BillLindau

About the Cream reunion tour

Cream reunion tour: Back in the sunshine of our love
By Bill Lindau
Of all the British rock groups that flourished in the 1960s, Cream is the only one I know whose original members are still alive. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker are all in their 60s, and they’re a little slower than they were almost 40 years ago, but the reviewers said they were really jamming’ this month in London, when they started their reunion tour.
After a rough beginning in 2005, I can honestly say this is the best news I’ve heard all year. I loved Cream when I a young teenager and I’m happy for them now, that they have gotten back together after 37 years and sound just as good as ever.
My only gripe: We don’t have any information about when and where they are playing in the States. Looked it up on the Internet, and I either haven’t found the proper links or their production managers are keeping it to themselves.
They were nowhere near as good as the Beatles -- as far as I’m concerned, nobody is -- but in the two years this trio played together, they gave the Who and the Rolling Stones a run for their money: Clapton with his strings of gold, Bruce with his awesome bass and Baker with his butt-kicking drums. They brought their own style to the rock scene, with their own form of blues with a bit of psychedelic sound thrown in. They played together from 1966 to 1968, cutting three studio albums and a concert album for their last gig together, “Goodbye Cream” in the fall of 1968.
I heard back in January they were getting back together for a reunion tour, and I felt like singing in the streets, specifically their hits, “White Room,” “Sunshine of your Love,” “Badge” and “Spoonful”. But they have remained in my memory for the past few years, when I hear someone doing a few of their songs.
The 2003 film “Cold Mountain” featured one of their old hits. Those who saw it may remember a scene toward the end when Jack White and two other actors were playing some music around a campfire during a cold winter night. One of the songs was an old Cream hit, “Sitting on Top of the World”. It was originally a delta blues song, and I found the idea of a white Southerner singing it during the Civil War a little hard to believe, but I almost had a cow. I thought that was fabulous all the same.
Every once in awhile you can also hear some of the blues songs Cream covered on radio station WFAE (90.7 FM), a public-radio station in Charlotte. It airs from 9 p.m. to midnight Saturdays. “Born under a Bad Sign”, “Crossroads,” a Willie Dixon song called “Spoonful” and one by Muddy Waters called “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” are among the ones I’ve heard on it.
The first week of this month, Cream played four days at Royal Albert Hall in London, to sellout crowds that included both 50somethings and their kids who weren’t even born when the highly touted supergroup broke up after two years. But Clapton, Bruce and Baker on drums “ripped” through 18 of their famous songs in just over two hours on opening night, Monday, May 2. The concert ended with Clapton crying with joy before a packed house. A CNN report said they were “much changed but very much revered.“
This was the very same place they gave their last concert in the fall of 1968. This incredibly talented threesome could have been more successful than the Who or the Rolling Stones, but they reportedly fought so much they only lasted two years.
But in those two years, they were as popular as ever.
Does anybody who reads this still have their albums: “Fresh Cream,” “Disraeli Gears” and “Wheels of Fire”? “Goodbye Cream” was the fourth one they did together. An “greatest hits” collection called “Heavy Cream” came out in 1972. That’s the only one of their LPs I still have.
Clapton, the baby of this rock family at 60, has had the most successful career. After Cream broke up he and Baker joined Steve Winwood of Traffic and Rick Grech in a group called Blind Faith. They only put together one album, but it was really good.
I was surprised Baker was still alive; he was just as famous for his drug problems as for his marathon drum solos. But even though he indeed battled with a heroin addiction for years, Baker, now 65, seemed to have done all right for himself. A recent report said he went on to build a modern recording studio in Nigeria, the first one in West Africa. He also became an olive farmer in Tuscany and ran a club in Denver. He and Bruce once formed a rock trio in 1994, the year after all three of them as Cream were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I saw Jack Bruce in concert once, when he, Leslie West and West’s former drummer with Mountain named Corky Laing played at East Carolina University. He faded from the spotlight, but continued to play music, experimenting with jazz and fusion and playing in rock bands from time to time, including the one I mentioned above.
“Clapton was still in his teens when he showed himself to be a guitar wizard with the Yardbirds and then legendary John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers,” the CNN report said.
“It was Baker who first approached Clapton about forming a group. It was Clapton who suggested Bruce as the third member -- an idea that didn't go down well with Baker, who had fallen out with the Scotsman when they were both members of the Graham Bond Organisation, a British rhythm and blues band. Despite the animosity between the two -- something that would take on violent overtones and self-destructive behavior in years ahead -- Baker and Bruce agreed to work together again.
“Gone on Monday (May 2) was the acrimony, along with the extended improvisations and half-hour solos.
“Somewhere in the vacuum of career transitions and personal crisis, Clapton and company appear to have become a group, perhaps really for the first time. Mature, paced and professional, and begging the question: How good would these guy have been in the early days if not for drugs, alcohol and egos?”
Tickets for the London concerts went on sale Jan. 31 and they were quickly gone. I wonder if Cream will play in the Carolinas and if so, how much tickets will cost. I’m sad to say they’ll probably be a luxury most of us old working stiffs can’t afford. But even so, two CD sets have just come out that sound as if they’re worth a listen. “I Feel Free -- Ultimate Cream” is a two-CD set with both studio and live performances by Cream. A “Special Edition -- Limited Deluxe” three-CD box set includes BBC sessions and interviews with Clapton.
My recently deceased friend Andy Faircloth is probably howling with delight, wherever he is now. He was one of the biggest Cream fans you ever met.
Cream and their songs brought back a lot of memories. I lost track of how many parties I went to with them playing “Sunshine of your Love” on eight-track tapes. If I wind up in a rest home about 20 years from now, I hope somebody has a collection of Cream, Beatles and Barbra Streisand albums that are still in good shape.
I may spend my days in a “White Room”, but I’d really be "Sitting On Top of the World"!

posted by Bill Lindau @ 8:57 PM