Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Blake exploded onto the scene in 1966 as Cream, modern music's first true supergroup. They set standards that rock n roll still aspires to, not only creating some of rock's most enduring anthems, such as "Sunshine of Your Love," "I Feel Free," "Badge," "Strange Brew," and "White Room," but also rewriting the terms under which every subsequent band would operate. This book transports the reader back to an age when the blues was still a mysterious music that came to Britain in the rucksacks of merchant seamen. Competition was fierce and, within a close network of legendary bands, musicians were poached, dropped, and spurred by competitive rivalry. None were as ruthless in their devotion to music as Cream—three momentous talents, three momentous egos, and three musicians who rarely saw eye to eye. But such was their power that today, almost 40 years after the band broke up, Cream remains a byword for musical quality. Jam-packed with incisive new interviews with a glittering cast of band members, friends, rivals, and onlookers, this chronicle reads as if it were the best rock fiction ever written. Across 27 months, four LPs, and approximately 300 gigs, Cream's songs have sold cars and computers, bolstered movie soundtracks, and launched entire careers. From life on the road in the mid-1960s Britain to the psychedelic fog of Swinging London in 1967 and the reactionary brutality of America 1968—these are the tumultuous years that first created, then enveloped, and finally devoured the greatest rock band in the world.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
A regular contributor to Rolling Stone, Mojo, and Q, Dave Thompson is the author of such rock biographies as Go Phish, Never Fade Away: The Kurt Cobain Story, and Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story. He lives in Seattle.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
solid look at cream,
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This review is from: Cream: The World's First Supergroup (Hardcover)
dave thompson's book on cream is a significant improvement on his last work, which covered the story of deep purple. there 's more of an analysis of the actual music itself. conversely, thompson seemed to often lack depth in dissecting purple's songs and albums. one may think that perhaps thompson is better at describing brief careers like cream's- as opposed to lengthy, "complicated" ones with plenty of albums and personnel changes like deep purple. thompson offers readers an engaging and interesting look at the early british jazz, r and b, and blues boom, and the musical backgrounds of all three members prior to the formation of this astounding unit. an impressive list of interviewed people like jack bruce and ginger baker themselves greatly help this book in being an enjoyable and informative read. this book adequately and intriguingly covers the career of cream, simply one of the greatest aggregations of talent from rock's greatest era..
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fact checking,
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This review is from: Cream: The World's First Supergroup (Hardcover)
After reading the book I found it entertianing and over all very informative with excellent coverage of the early British Blues scene. Not to lay too much stress on this one item but towards the end of the book when Cream are wrapping up their final American performances he lists the seating capacity of New Yorks Madison Square Garden at 220,000 seats. This is absolutely wrong and certainly not a typo. South American soccer stadiums don't have this capacity. To me when I read a simple fact like this that's so glaring incorrect I start to wonder about the other "facts" presented in the book. The Amazon blurb about the "hedonistic lifestyle" is out of place. While I'm sure there were incindences of this kind the author doesn't stoop to the level of some rock writers tabloid mentality. Well worth reading, but listen to the music first.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-researched and informative look at legendary group,
By
This review is from: Cream: The World's First Supergroup (Hardcover)
Thompson's book is a well-researched, detailed, and utterly crucial-for-a-fan look at the brief career of Cream. Though a little light on analysis of the music itself, Thompson expertly tells the story of Cream with both previously-written interviews and his own research. I learned a lot that I didn't know before, and was particulary impressed with his evocative writing on the early '60s British R&B scene and snapshots of the era and players like Alexis Corner, Cyril Davies, and John Mayall. The only thing missing, due to printing timing, was a chapter on the London and NY reunion shows and what lead up to them (maybe for the paperback???).
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