Cream Album: “Those Were the Days [Box]”

This is the real deal. If you want to hear one of the greatest bands of all time, in their entirety, get this box set. Every official release is on this set. You get Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire, Goodbye, The "Wrapping Paper" and "Anyone For Tennis" singles, an outtake from the Fresh Cream sessions, and several demos from the "Lost" sessions. And to top it all off, you get the "Falstaff Beer" song. Disc 1 and 2 are the studio sides, while 3 and 4 are devoted to the live recordings. These are perhaps the greatest live stuff ever recorded by a rock band. Some of these jams make Jimi look tame!!

I recommend this box set for anyone who wants to emmerse themselves in the orgy that is Cream. I recommend it to a new fan, but if this set is too much for the casual fan, there is the 20-track "The Very Best of Cream", which is much more affordable($16 compared to $53!!). But if you are a huge and obssessed fan like me, you won't mind spending $53 hard earned dollars on this. If something ever happened to my copy of this, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to get another copy. Get this as soon as you can, and please, for my sake(and a whole lot of others), don't let great music like this be overshadowed by s**t that is produced today!!!

The Cream experience was always multifaceted and exciting, both visually and musically. There was nothing subtle or understated about this group. The music and the album cover art was always memorable, innovative and colorful (some would say florid). There has always been 2 Eric Clapton's; one which overflows with energy, passion & adrenaline and the other devoid of it. This CD collection captures the former EC in all of his blazing and colorful guitar slinging glory, wired to 300 watts of Marshall stack amplifiers. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker will always be the ultimate power rhythm section, setting the standard for all of those who would follow, including Zeppelin and Rush. Any collection which includes Dance the night away, White Room, Badge, Sunshine, Scrapyard, Crossroads, Those were the days, Ulysses, SWALABR, Strange Brew, & World of Pain plus superb liner notes which fully documents the group from inception to demise, with superb photographs is well worth the investment. The tracks have been digitally remastered, enhancing the listening experience, especially for the live tracks. This box set is thoughtful, comprehensive and is the ultimate word on the first and foremost power trio of the late 60's. Cream is 1/3 of the 60's holy trinity; the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix comprise the other 2/3.

...is that you can do a boxed set that has it all. No feedback consisting of whining about "why wasn't such-and-such a number on it?" This has their whole discography, including UK single b-sides, Jack Bruce numbers that they didn't release so he put his own versions on his first solo album, an unreleased studio version of the epic jam "Spoonful" (which is just like the live cut except for being much shorter)--plus, would you believe, a beer commercial! With most box sets, you get a lot of filler (stuff you already have elsewhere, stuff you never did like, multiple versions of the same song, yadda-yadda), and you pay a whole lot of money to boot. This set is for the old Cream fan who wants to update his vinyls to CD. It costs about the same as any other set. But it's a lot cheaper than buying all six albums individually. And you still get the rarities as well.

If you are a serious classic rock collector this set must be part of your personal collection. Cream short career of three years was one of the most influencias in rock history by being the first supergroup to appear as it was formed by already succesful artist (Clapton, Baker and Bruce). Cream provided the ground work of hard rock, heavy metal and other bands to come. As with many rock nbands, the tension within the group gave room for musical struggles that, fortunate for us, translated into great albums and songs. But, this tensions were to end this creative trio early in their career.

All this information and the music that resulted during those three yeras has been very well documented and putted together in this box set. All of the studio albums and live recordings commercialy available are here. The music was remastered very well and this provides greater listening pleasure. The set features great photos, essays and track and album information.

This is the creme dela creme, the cream of the crop if you will for Cream fans. As a box set this does it all and then some. For Cream fans you couldnt want more, its all here everything you need or want, well basiccaly. Over the years Eric Clapton, Genger Baker, and Jack Bruce, have become legends as a band and this helped Eric Clapton go on to become a rock God.

All of the bands studio albums and live albums are here. Fresh Cream, Wheels Of Fire, Desreli Gears, and Goodbye, they are all here in there amazing fabulous glory. Every song the band ever created is here. Along with the amazing albums you get a lot of alternate versions, outtakes, and demos, all of which are fantastic. As I mentioned there is live material and lots of it whic is great because that is what the band was known for was there amazing live shows and amazing musical ability, so thats really cool for Cream fans. Probably the best thing about this collection is you get all of this and it is cheaper to buy it this way then all the albums sepperately and you still get all the individual album cases, so that is really cool as well. The only thing I wish they would have done is include the BBC sessions of the band because unlike other bands Creams BBC sessions are actually good, but I guess thats really not essential.

So for any Cream fan this is all you need so I woul recomend pcking this up and for any Eric Clapton fans this is a must have so do your record collection a favor and pick this box set up!