Hello again, hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas!

As you recover, it’s time for yet another entry of the album series: and this time we’re going all the way back to 1967, to celebrate a classic landmark album: “Disraeli Gears” by Cream.

Cream are the legendary supergroup trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. They started out as a blues group, but with “Disraeli Gears” they ditch their traditional long improvisations and break into new territories, with a set of air-tight rock songs with a strong hit of psychedelia. While the album was a bit overshadowed by a different guitar-focused psychedelic rock album just released – “Are You Experienced” by Jimi Hendrix – it was quickly recognized as a huge classic. It’s famous for the mega-hit “Sunshine of Your Love” – charted by Farottone as a C3 release – but the rest of this classic remains unexplored in game. Until now.

This release was done by a 3-men crew of myself, Mr. Burplr and FujiSkunk, so many thanks to them! Mr. Burplr has authored drums for all Cream songs, while Fuji has contributed vocals for two songs, in addition to creating high quality stems – as good as official ones – and compiling them as multi-track customs. So let’s go!

As you can see, we have 6 tracks from this great album. The classic opener “Strange Brew”, the first Cream single to feature Clapton on lead vocals. The melodic “World of Pain” finds Clapton and Bruce sharing lead vocals and harmonizing with each other. Another classic awaits – “Tales of Brave Ulysses”, a colorful retelling of the Greek tragedy Ulysses, featuring Bruce on vocals and one of the first ever uses of a wah-wah pedal. “SWLABR” – acronym for “She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow” – is a colorful and catchy drug song of colors and rainbows. “We’re Going Wrong” is a slow, tense and psychedelic song with falsetto vocals by Jack Bruce – also available with double bass pedal! And finally, “Outside Woman Blues” is the most traditional blues number of the album, originally performed by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929, and here sung by Clapton.

And now, it’s time for the bonus tracks! And we have three of those, from three different Clapton-related artists:

So first, Cream take on another blues staple – this time it’s “Born Under a Bad Sign”, originally performed by Albert King. This version is from their next album, “Wheels of Fire”. Cream would soon disband, and Clapton would form another short-lived band: Derek and the Dominoes only ever released one album, but it made quite a mark. “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” is widely considered one of the greatest blues-rock albums of all time, and is famous for the iconic title track. Here I bring you the opening song of that record, the classic “I Looked Away”, written and sung with Bobby Whitlock. And finally, Clapton took on a solo career, which included this little gem: “Let it Grow” is a classic folk-rock number with a beautiful chorus, from Clapton’s “461 Ocean Boulevard” album.

That’s it for now! If you’ve liked the songs so far, please consider donating to the National Down Syndrome Society if you can! 

Previous entries in the Album Series:

1. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
2. Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers
3. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
4. Summer Salt – Happy Camper
5. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
6. Beach Bunny – Honeymoon & Blame Game
7. Jimi Hendrix – Band Of Gypsys
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
9. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
10. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Infest the Rats’ Nest
11. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
12. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
13. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
14. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Barafundle
15. Suede – Autofiction
16. Silver Jews – American Water
17. Blur – Modern Life is Rubbish
18. R.E.M. – Murmur
19. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

The album series is an ongoing collaborative project. If you would like to get involved be sure to reach out to me (Yaniv297) for more information on how to participate.