Cream - Wheels of Fire
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Free Music Notes for Wheels of Fire
Free Music Review: Look To Wheels Of Fire To Capture The Zenith Of Their Power
Hit: 5 Stars
Consisting of one entire disc of studio material and a second disc culled from Cream's 1967 American tour, Wheels of Fire presents two dramaticly different views of the quintessential power trio. Beginning with White Room, a tour de fource electric blues classic, Cream leaves no doubt as to their virtuosity and improvisional skills. They also pay homage to Chester Burnette AKA Howlin Wolf on Sitting On Top of The World and cover Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign. Both are deftly rendered with Cream's unique blend of electric blues and psycedellic soul. Then there's Passing The Time, Pressed Rat and Warthog, Those Were The Days, Deserted Cites of The Heart and As You Said, all Pete Brown/Jack Bruce orginals. Brown and Bruce form one of the sixities/early seventies most unique and orginal song writing teams. Brown's strange and surreal lyrics create a world where wathogs sell amplified hate and Pressed rat's collection of dog legs and feet. After Cream disbanned in 1968, they joined together for Jack Bruce's Songs For A Taylor, one of the most underated albums of the golden age of rock. The Live disc consists of the Willie Dixon's blues classic Spoonful, (the UK release of Fresh Cream contained a studio version) and only three other selections. Crossroads is one of the rare opportunities for Clapton to step into the spotlight and demonstrate his vocal prowess. He was very shy to do so at this stage of his career, particularly on the concert stage. But here he delivers a confident and soulful reading of the Robert Johnson classic. Traintime is perhaps the only performance ever, (or at least as far as I know) of a harmonica and drum duet. Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce wail through twenty odd minutes of frantic "giddy up traintime" maddness. Then there's Baker's drum solo to end all drum solos. In the sixities and early seventies a concert performance, by any rock band worth their salt, had to include an extended drum solo. There were some great ones that readily come to mind, Soul Sacrafice by Santana at Woodstock, Moby Dick a great John Bonham solo by Zeplin and the duel percussion attack by Jaimo and Buth Trucks on the Allman Brother's Mountian Jam. But for sheer stamina, creativity and all out balls, Toad wins hands down. Baker was the first to create a twin base technique and here he demonstrates his virtuosity in delivering an incredible two-footed base performance that defies human capabilitiy. Ginger Baker is the most inventive and dynamic drummer ever to beat a skin in the rock world. As musicians, all three members of Cream are artists of the highest caliber and for a short while delighted the world with their creative genius and improasational skill. Look to Wheels Of Fire to capture them at the zenith of their powers.
Free Music Review: Look To Wheels Of Fire To Capture The Zenith Of Their Power
Hit: 5 Stars
Consisting of one entire disc of studio material and a second disc culled from Cream's 1967 American tour, Wheels of Fire presents two dramaticly different views of the quintessential power trio. Beginning with White Room, a tour de fource electric blues classic, Cream leaves no doubt as to their virtuosity and improvisional skills. They also pay homage to Chester Burnette AKA Howlin Wolf on Sitting On Top of The World and cover Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign. Both are deftly rendered with Cream's unique blend of electric blues and psycedellic soul. Then there's Passing The Time, Pressed Rat and Warthog, Those Were The Days, Deserted Cites of The Heart and As You Said, all Pete Brown/Jack Bruce orginals. Brown and Bruce form one of the sixities/early seventies most unique and orginal song writing teams. Brown's strange and surreal lyrics create a world where wathogs sell amplified hate and Pressed rat's collection of dog legs and feet. After Cream disbanned in 1968, they joined together for Jack Bruce's Songs For A Taylor, one of the most underated albums of the golden age of rock. The Live disc consists of the Willie Dixon's blues classic Spoonful, (the UK release of Fresh Cream contained a studio version) and only three other selections. Crossroads is one of the rare opportunities for Clapton to step into the spotlight and demonstrate his vocal prowess. He was very shy to do so at this stage of his career, particularly on the concert stage. But here he delivers a confident and soulful reading of the Robert Johnson classic. Traintime is perhaps the only performance ever, (or at least as far as I know) of a hermonica and drum duet. Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce wail through twenty odd minutes of frantic "giddy up traintime" maddness. Then there's Baker's drum solo to end all drum solos. In the sixities and early seventies a concert performance, by any rock band worth their salt, had to include an extended drum solo. There were some great ones that readily come to mind, Soul Sacrafice by Santana at Woodstock, Moby Dick a great John Bonham solo by Zeplin and the duel percussion attack by Jaimo and Buth Trucks on the Allman Brother's Mountian Jam. But for sheer stamina, creativity and all out balls, Toad wins hands down. Baker was the first to create a twin base technique and here he demonstrates his virtuosity in delivering an incredible two-footed base performance that defies human capabilitiy. Ginger Baker is the most inventive and dynamic drummer ever to beat a skin in the rock world. As musicians, all three members of Cream are artists of the highest caliber and for a short while delighted the world with their creative genius and improasational skill. Look to Wheels Of Fire to capture them at the zenith of their powers.
Free Music Review: Cream's best-by a hair
Hit: 4 Stars
Cream consisted of three of the most talented musicians in the world in the late 60's. Clapton, Bruce and Baker all came from jazz/blues backgrounds and they added a rock twist on their tunes that made their music shimmer. This is best portrayed on Wheels of Fire. The album opens with the hit White Room. While similar to Tales of Brave Ulysses, Clapton fires the song into sonic brilliance with the final one minute solo. Bruce's vocals and Baker's steady beat are also wonderful.Sitting on Top of the World is a great slow, Howlin Wolf blues song. The trio cover it quite capably. And here is where the album loses a star: Passing the Time and As you Said are the biggest duds on the album. Thrown together haphazardly, they don't sound like Cream at all. Pressed Rat and Warthog, while revealing Cream's witty side, is ok, but it isn't what you buy the album for. Those Were the Days is mediocre and sounds like a leftover from Disraeli Gears. Mixed in is Politician which is Cream's own blues song and it comes off quite well, led by Bruce's vocals. Born Under a Bad Sign is a classic cover of the blues. Just listen to Clapton and you'll understand why. The studio album ends with Deserted Cities of the Heart. While not a hit, I think it is the most underrated song on the album. Clapton's fuzzy solo and Bruce's terrific delivery carry the song. The live side burns. Each member has their own little piece of art: Clapton has his magnum opus Crossroads, Bruce the frenzied harmonica on Traintime, and Baker on the thumping Toad. While all of these tracks are terrific, the band reaches god-like status with the epic Spoonful. This is Cream at it's creative best, and while most see this as self-indulgent and showing off, it ain't showing off if you can do it. Right????? Overall, the album is terrific, despite the rocks in the middle of the studio album. This is Cream at it's creative peake and I recommend it highly.
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: Seminal
Hit: 5 Stars
This album, more than any other 60s work, sent more boys out to buy electric guitars with the hopes of becoming rock stars than anything before or since. And for good reason. The live recordings on this album gave us a mountainslide of brilliant no-holds-barred improv and a fiery dynamism that was the trademark of few bands of the time. It might not have been Clapton's best work -- for me that was the Bluesbreakers album with Mayall -- but it was near-genius nonetheless. Much has been said about this version of Crossroads and you'd better believe it all. Clapton's two solos on that son, one more incendiary than the other, rate as some of the most memorable guitar-playing of any rock era. The studio stuff is an added joy and even Baker's Pressed Rat isn't without its self-deprecating humor. Felix Pappalardi earns extra kudos for outstanding studio accompaniment and production. The original cover, black on silver ink, was a landmark of 60s album design. Listen to the audience on the live tracks. Clearly these people were there to soak in the brilliance of the music they were experiencing. You can too.