Fresh Cream (Cream, 1966)

This summer I've been playing the "connections game" in selecting the music I listen to, meaning I start with something, then move on to another album by the same artist, or another group featuring somebody from the previous album. Sometimes it is really easy to shift around, and other times you get stuck somewhere and need to get creative (shared producer, shared song, shared appearance on a compilation, etc.). So, for example, I've meandered from last week's Diary of a Madman as follows:

• Hoochie Coochie Men: Danger: White Men Dancing (Bob Daisley)
• Tony Ashton & Jon Lord: First of the Big Bands (Jon Lord)
• Ashton Gardner & Dyke (Tony Ashton)
• Badger: One Live Badger (Roy Dyke)
• Yes (Tony Kaye)
• Flash: In the Can (Peter Banks)
• Two Side of Peter Banks (Peter Banks)
• King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic (John Wetton)
• King Crimson: Starless and Bible Black (John Wetton)
• Mogul Thrash (John Wetton)
• Brian Auger's Oblivion Express (Brian Auger)
• Pete Brown & Piblokto: Things May Come And Things May Go But The Art School Of Dance Goes On Forever (Jim Mullen)
• Cream: Fresh Cream (Pete Brown, who co-wrote "I Feel Free")

And there you have it. It's as if Ozzy and Cream are one and the same. Sort of. Or not really. That's the fun of making all of these random connections. And since the album is quite short, I've traipsed on to even further fields: The Baker-Gurvitz Army, The Gun, The Graeme Edge Band, The Moody Blues, Ray Thomas, The Ian Gillan Band, Roxy Music, and Hard Stuff. I'm sure Atomic Rooster is just around the corner.

Back to Fresh Cream, though, it's one of those iconic albums you will likely find in any decent collection of classic rock. In fact, if you want to embark on your own game of connections, I can't think of a much better place to start. If you work from the roots you can go back to the Graham Bond Organisation, the Yardbirds, or John Mayall. That's enough to send listeners in all directions, but for an even greater adventure, try going forward! (see below)

Although iconic, Fresh Cream is also one of the most timid albums recorded by the trio that invented the power trio. They were far more in their element on the stage than in the studio. Side one is their original work (with the exception of "Spoonful"), while side two is all covers (with the exception of "Toad"). All but three of the songs ("Dreaming", "Cat's Squirrel", "Four Until Late") would be released in live form on later albums, most of them far longer in duration, with "Sweet Wine" and "Spoonful" crossing the 15-minute mark. Obviously squishing down these songs to the 2-3 minute range and jam-free sort of saps them of their mojo. Then again, if the iconic "Cream Jam" isn't your thing, this may actually be a good thing. Compared to later albums, you can still detect a whiff of mod in the work, soon to be washed over by the next album's psych leanings. Jack Bruce in particular arrives with the much musical chops, followed by Ginger Baker, who would redefine rock drumming until the onset of Led Zeppelin. While Eric Clapton is hardly a slouch compared to these two, his main contribution to this album is keeping it partially anchored in the blues. On this album he is fresh out of John Mayall's Bluesbreaks boot camp, which broke him out of the de-bluesing trend of the Yardbirds, but didn't give him a lot of tools in the singing and writing departments, which is largely left to Jack Bruce here. Not to worry, Clapton-maniacs, he manages to partly resolve this shortcomings just one album later. Problems aside, he was the best-known of the trio, so just his name alone put Cream head-and-shoulders above the competition.

Cream was one of the most combustible outfits around, lasting barely two years. While the combined talents of Bruce, Baker, and Clapton provided a lot of early gains, being in a band where every man was a leader proved to be a disastrous concept. Even before their formation, Bruce and Baker were just one heartbeat away from an open fistfight. The later albums would exhibit increasing disjointedness and the collapse resulted from Clapton finally giving up on his bandmates and Bruce and Baker being legally forbidden from killing each other. Of the three post-Cream careers, Clapton's is the best documented (Baker initially in tow), mingling with the more celebrity-level musicians. Jack Bruce is a little more down-and-dirty in his associations, largely affiliating with mid-level names like Robin Trower and Mountain. Ginger Baker enjoyed the most diverse career path of the three, initially following a similar path to Bruce, but in later decades appearing in strange places, like Hawkwind and Masters of Reality (!). So, to return to the original point here, you can go a million different directions when you start playing musical connections from Cream. Try it out and see where you end up!

(Ugh, I meant to post this sooner and just forgot to publish. Still on track! Wish I could say the same with my reading....)