Cream

The breakup of Cream, at the end of 1968, left a void of unfulfilled expectations among the English band's many fans. Indeed, the trio (Eric Clapton: electric guitar and vocals; Jack Bruce: electric bass, harmonica and lead vocals; Ginger Baker: drums) was at that moment at the peak of both its commercial success and its artistic development.
Having founded the rock blues genre in the summer of 1966, the English group had gone on to blend it with psychedelia and, live, with musical structures open to improvisation. Audience approval had grown steadily, reaching its peak in the very months of their farewell to the stage, when the albums "Wheels Of Fire" and "Goodbye" hit the top of the US and UK charts.
For this reason, the record label they belonged to decided to capitalize on their fame, still fresh in the collective memory, releasing in April 1970 an album containing some of their live performances recorded two years earlier: "Live Cream".

The record consists of 5 tracks (42 minutes total) and largely succeeded in its aim of satisfying the market (fifteenth in America and fourth in the UK). Four of the songs are drawn from two unmissable concerts held in March 1968 in San Francisco, at two venues historic to late-60s music (the Fillmore West and the Winterland Ballroom). By that point in their career, Cream had only recently completed the stylistic shift that turned the rock blues of their live shows into milestones of sonic and musical experimentation. Indeed, over the summer of 1967 — seven months before the recordings we hear on "Live Cream" — the band had significantly expanded the instrumental sections of the songs they played live, drawing inspiration from jazz idioms. As a direct consequence, the length of the compositions had grown considerably, pushing verses and choruses to the margins of the performances and favoring long, gripping improvisations from all three members.

"N.S.U." (Bruce) and "Sweet Wine" (Baker), both from the band's debut album ("Fresh Cream", 1966), reflect this very tendency and together take up almost two-thirds of "Live Cream" (ten and fifteen minutes respectively).
The group thus let extended improvisation into rock blues, becoming a vehicle for an artistic innovation that would have a broad impact on the music of the following decades. Clapton, Bruce and Baker perform the central instrumental sections of these two lengthy pieces through fierce improvisations, simultaneous and overlapping, played on their respective instruments. In doing so, they stray for long stretches from the rhythm and melody of the two songs, venturing with creative confidence into still-unexplored territory before converging on new and evocative rhythmic-melodic figures. Throughout these intoxicating, original instrumental digressions, bass, guitar and drums vie equally for the listener's attention, coming together, with an excellent capacity for mutual listening, to create an atmosphere halfway between free jazz and rock blues.

As this surging, tumultuous current flows on, Baker's drumming carves out its own space. He favors the deep, low sounds of the tom-toms, timpani and bass drum, locking in with the electric bass to generate a rhythm that is at once driving and febrile. He also uses the broad, crisp sound of the crash cymbal and chiming runs on the ride cymbal to brighten up the extended improvisations that define "N.S.U." and "Sweet Wine".
Eric Clapton, who in '68 was at the qualitative peak of his career, distorts his guitar through an intense overdrive effect, which turns the instrument's sound waves into dense vibrations with jagged edges. His notes — now impetuous and rapid-fire, now carefully placed to accompany the calmer moments of the compositions — find in this distortion a perfect vehicle to express the inspired balance between lyricism and energy that the guitarist conveys. As usual, he avoids particularly high notes during his wonderful solos, allowing the overall sound to come across as more unified and cohesive to the ear. This doesn't stop us from hearing how Clapton, in his solo excursions, merges his solid blues grounding with the unpredictable ideas that the 60s generation of musicians drew from the John Coltrane of "Giant Steps" and "My Favorite Things".

"Sleepy Time Time" and "Rollin' And Tumblin'" (the latter a cover of Hambone Willie Newbern's 1929 country blues classic) are rendered in a relatively more conventional way. Also drawn from the band's debut album, they're delivered here by Cream in performances that highlight two more-than-remarkable showings by Clapton on electric guitar. In particular, it's the rhythm accompaniment on "Rollin' And Tumblin'" that stands out. The guitar coils tight, brief notes around itself, expressive and restless at once, to the point of overshadowing Bruce's engaging harmonica solo and the drums' never-predictable percussive drive. Bruce confirms on these tracks, as on the previous two, that he is one of the finest electric bassists around, especially in combining astonishing technique with the imaginative immediacy of his notes. Also worth noting are the bassist's lead vocal parts, which come across as an incisive, convincing and flowing development of the vocal style made famous on the English blues scene by John Mayall.
Rounding out the record is a studio track dating back to the recording sessions for Cream's second LP ("Disraeli Gears"), held in May 1967. This is "Lawdy Mama", a country blues number originally recorded by Buddy Moss (in the East Coast blues style) in 1934. This track, rendered rather flatly compared to the rest of the material we've discussed, is sung by Clapton and is built on the instrumental foundation that would later evolve into the far more compelling "Strange Brew" from "Disraeli Gears". A stylistic misstep that, though brief (under three minutes), abruptly disrupts the album's coherence, closely recalling the similar misfire on the band's debut album, "From Four Until Late".

The presence of "Lawdy Mama" isn't enough, however, to alter the overall shape of an extremely important, compelling and experimental live album. It's a vivid, thrilling testament to how Cream's concerts, with their adventurous, unprecedented electric digressions, became a reference point for at least five distinct musical areas: from the expansion of rock's instrumental possibilities to the spread of rock blues, all the way to the notable influence exerted on southern rock, hard rock and jazz rock.

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13/03/2026