O BLUES NOSSO DE CADA DIA NOS DAI HOJE

CREAM

Cream caused a sensation when they burst on the scene in 1966. The triumvirate of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker unleashed a dazzling blend of musical styles, played with unrivalled skill, energy and panache. The very name of their band seemed bold and uncompromising. Yet it was a legitimate choice. Cream was simply the best.
When the band was launched with a formal announcement by their manager Robert Stigwood, it was proudly proclaimed 'The first is last and the last is first, but the first, the second and the last are Cream. They will be called Cream...' It sounded egocentric. Certainly the new group brought together some of the most gifted musicians of the day. Although the band's roots lay in the traditions of jazz, blues and rock'n'roll, their energy and vision ensured Cream's music was new, fresh and individual. It wasn't long before they took the world by storm with a succession of highly distinctive hit records and block busting concerts that set new standards of excitement.
In age when rock music was exploding, Cream broke down musical barriers. Among their admirers was trumpeter Miles Davis, and it has been claimed that his celebrated switch to a jazz-rock policy with such albums as the ground influenced Bitches Brew breaking work of Cream. The British group also introduced the concept of the 'power trio', which laid the foundations for the entire heavy rock genre. Cream inspired and set standards for the countless young players who followed in their wake. Between them Clapton, Baker and Bruce helped re-define the arts of playing rock guitar, bass and drums. On a broader level, Cream also proved it was possible to retain musical ideals, while achieving huge commercial success. It was a pattern repeated in the future by such trios as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Rush and The Police.
Yet Cream were never just a 'heavy rock group.' Their dynamic 'live' shows emphasised improvised solos and block buster instrumentals like 'Stepping' Out', Train Time' and 'Toad', but they also played with attention to dynamics and displayed a harmonic and rhythmic sophistication far in advance of their contemporaries. Developed their song writing skills with lyricist Pete Brown, Cream devised material that often combined poetry with cinematic imagery. Surreal tone

poems and hook laden chart hits took their place alongside ballads, music hall ditties, rock tunes and down home blues. Cream took risks and experimented. Not every idea succeeded but they were never predictable. There was no great master plan to become pioneers of 'progressive rock.' As Ginger Baker cheerfully insists 'We were a pop group!'
Often thought controversial or avant garde at the time, Cream songs like 'I Feel Free,' 'White Room,' 'Strange Brew,' 'Politician' and their biggest hit 'Sunshine Of Your Love' are now revived on innumerable soundtracks and in TV ads. They can be heard in movies like True Lies, Uncommon Valour and Good Fellas and are used whenever directors wish to evoke nostalgia and the free wheeling spirit of the Sixties. In the summer of the year 2000 the haunting Bruce Brown song 'White Room' was being used to advertise Applemac computers in a major TV campaign, bringing the sound of Cream into the 21st century, During their meteoric career the group made just four best selling albums including their 1966 debut Fresh Cream, followed by Disraeli Gears (1967), Wheels Of Fire (1968) and Goodbye (1969). Virtually their entire recorded output was collected on the long over due 1997 CD box set Those Were The Days (Polydor), together with demos and alternative versions. Listeners, who heard these tracks, perhaps for the first time, were struck by the richness of the material as well as the spontaneity and intensity of the performances.
Cream's recordings seemed amazingly diverse, compared to the work of groups who tend to compress their music into set patterns according to the dictates of producers and record companies. This may well be the right way to proceed, given the meandering excesses of the Seventies Prog Rock generation.
But Cream was focused in its own way. They had their own well-defined sound, and the search for new angles, away from basic blues-rock fare was hardly surprising, given their art and music school backgrounds. The need to explore, to learn and keep an open mind was an important part of their training. A sense of humour and a taste for anarchy was also considered an asset in the Sixties. All these attitudes and influences took their place in formulating the music of Cream.
In the midst of the acclaim for their achievements, it's easy to for

get that the so-called 'super group' was formed in humble circumstances with a minimum of publicity, investment and equipment. The 'sensation' they caused was largely confined to the cognoscenti, a few music critics and those eager fans that queued up in the rain to pay a few shillings to see the group play their first few gigs in London pubs and clubs. Despite the esteem in which Clapton, Baker and Bruce were held, when the fledgling group had the temerity to ask a promoter for an extra five pounds for a sold out gig, it was refused! When they wanted to record songs that weren't just recycled R&B standards, they were greeted with blank incomprehension and even hostility. Sometimes demo tapes were 'lost' and sessions sobotaged. "Cream was a success, despite the industry," recalls Jack Bruce. Cream changed the lives of each of its founder members. They were all three powerful yet intensely different characters. In many ways Ginger Baker was the driving force. He came up with the idea, got it together and brought the group to the attention of their manager, the impresario Robert Stigwood. Ginger was regarded as one of the finest rock and jazz drummers in Europe. He had established his name and achieved cult status while playing alongside Jack Bruce in the Graham Bond Organisation.
Within a few years of Cream's success, his status was transformed, and the hard hitting extrovert had become a legend and remains the epitome of the wild eyed rock drummer.
Jack Bruce, the band's singer, bass player and co-composer, found his wings with Cream after many years of struggle and hard work. In the aftermath of Cream's acceptance he was able to launch a busy solo career, leading his own groups and working with a vast range of musicians from Tony Williams to Frank Zappa. Eric Clapton devised the name Cream and was also a prime motivator in forming the group. After his previous experience with The Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eric found that Cream gave him the chance to play with complete freedom and to experiment and develop a more mature guitar style. The tempestuous trio was something of a hot house and a highly competitive musical environment. The Cream experience wasn't always a happy one for Eric, but it was like a finishing school that honed his talents and paved the way for a tremendously successful solo career. He was and remains the finest blues guitarist of his generation, a warm and sensitive singer/songwriter and the creator of many of popular music's most moving and memorable themes from 'Layla' to 'Wonderful Tonight' and 'Tears In Heaven.' He has never forgotten his Cream years and songs like 'Badge,' 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and 'White Room' remain staples of his 'live' performances. In their heyday Cream were at the forefront of a huge music explosion that overlapped and followed on from The Beatles era. Together with The Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floyd, Cream raised expectations to f

ever pitch and for many of its adherents, delivered the musical equivalent of an acid trip. The sheer intensity of Cream shows remained locked in the memories of eager audiences for years afterwards. Whether wowing hippies at the Fillmore, San Francisco or delighting fans at the Saville Theatre, London, Cream became Flower Power icons and an integral part of the whole Sixties' psychedelic experience.
With fame, money and success came problems. It was a heavy burden of responsibility for any band, to be expected to turn on their fans night after night on endless tours. Each member of Cream had his own ego and temperament. Eventually the strain took its toll and the band, which began as brothers, came to an end with abrupt finality after only three years at the top. There was a huge sense of disappointment and loss among fans when Cream broke up in December, 1968. When they completed their final recordings for their Goodbye album, played their farewell concerts in the States and at the Royal Albert Hall, London in November they left their fans in limbo. Yet this was probably their wisest move. The complete break ensured that Cream split at the top of their game. They are remembered today only for great shows, hit singles and ground breaking albums that left their public desperate for more. There was no attempt to drag out their career together, no legacy of failed albums or less than successful 'come back' tours, often the fate of bands who never gave up trying. In the light of subsequent developments, during which pop and rock has undergone huge, fundamental changes, it is unlik

ely that Cream could have survived and prospered into the 21st Century in its original form.
Pete Brown, the poet and singer who co-wrote many of Cream hit songs with Jack Bruce is frankly amazed that such a musicianly band was so acceptable. "Looking back now, it seems extraordinary it should have been such a success world wide. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Luckily they were all strong people and managed to motivate themselves. At first people thought they were going to be just a Chicago style blues band playing a few clubs. Indeed the whole operation was club orientated and based on percentages. The British music business has always been terribly blinkered. Very few people could see that Cream was going to make it in America and around the world."
Says Jack Bruce: "Cream showed that rock musicians could play. But that was a double-edged sword, because it became very unfashionable to be able to play didn't it? But Cream was a nice little trio. It certainly was an influence—on the whole future of rock music."

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