Cream

I finished the Dave Thompson book on Cream the other week and thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a lot of insight into the events and people surrounding the group. It jibes well with Strange Brew but gives information on what the group wanted to do from the outset, and what they felt they actually accomplished.

It provides some great insight into the perspectives of each member, Clapton in particular, and how they changed over the life of the group and what influences caused the changes. I found the feud between Baker and Bruce amusing. The origins of it are really quite juvenile set against the larger picture. The same complaints are expressed by Baker again during the 2005 reunion shows.

This book combines really well with Strange Brew to give a great picture of the music scene at the time and the people in it.

Cream

I purchased several Cream cd's from Amazon and they were delivered the other day. This is all because of the "Strange Brew" book which gets more interesting with every page. I was a radio listener for a long time and was only really familiar with whatever you heard on there. There's a lot of good stuff on them and it's great to listen to it and know what was happening at the time as well.

For instance that Clapton beat Hendrix to recording with a wah pedal (I'd have to look the song up). Clapton was at one point very intimidated by Hendrix and his playing skills, so much so he considered quitting ( so the story goes). I found another book about Cream which I will read once I finish this one. With the time I have to read that should be October sometime.

Here's one from their first album that's sort of appropriate as a squirrel took out our power this morning.

Cat's Squirrel