On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page cream cheese brownies from the article title. R: Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton.
Cream were a British rock band formed in London in 1966. The group consisted of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker. Bruce was the primary songwriter and vocalist, although Clapton and Baker contributed to songs. Tensions between Bruce and Baker led to their decision in May 1968 to break up, though the band were persuaded to make a final album, Goodbye, and to tour, culminating in two final farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 and 26 November 1968 which were filmed and shown in theatres, then in 1977 released as a home video, Farewell Concert. In 1993, Cream were introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bluesbreakers had earned him a reputation as the premier blues guitarist in Britain.
Each was impressed with the other’s playing abilities, prompting Baker to ask Clapton to join his new, then-unnamed group. Clapton, Baker was so surprised at the suggestion that he almost crashed the car. In contrast, while Bruce was in Bond’s band, he and Baker had been notorious for their quarrelling. Their volatile relationship included on-stage fights and the sabotage of one another’s instruments. Baker and Bruce tried to put aside their differences for the good of Baker’s new trio, which he envisioned as collaborative, with each of the members contributing to music and lyrics.
The band was named “Cream”, as Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were already considered the “cream of the crop” amongst blues and jazz musicians in the exploding British music scene. The band made its unofficial debut at the Twisted Wheel on 29 July 1966. It was during the early organisation that they decided Bruce would serve as the group’s lead vocalist. The band’s debut album, Fresh Cream, was recorded and released in 1966. The album reached number 6 in the UK charts and number 39 in the US. Early Cream bootlegs display a much tighter band showcasing more songs.
All of the songs are reasonably short, including five-minute versions of “N. But a mere two months later, the setlist shortened, with the songs then much longer. The band first visited the US in March 1967 to play nine dates at the RKO 58th Street Theatre in New York City. There was little impact, as impresario Murray the K placed them at the bottom of a six-act bill that performed three times per date, eventually reducing the band to one song per concert. Disraeli Gears also included “Sunshine of Your Love”, which became the group’s unofficial anthem, and is probably their best-known song today. Bruce and Pete Brown came upon the idea in a state of near desperation in the wee hours. The album was originally slated for release in the summer of 1967, but the record label opted to scrap the planned cover and repackage it with a new psychedelic cover, designed by artist Martin Sharp, and the resulting changes delayed its release for several months.
Although the album is considered one of Cream’s finest efforts, it has never been well represented in the band’s live sets. Although they consistently played “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Sunshine of Your Love”, several songs from Disraeli Gears were quickly dropped from performances in mid-1967, favouring longer jams instead of short pop songs. In August 1967, the band played their first headlining dates in the US, first at The Fillmore in San Francisco and later at The Pinnacle in Los Angeles. The concerts were a great success and proved very influential on both the band itself and the flourishing hippie scene surrounding them. In 1968 came the band’s third release, Wheels of Fire, which topped the American charts.
The album was recorded in a spate of short sessions from July 1967 to June 1968. Still a relative novelty, the double album of two LP records was well-suited to extended solos. After the completion of Wheels of Fire in mid-1968, the band members had grown tired of their exhausting touring schedule and increasingly loud jamming, and wanted to go their separate ways. Baker stated in a 2006 interview with Music Mart magazine, “It just got to the point where Eric said to me: ‘I’ve had enough of this’, and I said so have I. The last year with Cream was just agony. At the beginning of the band’s farewell tour on 4 October 1968, in Oakland, California, nearly the entire set consisted of songs from Wheels of Fire: “White Room”, “Politician”, “Crossroads”, “Spoonful”, and “Deserted Cities of the Heart”, with “Passing the Time” taking the place of “Toad” for a drum solo. Passing the Time” and “Deserted Cities” were quickly removed from the setlist and replaced by “Sitting on Top of the World” and “Toad”.
From its creation, Cream was faced with some fundamental problems that would later lead to its dissolution in November 1968. The antagonism between Bruce and Baker created tensions in the band. Clapton also felt that the members of the band did not listen to each other enough. Cream decided that they would break up in May 1968 during a tour of the US. Later, in July, the band announced that they would break up after a farewell tour of the US and after playing two concerts in London. Jack Bruce was quoted as saying “Travel can kill a group. It becomes boring, tiring and very depressing.
Cream were eventually persuaded to do one final album, appropriately titled Goodbye. The album was recorded in late 1968 and released in early 1969, after the band had broken up. Cream’s farewell tour consisted of 22 shows at 19 venues in the US from 4 October to 4 November 1968, and two final farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 and 26 November 1968. The final US gig was at the Rhode Island Auditorium on 4 November. Blind Faith, a band that included both Clapton and Baker, was formed after the demise of Cream, following an attempt by Clapton to recruit Steve Winwood into Cream in the hope that he would help act as a buffer between Bruce and Baker. All three members continued to explore new musical ideas and partnerships, play concerts and record music for over four decades after ending Cream. In 1993, Cream were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and re-formed to perform at the induction ceremony.