Fresh Cream

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fresh Cream
Cream studio album

Publication
(s)

December 1966

admission

July - October 1966

Label (s) Reaction Records

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

Blues rock , psychedelic rock

Title (number)

10

running time

37:48

occupation

production

Robert Stigwood

Studio (s)

Rayrik & Ryemuse Studios, London

chronology
- Fresh Cream Disraeli Gears

Fresh Cream is the debut album of the first supergroup in rock history, the British band Cream . Guitarist Eric Clapton came from John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers , bassist and singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker from the Graham Bond Organization . It was released in Great Britain in December 1966, during the height of the British blues , and a slightly modified version in the United States a month later.

The album reached number 102 on the list of the 500 best albums of all time by the music magazine Rolling Stone .

History of origin

The band had previously been to Rayrik Studio in London to record I Feel Free and Wrapping Paper , which hit the charts in October 1966. For the recording of their album they went to the Ryemuse Studio , where the production conditions were poor: communication with the recording technology was solely via a television camera. In retrospect, Jack Bruce complained about the "amateurish way" in which the first four tracks were recorded live. Still, the album was ultimately mixed with broad tonal dynamics and a few overdubs when it was released in December 1966 - the same day as the band's second single with I Feel Free .

Style and reception

Half of the album consists of cover versions of blues standards (including Rollin 'and Tumblin' by Muddy Waters , Four Until Late by Robert Johnson with Eric Clapton at the microphone, and Spoonful by Willie Dixon ), as well as original compositions by Jack Bruce in particular, including Sweet Wine , a reference to the psychedelic rock that was to come from the band afterwards, and without the strict attachment to the blues as with John Mayall . Still, on the songs I'm So Glad and Rollin 'and Tumblin' , Clapton plays a blues-rock guitar with a power and freedom that was previously absent in rock. With Ginger Baker's instrumental piece Toad , the album also contains one of the first extended drum solos in rock music.

The album hit number 6 in the UK and sold well in the US (on the ATCO label).

Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic thinks Fresh Cream is birth-promoting for heavy metal and jam rock . The album received four stars out of five.

Track list

page 1

  1. NSU ( Jack Bruce ) - 2:43
  2. Sleepy Time Time (Bruce, Janet Godfrey ) - 4:20
  3. Dreaming (Bruce) - 1:58
  4. Sweet Wine ( Ginger Baker , Godfrey) - 3:17
  5. Spoonful ( Willie Dixon ) - 6:30

Page 2

  1. Cat's Squirrel (trad. Arr. From Cream) - 3:03
  2. Four Until Late ( Robert Johnson , arr. By Eric Clapton ) - 2:07
  3. Rollin 'and Tumblin' ( McKinley Morganfield ) - 4:42
  4. I'm So Glad ( Skip James ) - 3:57
  5. Toad (Baker) - 5:11

Remarks

  • The above list describes the British initial publication. The US version contains the first song I Feel Free (Bruce, Pete Brown ) - 2:52 and Spoonful is missing .
  • The CD release also contains the songs Wrapping Paper , which was released as a single in the fall of 1966, and The Coffee Song , a total of thirteen tracks.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c S. T. Erlewine on Fresh Cream
  2. ↑ Levy, Joe (Ed.): Rolling Stone. The 500 best albums of all time . (Original edition: Rolling Stone. The 500 Greatest Albums of all Time . Wenner Media 2005). Translation: Karin Hofmann. Wiesbaden: White Star Verlag, 2011, p. 102; online: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - place 150-101
  3. ^ Harry Shapiro Jack Bruce Composing Himself: The Authorized Biography. Jawbone Press 2010. pp. 89f.
  4. ↑ cit. n. Harry Shapiro Jack Bruce Composing Himself. P. 90f.
  5. ↑ a b c Harry Shapiro Jack Bruce Composing Himself. P. 91
  6. ↑ I Feel Free reached number 11 as a single in the British charts. See Cream in the UK charts
  7. ↑ Cf. Ulrich Adelt Blues music in the sixties: a story in Black and White . Rutgers University Press, p. 66 and BBC Music on Fresh Cream
  8. ↑ Pete Prown, Harvey P. Newquist, Jon F. Eiche Legends of rock guitar: The essential reference of rock's greatest guitarists. Hal Leonard 2002. p. 53
  9. ↑ Via producer Robert Stigwood and Cream

Web links