1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 102. Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967)

 

The Seventies feel continues, as Eric Clapton develops his sound from the bluesy work done with John Mayall to using distortion, overdrive, and a bit of wah-wah, combined with drummer Ginger Baker (probably the inspiration behind Animal from The Muppets with his frenetic drumming and difficult behaviour). Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love are the tracks that get the airplay, and they by-and-large exemplify what to expect from this album. Emerging out of psychedelia and blues, this is more purely (hard-ish) rock, apart from the pub singalong of an old music hall song, Mother’s Lament (“My baby ‘as gorn dahn the plug’ole”) where I expected John Gorman of The Scaffold to make an appearance.

It’s good without being brilliant, but part of that I think is how familiar a lot of it feels compared to how it was at the time - I had a "Best of Eric Clapton" compilation many years ago that featured these tracks. Cream are billed as a “supergroup”, and it’s been my experience with “supergroups” that the end result is often a lot more muted than expected, as if combining lots of talent in one place somehow dilutes it. Or that expectations are too high. I think in this case the fractious relationship between Baker and the third band member, bassist Jack Bruce, probably got in the way of the creative process. Still, as another evolutionary step in music, it stands up very well.

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