It was in the old New Haven Arena, home to the New haven Blades Hockey Team of the AHL… the date was October 11, 1968, and seated on “floor seats”, some 15 rows back from the stage, sat Ellen, John Pendelton (aka Lance or “Wild Pen”), John’s date (who I couldn’t remember on a bet) & me… and we were there not for a hockey game, but for the Cream Concert.
Cream, for those not in the know, was an English rock group consisting of three musicians: Jack Bruce on Bass and Vocals, Ginger Baker on Drums and Eric Clapton on Guitar.
The Concert was part of their “farewell tour”. After a meteoric rise to fame they were disbanding a mere two years after their formation. Their decision to split at the height of their popularity and critical acclaim was indeed genuine. So it was told, on a personal level, Bruce and Baker couldn’t stomach each other.
I loved Cream… their music combined original stuff (mostly written by Bruce with help from Pete Brown as lyricist) with sensational covers of Blues classics from Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson & Albert King to name but a few. I owned all their albums (they only produced 4 while they were constituted).
Ellen “suffered” them, which is to say that she “tolerated” them because of me… and her presence in the New Haven Arena that night was borne of her desire to please me, at that time, rather than her own interest in the group or their music.
Among her observations, Ellen told me she found the song “I’m So Glad”, with its repeated refrain: I’m so glad, I’m so glad, I’m glad, I’m glad, I’m glad… to be purely idiotic.
Excuse me! I loved the tune! No matter… There we sat… in the “good seats”… listening to Clapton’s magical guitar weave around Bruce’s pulsating bass, backed by Baker’s impeccable drum kit & punctuated by Bruce’s sweet tenor vocals. I was transfixed.
Ellen was not so moved (no surprise there); but Lance certainly loved it… I can recall glancing in his direction during Baker’s extended drum solo in “Toad” and John looked mesmerized… it was an expression that spoke volumes of appreciation.
What a concert!
When the tour concluded with a Concert in Royal Albert Hall a month or so later, the band members went their separate paths.
I think it is safe to say that neither Bruce nor Baker achieved the success (artistic or financial) that Clapton enjoyed in the post-Cream days. Clapton’s “solo” career spread his popularity to a far wider audience than his days in Cream… many of his songs logged serious air play across a diversity of radio stations… from classic rock to “easy listening”.
Rock groups came and go… like sea shells on the sea shore. But for those of us who love a particular group that is no more, we live with the hope that our favorite group will re-form again. How many millions of music fans longed for John and Paul patch things up and re-group the Beatles? And of course what had once been a hope, in the case of the Beatles, is now an impossibility.
But with every new Eric Clapton song or album (or should I say CD), I would hope that one day Cream would take the stage again.
Realize that only part of this has to do with music. Part of it has to do with re-claiming a part of our life… a younger part of our life… a part of our life seen thru a prism that filters the bitter parts away… a prism that wonderfully restores just the sweet.
So… it’s not too difficult to hear a song, pop in an “old” CD and be transported back in time to those days…
Or… sometimes it might be something “new” that puts you in that nostalgic frame of mind. And that’s what happened to me about a year or two ago when Eric Clapton released the CD “Me and Mr. Johnson”. It was Clapton’s musical tribute to the legendary Bluesman, Robert Johnson. One of the tracks, “Traveling Riverside Blues” sounded darn close to another Johnson tune “Crossroads Blues” that the Cream covered in their “Wheels of Fire” album.
When that CD came out, I couldn’t get enough of it… and every time I heard “Traveling Riverside Blues” I kept thinking, too bad the Cream doesn’t get back together again… wouldn’t it be sweet to hear “Crossroads” again?
Wouldn’t it be sweet to hear them again? Wouldn’t it be sweet to see them again? Wouldn’t be sweet to re-capture some time & preserve it in a bottle?
I don’t go to concerts often… not even back “then”. I pick and choose my forays to live music selectively… today even more so than “then”. But this is for sure… when I caught wind that Cream was coming together for a handful of dates… I didn’t have to think long and hard as to whether I would go… and not knowing if there would be dates in the U.S., I even tinkered with the idea of flying to London.
When it was clear that NYC dates would be included, it was simply a matter of waiting for the tickets to go on sale…
I had a “partner” in pursuit of tickets as well… Sean, bartender extraordinaire at Ash Creek, also had a keen interest and we traded info about ticket availability and all… When Sean told me that he and his buddies scored tickets for the Monday show, it was time for me to act…
Frank Alfiero, a distinguished Grapes alumnus is a big time music fan, too… many of our early morning conversations prior to the “wardens” arriving on the grounds invariably covered sports and music… we had already taken in a B.B. King Concert in Stamford… a Concert we both loved… Mr. Frank is a big time music “ally” of mine.
When I had asked him if he would be interested in checking out Cream if the situation presented itself… it took him a nano second to reply in the affirmative.
Now that the opportunity arrived we struck for a deuce… our date was for Wednesday, the last of the dates for this “re-union”.
Our seats, for those unfamiliar with Madison Square Garden, were in the “Press Box”… right about the Red Line (that’s the 50 yard line for you souls who don’t know hockey)… we had a great view of the stage and the press seats meant that when folks stood up (which would be done often that night) we still had a completely unobstructed line of sight.
At 8:35 the boys hit the opening chords of the Skip James tune that Ellen hated 37 years ago… “I’m so Glad”… and like the rest of the sold out house, no words could better describe how Frank and I felt… I’m so glad!!
An old Willie Dixon number followed: “Spoonful”. This version was closer to the studio track on the British released album Fresh Cream (it was left off the U.S. version) than it was to the live track on Wheels of Fire…loved it!
Then one of my favorites of the night… another blues classic, this from Arthur “Blind Willie” Reynolds: “Outside Woman Blues”… in addition to one of the classic themes in blues (women, loving them, leaving them, getting hurt by them or in some way falling to their power), the music idiom is also classic… a vocal line, followed by a guitar lick, the vocal line repeated, then a guitar lick… a more extended solo can be included with a repeated refrain at the end… ya gotta love this…
“If you lose your money, great God don’t lose your mind.
If you lose your money, great God don’t lose your mind.
And if you lose your woman, please don’t fool with mine.
I’m gonna buy me a bulldog, watch my lady whilst I sleep.
I’m gonna buy me a bulldog, watch my lady whilst I sleep.
‘Cause women these days, they’re so doggone crooked,
That they might take off ‘fore day creep.
Well, you can’t watch your wife and your outside women, too.
You know you can’t watch your wife and your outside womens, too.
Cause when you’re out with your women, your wife will be at home,
Cooking your food, doing you dirt, buddy what you trying to do?
You can’t watch your wife and your outside womens, too.
When you’re out with your women, your wife will be at home,
Doing you dirt, cooking your food, buddy what you trying to do?
Great Song! Each song that followed was recognized by the Cream cognoscenti… each song received a huge reception.
One song on the play list, T Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday, to my knowledge, had not been covered previously on their main albums. Nevertheless it is another Blues standard and the boys played a superb rendition.
After performing Chester Burnett’s (aka Howlin’ Wolf) “Sitting on Top of the World”, Jack Bruce acknowledged the ovation… acknowledged his band mates… “Eric Clapton, please…” and then “Ginger Baker, Please..” Clapton returned the praise, “Jack Bruce, please…”
Then Bruce looked into the packed house… the final night of the re-union… listened to the crescendo of applause… and then said, “you know, tonight I feel like I’m sitting on top of the world…”
And so did I…
I looked about the room. Not, I suspect, the typical rock concert crowd… most of the folks I judged to be of my age, give or take… then there were some moms & dads who brought their kids of an appropriate age… as I certainly would have done if Zack were present on the Right Coast. And then there were a few younger types, too. I attribute their presence to Clapton’s immense popularity that simply snowballed over the past 37 years… there are Clapton freaks who would probably go to hear him play if he were sitting in with the Tommy Dorsey Band.
I saw a lot of balding and thinning hair guys (myself included… thank God I don’t have to look at myself from behind)… a lot of spreading middles (myself included… man it’s a bitch getting old)… a lot of guys who looked like they had to shed the coats & ties from the workplace…
And I tell you what else I saw… a lot of smiles, a lot of expressions that said in every pore, I am glad I was here tonight…
Sitting on Frank’s right was a guy who saw all three MSG performances. the play list was identical on each night, yet each song was a unique expression of the moment… and he did not feel short changed, he did not feel that his “out-of-pocket” was a waste.
All 3 performances? I was not that lucky. But I was lucky enough. Wednesday night? It was my night. A night like no other. A unique experience that will never be duplicated. But an experience that can be the subject of “water cooler reflection”…
You know how it is… you meet a co-worker on a break… you talk sports, you talk music… he (or she) brings up some “humongo” concert recently attended… and then it’s time to play the “trump card”…yeah “… but I just saw Cream on Wednesday, October 26… and I saw Ginger Baker, who looked like he was on loan from Madame Tussaud’s, give a rendition of ‘Toad’ that brought the house down!”
Oh! the richness of our memories! And the added treat for me to be able to connect two events separated by 37 years! Think of all that has transpired in those 37 years! My, oh my… “lotta water under the bridge”, as they say.
I will not dwell on the those 37 years here… I prefer to glory in experiencing an event that is rarer than a Super Bowl, rarer than a Pavarotti Concert, rarer than a Renoir exhibition…
The performance itself? Wonderful.
Permit me a wine analogy… I love great red wine… First Growth Bordeaux, Grand Cru Burgundy, Brunello…outstanding stuff… but as great as those wines are, the truth is you can find great red wine, although expensive, pretty much without having to cut a sweat… Great white wine on the other hand? Real, real hard to find… great white wine is very expensive & something truly to savor.
Clapton and Baker were terrific. But great rock guitarists and drummers are in supply… But Jack Bruce on bass? He is like a great White Burgundy. You just don’t find them lying around the shelf.
Jack Bruce’s performance on Wednesday night was simply stunning. When was the last time you saw a guy play a fretless bass? When was the last time you saw anywhere the skill of Bruce as he moved up and down the neck of the bass, his fingers dancing over the strings?
It was refreshing to hear more of Clapton on vocals… Bruce’s vocal range is reduced…
But make no mistake… Wednesday was an exquisite show all the way around… I am sure that critics will emerge from the weeds… it will always happen… folks loving taking shots at the champ… I am sure there are those who enjoy looking at the Mona Lisa and offering, “I don’t think the smile is so special…”
Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion…
Wednesday? I re-captured some time… put some sweetness in the bottle…
It was special to share Wednesday with Frank. Too bad my magic wand blew its clutch or Jock, Will, Zack, Philip & Doc Reid (my music “soul mates”) would have been there, too.
Sitting on top of the world… that’s where I was on Wednesday… and do you know what? I’m still there!