Fans of the 1960’s who wish to return to simpler times may be forgetting that the times back then were anything but simple. However, I would like a return to times in which men wore peasant blouses. It must also have been nice to think, … Continue reading Tales of Brave Ulysses
Sometimes in life, you just crave the uncomplicated pleasures of blues-based music. As long as you don’t think too hard about unpacking its historical legacy, you can pretend that it’s an uncomplicated pleasure. What were some of the cultural tides that made possible the appearance … Continue reading Take It Back
Peak psychedelic blues music, of the kind that they just don’t make anymore. Jack Bruce had apparently come upon the lead riff in an attempt to mimic Jimi Hendrix. Which is fine, because everyone was trying to mimic, reverse-engineer, step up on, one-up and otherwise … Continue reading Sunshine of Your Love
I thought about Eric Clapton for the first time in years, when I was writing about the blues a few weeks ago. It was not good thoughts I was having. I wanted to write a searing indictment of how Clapton represents the gentrification of blues … Continue reading Strange Brew
How strange it is to hear the voice of a man who was born more than a hundred years ago. Blind Joe Reynolds was born – whether in 1900, or 1904, or some other year – into a very different world. In his day, black Americans … Continue reading Outside Woman Blues
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 