Cream Album: “Wheels Of Fire [Remaster]”

This album, more than any other 60s work, sent more boys out to buy electric guitars with the hopes of becoming rock stars than anything before or since. And for good reason. The live recordings on this album gave us a mountainslide of brilliant no-holds-barred improv and a fiery dynamism that was the trademark of few bands of the time. It might not have been Clapton's best work -- for me that was the Bluesbreakers album with Mayall -- but it was near-genius nonetheless. Much has been said about this version of Crossroads and you'd better believe it all. Clapton's two solos on that son, one more incendiary than the other, rate as some of the most memorable guitar-playing of any rock era. The studio stuff is an added joy and even Baker's Pressed Rat isn't without its self-deprecating humor. Felix Pappalardi earns extra kudos for outstanding studio accompaniment and production. The original cover, black on silver ink, was a landmark of 60s album design. Listen to the audience on the live tracks. Clearly these people were there to soak in the brilliance of the music they were experiencing. You can too.

To find Diamonds,tiny little rocks,one must dig through tons of rock. Here, in "Spoonful" you'll find the brightest Diamond in the history of rock.But where is it? Very easy.If you have a CD, and who doesn't these days, fast forward to 2 minutes and fifty seconds into the song,just after the vocals have ended. Continue listening till about the 8 minute mark. This is it. After you've heard this for several times it will hit you. You will take off. Get in your car and blast this at maximum volume. Be careful not to crash. Let me know what you think.

This album really epitomizes what Cream was about. They were both marvels live and in the studio, and never was that shown better than in this album. Jack Bruce and Peter Brown were amazingly prolific writers, and their best songs are all here. White Room is deserving of its classic (with a really good, intricate drum workout by Ginger Baker), and As You Said is another gentle, charming song. Passing the Time is really beautiful (showing Baker could write great songs too). I love Politician, whose chorus "I support the left, though I'm leaning, leaning to the right" still rings true today. The live stuff is phenomenal, especially the epic cover of Spoonful and Bruce's blues workout Train Time. The only song I could do without was Toad. It starts out well, but Baker's drum solo isn't very dynamic, and it goes on much too long. If Baker and Bruce had gotten along better (contrary to popular belief, it wasn't Clapton feuding with his other band mates, but Baker and Bruce, who had a bit of a history before Cream), Cream would have kept making great albums for a while. Nevertheless, this is a great album, Cream's best.

Up to this album, to us righteous rock'n'rollers, it seemed to be. This trio of Clapton, Bruce and Baker (with songwriting help from Pete Brown and instrumental help from soon-to-be-Mountaineer Felix Pappalardi) legitimized the blues in rock doctrine and paved the way for such almost-pure blues bands as Canned Heat and Ten Years After. Today, their contemporaries The Rolling Stones and the late Jimi Hendrix are seen by many experts as blues artists. As you will hear on the live track "Spoonful", Eric Clapton had not yet gotten the notion that Fender built his guitar primarily to accompany his voice--the song's a pure-dee blues "fugue" between him and bassist Jack Bruce--16 minutes without a drum solo, which was unusual back then for a song that long. Songs like "White Room" and "Deserted Cities Of the Heart" are consistent with their earlier albums "Fresh Cream" and "Disraeli Gears", but as well as "Spoonful", you get other unabashed blues numbers as "Sitting On Top Of the World" and Booker T. Jones' "Born Under a Bad Sign" (did he ever do that one with the MG's?). And you get some hints of the approaching prog sound in "As You Said" and "Passing the Time". As well as Ginger Baker's lighthearted recitation "Pressed Rat and Warthog" ("Blue Condition" from "Disraeli Gears" had proven that he can't sing). Unfortunately, the trio ran their tank dry here--the next album, appropriately titled "Goodbye", had less than half new material.

I bought this when I was a teenager in the late '60s. Loved it, of course. When it was available in the late '80's on CD I bought it but since then it was never enhanced with outtakes or anything. Good God, think of all the (stupid) albums that have been "Deluxed" but this one isn't??????

Five stars for musical quality. Zero for attention to making it the classic it should be.

I just got the "Rope Ladder to the Moon" DVD about Jack Bruce. Fantastic!!! Cream fans: get this!

Oh well. Thought The Ramones were fantasic too, but at least their catalog is done justice.

Bye

Eddie