Track List:
1-Sunshine Of Your Love
2-Lawdy Mama
3-Sweet Wine
4-Rollin’ & Tumblin’
5-Spoonful
6-Sitting On Top Of The World
7-Toad
8-Hey Lawdy Mama
9-Meet Me In The Bottom
10-Crossroads
11-Stepping Out
12-Got My Mojo Working
13-Louise
This is a rather old piece from the folks at Scorpio that has never been reviewed here …… so i thought i would start pulling some classic pieces out of the woodwork as their signifcance still holds water after all these years.
Tracks 1-7 are from The Ricky Tick Club,Hounslow,UK (some question this as the correct venue)1-15-1967
Tracks 8-11 are from Klooks Kleek-West Hampstead,London-11-15-1966
Track 12 is from-Yardbirds,Spencer Davis Quartet and the Liverpool Runners-Town Hall,Birmingham,UK-2-20-1964
Track 13-Is from the television show-Go Tell It On The Mountain-Spring of 1964 (exact date unknown; perhaps one of our UK Readers can verify this)
In all liklihood this is the earliest CREAM material available on CD
This starts with Jack Bruce singing Sunshine of Your Love; quite raw yet the power is there betweem Jack,Ginger and Eric. Following is a very raw version of Lawdy Mama which Eric based his structure and tones from Freddie King,with the real writer of this track being Buddy Moss; an old Piedmont Blues tune.
Sweet Wine is next and gives us a very early version which became a staple in concert for them; Jack is singing this quite well (although most of us think Eric had a far better blues voice than Jack. Rollin & Tumblin has the band locked in a tight groove with glimpses of things to come. Spoonful is represented here with a robust vocal by Jack, with Eric and Ginger playing in fine form with Jack’s bass filling the holes nicely for a three piece band.
Sitting On Top Of The World shows Eric’d fire at age twenty one,with a firm grasp on blues progressions. This was later recorded on Wheels Of Fire in a splendid fashion. CREAM were always at their finest when playing the blues. Lawdy Mama follows from Klooks Kleek with a great Clapton performance; setting the world up for tyhe power,virtuosity,and brilliance of CREAM. Meet Me In The Bottom played here at Klooks is a very,very rare performace of this track! A highly charged band on stage here.
Ginger Baker introduces Crossroads as “a song by Eric Clapton” which is absurbly hilarious; meaning i wonder how many in thea audience thought; this is a Robert Johnson tune?(Probably very few if any at this stage of the Creamery.
Stepping Out has some great interplay with all three musicians,setting the table for this tune to be a Clapton show piece in a later time.
Got my Mojo working has the Yardbirds playing with Sonny Boy Williamson;quite nervous about playing with him; still yet a solid rendition.
Louise closes this cd with the Yardbirds performing a nice version,always great to hear Keith Relf’s voice.
A great cd,which i thing ws taken from an LP. A few pops verifys this. For nearly fifty years ago; this is a stellar cd from CREAM ,where they had not turned towards their virtuoso jams that many are quite legendary. If you don’t have this find it!! An excellent early Cream period cds,which are few and far between
