Description
Label Review.
1966 debut album.
Our Overview.
The virtuoso playing of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker made Cream the first band of soloists (all musicians had achieved fame independently before coming together as a band) to become a “supergroup”. In their two year career Cream blended rock, blues, psychedelic rock and a hint of jazz to create a unique sound and they brought their sound to a whole generation of white rockers and spawned legions of power trios, boogie bands and heavy metal groups.
According to rock critic Dave Marsh, Cream created “the fastest, loudest, most overpowering blues-based rock ever heard, particularly onstage.” Though they lasted only two years, Cream sold 15 million records; earned the first certified platinum album in history (for the double set Wheels of Fire); played to standing-room-only audiences across Europe and North America; and redefined the instrumentalist’s role in rock.Indeed, the trio is often cited as the first “supergroup.” Eric Clapton’s passion and fluidity on guitar inspired a spate of “Clapton is God” graffiti in London; Ginger Baker’s brutal intensity helped create the tradition of the drum solo in rock; and Jack Bruce was one of the first bassists to introduce a jazz sensibility to a hard rock format.
Many of the tracks on the band’s first album, Fresh Cream (1966), still retained the bluesy sound that its members were accustomed to producing. Although widely considered mediocre by rock critics, it appeared on the top 100 album charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States.