me.
Hell, yeah, Pete! One of the best numbers from Cream. Nice job, Mate! Agree with @MagnusBruce that most would have to be a Cream fan to know Pete Brown when walking in on a performance at the corner pub.
When I hear this song, I always think of the ending scene in Edgar Rice Burroughs' book, where Tarzan is in a Maryland train station when he receives the ultimate good/bad news. The line about tigers in jungles just clinches it.
Although I was born 3 years after Cream split, I was brought up with this type of music. I always wondered who Pete Brown was when I saw the name on my dad's Vinyl albums. Cream should do another reunion concert with Pete standing in for Jack and maybe get Nathan East or Leland Sklar to cover bass duties. Both have worked with Eric in the past.
I did a gig with Pete in crouch End in London for the make a wish foundation that brings a wish true for a terminally ill child , a truly great charity , we played alongside Ian dury 's blockheads , Mary wilson and others , we all shared the library of the town hall as a dressing room and were filmed , interviewed etc for a channel four programme . Pete and I sat talking about music and he told me he was in the Battered ornaments and we spoke of music from the sixties through to punk and its lack of musicality in comparison to the way Eric and Jeff beck had studied the origins of blues guitar , I told him that the idea of the punk ethos was the do it yourself vibe , he told a story about Sid vicious whom I often saw in Islington's northern section as a kid ... And at the time of the gig I had a dyed black flat top Mac Curtis hairstyle which had made him think of the times he came across Sid and his drunken hostility 😜 He came up and watched our show , afterwards he told us the story of the white room song which I didn't know to be honest , my old man laughed when I told him , It's a great song and to learn of it before I heard it makes it something different , the place where he got clean .... Like it Pete , sing on ! 77 not out ,here's to 87 , 97 ,107 et al , enjoy 💨✨🏁🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Musically speaking, this is an interesting song because of the downward scaling. It's like the anti-crescendo. Usually a song is built upward, but this builds downward. Im surprised this wasn't mentioned as its always been the key element of the song for me.
@@NdlandingI think his perspective was as a poet turned lyricist. I am not sure if he understood how it differed musically or maybe he didn't focus on that part of the song.
Wonderful story about a team member behind some great songs. This is one of my favorites where I gave much thought to the meaning. People posting videos should be required to credit the writers.
