Cream: The World's First Supergroup

by Dave Thompson

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 Cream—three 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 1968—these are the tumultuous years that first created, then enveloped, and finally devoured the greatest rock band in the world.

Genres: Music, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

English author Dave Thompson has spent his entire working life writing biographies of other people, but is notoriously reluctant to write one for himself. Unlike the subjects of some of his best known books, he was neither raised by ferrets nor stolen from gypsies. He has never appeared on reality TV (although he did reach the semi finals of a UK pop quiz when he was sixteen), plays no musical instruments and he can’t dance, either.

However, he has written well over one hundred books in a career that is almost as old as U2’s… whom he saw in a club when they first moved to London, and memorably described as “okay, but they’ll never get any place.” Similar pronouncements published on the future prospects of Simply Red, Pearl Jam and Wang Chung (oh, and Curiosity Killed The Cat as well) probably explain why he has never been anointed a Pop Culture Nostradamus. Although the fact that he was around to pronounce gloomily on them in the first place might determine why he was recently described as “a veteran music journalist.”

Raised on rock, powered by punk, and still convinced that “American Pie” was written by Fanny Farmer and is best played with Meatloaf, Thompson lists his five favorite artists as old and obscure; his favorite album is whispered quietly and he would like to see Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” installed as the go-to song for the sad, sappy ending for every medical drama on TV.

Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett, David Bowie, John Travolta, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Bob Marley, Roger Waters and the guy who sang that song in the jelly commercial are numbered among the myriad artists about whom Thompson has written books; he has contributed to the magazines Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Mojo and Melody Maker; and he makes regular guest appearances on WXPN’s Highs in the Seventies show.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sprawling bio on the greatest psych blues band of all time. Tons of background on the London blues scene that preceded Cream as well with Alexis Korner and John Mayall.

Thompson goes into great detail on his subject. Highlights include:

1) drummer Ginger Baker almost being replaced by the Who's Keith Moon,

2) Atlantic records president Ahmet Ertegun bristling over bassist Jack Bruce doing all the singing rather than Eric Clapton ("I paid for a white Jimi Hendrix Experience and I'll GET a white Jimi Hendrix Experience")

There's also lots of great background on other Brit psych bands like the Bonzo Dog Band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Syd Barrett. Clapton was actually quite a Barrett fan at one point.

No matter who's the focus in this book (Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, Grahame Bond, etc.) it never gets boring.

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that this book is called Cream: How Eric Clapton Took The World By Storm should have clued me in that there would be a lot of lip service and praise for Eric Clapton and his guitar playing. There was. It got old. Clapton's great but not everyone thinks he is or was god.

The fantastic part of this book is the detailed analysis of the early days of the British blues rock scene. The info on The Yardbirds, Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The Graham Bond Organization, etc. and the scene in general is super fascinating. An interesting read but definitely not the definitive Cream biography.

[Bruce Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why it got so many bad reviews, I like it. It's impossible to perfectly reproduce the times back then in a book, so I can't understand why so many people think you can. It taught me a lot about the burgeoning British blues movement outside of the Stones like John Mayall, Graham Bond and Alexis Korner, the unsung blues heroes of the 60's.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of tension within this band.

[Alex Ward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this biography about the group Cream. I found the early sections to be fairly engaging, with interesting information with regards to the Graham Bond Organisation, early R & B music in England and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
However, to my slight frustration, Dave Thompson seemed to take his time when detailing how cream got together. By this point in the book, nearly 90 pages had gone by and to me, that is far too long to begin focusing on the book's main objective. The selection of photos was largely poor: I wanted to see more photos that illustrate Cream's time together, via illustrations of them recording their albums, of them performing in concerts and perhaps a few rarely seen photos. A bit of a wasted opportunity.
Eventually, I found this volume to be quite readable but Chris Welch's book on the group is still the definitive book for me.

[Kitt-e-kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me a while to read. There was only a few parts of the book that was interesting for me. I got quite bored that I skipped a few paragraphs to get to more interesting parts. What I liked best about the book was the end because it told what happened to the guys in the band and all the people involved with the band during this time on what happened after Cream split up & up to the time this book was written.

[Johnr66 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather verbose look into the music scene and band members leading up to and during the existence of Cream. It contains sections of photos. The end of the book covers what became of the several people mentioned in the book. I thought the same information could be presented in a shorter format as the story was slow moving.

[David John Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

I supported them when they first played and they were and still are just listen to their records and just shut your eyes.