Bloggerhythms

The Very Best Of Cream is the most inclusive, single disc compilation the psychedelic, blues-rock trio, Cream, has ever released. Earlier greatest hits collections were issued on LPs and contained only ten or twelve tracks, but this CD has twenty and would easily fill two 33 1/3 RPM records. When the renowned supergroup was at their best few rock bands of any era could top them. Eric Clapton (guitar), Jack Bruce (bass), and drummer Ginger Baker were all virtuosos, and Bruce's excellent singing was a large heap of icing on the cake. Cream played together for less than two years, but within that short span they released four LPs containing new studio material that included in-concert tracks on their last two albums, Wheels Of Fire and Goodbye . Some of their stuff was overblown such as Baker's live, almost sixteen minute drum solo on "Toad," and there were goofy, seemingly nonsensical songs l...

Despite my obsession with music during the first classic rock era there are a few supposedly must-hear albums that I never heard in their entirety, and the eponymous LP by Blind Faith was one of them. I've always been familiar with the album's radio favorites - "Can't Find My Way Home," "Well...All Right," and "Sea of Joy," but not the whole record. Just recently, I experienced all of it for the first time and came away disappointed.  The seeds of Blind Faith grew from the wreckage of both Cream and Traffic. Half of the new supergroup came from Eric Clapton's late, great power trio. Ginger Baker was the drummer, Steve Winwood worked behind the microphone and handled keyboards while Ric Grech - a refugee from the band  Family   - joined them on bass. Clapton's axe work on this set was more restrained than it was with Cream. He played tastefully, and Winwood proved he is a keyboard master. All four members blended ...

With the remaining members all well into their 70s and Charlie Watts already gone Blue & Lonesome is more than likely The Rolling Stones' last studio album, and it's their only full length record since The Bigger Bang  was released way back in 2005. It's also a surprise because there isn't a single Keith Richards / Mick Jagger original song anywhere. Instead, Blue & Lonesome offers up twelve raw covers of old blues tunes, many that predate the infamous British rockers' career. I've written here before that when an artist releases an album of all cover songs it's often because he or she has run out of inspiration while still having contractual obligations to fulfill. It is to the Stones' credit that they didn't fall into that fatal trap by releasing an album that often puts the nail in the coffin of many formerly great and productive careers. Blue & Lonesome sounds like a true labor of love. The blues are what inspired Jagger and...

Cream was another victim of the infighting and creative differences that frequently plague and bring an end to many renowned bands, yet Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker managed to go out the way they began - by playing virtuosic rock that is still listenable today. Cream's last record, Goodbye , is brief by their standards. It clocks in at just over thirty minutes and to their credit it lacks the excessively long jams that were the trio's specialty and sometimes their Achilles heal. There are no side-long, fifteen minute drum solos, like Baker's "Toad," that will either bore or annoy you. The three live tracks from side one show the group to be at their blues-rock best with all three of them playing stupendous stuff. Clapton is his usual God-like self, but the real star is Bruce whose bass work is so dazzling that he proves to be more than a supporting player. On the 9:12, live take of "I'm So Glad" he's in the forefront as much as Clapt...

" Badge" is one of Cream's most famous songs even though it never got higher than #60 on the Billboard Hot 100. All these years later it's still played on both classic rock and oldies radio stations. In Cream's homeland it climbed all the way to #18.  The short single (2:35) appeared on the power trio's final LP, Goodbye , in 1969 and was written by Eric Clapton with one of his best buddies, George Harrison, partially as repayment for the blues-rocker's assistance on The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." "Badge" was originally untitled on the original sheet music. Harrison had written the word "bridge" indicating that is where the midsection of the song belonged. Looking at the sheet music upside down, Clapton misread it as "badge" because of Harrison's handwriting. Here is how The former Beatle remembers it happening as quoted in Wikipedia. " I helped Eric write "Badge" you know. Each o...

Former Rolling Stone writer Tom Nawrocki, who is also a voting member of The Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame, once posted on his blog, Debris Slide , that it is possible to play your way out of the hall . He was referencing Chicago the band and he used their hit, "Look Away," as evidence. Let it be said that the horn band is not the only artist to release music that is unworthy of their status. While Chicago are included in the list below some other great Hall of Fame members turned out "art" that is just as galling. I was recently told that it is too easy for somebody with access to a keyboard to trash others without regard to their feelings and that is probably true. However, if you don't want to be harshly criticized don't make records as bad as these renowned musicians did. It should be noted that all of the hall inductees mentioned here are artists I have greatly admired for a long time. The Beach Boys - L. A. (Light Album) (1979) After the...

When it first came out I quickly picked up a copy of Eric Clapton's Me and Mr. Johnson before ever hearing a note. I played it a couple of times and then sold it. Looking back on it later I wasn't sure why we parted ways and I regretted my decision. I haven't heard Clapton's fourteen song tribute to bluesman Robert Johnson (perhaps the founding member of the 27 Club ) in many years so when I found a used copy recently for only $1.99 I picked it up again and listened to it intently in my car. Given a second chance this still isn't the album it could have been but it is a keeper. The former Bluesbreaker and Domino who also was in Cream and Blind Faith assembled an outstanding band of all-stars. Steve Gadd played drums, Nathan East was on bass, while Andy Fairweather Low and Doyle Bramhall II accompanied the star on guitars. Jerry Portnoy contributed very fine harmonica. Pino Palladino (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums) also assisted on one track, "Travel...

Yesterday, while perusing the best seller albums chart published weekly in Philadelphia's Sunday Inquirer I noticed that David Bowie's The Next Day , his first new album of original music in a decade, debuted at number one. The top ten albums also included recent releases by Eric Clapton, whose Old Sock landed at number five, and a man who passed away over forty years ago, Jimi Hendrix. The Seattle legend's new CD, People, Hell & Angels , placed just a couple of notches below Clapton's. Even though I'm not a Bowie fan I smiled, and for a fleeting second I thought, "WOW! The old classic rockers can still bring it." When I regained consciousness I quickly realized that the reason these guys are still selling complete albums well enough to make the top ten is because the young people of the digital age, who I almost gave a lot of credit to for listening to the old stuff, aren't buying full albums anymore. They've moved on to either buying...

In 2005 Cream, the legendary blues power trio, played four shows together for the first time in almost 40 years at London's equally legendary concert hall. Unfortunately, in this group's case, absence did not make the heart grow fonder. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker managed to make most of the songs from their classic repertoire sound indistinguishable from one another and the length of this double CD set made listening to the whole affair even more tedious than it needed to be. Surprisingly, Clapton played with no fire. His solos were all by rote and sounded identical. We all know that "God" still has the goods but not during the week he played with Bruce and Baker. Bruce can no longer hit the high notes and Clapton's still fine voice was forced to save him on numerous occasions. Baker's drum work often included fills that were identical to how they were recorded on the studio originals. In fact, the concert promoters could have taken...

It's often been said that Eric Clapton's greatest album is Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs . It's supposed to be one of the few double LPs that can justify its length but, while it's a nice set, to these ears it shouldn't be considered one of rock's most revered classics. Instead, Clapton's best work goes all the way back to 1966, between his gigs with The Yardbirds and Cream, to a time when he was a member of John Mayall's Blues Breakers. A hallmark of British blues, this is the album that began all of the "Clapton is God" pronouncements that were everywhere at the time. However, he isn't the only one to give an outstanding performance during these sessions. Mayall, who always owned a phenomenal reputation as a bandleader who discovered a boatload of talent more so than as a musician, put together his best band ever with this short-lived lineup. The soon-to-be-famous axeman was accompanied by Mayall on keyboards, harmonica, and le...