"Thinkin' 'bout the times you drove in my car Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far"
How many notes does it take you to know what song it is? That's how you identify the true insiders, by how early they clap. Here, Jack Bruce is only a few notes into it, and you can hear the HOOPLA! But that's not the piece de resistance...
"I told you not to wander 'round in the dark I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel"
And then the band goes silent... And the noise begins. These aging baby boomers can't hold back, they're in heavy ANTICIPATION mode. Five seconds go by. Then ten. Then fifteen. Amateurs would think the song is over. But then, like George Harrison come down from the heavens, Eric plays his lick, the BRIDGE, absolutely PERFECTLY! And the assembled multitude ERUPTS!
This live recording is about equal to the one I made of Blind Faith at Chicago's Amphitheatre. It's not from the sound board. Someone smuggled a machine under his coat, to capture this event. It's a field recording. And, at first I was disappointed. After all, my Cream tape, the one I made in New Haven, is superior to this. Sounds almost like a record. Hell, I was only five feet away. And something else is missing too. The FEROCITY! That's what you can't know all these years later, that's what you can't get from the live tracks on "Goodbye". Cream in concert was like a motherfucking freight train. First of all, there were Ginger Baker's double bass drums. We hadn't seen this before, we were stunned he could work both feet so QUICKLY! And, Jack Bruce plucked those bass strings like he was picking strawberries. He wasn't PLAYING the notes, he was THROWING THEM OUT INTO THE AUDIENCE! But, the true magic came from Eric.
Eric had this hair... Look at "Disraeli Gears". It was like Hendrix's, but rounder. But, Jimi moved when he played. He threw his whole body into it. Whereas Eric stood completely still. His back didn't arch, he didn't throw his head back exulting in the notes he played, no, all he moved were his hands, his fingers. But they moved so rapidly, and with such FORCE! It was like that area right above the pickups was the center of the universe, that all truth and beauty emanated from there. Maybe it freaked him out, the reaction, people's expectations, he backed away from the spotlight, he stopped playing that way. Oh, you can hear moments on Delaney and Bonnie's "On Tour". Especially in "Comin' Home". And, he stretched out on "Layla", but that was different. He had Duane Allman alongside him to share the attention, to push him safely forward. But, like a bipolar before his first episode, before he's on medication, like an effervescent adult before his first panic attack in his late twenties (when they arrive), in Cream, and before, if you were paying attention, Eric Clapton was pure genius. Almost an idiot savant. This was the one thing he could do, play the guitar, and he could do it better than ANYBODY else. Hendrix was different, he was creating a new language. Whereas Eric was taking the blues idiom and turning it on its head, pushing it further than anyone could foresee, he burst through the limitations into uncharted territory and caused MILLIONS to bow at his feet. All the while, barely moving.
It's tough to peak early. The casualties are all over the human highway. Give Eric Clapton credit, he didn't die. But he's not the same person anymore, he doesn't play the same way, it was just too scary, he was too close to the flame, he was fearful of burning up.
Eric hits all the notes here. He's technically EXPERT! As is the band. But, they're almost a bit too well-rehearsed. It was better back in '68, when they were going through the motions, barnstorming across America for the paycheck, they didn't give a fuck and you could hear it in their music. If you're not worried about getting it right, you've got the chance of having it be SPECTACULAR! This Cream concert from May 5th is not spectacular. But there's certa inly some magic. Hearing Jack Bruce sing "N.S.U." And when Eric finally plays George Harrison's solo. It reminds us that we weren't fantasizing, our memories have not been clouded by time, there WAS a moment when rock music was the most important thing in the world.
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