Canard
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An acquaintance, who is a studio musician and who was once the killer lead guitarist of a minor but recorded Canadian Rock group (he got kicked out when the band decided they wanted to try their chart/financial luck with a softer MOR sound), once explained the dynamics of group disintegration. It is this: the group gets a recording contract; they get a charting single; the song writer comes to rehearsal in his/her new Audi; the rest of the group comes on the bus or on foot; resentment builds.
Jack Bruce wrote pretty much all of Cream’s hits. He could actually write/arrange (as in pencil and stave paper) music. Clapton in retrospect called Cream a “good Jack Bruce band.”
White Room is probably my favourite Cream song. Jack wrote it. But Jack wrote the cello section in straight 4/4. In rehearsal, Ginger Baker, the drummer, insisted that it was wrong, wrong, wrong, so very, very wrong. He made Jack do the section as a bolero. Try to imagine the song with that section in straight 4/4. It just doesn’t work. It is a great song, but pull Eric or Ginger out of it and it so very very much less - particularly Ginger – he contributes so much to feel and drive of the song. But Jack and Pete Brown, the lyricist, got all the royalties. Ginger, like so many great drummers, was bitter, bitter, bitter.
The original with Jack’s cello
Live 1968 – Jack’s cello parts sung by Jack and Eric
Live 2005 – Jack’s voice is a little more ragged but the band is better because they’re all straight and a lot more professional.
Imagine the piece as something from the 18th century – sort of works but it needs Ginger on tambour (especially in the bolero section) and Jack on viols.
Daniel Estrem on Lute
Imagine the piece as something French, pre-WWII – sort of works except for the bolero section.
Van Django
Jack Bruce wrote pretty much all of Cream’s hits. He could actually write/arrange (as in pencil and stave paper) music. Clapton in retrospect called Cream a “good Jack Bruce band.”
White Room is probably my favourite Cream song. Jack wrote it. But Jack wrote the cello section in straight 4/4. In rehearsal, Ginger Baker, the drummer, insisted that it was wrong, wrong, wrong, so very, very wrong. He made Jack do the section as a bolero. Try to imagine the song with that section in straight 4/4. It just doesn’t work. It is a great song, but pull Eric or Ginger out of it and it so very very much less - particularly Ginger – he contributes so much to feel and drive of the song. But Jack and Pete Brown, the lyricist, got all the royalties. Ginger, like so many great drummers, was bitter, bitter, bitter.
The original with Jack’s cello
Live 1968 – Jack’s cello parts sung by Jack and Eric
Live 2005 – Jack’s voice is a little more ragged but the band is better because they’re all straight and a lot more professional.
Imagine the piece as something from the 18th century – sort of works but it needs Ginger on tambour (especially in the bolero section) and Jack on viols.
Daniel Estrem on Lute
Imagine the piece as something French, pre-WWII – sort of works except for the bolero section.
Van Django
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