The Improbable Odyssey of Cream

Traintime

When Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, and Ginger Baker decided to form a trio and have a go as a pop-rock band, they had no idea what to expect.  The three had been stars of the London Blues-Jazz club scene of the early 1960s, playing nightly before an audience of 50-60 patrons. Their main goal was not to make scads of money, nor to become rock 'n' roll icons, rather to play with one another, and see where it would take them.

Their musicianship and magnetism was felt immediately in their first shows, where audiences would balloon from 50 patrons to 1500-plus, with more spilling out onto the sidewalks and streets.  However, finding a manager with the clout to promote them, proved problematic.

When no one seemed interested in representing them, Ginger Baker volunteered to manage them, as he had managed his prior band. That was the Jazz-infused Graham Bond Organisation, of which Jack Bruce had been a member. However, Baker and Bruce had a history of fighting, after one particularly ugly fight, Baker fired Bruce.  If Clapton hadn't put his foot down, and insisted on Jack Bruce being a part of the band, it's likely the trio would never have materialized.

THREE VIRTUOSOS

One night the three met at Baker's London digs to see if they meshed musically.  After that, they knew they had something special.  Indeed, the trio chose a 3-minute Blues standard that would turn into a 20-minute jam session (a foretast of things to come). Outside Baker's home, a host of exited teens congregated near the living room window, not quite believing what they had heard.  Yes, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and Eric Clapton had played together; but were almost incapable of playing together; three strong personalities destined to fight it out in the live arena of concert halls across America. That was their magic.  And everyone would stand in line to see them fight it out in the live area of improvisation.

That afternoon Eric Clapton suggested they call themselves "Cream", because they were three virturosos, the best at what they did..  The name stuck.

Instead of Baker managing the trio, Cream reluctantly decided on an unknown impresario who Baker had recommended.  This was an Australian promoter named Robert Stigwood.  As it turned out, Stigwood was more interested in managing the Bee Gees, whom he believed had tremendous star potential in America.  Despite Cream's large London fan base, he did not believe the trio would succeed in the United States. Despite his doubts, Stigwood signed them to record an album on his own Reaction Records label.

FRESH CREAM

Without a producer, and few original songs, Cream entered a London studio and recorded their first LP, entitled Fresh Cream.  It was a mixture of American blues standards, plus five original pop tunes that Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker composed (with input from two lyricists).  Also included was Baker's drum solo ("Toad"), that would become a crowd pleaser wherever Cream performed.  Short of songs, Ginger Baker invited a beat poet named Pete Brown to write lyrics.   Known as the sanest of mad poets, Brown provided them with surreal lyrics, that only Jack Bruce could set to music.  Indeed, Brown was more than willing to work with Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton.  But the only one to write consistently for Cream, was Jack Bruce.  As it turned out the Bruce-Brown collaborative effort would produce a host of hits for Cream, and last well after Cream disbanded, up into the early 2000s.

Without a hit single, Fresh Cream sold modestly.  At some point Cream returned to the studio and recorded a new Bruce/Brown number entitled, I Feel Free. The song entered the charts and would gradually climb into the top 20s, as would Fresh Cream.

By now, Cream was selling out in various music halls throughout Europe. After selling out a large theater in France, their manager decided it was time to send them to America, if he could find an American promoter who would guarantee payment for their shows.  The American promoter turned out to be a popular New York ex-DJ, known as Murray the K.  The show turned out to be a fiasco, and it's likely Murray the K lost money, but he was good for his word and paid Cream's management for their appearance.

DISRAELI GEARS

The benefactor was Atlantic Records' boss Ahmet Ertegon, who signed them to a limited record deal, that included releasing Fresh Cream in America.  As a hedge, he gave Cream two weeks in April to record a new album.

Cream was particularly delighted to be working with legendary recording engineer Tom Dowd, who'd produced records for the likes of Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin.

As a shrewd businessman with an eye for talent, Ertegon wanted to make Eric Clapton the trio's frontman. Indeed, two years earlier, he had seen John Mayall's Blues Breakers perform in a London club, and was stunned by the band's spellbinding lead guitarist, an angelic 21-year-old blonde Englishman.  Eric Clapton played his Les Paul 12-string electric guitar with the elan of a Black Southern Blues master.  While Jack Bruce had arrived with a host of new songs, Ertegon told Bruce, his songs were "rubbish" and that he should forget about being the band's lead singer, and that he and Ginger Baker would be mere backup players behind the band's real star, Eric Clapton.  To insure that this would happen. he brought in a multi-talented musician and songwriter, named Felix Pappalardi to be their producer.  The only problem was Clapton was not yet a songwriter nor much of a front man.  Besides that, Clapton insisted on making Bruce the lead singer. It didn't take long for Pappalardi to realize that Clapton was right: Bruce was the better singer, a natural front-man, and a prolific songwriter. Rather than bonding with Clapton, as Ertegon had hoped, Pappallardi and Bruce bonded immediately (they had much in common, both were classically trained musicians, worshipped J.S.Bach, and played a multitude of instruments, including cello, piano, harmonica, and electric bass).

If Ertegon was unhappy with this, he got over it when Bruce showed up in the studio one morning with his latest song, "Sunshine of Your Love."  The song would not only be Cream's biggest hit single ever, it would also be Atlantic Records' biggest selling record up to that time.  Their second album would be entitled, Disraeli Gears, which is a play on words that Ginger Baker dreamed up.  An avid bicyclists with a quirky sense of humor, he substituted the words "derailleur gears" for "Disraili Gears".  Capton and Bruce loved the title.  For a psychedelic album, it was perfect.

While Cream did not complete their new album in two weeks (they were drawn away with several previously contracted gigs in London and in Europe) they would finish the album in May.

To everyone's surprise, Cream was now in world-wide demand.  Unbeknownst to the trio, Cream was invited to perform at the Monterey Pop Festival in California; however, Robert Stigwood, who didn't know better, turned down the invitation. The three-day event would make super-stars of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Janis Joplin.

Around the time of the American release of Fresh Cream, the British trio returned to America to play six consecutive nights on the West Coast: three sold-out shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and three sold-out shows at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles.  Prior to this, Cream had played nine shows in eleven days at the Fillmore.

Cream was surprised that everyone knew who they were, and would go crazy at their shows  "This was surprising," Clapton would say later,  "In England it was all about fashion, whereas in America it was all about the music."

  It was at the Fillmore Auditorium that Cream began jamming for up to 20-minutes per song: "Don't talk, just play" the Fillmore patrons called out. The irony of this was Cream never played for the audience, but for each other. The fact they loved to jam together was a happy coincidence.

In November, with the release of the highly anticipated Disraeli Gears, it began to get really crazy, with the trio playing as much as six nights a week.

With no time for their personal lives or time to write new songs, Cream would make short stops in various studios for about a year to create their masterpiece, Wheels of Fire.

Performing under such an intensive schedule, burn out was sure to set in, and the first to feel it was Jack Bruce.  While performing in Canada, Bruce decided he'd had enough.  He bought a plane ticket for home, only to be stopped by two roadies.

CATHOLIC UNION HIGH SCHOOL

At the close of their first American Tour, management eased up on the touring schedule, with fewer shows.  It was around this time that Cream performed at Catholic Union High School in Scotch Plaines, New Jersey.  The date was March 26, 1968, within a few weeks after the trio had performed nine shows at the Fillmore and Winterland arenas in San Francisco.  it was during these  shows that engineers from Atlantic Records would record several songs for a possible live album.

The reason I mention this particular show is because Catholic Union High School is located about eight miles west of my current home in Westfield, New Jersey.  Also, my son Scott knows a guy who wishes to remain anonymous (we'll call him Bob) who attended the concert.  Prior to the show, Bob went to the school's men's room to get stoned.  While there, who should walk in but Ginger Baker? who would share a joint with Bob.  Not long after, Eric Clapton walked in as well, took a few hits, and departed with the joint wedged in the fret strings of his pyschelic guitar.  Says Bob, "This was at a time when no one knew a joint from a cigarette.  So no one really knew what was going on."

While the school's auditorium was not large, the place was jammed to the rafters with excited fans, many of them high school students, like Bob (who attended Westfield High School).  Cream performed for about 90 minutes, and did six numbers: "Tales of the Brave Ulysses", "Crossroads", "Spoonful", "Traintime" "Toad" and closed with a rousing rendition of their latest hit, "Sunshine of Your Love".  Bob believes it was the father of one of the Catholic Union High School students, who was in the music business, and arranged for Cream to perform at the high school. (In the future, The Who would perform there, as well as The Grateful Dead, and The Byrds).

Following a tight schedule, Cream would perform the following night at Staples College Auditorium, in Westport, Connecticut.

Two months later, Rolling Stone Magazine would publish an article highly critical of Cream, as not being a legitimate blues band; each member of the trio being taken to task.  Of the three, only Eric Clapton would take it personally. "Ginger and I had been raked over the coals many times," said Jack Bruce, "so we were used to it.  Eric really took the criticism to heart."  While touring in Texas, Clapton called their manager Robert Stigwood, to end the tour. He reluctantly agreed.

Despite the criticism, the band was drained from constant touring and decided it would be best to disband.  Money wasn't an issue.   Cream had exceeded everyone's expectations, making everyone involved very rich.   What had started out as something of a lark, had grown into a money-making monster that, ironically, sapped their energy, and destroyed what they love doing best--improvising long into the night.

"It was mind numbing," Jack Bruce confessed later.  "You get to a point, you're playing so hard, you think you can't make it but you just keep going."

WHEELS OF FIRE

In August, Atlantic Records released their third album, Wheels of Fire, a two-record set, comprised of studio tracks, plus live cuts from their Fillmore shows.  Led by the hit single "White Room" Wheels of Fire would become the first ever two-record set to sell one million copies, and thus be certified a platinum record.

"It seemed strange to be disbanding at the peak of our popularity," recalled Jack Bruce, "but I was ready for it.  I wanted to buy a house, have children and get into other types of music.  What's sad is that we never had time to write songs together.  Also, we spent too much time touring America.  We should have toured Australia and Japan."

However, Robert Stigwood would have the last word.  He wanted a Farewell Tour of America, and for the band to record a fourth album (in fact, two additional albums would be released: Live Cream in 1970 (comprised of outtakes from their 1968 Fillmore shows, and Live Cream Vol. 2, in 1972 (comprised of cuts from their American Farewell Tour).

The Farewell Tour concluded at sold-out Madison Square Garden in November, 1968, where Robert Stigwood and Ahmet Erdegon awarded Cream with three platinum records, for Wheels of Fire.  Two weeks later Cream would perform one last time, before their adoring English fans in London, at Royal Albert Hall.

GOODBYE

The final album (entitled, Goodbye) was comprised of three live cuts from their final tour, plus three new songs, one each composed by members of the trio.  One of the songs, co-written by George Harrison of the Beatles, and Eric Clapton, entitled "Badge" would be Cream's last hit single.

In the end, Cream sold 35 million records.

After they disbanded, Clapton and Baker would team up with Steve Winwood of Traffic, and bassist Ric Grech, to form Blind Faith.

After recording their debut album, Blind Faith would debute at sold-out Madison Square Garden.  Two blocks away at a local Jazz club, Jack Bruce sat it in with Tony William's Lifetime, a jazz trio created by as ex-Miles Davis drummer (Tony Williams).  The irony was not lost on the music press, pointing out that Blind Faith was raking in tens of thousands of dollars, while two blocks away Jack Bruce was being paid union scale.

Jack Bruce didn't mind. For him it had never been about the money, but about the music.  As a matter of fact, he was invited by Jimmy Page, to join a band he was forming: Led Zepplin.  Bruce declined.  His solo albums, while not big sellers, were highly praised by music critics.  Ironically, Clapton would quit Blind Faith in mid-tour of America, to pursue a solo career as a pop singer.  Wrote one critic: "In the future, no one will remember Clapton's solo albums, while Jack Bruce's records will live on for decades to come."

Unwittingly, Cream had launched a generation of hard-rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Guns 'N' Roses,and many others.  Writes Cream biographer, Chris Welch: "All the hard-rock bands following Cream believed their success was about playing as loud as possible.  That wasn't it at all.  The secret to Cream's live sets was all about sound dynamics.  At this, Cream was peerless."

Their long-time roady Ben Palmer was proud of Cream.  But he wasn't too impressed with by the debasement of the blues that he felt such commercially successful rock bands represented.  He says: "I've always felt that a great opportunity was lost.  I don't want to sound high-minded about this, but I do think that at the time, that the center of the blues is something which is nourishing and real.  Along with jazz, it's the greatest gift that America has given to the world."

ROCK 'N' ROLL HALL OF FAME

Cream would reunite for induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.  They would perform one song,  What else? Their biggest hit: "Sunshine of Your Love."

While the members of Cream remained friends (going their separate ways musically), the idea of re-uniting was something they often talked about.  When the time was right.  That would be in 2005, at a reunion concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Cream would perform before a sold-out audience for five consecutive nights. These shows were filmed and released on DVD in late 2005. If you ever wondered what all the hoopla was about, these vidios are the answer.

Note: In writing this piece, I am indebted a book entitled "Cream: the legendary sixties supergroup" by Chris Welch

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