Cream Album: “Farewell Concert [Extended Version]”

Cream was a great band. Their importance and influence in the rock world (and jazz and blues, too) can't be over-stated. I love these guys. Having said that, I must warn anybody who isn't aware of this movie - that it is one of the most horrible botch jobs in the history of rock documentaries. I think everybody from the director to the camera to the sound must have been awfully stoned. If you want to see a movie featuing Jack Bruce's acne scars with psych-ay-dell-ik sperm overlays crowding the frame, and almost unlistenable muddled sound in the background, then this film is for you. Or perhaps you'd like to see the camera zoom in and out on Clapton's nose to the movment of his wah-wah pedal.

I read in an interview that Clapton was so incensed when he saw this botch of a movie that he actually went looking for tony palmer. I can only hope he found him and soundly kicked his ass.

The only plus are the interviews with Clapton and Baker. Baker comes across as incredibly stupid (which he most certainly isn't), but it's funnier than hell. And his drumming speaks for itself.

They shouldn't call this "The Farewell Concert". There's very little concert here. The thing is also very pooly filmed and edited. There are bits and pieces of songs. This would make a nice "extra" for a good video disc, but doesn't stand well on it's own at all.

The video documenting Cream's Farewell Concert is an extreme disappointment. First of all it is only 50 minutes. For a band that is known to play twenty and sometimes thirty minute songs, this doesn't leave much time for the music. There is not one complete song on the whole video. If they show a full song it has some bad narration over the beginning. Not to mention the many songs that were played that night that must have been forgotten(Sitting on top of the World & Crossroads). If your looking for a good Cream documentary on video, I suggest Cream's Strange Brew. It has all the good stuff form the Farewell Concert and a lot more. There is also The Fresh Live Cream on DVD that just came out. It sounds really good too.

This is a disappointing making of Cream's farewell concert. You can barely enjoy the performances because of the absolutely dreadful editing. There are times that , during the concert footage , you would see a great wide shot of the band but then , suddenly , they would switch to a quick shot of Jack Bruce then a quick shot of Clapton then a close up shot of Ginger Baker and just change quickly from close ups of band members to the audience to the instruments. I mean , you don't mind A LITTLE editing of concert footage but the editing here for "Cream Farewell Concert" was so over the top that it was distracting. It really took away from the experience of seeing this bands final concert. Tragic!

For example during the playing of "White Room" we get far too close to Jack Bruce's face for too long , and when Clapton's solo comes up they have a tight shot of Clapton from the shoulders up as he is playing and YOU DON'T SEE THE GUITAR! Then they actually vibrated this camera shot making it even more fustrating to watch! (the editing is so bad you wonder if this is the actual footage of him playing the "White Room" guitar solo). During the playing of "Spoonful" they decide to double expose the badly shot concert footage with lava effects. It was like someone spat on the Mona Lisa. Tragic. Absolutely tragic.

Another odd thing about this footage is that it looks like the first song that was played in this documentary was the last song played in the actual concert. The song is "Sunshine of Your Love" and at the end of the song Clapton takes his guitar off , says thank you and waves to the crowd , you see Jack Bruce putting down his base and Ginger Baker walking away from his drum set heading back stage and the audience giving a standing ovation as if the concert was over. And this is about five minutes into the documentary. What gives?

This was the 60's. So you wonder if the people who shot this footage and edited it had a little "influence" while making this piece. If you know what I mean. It certainly looks like it.

The one good thing about this documentary is that there are interviews with each band member. Clapton(25 years old here)and Baker generously give a sort of music lesson on how they play their instruments. Young people who are seriously looking to become musicians may find those parts very informative. But those are the only redeeming parts to this documentary.

Cream created some of the most memorable tunes in rock and roll. These guys were a real power trio ; an awesome band. This program does not do this group justice. The awful , horrific editing will give you a denied experience of what seemed like a fun concert to watch. You just can't enjoy it. And just for good measure , the DVD has no DVD extras.

This is a documentary on Cream. It looks like it was made for British TV. It is about half interviews and half music. It is only 47 minutes long. There are no complete songs. The songs start in the middle or end abruptly. The announcer talks over large portions of the songs.

The picture and sound quality are poor. The actually camerea shots were poor. It looks like it was pulled from an old video tape. The DVD has no special features.

There are some interesting parts to the interviews, where each band member explains how they play their instruments and how they acheive their sound. But, most of it is a gloss over without really getting into the band. There is no mention of how they formed or what tore them apart.

There are some nice bits of them playing, but it isn't enough to justify buying this.