OPO: Cream

Sounds like R. Meltzer narrating the "case of beer and 2 black hookers" animation.

(and his personal life so pathetic)

The part in the trailer about "He shouldn't have had kids" is o_O enough until you realize the person saying it is his son.

Wait until you find out about his second wife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb-zUvQMO5I

For Yasgur's Farm

R.I.P. Jack Bruce:

(from http://www.jackbruce.com)

It is with great sadness that we, Jack’s family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father, granddad, and all round legend. The world of music will be a poorer place without him, but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts.

RIP :(

RIP :(

woof. sad.

RIP

Songs For A Tailor, man, Songs For A Tailor.

RIP

tbh used to be a little down on his signature fuzzyfart tone, but man he had some much going on musically, great time, great ideas, great singing and playing at the same time. Even grew to love that tone, although one should handle with care when emulating. There were a couple of projects he appeared on isolated tracks amongst other guests- thinking of some Golden Palominos records and the recordings that accompanied the James Jamerson book, Standing in the Shadows of Motown- and in those contexts he towered liked a giant, you could feel the needle jump into the red when he showed up.

(xpost with my new screenname)

otm. I kind of liked his tone, though, as the fuzziness managed to avoid the slick braahk-braahk of most fretless electric players.

Songs For A Tailor, man, Songs For A Tailor.

RIP

― Don A Henley And Get Over It (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, October 25, 2014 1:00 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this. When every band in Britain was trying to do their version of Music From Big Pink and living in communal thatched-roof cottages and swearing off LSD, Bruce topped them all with "Theme From An Imaginary Western."

RIP. I'm glad Cream got to get back together

The West, Bruce & Laing albums are pretty great, especially Live 'n' Kickin'. Only the debut, Why Doncha, is on Spotify, though.

I never really checked all the songwriting credits, but I always suspected it was Bruce who was key to the side of Cream I most loved--the sometimes sinister, sometimes pretty psychedelic side, "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and the two big hits and "Passing the Time" and other things. I know he wrote the former. I didn't get much out of Songs for a Tailor when I downloaded it a couple of years ago, but I'll give it another try.

I rescreened listened to Songs For A Tailor earlier tonight. In the liner notes, Bruce talks about wanting to work beyond Cream, using both more subtle guitar and drums alongside strings, horns, and keyboards. To me that's the key to the album, because the songs are able to shine without being subject to the three-way duels between Clapton, Bruce & Baker that basically so many Cream songs really are.

Right. There is a kind of Money Jungle quality to most of their output.

I'm pretty far from being a 'rockist' and don't wanna come off as one of these stodgy "is nothing sacred??!" cats but it sorta bugged me that the announcement of Bruce's Death on Pfork is printed in regular 10pt font beneath the top headline about Drake "dropping three new tracks."

Man, RIP. Disraeli Gears is such a fantastically weird album, and he was such a great, melodic bassist. Always thought he was sort of an underrated lyricist as well, not amazing or anything but capable of memorable imagery, even if the words didn't make any sense.

I love "Tales of Brave Ulysses" but it was written by Clapton and Martin Sharp.

Oops...proving I really don't check. So much for my theory on What I Love About Cream.

Also, didn't Pete Brown write a lot of those Cream lyrics?

Yes, including "White Room"

I wonder who the weakest link was in Cream. All 3 have their pros and cons.

RIP. I'm glad Cream got to get back together

Clapton's the weak link for me, and I actually like his playing on those records (even/especially the live stuff). But I can't help but wonder what Cream would've been like with Richard Thompson in Clapton's place.

xp

She Walks Like Bearded Richard (Thompson)

Looked over the songwriting credits on Wikipedia, and these are my favourite Bruce (and usually Brown) songs: "N.S.U.," "Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room," "Deserted Cities of the Heart," and "Doin' That Scrapyard Thing." They all sound really gloomy and druid-like, far away from their blues covers (Clapton's influence, I'm guessing...maybe they're not so far away), except for "Scrapyard," which is really sprightly and in the running for my favourite Cream song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzcPVCzfZMM

The two Live Cream LPs bang.

BADGE.

she cried away her life since she fell out the cradle

we move like the sea

i'll stay with you till my sea's all dried up

strange brew. Nicely captures all the things they were good at and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Driving in my car, smoking my cigar,
The only time I'm happy's when I play my guitar.

i'll stay with you till my sea's all dried up

This "Live from Detroit '67/ Live at the Grande Ballroom" radio broadcast recording by Cream from October of '67 is really, really good. They play with a really total madcap abandon and it is probably the most intense Clapton playing. Sound quality is pretty decent for the time too, pretty comparable with say a Dick's Pick collection.

MC5 was one of the opening acts at this gig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDSugBduE4k&list=PLYCCW7ubODkJZf1FkCtOzkQhDhd1IzeSm&index=4&t=0s

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/26/cream-ginger-baker-critically-ill

Ginger Baker has died. Wild and brilliant are two of the kinder adjectives they might have used.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/06/ginger-baker-wild-and-brilliant-cream-drummer-dies-aged-80

Wild anyway.

disraeli gears is still a great album, and baker gurvitz army remains underrated.

his lasting legacy is probably 'beware of mr baker,' tho.

Kind of agree with this. Who else would start combination Jazz & Polo club so he would have a place to play?

Double Bass Drums too, although Keith Moon beat him to 'em.

I guess too he was the first Rock band player to do drum solos?

His album with Fela is superb but agree everything is overshadowed by Beware of Mr Baker. Sure, the filmmaker got a broken nose but he also baked into celluloid (if it needed proving) that Ginger was a sociopath.

I myself saw the two of them at a coffee shop several years ago, before this show happened, where I was meeting the Uni Watch guy about something and I said something to her, but he just kind of seemed to be glaring at me so I get it.

I have one more Syd Straw to round out this meager offering.

So my friend called me from LA last winter shortly after he met Syd Straw and had this discussion because ”I was the only one he knew who would know who she was”

After he moved back to LA decades ago another friend moved into the same apartment he had been living in in Brooklyn. This friend met Syd Straw one evening and got her phone number.

After he called her and left a message she called back and left him a message.

“[James Redd’s friend] this is Syd Straw. I’m in I’m out, I’m up I’m down, without the time for making any plans, however so casual.”

Now back to Ginger. I really like this trumpet player from Denver who is in the documentary talking about the Jazz & Polo Club and Ginger, Ron Miles. Been meaning to catch him live, never have, does an awesome version of Lennon’s “Julia.”

Yeah, Ron Miles is great. His 2017 album I Am A Man (with Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Thomas Morgan and Brian Blade) is fantastic.

great Ginger piece in the NYT by one Weingarten

Haha, literal BURN

Bass player Jack Bruce later said that the opening song "N.S.U." was written for the band's first rehearsal. "It was like an early punk song... the title meant "non-specific urethritis. It didn't mean an NSU Quickly - which was one of those little 1960s mopeds. I used to say it was about a member of the band who had this venereal disease. I can't tell you which one... except he played guitar."

Pressed Rat and Warthog was my introduction to twee before twee was a thing.

1. i didn't know that the music for "strange brew" was originally recorded for a more-or-less straight blues arrangement titled "lawdy mama" -- what felix pappalardi and gail collins were able to do with that track, transforming it into what it is, is sort of amazing

2. did "As You Said" invent Led Zeppelin's "Friends"?

3. if i were to put together a little mix with non-album singles and pop psych odds N ends from various records, it might look like this. tbh i don't need much else from this band. even if i like tunes like "sunshine" and "strange brew", i don't need to ever hear them again.

Wrapping Paper
The Coffee Song
I Feel Free
Pressed Rat and Warthog
Anyone for Tennis

N.S.U.
Sleepy Time Time
As You Said
Blue Condition
World of Pain
Take It Back

Haha, literal BURN

ever since i read this, now when I hear the 'Ahhhh's in the chorus of "NSU" I imagine Eric Clapton screaming while he pees

did "As You Said" invent Led Zeppelin's "Friends"?

I'm sure Page would say he had been listening to Indian music for years before Cream, but it's obviously a forerunner of Zeppelin. As is "Deserted Cities of the Heart", my Pick Only One. It really allows all three musicians to do what they're best at, and the strings give it a scope and a wide vista that most of their other songs lack.