books shopping
Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup
2Jun2008 Filed under: chris brown lyrics Author: admin
|
||||||
|
Order it in the next 22 hours and 1 minute, and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. |
||||||
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Written by Chris Welch, former Melody Maker journalist and Cream confidante, this newly-researched book is the first full account of rock’s premiere three-man supergroup: guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. From Cream’s formation in 1966 to their breakup in 1968, the book analyzes the group’s working methods and offers detailed descriptions of all their recordings. A special section explores the musical interactions of Clapton, Bruce and Baker, plus key songwriters Bruce and Pete Brown. With rare full-color photos throughout, it also includes a complete discography, studio sessionography, and diary of live shows.
| Product Details
|
3 Responses to “Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup”
Similar recommendation
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
admin
06月 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
By chris meesey Food Czar (The Colony, TX United States)
Rock journalist Chris Welch, who helped spread the gospel according to Cream in the pages of that wonderful British rock journal Melody Maker, gives us a wonderful overview of one of the most influential bands of the sixties. Each member is profiled in a personal interview section (including Pete Brown, the poet and semi-official “fourth member” of Cream who cowrote many of the bands hits with bassist Jack Bruce.) These reminiscences are candid and straightforward (Ginger Baker’s especially so) and show both dizzying highs (the Fillmore West and Winterland concerts) and profound lows (Eric Clapton’s angst over the famous Rolling Stone article which proclaimed him “master of the blues cliches.”)The book also shows how even a great record company like Atlantic can fail to capitalize on the band’s unique genius. (According to Jack Bruce, they were more interested in the Bee Gees.)It’s a great read, with one or two minor quibbles. Even though there is some detail about the band member’s post-Cream activities, more would be welcome, especially concerning Ginger Baker’s alleged financial difficulties. Also, in the otherwise excellent diary section (a great idea, by the way), concert dates and recording sessions are chronicled thoroughly, yet there is no mention of the supporting act at the famous August 2, 1966 gig at Klook’s Kleek. This was truly an historic occasion, as that supporting act was none other than Savoy Brown, and the concert not only helped break both bands, but also got Savoy Brown their first recording contract and began a musical legacy that is still going strong today. Other than these minor flaws, the book is very well written and deserves a place on your shelf, next to your Eric Claption biographies.
admin
06月 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
By The Sanity Inspector (USA)
Finally, the book this great band deserves. I once saw an instant book on Cream, around the time of their early 90s reunion. This book is much superior to that one, and seems to be the only extant history of the band.
There are well-written and -illustrated “before they were Cream” chapters on each musician. The chapter on Clapton tells the familiar tale of his career from the Yardbirds to John Mayall to Cream. A most welcome part of this book are the portions devoted to songwriter Pete Brown, who teamed with Jack Bruce for some of Cream’s best-known classics. Over the years in various interviews Eric Clapton has fostered the idea that he was the whole show, so this material is an appreciated corrective. Much of the material on Bruce’s and Ginger Baker’s days with the Graham Bond Organisation come from Brown.
The Cream material itself is a fan’s dream come true. Jack Bruce and Pete Brown provide most of the reminisces. (Don’t overlook the sidebar quotes in the concert log section at the end.) The illustrations are plentiful, including album covers, concert photos, publicity stills, magazine covers, etc. The only mild disappointment is that there are no pictures of Felix Pappalardi included. I’d love to see a picture of him in the studio, playing the piano on “Badge.” More oddly, there are no pictures of their 1993 reunion. That’s just as well, though. I am continuously grateful to Baker, Bruce, and Clapton for not cheapening Cream’s achievement with endless reunions and farewells, as some well-known bands from their era have done. It’d be embarrassing to see Cream spending their golden years on the county fair concert circuit. Their career was cruelly short, but no one can say that they didn’t leave a beautiful corpse. And now they finally have a worthy history of their achievements. Those were the days, indeed.
admin
06月 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
By Christopher Paquette (Culver City, CA USA)
A very good overview of the band - more like a Cream scrapbook than anything else, with lots of pictures of the band, their singles, albums, and all things Cream. My only gripe with the book is that it offers no new interviews with Clapton - all of his quotes are taken from long-ago interviews or existing videos (”Cream: Strange Brew” etc.) and a modern-day interview that had Clapton looking back on the band in retrospect would have given the book more clout. Ginger Baker and particularly Jack Bruce do contribute new interviews and info, though, and the discography and session date charts at the back of the book will be a boon to any fan. If you want to know about what happened within Cream in its heyday, this is the book for you.