So CREAM is reuniting.

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Hmm. Sort of interesting.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

If they can top "Cygnus X-1" I'll be impressed

― dave q, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

A bit after the fact, no? Still, Cream was easily the most interesting thing Clapton was ever involved with.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Cream was easily the most interesting thing Clapton was ever involved with.

OTM.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh? What about the Yardbirds? Or even Derek & The Dominos? Truth told, the last 30+ years haven't been good.

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't see how this would be a good idea. Part of what kept Cream being the best thing Clapton has ever been involved with is that none of them had time to fuck it up. Oh, reunions are just a bad idea in general, I hate the thought that Cream would be tainted (pun intended) so many years later.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

y'know, i actually kinda wanna go to this

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker are great.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

the only way this will be interesting is if that irascible old coot Ginger beats the shit out of Crapton on-stage.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

DOLLAR DOLLAR BILL Y'ALL
-eric c.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

damnit djdee you stole my joke

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, Crapton played some nice guitar, but by and large it's the other two who deserve the credit for their best songs, especially Mr Bruce.
Badge is good, but it's a George Harrison co-write.

― stew s, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, Crapton played some nice guitar, but by and large it's the other two who deserve the credit for their best songs, especially Mr Bruce, who's a bit of an unsung hero.
Badge is good, but it's a George Harrison co-write.

― stew s, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok, Nesmith played some nice guitar, but by and large it's the other two who deserve the credit for their best songs, especially Mr Dolenz, who's a bit of an unsung hero.
I'm a Believer is good, but it's a Neil Diamond co-write.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Is Porpoise Song a Mickey Dolenz lead vocal, or am I just thinking that cos it plays in Head while he's jumping into the sea?
Whatever, it's an amazing piece of cod-psychedelia, written by Goffin and King!
Dolenz was the best actor, Tork the funniest. You could tell Nesmith was the brooding proto-emo dude.

― stew s, Wednesday, 10 November 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Daily Nightly was a great Dolenz-penned number with Moog .. I'm still waiting for it to show up on a Fall record.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Cream was the best Clapton, and Fender thinks so too.

http://www.fender.com/products/show.php?partno=0259400

Yep, return of the Bass VI.

― Helltime, Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I fucking Hate Eric Clapton!#E@!@

― Spinning Down Alone You Spin Alive (ex machina), Thursday, 11 November 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

How can you fucking hate the Cream Eric, tho?

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 11 November 2004 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

Nesmith wrote "Daily Nightly." Micky sang that and "Porpoise Song" (though Davy's prominent on the backing vox of the latter).

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 11 November 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer Ginger Baker's Air Port

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 11 November 2004 05:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Jon, Clapton was a pioneering guitar noise dude in the Yardbirds. For real.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 11 November 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Meh. Never got too into Cream, or Ginger Baker as a drummer.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 11 November 2004 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

PiL's Album

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 11 November 2004 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

**Jon, Clapton was a pioneering guitar noise dude in the Yardbirds. For real. **

Really? Actually his yardbirds work was pretty unexceptional standard blues fare. Things got interesting when Jeff Beck joined (a far greater guitar player). I don't deny that Clapton's Cream work was at times brilliant.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 11 November 2004 09:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone's just had a whopping big tax bill delivered, I guess - probably Baker.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 11 November 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Blind Faith was the best thing Clapton was involved with.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 11 November 2004 09:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't you mean Vivian Stanshall and the Sean Head Showband (FANTASTIC 1970 single "Labiodentalfricative")?

Jack Bruce is the key musician on The Greatest Ever Record Ever Made By Anyone Ever, viz. Escalator Over The Hill, and thus immortal.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 11 November 2004 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate Clapton with a passion but I love the Cream. Ginger Baker must be 90 years old. He's probably looking sweet these days.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 11 November 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.poetspath.com/stevemiles/images/steve17.jpg

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 11 November 2004 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

have been kicking around the idea of a feature concentrating on ginger and fela's collaboration album, but stories i've been told suggest is a most contrary interviewee...

― stevie (stevie), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to hear his side of what it was like working with Lydon!

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:26 (twenty-one years ago)

he looked wonderful on that Rock Family Trees on British Blues a few years back, chewing on his pipe like he was wearing a set of dentures several times too big for his mouth.

― stevie (stevie), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Did Jack Bruce work with Lydon also? They both did the vocals for The Golden Palominos - A/B sides of The Animal Speaks.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 11 November 2004 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

They get up there on stage and the only thing that happens is a three hour version of "Toad."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 13:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, that would be way better than expected. I'd go see that.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 11 November 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, no, I wouldn't.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 11 November 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

What I want to know is, will they play 'Blue Condition?'

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 11 November 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

more dodgy old has been rockers reforming !

First Cream and guess:

Who Next?
http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/dotmusic_news/11786.html&e=l_news_dm

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

that link is blocked for me. who is it?

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

A new Who album. And oh the passion.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

urgh. yawn.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

But it's so thrilling!

Pete Townshend has revealed he is working on a new Who album.

In a message entitled 'I need to clarify a few things I think' on his official website PeteTownshend.com he also talks about his autobiography and "Quadrophenia".

He writes: ""Who2" will not be a concept album. That is, in itself, a concept for me. Roger [Daltry] and I meet in mid-December to play what we have written."

"If we move ahead from there, we may have a CD ready to release in the spring... If the recording works out we will tour with the usual band in the first half of 2005."

Of his autobiography "Who He?" he adds: "I am really enjoying this, and would do what Bob Dylan has done and put out my early years first, were it not for the fact that I was arrested early in 2003."

Townshend was arrested in January 2003 on child pornography charges and cautioned the following May. He claimed to have suffered sexual abuse as a young child.

"My autobiography now offers me the chance to lay down my life story and place recent events in proper context. I have had a long and lumbering life - this book will take time."

He has since shelved plans to publish another book entitled "A Different Bomb" about the impact of child abuse and internet pornography on its victims.

He also mentions a potential theatrical version of the mod movie "Quadrophenia".

"Various provincial British theatres have shown very serious interest in mounting a production. There is also an investigation of its theatrical potential by a major American producer."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"have been kicking around the idea of a feature concentrating on ginger and fela's collaboration album, but stories i've been told suggest is a most contrary interviewee... "

My brother hunted Ginger down to interview him for a MOJO feature on Fela - Ginger was totally abrasive and derisive, but it is a really funny interview.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

is jeffrey jones going to make a cameo on it.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Who cares

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 11 November 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Cream for their singing, of all things. Jack Bruce's style is kind of indie -- somewhat flat and distanced, not conventionally soulful even when he's trying (and usually, he's not). And when they harmonize, like on "I Feel Free", it just emphasizes those aspects all the more -- "We're Musicians, man, not singers." Their voices played it a lot cooler than most 60s blues-hammerers.

― briania (briania), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Briania OTM.

Jack Bruce rocks! He is great on that Golden Palominos record, and I came across him recently on some TV show sitting in with some Young Journeymen Rockers and apparently he has still got it.

If you need to clarify your thinking about him, compare him to other "virtuoso" bass player/vocalists, some who might be English and have dyed their hair blond, some who might be Canadian and be namechecked in a Pavement song which provides the nom de list of somebody around here.

My personal proof of his greatness is on the little tape that comes with the book of James Jamerson basslines, "Standing In the Shadows of Motown." The tape alternates between some relatively interesting anecdotes from Motown stalwarts and replications of the Funk Brother's bass parts by various name-brand bass players. Most of these recordings are unfortunate underproduced collaborations between man and drum machine, but Jack Bruce actually manages to sound good.

Finally, check out his Songs For A Tailor solo record, dedicated to Richard Thompson's girlfriend.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 11 November 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

He was great on SNL in the early 80s .. I haven't been able to find a record that sounded like that TV performance though...

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Jack Bruce has only improved as a singer and player since Cream, although most of his own records have been pretty lousy ("Songs for a Tailor" a definite exception). I thought Ginger Baker had decided he was too old and rich to play any more.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Naming your groups after divisions of the military is a classic move...

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"Despatch the Cream Division to soothe that uprising."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 11 November 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

http://mmmackytry.ld.infoseek.co.jp/rock/g/01.jpg

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 11 November 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Dr C: No no no! Maybe on record they were but have you heard the live tracks on The Yardbird years, which came out 2001? Clapton totally busts out the feedback jams, earlier than Hendrix or Young or Reed I believe. The whole thing has a crude primitive motorik quality comparable to some of the VU stuff on Another View maybe but possibly better. There are a few tracks with Sonny Boy Williamson too, which are a treat. Not unexceptional or standard I don't think. I mean, it's not the most vital work ever but it's definitely cool. No doubt that the classic psych-pop hits with Beck are great but this is another style.

Cream had a lot of classic songs but I actually found Disraeli Gears a bit dull on the whole.

I like Ginger Baker's No Material featuring Sonny Sharrock and Peter Brotzmann.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 13 November 2004 05:20 (twenty-one years ago)

(And I'll clarify that there are boring straight blues tracks for sure but the live feedback tracks make the disc interesting.)

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 13 November 2004 05:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I just realized that there are Beck-era tracks on there even though its titled "Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds - The Yardbird Years". Hmm.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 13 November 2004 05:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I would think the best thing about a Cream reunion is that none of the songs will horribly suck. Unless they write new ones I guess. Blind Faith reuniting would probably get me excited.

― billstevejim, Saturday, 13 November 2004 07:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Clapton then
http://www.netweb.org/slowhand/bio/bio1960.jpg

Clapton now
http://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/images/news/espectaculos/2004/03/857829ec50cf78287615e04076aead20.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 November 2004 07:58 (twenty-one years ago)

In days of old didn't his face look completely different from picture to picture? A friend of mine told me there was a website called something like "Guitarist of a Thousand Faces" which illustrated this phenomenon. I think there is an old lip-synch video where, since somebody lost Jack Bruce's bass, both he and Eric have got guitars and I can hardly tell which one's which. "Strange Brew" maybe.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 13 November 2004 08:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, Ken....I've seen that one. Eric's also sporting a truly ridiculous perm in that clip.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 November 2004 08:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Eric's also sporting a truly ridiculous perm in that clip

Yeah, big frizz, like he was gonna try out for the Jimi Hendrix Experience if things didn't pan out Cream-wise.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 13 November 2004 08:37 (twenty-one years ago)

have been kicking around the idea of a feature concentrating on ginger and fela's collaboration album, but stories i've been told suggest is a most contrary interviewee...

I remember this interview in "international musician and recording world" in the early eighties where baker didn't like the line of questioning, so he took out a machete, and started hacking about at a potted plant in the same room.

Wasn't this supposed to happen a few years ago? I seem to remember Clapton getting cold feet, and the other 2 recording an album and touring w/gary moore.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 13 November 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Eric C is President

Thinking of a master plan,
Nothin' but frets inside my hand,
So I dig in with plectrum, all my strings are bent
....

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Was it just an apocryphal story that Baker once set his own hair on fire?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 15 November 2004 09:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"I think there is an old lip-synch video where, since somebody lost Jack Bruce's bass, both he and Eric have got guitars and I can hardly tell which one's which."

This sounds like a story made up by someone who didn't know that Jack Bruce played a lot of six-string bass. Is that possible?

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 15 November 2004 09:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"Badges?"
we don't got no "Badges,"
We don't play no "Badges,"
I don't have to sing you any stinkin' "Badges!"

This sounds like a story made up by someone ...
Could be. I make up a lot of stuff not always on purpose. It really looked like guitar, I mean it didn't look like those big palm stretching six-string basses that you might see these days in the hands of Anthony Jackson.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course not, 'cause those didn't exist. But Fender and Gibson both made short scale 6 string basses in the 60s, and Bruce played those.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 15 November 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It wasn't one of those kind of hybrid things, one of those kind of tuned-down guitars made by Danelectro called a "tic(k)-tac(k)" bass by the country music people,was it? I suppose not.

I guess I could try to salvage my concocted anecdote join one of the various Jack Bruce newsgroups and ask a question or search the archives but hey, that's probably going a little too far.

OK, I googled it up and there it is: Picture of Fender Bass VI and damned if it doesn't look just like a guitar, complete with whammy bar. Thanks for setting me straight, Colin. But don't forget my original point was that Eric Clapton's face looked so different from moment to moment that at one point I couldn't distinguish him from Jack Bruce. The fact that Jack's bass was camouflaged couldn't have helped.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 15 November 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...

Looky looky -- the Warwick Jack Bruce Cream Reunion Bass:

ihttp://www.warwick.de/media/news_images/00000000305/web%201494610024CDBPOOWW_front.jpg

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

That bass has a really nice top. It might even look better with a cherry stain nitro finish instead of usual Warwick's natural wood look.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

so anyone hear about this?

― charleston charge (chaki), Saturday, 7 May 2005 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The NY Times reviewed the first show. Said it was a little too polished. Preferred the Jack Bruce pop-psych stuff to the Eric Clapton blues stuff. Said maybe as the tour progresses (is there a tour?) they will loosen up and be more like the old, anarchic Cream.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 7 May 2005 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

NY shows:

http://www.ericclaptonportal.com/news/2005/09/cream-reunion-madison-square-garden-new-york-24-25-26-october-2005.html

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

"
Ticket On-Sale Information
Tickets will go on-sale first to American Express cardmembers through a special pre-sale, beginning Monday, September 12th at 9am Eastern Standard Time (EST). Tickets can be purchased via ticketmaster.com and there will be a 4 ticket per person limit.

If tickets remain, they will then go on-sale to the general public on Monday, September 19, 2005."

starting at $750

― when something smacks of something (dave225.3), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

I've always respected that Ginger and Jack went semi-underground, like they had enough money and just wanted to live their lives instead of being popstars. The Ginger interview after Fela died was great. I haven't been able to find it for a couple of years. Crapton sucks but Cream was great.

― steve ketchup, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Kicking heroin was the biggest mistake Clapton ever made.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

I saw them at the Garden on Weds. (A friend called an offered me a free ticket at the last minute; I said, 'Well sure.') They were good, with flashes of great. I've seen Clapton a couple other times, and he's ranged from OK to dullllllsville, but he was pretty well on fire. A little of the old competitive spirit still there, I guess, wanted to show Jack and Ginger who was God. Vocals were weakish, but that was true even in the day. Jack and Ginger are still ace players. Great song selection (even if it did include "Toad"). I was kinda bummed not to hear "Strange Brew," but "Tales of Brave Ulysses" made up for it. A good time.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 27 October 2005 06:06 (twenty years ago)

Ditto. I was there on Tuesday. In the highest row, but those were the only affordable tickets. They were a little too polite. Clapton shortened most of his solos, playing rhythm and giving Bruce a chance. So it wasn't like the old days of everyone soloing at once. And he was a little tentative with that wah-wah pedal. I wish they'd go out on the road for a year, to reaquaint themselves with playing as a trio. But really they did a nice job. They were more like Cream than anyone could have expected.

― Sang Freud (jeff_s), Thursday, 27 October 2005 10:15 (twenty years ago)

yeah "tales of brave ulysses" has gotta be one of the greatest fuckin songs ever. i'd pay a bit of dough to see cream live... not some exorbitant "classic rock band reunites sells many tickets to yuppies" price, but it would be pretty cool especially if the band dropped some acid. i firmly believe what made derek and the dominoes good was duane fuckin' allman and not claptonia.... i mean its not GREAT but a classic 70s stoner record.

― jack dee, Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I borrowed and watched the DVD from the Albert Hall Shows and was quite impressed. Jack Bruce was in good voice, Ginger is as good as ever and Clapton really gets it going on a few numbers. The versions of "Stormy Monday" and "Were Going Wrong" were great. I noticed Brian May in the crowd when the camera panned across the audience at one point.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:54 (twenty years ago)

I saw them tuesday night. They sounded great
Clapton really sounded great. It shows he can still pay great music.
He really should put a good studio band back together and finally relase some good music again
Clapton looked like a kid compared to Jack Bruce...wow did he look old!! I guess a liver transplant will do that to ya'

― meister, Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

shit, just pulled out my copy of "layla and other assorted love songs" for a spin and i was checking out some of the inner photos!!!! christ these are priceless from the miami sessions for the album. duane allman's mutton chops combined with a flamingo-satin beach shirt atrocity are about the coolest fuckin' thing this side of... well dickie betts' outfits... in-CRED-ible.
http://www.handmadewebsites.com/cream/derek-duane.jpg
this isn't from the LP interior, bummer i couldn't find that collage online, but this is eric and duane... fuck yeah...

― jack dee, Thursday, 27 October 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

Epic, spooky version of "We're Going Wrong" on Wednesday night. Maybe the highlight of the show.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 27 October 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

God I wish they would come to Chicago....

― The Ghost of Poppy Hidalgo (diamond), Friday, 28 October 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

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