Cream - Wheels of Fire
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Music CD Cover
Artist: CreamEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Live, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 1998-04-07
Music Label: Polydor / Umgd
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- In The Studio: White Room
- In The Studio: Sitting On The Top Of The World
- In The Studio: Passing The Time
- In The Studio: As You Said
- In The Studio: Pressed Rat And Warthog
- In The Studio: Politician
- In The Studio: Those Were The Days
- In The Studio: Born Under A Bad Sign
- In The Studio: Deserted Cities Of The Heart
- Live At The Fillmore: Crossroads
- Live At The Fillmore: Spoonful
- Live At The Fillmore: Traintime
- Live At The Fillmore: Toad
Free Music Notes for Wheels of Fire
Free Music Review: Great double album, half live, half studio
Hit: 5 Stars
I have to let you know that I never been a big Eric Clapton fan. But even I have to acknowledge that he's simply one of the all-time great guitarists, even if a lot of what he's done isn't to my liking. For many, even Clapton-detractors, Cream is without a doubt the finest and most interesting band he ever played in. Each of the three musicians had experience before, so they were no strangers to music when they got together in 1966 and recorded and released their debut, Fresh Cream. That one was more pop-oriented, but the blues influence was still there, as there were covers of blues songs. Disraeli Gears is without a doubt the band's high point, which included several songs that became radio staples ("Sunshine of Your Love", "Strange Brew", etc.). The band moved to psychedelia which really served them well.
Now comes Wheels of Fire, which was a double album set, one studio, one live, so you get to see what this band was made of in both settings. Let's start with the studio set: many of the songs are Jack Bruce (and Pete Brown) and Ginger Baker (with Mike Taylor) originals, with a handful of covers of blues songs originally done by blues artists. We all heard "White Room" plenty of times, it's became very much an FM radio staple. It bears more than a striking resemblance to "Tales of Brave Ulysses", right down to Clapton's use of wah-wah, and similar scales. "Sittin' On Top of the World" is a cover of a blues song, by Howlin' Wolf. Even during Cream's psychedelic phase, they hadn't forgotten their blues roots. Clapton never made a secret that he was big on the blues, as that constantly showed up throughout his career, through the various bands and his solo career. Of course, some people felt the material on this album was uneven, certainly not the easiest stuff to get into, and some people felt they could live without the stuff Ginger Baker wrote. But these songs to my ears are quite good, even if a bit peculiar. One of them being "Passing the Time". Way back as a teenager (around 1989, I was not alive in the 1960s, I was born in 1972) I first heard that song and disliked it, I was put off by Ginger Baker's singing and the circus organ. But hearing this song many year later, it isn't that bad, and I really liked that intense jam that comes out of nowhere showing Jack Bruce's bass skills and Baker's drumming. The jam fads back into the more mellow state the song started. Felix Pappalardi provided some cello work as well. The Jack Bruce/Pete Brown "As You Said" might not to be everyone's liking, but I thought of it as a nice experimental psychedelic piece (the only thing missing here was sitar). Strange use of phasing, I get reminded a little of the Beatles' "I am the Walrus", but it didn't quite have the big hooks that made the Beatles song so popular and such a big hit. Baker and Taylor's "Pressed Rat and Warthog" is an interesting piece where Baker narrates about two characters forced to close a shop because they were selling "atonal apples and amplified heat" with "Pressed Rat's collection of dog legs and feet". "Politician" might be familiar to many of you FM radio listeners, this one another one of those blues songs, but this time a Baker/Brown composition, rather than a cover of an old blues song. Baker/Taylor's "Those Were the Days" sounds very much like a traditional psychedelic Cream song, this time Jack Bruce doing vocals, so it sounds like Cream as you expect. This is probably one of the greatest songs Cream did that you don't hear on the radio. Next is a cover of Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign", another familiar blues song that everyone has heard on classic FM radio. "Anyone For Tennis" is sadly not on the original LP (it should have been), Clapton takes on vocals here. I really dig the use of recorder and percussion. The song originally came out as a single (its flip side being "Press Rat and Warthog"). So it's nice to see it included on the CD reissue as I really think it deserved to be on the original album. The second disc is certain to polarize many a listener. It's mainly a solo showcase for Clapton, Bruce, and Baker. You keep hearing about those live Cream improvisations. You get your chance here! You either find them mindblowing or boring. Remember that many people think the same with the Grateful Dead and their live improvisations, even if what they did was very different. First is Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". We all know this one, another radio staple. It has full band interaction. Then comes a cover of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful". If you're familiar with the studio version off Fresh Cream, you'll notice this one is considerably longer with an extended Clapton guitar solo. Bruce's "Traintime" is largely a harmonica solo (I wondered if this inspired the Blues Travelers? Of course Bruce's harmonica playing and sound was different from John Popper's). "Toad", Baker's time to show, was originally off Fresh Cream, this time the drum solo was way extended. This is where it would scare the more casual listeners off for good. But he has such a creative and imaginative approach to drumming that I wanted to listen to this drum solo. That drum solo certainly inspired the likes of Led Zeppelin, and Jethro Tull ("Dharma For One"). The studio original, I'm certain, inspired Iron Butterfly's "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" (they also happened to share the same label: Atco).
I understand that there were versions of Wheels of Fire that had the studio and live versions sold separately, but most commonly is the double album set. Here in America, the album was originally released with a silvery cover. The cover artwork is by Martin Sharp, an Australian who also did the artwork to Disraeli Gears (no surprise, as the artwork is quite similar). But this one isn't color, but I really thought it looks better against a silvery background, as opposed to a gray background like many later prints.
It's strange that Wheels of Fire isn't exactly the most accessible album out there, and at the same time, it became one of the best-selling albums (along with Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-da-Vida) in the Atlantic Records/Atco discography.
Cream also had a big impact on power trios to come in their wake. For example, the James Gang, their debut album, Yer' Album (1969) sounds to me like an American version of Cream. Check out Joe Walsh and his extended guitar improvisations, plus Tom Kriss' heavily fuzzed bass (he only appeared on that album) and similar bass playing. Mountain would not exist were it not for Cream, especially became Felix Pappalardi was a member of that group (and Leslie West's vocals often reminds me of Jack Bruce). I'd like to mention the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but they were Cream's contemporaries, and equally influential. Cream also influenced plenty of non-power trios too, including Jethro Tull, where the British press hailed them as "The next Cream". Mick Abrahams' guitar work was inspired by Clapton. Clive Bunker gave an extended drum solo with "Dharma For One". The more bluesy explorations were not unlike Cream's. And they also did a cover of "Cat's Squirrel" (of course we knew what happened to Tull afterwards: Abrahams left, Martin Barre came in, and Ian Anderson moved the band towards progressive rock, which certainly hardly hurt the band any).
Cream is one of those bands I should have reviewed their stuff ages ago. They are really one of the greats of rock, and while Wheels of Fire might be a bit much for the newbie (start with Disraeli Gears), it still comes highly recommended.
Wheels of Fire Poster
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