|
January 1, 2007
We watched the Cream reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2005 on ABC last night, after the Melbourne leg of the Eagles Farewell tour. The latter was boring ---a corporate rock act taken to the road by slick businessmen who knew exactly what the public wanted to consume, and they provided it to them for millions. It was a slick performance that was low on sincerity or creativity.
The Cream concert was in complete contrast. A musical suprise.
Jill Furmanovsky, Cream Reunion, London, 2005
My memory of Cream was that they were at the forefront of free-improvisation during 1966-1968---around the time that the Grateful Dead were coming into their own--Fillmore West, 1969 --- whilst Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were at the forefront of the free-improvisation movement in jazz.
Baker, Clapton and Bruce hadn't played together for 35 years but they sure sounded pretty good in the reunion concert, and they created some good music more for the head and less for the body. The music took precedence over personality, notwithstanding the history of the band. Were they making new music as opposed to simply recapitulating the old?
|
Well I'm a fan of both bands and while the Eagles are architypical heritage rock, they are consumate musicians, they work hard at staying good (well, maybe except for poor old Joe Walsh who struggles to string two words together now and his axework ain't up to much either) and I'd dispute the lack of sincerity. You know what you're going to get - it was as good as if not better than 1995 Hell Freezes Over - and while that might be corporate, it's also highly professional.
Cream were a bit of a shock really. I'd expected Ginger Baker to be the decrepit one (I remember a clip of him, joint in mouth and stoned to the eyeballs, giving a drumming lesson back in the early 70s) but Jack Bruce's appearance made Keith Richards look good! As the broadcast was taken from 3 nights (I think) performances, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of dross was left on the cutting room floor (or whatever the digital equivalent is). At their peak Cream were extremely tight and actually not as goven to extended free form raves as the Dead - at leats on record, live performances may have been different. Of course Clapton's been a working muso all these years so you could compare him more to the Eagles, in fact. Jack Bruce came alive in a couple of the songs and he can still work that bloody bass fretboard when he puts his mind to it.