Synopses & Reviews
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Blake exploded onto the scene in 1966 as Cream, modern music's first true supergroup. They set standards that rock n roll still aspires to, not only creating some of rock's most enduring anthems, such as "Sunshine of Your Love," "I Feel Free," "Badge," "Strange Brew," and "White Room," but also rewriting the terms under which every subsequent band would operate. This book transports the reader back to an age when the blues was still a mysterious music that came to Britain in the rucksacks of merchant seamen. Competition was fierce and, within a close network of legendary bands, musicians were poached, dropped, and spurred by competitive rivalry. None were as ruthless in their devotion to music as Creamthree momentous talents, three momentous egos, and three musicians who rarely saw eye to eye. But such was their power that today, almost 40 years after the band broke up, Cream remains a byword for musical quality. Jam-packed with incisive new interviews with a glittering cast of band members, friends, rivals, and onlookers, this chronicle reads as if it were the best rock fiction ever written. Across 27 months, four LPs, and approximately 300 gigs, Cream's songs have sold cars and computers, bolstered movie soundtracks, and launched entire careers. From life on the road in the mid-1960s Britain to the psychedelic fog of Swinging London in 1967 and the reactionary brutality of America 1968these are the tumultuous years that first created, then enveloped, and finally devoured the greatest rock band in the world.
Synopsis
Dave Thompson, author of Virgin's acclaimed Red Hot Chili Peppers biography
By The Way, takes a new and very detailed look at the creation of one of the world's most influential bands by the three top rock instrumentalists of their time, all stars in their own right – after all the streets of London had been covered in 'Clapton Is God' tributes even when Eric was still in the Yardbirds. Cream went on to become the first band to break open the lucrative US market by dint of their live shows alone. This book goes on the road with them, day by relentlessly hedonistic day.
Cream wrote the rule book of rock band decadence long before Led Zeppelin came along and were a brilliant combination of fantastically skilful instrumental virtuosity, great bluesy songwriting and vocals and a druggy lifestyle which top rock writer Thompson turns into one of the most readable rock biographies ever.
About the Author
A regular contributor to Rolling Stone, Mojo, and Q, Dave Thompson is the author of such rock biographies as Go Phish, Never Fade Away: The Kurt Cobain Story, and Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story. He lives in Seattle.