Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I disagree: a GREAT album, May 10, 2005
I respectfully disagree with another reviewer about the dubious quality of "Doing that scrapyard thing" and "What a bringdown". Scrapyard is one of my favourite Cream songs, a classic '60s Monty Pythonesque music hall jaunt reminiscent of Beatles offerings like "Lady Madonna". Great leslie enhanced guitar on this one. Is that Felix Papallardi on keyboards? What a bringdown is a great Baker(?) song. The bridge is classic Jack on vocals. In fact the three studio songs were at the time considered on a par with each other (Badge, of course, gaining wide popularity over time). The lack of soloing on Scrapyard and Bringdown give an indication of perhaps a more ensemble approach which could have developed (ala the Band or Traffic). The politician and sitting on top versions on this album are outstanding, as is I'm so glad. On comparing this album with Wheels of Fire, the studio cuts are certainly on a par with the lesser heard wheels titles and the live cuts are far more enduring than Toad (unless you're a percussionist). I have fond memories of this album, as I'm sure many others do as well. It marked the poignancy of their breakup as a band. It also pointed to possible new, and unfortunately unrealized within that group, directions. Goodbye was, in fact, a nice bridge (bridge not badge) between Wheels of Fire and the Blind Faith album. Let's hope we hear more of Cream in the future.
|
|
|
48 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is Cream's best album, March 9, 2001
The song "I'm So Glad" alone makes this Cream's most important album.On the subject of Cream everyobdy always says Clapton, Clapton, Clapton, but what made Cream great was Jack Bruce and his invention of a unique free-form flavor of rock music that exploded the song conventions of the mid sixties. Bruce studied classical music at university until he was driven to drop out by the narrow-mindedness of his teachers. But in school he learned a love of Bach's use of multiple melodies working in counterpoint--which led to the three-ring circus effect in Cream's music of Bruce playing interesting, dramatic, creative bass lines underneath Clapton's guitar solos, while Ginger Baker did interesting things on the drums. Jack Bruce and Cream drummer Ginger Baker were also students of the free-form jazz and rock invented in the U.S. in the late 1950s and in the 60s. They followed Ornette Coleman (see the album Friends and Neighbors--it came out later but it was the culmination of Coleman's "Free Jazz" style); they also listened to the Grateful Dead (who were influenced by Ornette Coleman as well--check out the Dead's Blues for Allah as well as "Ladies and Gentlemen"). Cream influenced Miles Davis's free-form style (Miles's best stuff in this genre was on Live Evil and also On the Corner; it started with In A Silent Way and then Bitches Brew). Clapton was a great musician but for him it's been downhill since this album Goodbye. Before Cream was started, Clapton was in John Mayall's blues band (check out the wonderful Blues Breakers album), and Mayall made Clapton practise for 8 hours a day, which make him simply an assassin on the guitar. When Clapton joined Jack Bruce, who persuaded him to use his expert playing in a free-form style, Clapton soared. This album shows their best work. (When Clapton went out on his own and called the shots creatively, the work was just never as good as when he collaborated with thoughtful musicians like Mayall and Jack Bruce.) Other great Cream: Disraeli Gears (a studio album), and Wheels of Fire (part studio album, part live album). Another great album by Jack Bruce now out of print is the jazz disk Things We Like, with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. McLaughlin's best jazz album was Extrapolation, though many prefer The Inner Mounting Flame. Ginger Baker is now out of a long hibernation and two great recent jazz disks from him are Going Back Home and then Falling Of The Roof. They feature bassist Charlie Haden of Ornette Coleman's band (see above), as well as the best guitarist working today, jazz guy Bill Frisell. Bill Frisell's other great albums are Have A Little Faith (starting with Track 9) and the cd "Live".
|
|
|
31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Say Hello to "Goodbye", November 13, 2004
This fourth and final album to be issued--in January 1969--during Cream's two-and-a-half year career is probably their most consistent, and among their best. At six songs in just over thirty minutes, it's short, and for anyone awaiting a major final statement in 1969 it must have been a bringdown. But looking at the group's work 35 years later, it is by far their tightest album, with nary a weak cut.
"Fresh Cream" (December 1966 - the US version issued early in 1967 is superior)was Cream heavying up the blues. Some of Clapton's most blistering guitar can be found on this mix of originals (by Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker) and blues covers. The best version on CD is DCC's gold disc, combining the UK only track ("Spoonful") with the US only track (the classic "I Feel Free") and adding both sides of Cream's debut single ("Coffee Song"/"Wrapping Paper"), all nicely annotated. "Disreali Gears" lacks the sonic impact of the debut, but shows Cream's progress away from blues derivations to a more integrated sound: fine pop hooks adorn blues/psych originals. Clapton is more subdued as a guitarist, but makes his presence felt as both vocalist and (for the first time) songwriter, and there are more varied tonal colors and moods, from the proto-Zep mythology of "Brave Ulysses" to the haunting, downcast "We're Going Wrong." Much of the progress is due to new producer/multi-instumentalist (and virtual fourth member) Felix Pappalardi, who had produced Fred Neil and the Youngbloods, and would go on to found Mountain in 1969.
The # 1 smash double album "Wheels Of Fire," was yet another step forward, with Bruce, Baker and Pappalardi adding trumpets,tubular bells, tonettes, cellos, and violas to the mix of two covers (Albert King and Howlin' Wolf) and seven fine originals (including perhaps Ginger Baker's finest contributions to the group--"Passing the Time" is worthy of John Cale, and fans should hear the near-six minute version first issued by DCC). The second, live, disc shows that,however far they had grown in the studio they had become amazingly self indulgent on stage. (No doubt these aimless jams sounded fresher in 1968). Of the four mostly long tracks, only the Clapton-sung "Crossroads" captured the fire of live Cream at its best. The other three live tracks, adding up to 40 minutes, are really the worst Cream on record. (Again, the DCC gold version, reproducing the original silver-foil cover and adding Clapton's only original song from these sessions, "Anyone For Tennis," is the way to go if you can afford a copy).
Cream broke up in December 1968, and "Goodbye" is its farewell (though a 'Best Of' and two volumes of "Live Cream" would follow). The three live tracks are loose and full of fire (especially the classic nine-minute "I'm So Glad"), recorded near the end, in October 1968. Clapton's guitar is blistering, but the trio maintains focus and these killer tracks beat the live disc on "Wheels of Fire" hands down.
The three studio tracks show the continuing growth of the band (with Pappalardi once again playing and producing throughout). This is not the sound of the famed power trio, but a creative studio collaborative. Each member contributes a gem: Clapton's "Badge" (with George Harrison) is one of his greatest achievements. Bruce plays piano (and Pappalardi, mellotron) on Jack's delightfully whimsical "Doing That Scrapyard Thing," which, like "Badge" is more reminiscent of the Beatles or Traffic than anything on the first two Cream albums. Ginger Baker's track, typically mordant and surreal(he was, after all, both the oldest member and in the midst of a lengthy period of opiate addiction)"What A Bringdown," is terrific: driving and jazzy, a four minute antecedent to Blind Faith's "Do What You Like," with Bruce on keyboards and Pappalardi playing bass!
"Goodbye" was no grand final statement - thank god! - but a fleet, near flawless minor classic that has aged better than some of the group's more famous work. If you can find it, check out Mobile Fidelity's killer transfer (now out of print).
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Cream 
