In my youth, I was blessed to see Cream play in San Bernardino & they really did have a wall of Marshall amps. The following summer, we hitchhiked up to Ventura & saw Blind Faith. So many classic rock bands in the late 60’s & early 70’s.
I was lucky enough to see Cream twice in Los Angeles. First time at the Shrine Auditorium (with BB King opening). Second time on their farewell tour at the Forum. Memorable!!
I read Eric Clapton's biography and it was a very worthwhile read and I would recommend it to anyone who loves his music and his time in Cream as well!
I wouldn't argue if someone suggested they are the most talented trio ever put together ! A long time ago ( 52 years ! ) my older sister gave me her Doors LA WOMAN album before she took off across the country for work. 5 years later on return ( with minimal contact and certainly no knowledge of my progression in music taste ) she gave me a little gift...Cream Disraeli Gears ! Right up my alley ! The start of a like that lives on ! Well there's a bit of trivial shit for the day !😎👍
All three artist went on to amazing future careers but nothing any of them did ever matched what they created with Cream. Although, Clapton's Derek and the Dominos with Duane Allman is a masterpiece unto itself that can't be compared to anything ever recorded.
At one stage while on tour the members of Cream where staying at different hotels and avoided sitting together on flights! One of Jack's solos went on so long that Baker threw a drumstick at him only to have Bruce retaliate by attacking the drum kit with his bass! Cream's problem was that there were too many big egos in 1 small space.
Agreed as far as Clapton is concerned, his music and playing is very lame after Cream. Instead he relied on more band members to make up a group and it's sound. Almost as if he were exhausted since Cream, of having to carry a huge torch with only 2 others in the band. The 3 piece band theory holds true tho...... in order to make a complete progressive sound, all 3 members need to be the best of the best and on top of their game at all times on stage.
Felix Pappalardi, often called the unofficial fourth member of Cream, went on to form Mountain with Leslie West. Their first album, "Climbing!", is awesome. There is a lot of Cream influence you can hear in many of the songs. Jack Bruce wrote one of the songs on the album.
Whenever I think of the ethereal side of Psychedelic sound, "Dance the Night Away" comes to mind. Eric's lilting and soaring 12-string guitar and the haunting vocals are absolutely resplendent -- the perfect tune to watch a gorgeous sunset. "There will never be another band like Cream" -- Ginger Baker
Well played :) I wondered if you'd get the live tracks from WOF right since it says The Fillmore on the label. I actually thought it was all done at Winterland (i LOVED that place, a dozen or more shows in the mid '70s) but cool to learn one tune was from the Fillmore. I was 11 in '68 and this double disc was a gift from family, first i had of the band. I wound up with everything. Loved them. Never got to see them but saw EC in '07, last of the tour with Derek Trucks, another gift (50th BD) It was pretty freakin' awesome. Also given a poster celebrating the '05 RAH shows. Wife had it framed,,,turned out great ! One of my all time favorite bands. Thank you for the vid. I'll probably watch this more than once ;)
Clapton did the best version of his "Lay Down Sally" with Vince Gill on 4/12/2013 Live at MSG. It is so good I listen over and over. I'm still in my 20's at heart. Thanks for the post, Linda
FBOAT Perfect blend of blues, jazz, and prog with pete brown lyrics. White Room is incomperable. Best version ever of Sitting on top of the World. Even though Ginger hated it, Wrapping Paper is so much fun. Passing the time is a great mood piece. The hits are just a portal to the excellent studio stuff, and the live recordings are a whole different animal. Of course nobody could ever match their live Crossroads. Cream's Clapton could not only wail with feeling, he could build extended solos. Ginger's virtuosity was evident from the first album's Toad, one of the first drum solo album cuts in rock. ABC's wide world of sports used it as the backing track for a collage of world class atletic clips. My other favorite Ginger drumming is the coda to Sunshine, you just want it to go on forever. Jack's brilliance really came to the fore with Songs for a Tailor, which I consider to be basically a Cream record. It shows how much Jack really influenced the direction of Cream's music. He really stretched the boundaries of how the bass was previously played. He made it a viable solo instrument. They were really a powder keg of energy. IMHO, poor management and the constant pressure to produce led to their breakup. Had they been given room to breathe, they could have produced even more amazing music. Jack's documentary Rope Ladder to the Moon is a must watch.
All three of them were heroine users (an expensive habit). According to what Ginger Baker said in an interview was that because the money was divided up by who wrote what song instead of a (equal) shared split. Jack wrote most of the material. After Disraeli Gears came out, most of the money was going to Jack. Ginger and Eric were getting virtually nothing from album sales. Ginger was insanely jealous of Jack. That was the core of their differences.
Ravelo bikes@ its "heroin" not heroine. And how do you know that all three took heroin? Did they tell you? I knew ginger baker had a struggle with heroin for years. The devils dust. Heroin is a thanckless drug, it just takes takes takes... then kills. Or kills first.
No mystery to my why H is so historically popular with rock, blues, jazz artists, going back a century. It's simply, an awesome, unique groove, playing on it. If it doesn't kill you, that is. It's been their (for many of em') "Siren Song;" sweet, enchanting, deadly. The DOAs keep a-comin,' yet today.
@@tomp.6239 i was at a party in the late 80's where there was some coke. I did a line and it was actually heroin. i got my acoustic and started playing in the backyard in the middle of the night. I have no memory of this except afterward my voice was hoarse and people were telling me how good i was. I have no idea what "i" played. Fortunately narcotics are like being in a bad dream to me and i don't have any urge to do them again. It was my second black-out and i hope i never have another one.
@@Doones51 Getting dosed with something that you don't know "what," is never a good thing. I recall about '68 or so when 2 married attorneys at a big party got dosed acid from the fruit punch. They went home & completely freaked out, assuming their minds were gone. Haven't heard about them for years, but last I knew, they never really recovered. By time lot of these musicians started using junk wholesale, they knew exactly what they were doing, and how great it was to groove on; ask Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Clapton. That may only last for few yrs., if you don't get an odd dose & end up DOA, like some of em' have. Like all illicit drugs, tolerances increase & it takes double the load to refresh that old cool buzz. I'm glad you recovered; some people back then used to think it was just a funny gag, but getting dosed ain't cool, & dangerous.
Saw Cream in Atlanta on their Farewell Tour, October 1968. Clapton played his one pick-up Firebird until he broke a string. Then switched to a darkburst Les Paul while his tech replaced the broken string.
your dad was such a force and influence on music. I was too young to have seen cream and blind Faith but did see Mr. Clapton solo in 70’s. Your dad’s jazz influence on Cream made them such a unique band. hope your career is doing well!
You would not believe how meny guitar players cream inspired you wouldn't believe it if you saw all the names how simple they were made it easy to learn from /politician favorite song they had so meny bad ones back then its weird to think about 20 year old kids changing the world but they did
I saw Cream at the last US show in Providence, RI. It actually consisted of an early show and a late show. I went to the 2nd show. They did only play 2 songs cos it was nearing curfew. After the first show was over, the crowd exited throught the same front doors everyone for the 2nd show was waiting in front of. The front doors were these massive wooden warehouse doors and they opened outward. My friends and i were standing next to the doors and we were almost crushed between the doors and front wall. We got out from behind the door just as it got slammed by the pressing crowd against the wall. It was very nearly a concert tragedy. Their next and last show was the farewell at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They looked and sounded like that show in Providence with very frenetic jamming.
Back when seeing a band live was where it was at. Jamming is a thing a lot of newer bands could learn something from. Keep your audience on their toes and waiting to see where the song will go next or if the song will jam into another song and maybe even come back into the first song. The Grateful Dead were kings of this and they influenced quite a lot of bands around the time of Creams first album in SF. They use to do something called "the acid tests". Do yourself a favor and read up on the Dead and the history of the Acid Tests ;-)
Also "I shot the Sheriff" is not a Clapton song, it was written by one Bob Marley in 1973. Clapton helped bring Bob Marley into the mainstream by covering the song and within a few years Bob Marleys name was well known and you saw reggae music see a influx in popularity.
Tavy@ cream were brilliant! There best album is disraeli gears. Its just a total classic album, and maybe the best album of the 1960s. Thats how much i rate it.
I was really hoping when the reunited, they would do a massive world tour....to satisfy the fans. They would have made millions upon millions...but as usual, personalities got in the way.
Unfortunately when you mix extremely talented musicians with huge egos and heavy drugs along for some disliking each other nothing good gonna come of it.
There were three really talented guys. One had a huge ego that caused him lots of problems. He got tired of the band. The most talented guy in the band was Jack Bruce. He wrote and sang most of their songs. He could play practically ANY instrument. He had excellent pitch. Clapton was jealous of the attention Bruce got. A month after the band broke up Clapton was back with the drummer again. They hired a bass player. Steve Winwood joined. Jack Bruce moved on.
Jim parker@ well said jim. Yes the three of them were really talented and one of the best bands in the 60s for sure. 'disraeli gears' album is just pure class! I would say its up there with "sgt peppers" and the stones "their satanic majesties request" and bob dylans "john wesley harding" and all four albums came out in the same year 1967. But may be the best albums from the 1960s. Cream had so much more to give. But i didnt know jealousy broke them up! The old green eyed devil does it again? But being jealous over money and attention seems a bit petty tbh. But money does do that, and its split up loads of great bands and it always will. Its becouse of money my favourite bands broke up as well in the 1980s.
@@alanmctavish4802 There are some good biographies about them, particularly Clapton's. He made a sharp turn in his life about 30 years ago and to very good effect. Prior to that time he was a very difficult man to work with by all accounts. His deadly habits and his carelessness with the feelings of others meant that he could not keep a good band (or a good marriage) going for long.
@@jimparker7778 There is no need to be a smart ass, other than the short lived West, Bruce, and Lange and a collaboration with Robin Trower neither Bruce or Baker achieved the success of Clapton. I'm not some Clapton fanatic, I'm just stating fact.
Ginger Baker on many videos with drummers, he is not in some of them. He is also a good songwriter. This should have been on this video. I wish you would do a video of Mott The Hoople.
I suppose it is an innocent question, but by "Cream" did they mean the stuff that they put in coffee, or the stuff that they put in girlfriends? Or would that be the Lovin' Spoonful, or maybe a jazz band? Eventually what became of them is that Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker sadly passed away, but Eric Clapton as of this writing is thankfully still going.
Not completely accurate account. With Cream's Murray the K NYC debut concert series, I've heard that, instead of playing just one song, Cream had performed two songs, "I Feel Free" & "I'm So Glad".
I think that "Crossroads" from the "Wheels of Fire" album is the best live recording by a rock band ever. And "Spoonful" from the same album is the second best ever. Listen to both songs on RU-vid before you tell me I'm wrong.
They split up and moved on. Clapton to bigger and better Superstar status to this day (until the poison injection anyway), Baker and Bruce not so much.
I can't believe you didn't mention Jack Bruces' collaboration with Leslie West and Corky Lang from Mountain. Their self titled album, 'West, Bruce, and Lang' was a classic.
I bought Disreali Gears in Germany while in the merchant marines. To me that album is extremely flawed in including Mother's Lament and Blue Condition. If they had two songs more like the rest of the album it would've been great, but those two songs? What were they thinking? Didn't buy another Cream album (and I had over 1,000 albums at the time) again. Oh and I Shot the Sheriff....that was a hit for Clapton? So lame compared to Bob Marley's original version.
Nothing was as good as live queen all of their lives cream albums what is the best improvisation rock music ever I’ve been listening to the live version of Sweet Wine on live cream vol1 after 1970 Clapton was never the same I saw him and 72 in New Jersey I walked out after the third hour he was just throwing his fingers on the notes when he played with cream they truly were a jazz rock band the drums in the base we’re all improvising with Clapton each instrument was pushing the other instruments to create it was the best ever I’ve been playing guitar since 1970 I had a stroke seven years ago and I have to relearn to play and I am some days I feel like throwing a guitar out the window but I love the instrument it’s a shame that they couldn’t stand each other and broke up because nothing they ever did after the cream was as good or the same I remember buying The Ocean Boulevard album I forgot the other name for 61 Ocean Blvd. and let me tell you I threw it out the window I shot the Sheriff what a piece of garbage if he wants to play reggae go to a reggae band and there are some reggae songs that I like but it’s not cream I bought all of the Royal Albert home albums even the live one that was put out later I mean royal Albert was live to start out with it was not as good when they played against each other they improvised the best music ever you don’t have a lot of ways to improvise rock blues lines because you leave out a lot of notes jazz uses all the notes the flat 5 The flat nineyou get the idea rock only has bending the string and making different rhythms out of your rock notes and the cream was. The best
