I Feel Free

Wow, tripsy song. An unusual combination of psychedelic, bluesy and Ginger Baker’s jazz roots. I could even call it…a strange brew. Cream made a huge footprint, given especially that they neither lasted very long nor put out very much material. I think they had the whole not getting along with each other thing at the root of their breakup. The differences that made melded so well musically made them incompatible with each other. Not to mention Ginger Baker is incompatible with humanity in general. Well, they were weird and brilliant while they lasted. I love this song, it’s so be-bop. So of its time and yet completely different from its time, if that makes any sense. Obviously, this is a classic. There’s also a not-so-classic but fun cover by David Bowie, in which he takes the opportunity to unleash one of his notorious saxophone solos. Bowie has jazz roots of his own, and what better place to explore them, right? It won’t make you forget the original, but Bowie does have much better hair than Eric Clapton did.

 

Dance the Night Away

That’s what I intend to do, thanks muchly. As always, it benefits to listen between the hits. Some of you must be as tired of hearing White Room and Sunshine of Your Love on the radio as I would be if the radio were something I listened to.

Crossroads

I’m impressed. This prehistoric-age video is extremely spiffy. The editing is really good, all the shots are perfectly composed and there’s some arty focus play. It’s not very often that you sit up and notice the editing on a music video, especially one that was shot in the sixties. Some anonymous film crew somewhere deserves good credit for this. Credit also, of course, to Robert Johnson, whose red-headed step-child this song is.

Blue Condition

 

Ginge and Clappers look stylin’ don’t they. Cream sure made a big footprint for a band with only four albums. Fun fact: Ginger Baker is now in exile in South Africa after getting booted from both the US and UK  for evasion of taxes and other crimes.

Badge

Badge, Cream, Goodbye, 1969

A signature song from the last Cream album. I looked for an actual Cream video, but all I could find was a lot of guitar tutorials. So, we have a solo Clapton video instead. Apparently, some people are way too obsessed with Clapton’s guitar parts. Contrary to some people’s beliefs, Clapton is not God.