Sphinx's Music Blog - Cream: Disraeli Gears
Hello everyone to Sphinx’s music blog. This week I pay tribute to another rocker we lost this past week, this time drummer Ginger Baker. The album I will be commenting on is from the band Cream, and their second album titled “Disraeli Gears”. Released November 7, 1967, it reached #5 in the UK and became the breakthrough album for the group in America, peaking at #4 in the US. The power trio has been widely regarded as rock’s first supergroup, as Eric Clapton (guitar) was formally from The Yardbirds, Jack Bruce (bass) from John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (Clapton was in that group too) and the group Manfred Mann, and finally Ginger Baker (drums) from Blues Incorporated (Bruce was in that group too). So as you can tell, all three were in and out of groups and decided to work together to form Cream in 1966.
An album cover that definitely fits the time.
The album itself is so influential in so many ways. Recorded during the summer of love in 1967, it helps create the new genre of psychedelic rock, with mixing in the groups roots with the heart of the blues. The album fuses the two together within certain tunes, and as separate tracks. Songs are relatively short, even though on stage the band was known for long improvised solos and jam sessions. Without Cream you could argue Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush would not exist.
From Left to Right: Eric Clapton (Guitar), Ginger Baker (Drums), Jack Bruce (Bass)
The album was actually recorded in America (the group is British) under a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, of which Ahmet Ertugen is the owner. Ertugen at this time was famous for his role in jazz and R&B (John Coltrane, Ray Charles to name a few), but would soon branch out into rock n’ roll. Ertugen, along with his famous producer Tom Dowd would incorporate much of that jazz and R&B into this album. Dowd was flabbergasted when the group showed up to the studio with double Marshall amps and speakers all around. Again, Tom Dowd was coming from a jazz and classical point of view in the studio.
The album begins with the single “Strange Brew”, a rock orientated blues shuffle that was based on the great blues artist Albert King and his song, “Lawdy Mama”. Clapton even went all out and copied the guitar solo from that song note for note to be reproduced. It’s a fun tune about a strange, nasty woman to look out for. This tune is also sung entirely by Clapton, at this point something rare to hear from the group.
Up next is the classic “Sunshine of Your Love” - Cream’s most famous song (and one of the first songs I ever learned on the bass). The song is introduced with one of the most famous guitar riffs ever recorded, but don’t miss out on the great tribal drum beat on the toms that Baker provides too (the idea was brought up by Dowd to think of Western movies). I love the synchronization of the guitar and bass working together on the main riff. I also love Jack Bruce’s more intense singing juxtaposing with Clapton, who’s singing is as cool as the other side of the pillow. It’s a great contrast as they go back and forth to share the lead vocals. As is obvious with this entire record, we get a phenomenal, melodic guitar solo from Clapton. Bassist Jack Bruce says he came up with the riff on an upright bass after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert (Hendrix would go on to say that when he was in England he only wanted to jam with Cream).
While Sunshine of Your Love certainly has its sounds of psychedelia, the next two tracks, “World of Pain” and “Dance The Night Away” goes even deeper into the psychedelic rock sound. The two tracks are super trippy songs, with its ample supply of wah wah guitar, and the lyrics (even the title) bringing up the chaos surrounding you in 1967, and how to try and escape that said chaos (drugs? drugs.). These tracks again provide a great reminder of the great drumming going on throughout. It’s just that it is often overshadowed by the God that is Eric Clapton. The final song on side 1, “Blue Condition” is a slower sounding tune, that sounds very much like The Kinks. It’s also the only track sung by Ginger Baker as the lead.
Side 2 erupts with another pair of classic tracks, starting off with “Tales of Brave Ulysses” - Cream’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” song. It’s super trippy, with more wah wah pedal, and just more great playing by all members. The lyrics are bizarre, and I love how there is no rhyme scheme whatsoever, so making a line like “The tiny purple fishes, Run laughing through your fingers, And you want to take her with you, To the hard land of the winter” work is just genius. And somehow it just works! The lyrics (poem actually) were written by the visual pop artist Martin Sharp, who was also responsible for creating the cover of the album.
“SWLABR” is next - a great rocker. It stands for “She Walks/Was Like A Bearded Rainbow”, and has such a great guitar solo and riff. So bluesy, yet very far away from sounding like a true blues track if that makes any sense. It certainly sounds like something Black Sabbath will be doing just a few years later. The band has actually been called a huge influence of heavy metal music, and a famous response to that claim came from Ginger Baker stating in his documentary “Beware of Mr. Baker” (highly recommended by the way), “we gave the birth of heavy metal, we should have gotten an abortion”. Bizarre lyrics again like Tales of Brave Ulysses, with another Non-rhyming schematic, it’s a song I often get stuck in my head (which is a good thing).
“We’re Going Wrong” is a bit of a haunting song, focused on Baker’s work on the tom toms. Jack Bruce has a falsetto sound to his singing. The call and response at the end of the track with the guitar solo work matching the vocals is awesome.
We then get two back to back classic blues tracks - “Outside Woman Blues” sounds like something The Black Keys would totally play today. And there’s fun lyrics to it too, telling you “well, you can't watch your wife and your outside women, too. You know you can't watch your wife and your outside women, too. Cause when you're out with your women, your wife will be at home, Cooking your food, doing your dirt, buddy what you trying to do?” The fun lyrics were written by Blind Joe Reynolds. The other blues track is “Take it Back” in the Chicago style blues and even throwing in a harmonica. The lyrics are interesting as it’s a song written about burning draft cards during the Vietnam War.
Finally we come across “Mother’s Lament” - a drunkard bar pub song. Just piano and vocals from all three providing a vaudeville-like sound. A weird ending to a rather psychedelic-dominated album.
Overall, this is a terrific, hard rocking album coming from the late 1960’s and that turbulent era of time. It’s a great look into what was hip and trending in that timeframe, but it has held up strongly even today. Eric Clapton may be the only surviving member now, but the music carries on.
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Sphinx