Customer Reviews

Cream: Farewell Concert

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

They shouldn't call this "The Farewell Concert". There's very little concert here. The thing is also very pooly filmed and edited. There are bits and pieces of songs. This would make a nice "extra" for a good video disc, but doesn't stand well on it's own at all.

This DVD, even at its low price, isn't worth it. Sounds are incomplete and interrupted by narration. The sound and video quality isn't pleasing either.

oh no...well it was 1967 and filmakers hadn't had a lot of experience filming rock concerts. The bad: Tight zooming in and out, superimposition, long close-ups of Jack Bruce's boils, shots of Clapton's face while he's burning some wicked blues guitar; the sound is awful, and to make it worse they add echo all the way through Ginger Baker's drum solo so it's a huge mess. There's also echo added in other tunes...really bad.

On the plus side it actually is interesting to see the boys talking candidly about this and that, very "period", and Clapton demonstrating his guitar techniques using the Dayglo-painted Gibson SG that George Harrison had given to him. At this moment in time Clapton was considered the greatest guitarist alive.

If you want a good representation of Cream playing live you'll get all you need on their official albums: Wheels of Fire, Live Cream (excellent-I think their best live material and lovely production), and Goodbye, which has excerpts from this concert but without the horrible echo. There is also Live Cream 2, which is also quite good, but released after the break-up. Look for the Strange Brew DVD for a better retrospective and excellent live footage.

This is a disappointing making of Cream's farewell concert. You can barely enjoy the performances because of the absolutely dreadful editing. There are times that , during the concert footage , you would see a great wide shot of the band but then , suddenly , they would switch to a quick shot of Jack Bruce then a quick shot of Clapton then a close up shot of Ginger Baker and just change quickly from close ups of band members to the audience to the instruments. I mean , you don't mind A LITTLE editing of concert footage but the editing here for "Cream Farewell Concert" was so over the top that it was distracting. It really took away from the experience of seeing this bands final concert. Tragic!

For example during the playing of "White Room" we get far too close to Jack Bruce's face for too long , and when Clapton's solo comes up they have a tight shot of Clapton from the shoulders up as he is playing and YOU DON'T SEE THE GUITAR! Then they actually vibrated this camera shot making it even more fustrating to watch! (the editing is so bad you wonder if this is the actual footage of him playing the "White Room" guitar solo). During the playing of "Spoonful" they decide to double expose the badly shot concert footage with lava effects. It was like someone spat on the Mona Lisa. Tragic. Absolutely tragic.

Another odd thing about this footage is that it looks like the first song that was played in this documentary was the last song played in the actual concert. The song is "Sunshine of Your Love" and at the end of the song Clapton takes his guitar off , says thank you and waves to the crowd , you see Jack Bruce putting down his base and Ginger Baker walking away from his drum set heading back stage and the audience giving a standing ovation as if the concert was over. And this is about five minutes into the documentary. What gives?

This was the 60's. So you wonder if the people who shot this footage and edited it had a little "influence" while making this piece. If you know what I mean. It certainly looks like it.

The one good thing about this documentary is that there are interviews with each band member. Clapton(25 years old here)and Baker generously give a sort of music lesson on how they play their instruments. Young people who are seriously looking to become musicians may find those parts very informative. But those are the only redeeming parts to this documentary.

Cream created some of the most memorable tunes in rock and roll. These guys were a real power trio ; an awesome band. This program does not do this group justice. The awful , horrific editing will give you a denied experience of what seemed like a fun concert to watch. You just can't enjoy it. And just for good measure , the DVD has no DVD extras.

This is a documentary on Cream. It looks like it was made for British TV. It is about half interviews and half music. It is only 47 minutes long. There are no complete songs. The songs start in the middle or end abruptly. The announcer talks over large portions of the songs.

The picture and sound quality are poor. The actually camerea shots were poor. It looks like it was pulled from an old video tape. The DVD has no special features.

There are some interesting parts to the interviews, where each band member explains how they play their instruments and how they acheive their sound. But, most of it is a gloss over without really getting into the band. There is no mention of how they formed or what tore them apart.

There are some nice bits of them playing, but it isn't enough to justify buying this.

I love Cream. One would think that for one of rock's all time concerts, they could put together a competent video. Sorry, I like many Cream fans were disappointed here. Songs are cut in half by cheesy narrative that really has no place, and the interviews are bad to say the least. They need to put out the whole concert; it's billed as a concert isn't it? Narrative is horrible, just show the band play.

I wish the show was more of a concert instead of a documentary. I would like to have seen complete songs instead of how to play drums and guitar. Buy Cream's Strange Brew video instead. It has more complete versions from the same concert plus killer interviews with the band and other luminaries like Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Alex Van Halen and John Mayall.

I love Cream, but I was very disappointed with the silly cinematography. The camera operator decided to simulate the psychedelic experience by rapidly cycling the zoom lens all the way in and all the way out. Give me a break! This just looks cheesy and dumb. Unfortunately there is so much of this kind of foolishness that I have only watched the show once, and then I put it on the shelf where it has stayed. Not recommended. If you are a guitar player and wanted to see Clapton play, don't waste your time.

This is one DVD by a great artist/band that I would shred. It is a dog. Its like a BBC biography of the band. If it is not the band members discussing their performance then its the director that is talking over the music. It seems like nobody on this DVD can help but interrupt every single song which hey do. It would have been nice if it was a concert not this biography of Cream. This doesn't even mention sound quality. A total waste of money.

Sound is horrible. Remember those "tape recorders" you had when you were a kid (I'm 38). This sounds lik it was taped on that.