Cream Album: “The BBC Sessions”

I had the pleasure of seeing Cream live in San Diego while they were on their farewell tour and have always enjoyed their music, so I was delighted when I saw this CD appear in amazon's listings and ordered it immediately.

OK, these are not the best recordings ever, but they are still good when you consider the circumstances under which they were made. There is a lot of "sound" that you hear on a studio recording that's just not here, but that's what happens when its live. Besides, the technology at that time was primitive compared with what's available today.

Since my favorite Cream albums are Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire, my favorite songs here come from those albums. The best of those are a driving rendition of Tales of Brave Ulysses, and stand-out performances of Born Under A Bad Sign, Outside Woman Blues, Politician, and SWALBR.

Eric Clapton does the talking on the short interview clips, but it is really Ginger Baker who stands out most here as he punishes his drum kit mercilessly and provides the thundering beat that is a Cream trademark.

If you were and are a fan of Cream, you should own this CD and hear Clapton, Bruce and Baker as they are rising to the top of the late 60s musical world.

I'm afraid there is not much to recommend this CD. Cream is one of the best bands that ever existed; but this collection of BBC sessions does not add anything to what can be had in their "official" albums. All of these selections come from that brief time of Fresh Cream and Disraili Gears. The sound quality is little above AM radio condition and there is no hint of stereo separation. None of the songs in this collection are extended performances and the four interviews with Eric Clapton shed no light on Cream beyond what could be gleaned from a short encyclopedia article on the band.

Other "BBC Sessions" of the Beatles, The Who, and Led Zeppelin were well worth getting. The sound quality for those recordings was also substandard but what made them worthwhile was that they were fun to listen to. For some reason, that sense of "fun" is missing here. For only those who must collect every recorded note Cream played

Cream's BBC sessions have been on bootlegs for decades, and now they are finally given official release. The sound quality isn't actually as bad as some here are making out--a few songs

are below-par, but it's a miracle some of these were found at all. Anyways, it's great to hear Cream live, but succinct: no 15-minute jams, just 2-4 minute mini-masterpieces. It's also fascinating to hear the band play songs that would not be released until much later in their career: "Wheels Of Fire" tracks like "Crossroads", "Traintime", "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Politician" are heard in renditions as early as 1966, and they do not sound too bad, either. Clapton's playing is intense and firey right from the beginning, although one wonders why they ever played silly novelty numbers like "Wrapping Paper", "Take It Back" or "Four Until Late" when they were burning it up with heavy classics like "Sweet Wine", "I'm So Glad" (a superb rendition), "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "SWLABR". Any Cream fan will love this collection, which also features a nice booklet with the usual

liners, photos, etc. Now we finally have some officially released examples of Cream's live capabilities in the first stage of their career, which fills an important vacuum; buy this along with the box set and you'll have everything you need.

I read the reviews regarding sound quality, as well as reviews of other BBC Sessions albums I have and decided that the complaints come from trying to compare these live recordings to the remastered studio albums. After listening to it all the way through twice I think the sound quality is what you'd expect for a BBC Sessions album, not perfect, but far from unlistenable. The album includes an excellent version of Robert Johnson's Four Until Late. Other standouts include Born Under a Bad Sign and Cat's Squirrel. The worst sounding songs quality-wise are Sunshine Of Your Love and Rollin' and Tumblin', but I can live with those. Chalk up another one for the BBC by presenting some more material from the Sixties, sounds as fresh as it did all those years ago.

This release was a pleasant surprise, as it's been AGES since a "new" release came about from THE rock & roll power trio. For hard core collectors, chances are that they've come across most of this material at one time or another...but there are some unreleased tracks on this collection that do make it worth getting. Not necessarily essential Cream... but a worthy addition. Has some seldom played songs that were done live, such as Born Under a Bad Sign.

I also HIGHLY recommend this to the casual Cream fan/s that don't quite enjoy(or comprehend) the long "jamming" that they were inclined to do at the time. Spoonful, Toad, NSU, Steppin' Out....

The BBC broadcasts were usually on a time constraint, so the performances are mostly kept to a minimum regarding improvisation(well, for Cream anyway). For the folks that enjoy the stretched out playing (or excess depending on the person)... well, let's hope that 10/15/67 at the Grande Ballroom will be officially released one day, as it has some superior versions of songs that were on the official live material.

Is it me, or the general public continually fails to acknowledge the contributions of Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker to Cream? This misconception is not alleviated with the liner notes & the fact Eric's interviews are the only ones included on this disc. Well, atleast Bruce's solo albums are FINALLY being re-released as imports.... next up.... Airforce? How about it?