Were Cream really to blame for ushering in the era of unchecked musical overindulgence? And is overindulgence necessarily so heinous? We only ask because, 51 years after the release of their debut album, it’s still the soft option to equate extended jams . It’s a fair point: but the dangerously unstable chemical compound that momentarily bound Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton together – star-crossed lovers in a hellbound ménage a trois – produced some startling fireworks before inevitably consuming itself.
December 1966’s Fresh Cream, reappearing here in mono and stereo iterations, and with several unreleased tracks among its booty of alternative versions, outtakes and radio sessions, maintains an edgy entente. Dreaming,“NSU” and the contemporaneous single “I Feel Free” demonstrate the trio’s little-remarked facility for hard pop, while their bewildering opening gambit, “Wrapping Paper”, only makes sense in the context of a long-vanished world wherein Winchester Cathedral could be a breakout hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG30hVAnFW4
Mindful of their blues-rock billing, Cream also break out a series of torrid R&B homages (Rollin’ And Tumblin’, Cat’s Squirrel, I’m So Glad): but Clapton became daring when Bruce and Baker loosened his purist girdle. The long lunar note that fanfares his solo on Spoonful – a delirious C# over E is as close to soundgasm as white-boy blues ever got. As you can see from the image above, this comes packaged in a large format book, no doubt with plenty of rare photos and liner notes. Four-disc set to feature outtakes, BBC sessions, Blu-ray audio version of debut LP .Cream, the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, would release three more albums after Fresh Cream – Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire and Goodbye – before splitting up. Bruce embarked on a solo career while Clapton and Baker joined Blind Faith, though over the next several decades all three would partake in an array of different musical projects.
The Fat Angel Sings 