Cream - Wheels of Fire
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Free Music Notes for Wheels of Fire
Free Music Review: The apogee of a three-way partnership
Hit: 5 Stars
Track for track, dollar for dollar, "Wheels of Fire" is one of the best, most influential and most representative albums of 60's pop rock. Served up under one cover, you get the best recorded output of guitar god Eric Clapton, the most entertaining and memorable songs of the quirky songwriting team Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, the best singing committed to vinyl by Mr. Bruce, whose blues-tinged alto voice mixed with occasional leaps into falsetto was an extremely sharp instrument for mining a lyric, whether a surrealistic twee poem like "As You Said," a double-entrendre-laden satire like "Politician," a rock anthem like "White Room," or a straight-ahead classic blues number like "Born Under a Bad Sign," the unique and overlooked jazz-into-rock drumming of Ginger Baker along with a few of his own forays into surreal poetry; all of that adding up to a 60s album par excellence, a crossroads where the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters and Nick Drake all meet.
I hadn't listened to this CD all the way through in a long time, but it gave me chills to hear it again. All three of its members, separately and together, put their career-best work on this album. For Clapton, there's room to argue that Derek and the Dominos is on the same level, but this was clearly a high point for Bruce and Baker, who were just as brilliant individual musicians, and the live tracks bring back the high level of improvisational brilliance the trio was capable of, for those of us who couldn't hear it in person. Listen to these live tracks, then listen to the comparable live recordings of the Stones, Led Zeppelin or the Who. Or even the Grateful Dead, said to be the pinnacle of live noodling. As great as those bands were, they didn't come close to Clapton-Bruce-Baker. Their studio career wasn't quite as brilliant, but this album is the best of the original collections (best-ofs are the way to go to get the best of the rest). One thing I notice. With all the diverse styles Cream tried, they never sounded ponderous. They were never "rock dinosaurs." Baker and Bruce kept them light on their feet, imbuing every track with the graceful drive of jazz no matter what else was going on. That and a sense of humor.
Free Music Review: Nice sampling of the two faces of Cream
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a two CD set. The first CD is studio material, and the second is live. This isn't Cream's best live or studio material, but it is still excellent, and a powerful example of how Cream sounded in and out of the studio. Like every Cream studio album, there are a couple of goofy songs. But, these were pioneering days in rock and roll, and Cream put out four studio albums in less than 2 years. You can't expect every song to be a classic. The remainder of the studio songs show a real maturity and evolution to Cream's sound when compared to the two earlier albums.
This CD contains an extra song (Anyone for Tennis) that wasn't on the original album. Listen to the song and you will understand why it was originally left off. Wheels of Fire could have been released as a single CD if this song wasn't added.
Although Live Cream is a better album, all of the live material on Wheels of Fire is excellent. Some people will complain about Traintime or Toad, but that is only because those tracks don't feature Eric Clapton.
Instead of buying this CD, you may want to consider the box set "Those Were the Days". It contains this album plus almost everything else Cream ever released (6 albums and bonus tracks).
Bit of record company irony: The original album version came with a cool foil cover. The cover won a Grammy award. So, the record company plastered a big label on the album cover saying "Grammy Award Winner". When my brother bought his copy, and tried to peel off the label it ripped the foil. Later vesions of the album came in grey. When first transferred to CD, the studio CD and live CD were sold separately.
Free Music Review: "The Blues" is not a naughty word
Hit: 5 Stars
Up to this album, to us righteous rock'n'rollers, it seemed to be. This trio of Clapton, Bruce and Baker (with songwriting help from Pete Brown and instrumental help from soon-to-be-Mountaineer Felix Pappalardi) legitimized the blues in rock doctrine and paved the way for such almost-pure blues bands as Canned Heat and Ten Years After. Today, their contemporaries The Rolling Stones and the late Jimi Hendrix are seen by many experts as blues artists. As you will hear on the live track "Spoonful", Eric Clapton had not yet gotten the notion that Fender built his guitar primarily to accompany his voice--the song's a pure-dee blues "fugue" between him and bassist Jack Bruce--16 minutes without a drum solo, which was unusual back then for a song that long. Songs like "White Room" and "Deserted Cities Of the Heart" are consistent with their earlier albums "Fresh Cream" and "Disraeli Gears", but as well as "Spoonful", you get other unabashed blues numbers as "Sitting On Top Of the World" and Booker T. Jones' "Born Under a Bad Sign" (did he ever do that one with the MG's?). And you get some hints of the approaching prog sound in "As You Said" and "Passing the Time". As well as Ginger Baker's lighthearted recitation "Pressed Rat and Warthog" ("Blue Condition" from "Disraeli Gears" had proven that he can't sing). Unfortunately, the trio ran their tank dry here--the next album, appropriately titled "Goodbye", had less than half new material.Free Music Review: cream on fire!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
cream's wheels of fire is their 2nd best album after disreali gears - only because it has more material to contend with being a double album.
the first side is studio output. everybody knows "white room" - its classic opening chords and wah-wah solo. next follows a reworking of howlin wolf's 'sitting on top of the world' gives clapton an excuse to cut loose some fiery blues soloing. 'passing the time' thought a substandard track has some nice soloing at the end. 'as you said' sounds like a nursery rhyme. ginger baker has his turn at the vocals with 'pressed rat ...'. then there's 'politician' with its catchy riff and overdubbed/overlayed solos. jack bruce is in fine vocal form here. cream sizzles on a slightly faster version of albert king's 'born under a bad sign'. 'deserted cities' has energetic acoustic rhythm and stinging soloing from clapton.
the live side opens with a fiery version of robert johnson's 'crossroads' with the immortal twin solos by clapton. but the highlight of this double album is without doubt the 20 odd minute version of willie dixon/howlin wolf's spoonful. this is imo the penultimate cream jam track. superlative soloing by clapton with fantastic bass play by the lord of the low frequencies - jack bruce. i've never heard anything like it ever. traintime is bruce showing his harmonica skills and toad has baker pounding the hides in a bit too long solo.
though it shines in parts, those parts do overwhelm. nobody else, even they themselves today, can repeat such a feat.
Free Music Review: The best mix of studio & live Cream
Hit: 5 Stars
The pinnacle of Cream's achievements. Jack Bruce gives a taste of his considerable talents as a multi-faceted musician: string instruments, bass, keyboards as well as a couple other instruments show how remarkable he is. EC starts contributing more with vocals and multi-layer guitar tracks on the studio offerings. Ginger Baker shows that you don't have to be fancy to be great; the "less is more" philosophy is evident on "Sitting on Top of the World"-just enough for the feel of the track without overpowering it. Some bizarre name tracks on the studio offerings but if you can preview them first with an open mind and you may be surprised at how some may start appealing to you (Pressed Rat and Warthog, As You Said). This also kind of foreshadows what happens to groups when they put out a double album--it seems to show them at their peak and most times the offerings that follow just don't seem to have the same energy and appeal. The live tracks show the raw talent of each member without any tricks or gimmicks-just great musicianship. Of course it has the requisite drum solo track that was a part of the '60's rock legacy, but still a great title to have in your collection and a must-have for the Cream aficionado!