Disraeli Gears [Deluxe Edition] [Remaster] [Slipcase] (CD - 1967)

Cream: Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals); Jack Bruce (bass, vocals, harmonica); Ginger Baker (drums, vocals).

Recorded at Atlantic Studios, New York, New York in May 1967.

Cream: Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce.

Personnel: Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar); Jack Bruce (vocals, harmonica, piano, bass guitar); Ginger Baker (vocals, drums, percussion).

Liner Note Author: Scott Schinder.

Recording information: Aeolian 2, London, England (03/15/1967-01/09/1968); Atlantic Studios, NY (03/15/1967-01/09/1968); BBC Playhouse Theatre, London, England (03/15/1967-01/09/1968); Ryemuse Studios, London, England (03/15/1967-01/09/1968).

Photographers: Chuck Stewart; Don Paulsen.

Arrangers: Eric Clapton; Jack Bruce; Ginger Baker; Robert Stigwood.

Cream teamed up with producer Felix Pappalardi for their second album, Disraeli Gears, a move that helped push the power trio toward psychedelia and also helped give the album a thematic coherence missing from the debut. This, of course, means that Disraeli Gears gets further away from the pure blues improvisatory troupe they were intended to be, but it does get them to be who they truly are: a massive, innovative power trio. The blues still courses throughout Disraeli Gears -- the swirling kaleidoscopic "Strange Brew" is built upon a riff lifted from Albert King -- but it's filtered into saturated colors, as it is on "Sunshine of Your Love," or it's slowed down and blurred out as it is on the ominous murk of "Tales of Brave Ulysses." It's a pure psychedelic move that's spurred along by Jack Bruce's flourishing collaboration with Pete Brown. Together, this pair steers this album away from recycled blues-rock and toward its eccentric British core, for with the fuzzy freak-out "Swlabr," the music hall flourishes of "Dance the Night Away," the swinging "Take It Back," and of course, the schoolboy singalong "Monther's Lament," this is a very British record. Even so, this crossed the ocean and became a major hit in America as well, because for no matter how whimsical certain segments are, Cream is still a heavy rock trio and Disraeli Gears is a quintessential heavy rock album of the '60s. Yes, its psychedelic trappings tie it forever to 1967, but the imagination of the arrangements, the strength of the compositions, and especially the force of the musicianship make this album transcend its time as well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Recorded in the U.S. in a three-and-a-half day flurry of inspired activity before the band members' visas expired, DISRAELI GEARS continued to present the legendary, unprecedented rock power-trio acrobatics pioneered by Cream on their debut FRESH CREAM. The acronymic "SWLABR (She Walked Like a Bearded Rainbow)" for instance, featured some of the band's most fiery instrumental interplay. The album, with its eye-catching day-glo cover, was produced by Felix Pappalardi (who went on to co-found the Cream-inspired Mountain) and once again featured collaborations between singer/bassist Jack Bruce and lyric poet Pete Brown. The Top Five hit "Sunshine Of Your Love," however, was written by Brown and Eric Clapton. That iconic riff-rocker, along with the slinky, bluesy "Strange Brew," and the mythographic, wah-wah stomper "Tales of Brave Ulysses" was a staple of rock radio forever after, making DISRAELI GEARS one of the seminal '60s rock albums. Despite the good humor suggested by the jokey a capella reading of "Mother's Lament," however, all was far from peace and love in the Cream camp at the time, as internal and external pressures broke up the band by the end of 1968.

Intense Cream fans and collectors might be disappointed in the two-CD deluxe edition of Disraeli Gears for offering little in the way of previously unreleased material. There is a lot of extra stuff here, mind you, which makes it a nice expansion of the group's best and most focused album. There's the original album in both stereo and mono; two outtakes of "Lawdy Mama" and five additional demos (all seven of which previously appeared on the Those Were the Days box set); and nine 1967-1968 BBC recordings from the Disraeli Gears era (all of which appear on the BBC Sessions compilation). The only wholly previously unavailable item is an alternate version of "Blue Condition" with Eric Clapton on lead vocal, in both stereo and mono, which actually qualifies as about the least interesting track on the set. And why, pray tell, is the BBC version of "Sunshine of Your Love" -- far and away the album's most popular song -- present on BBC Sessions, but not included here? That minor complaint aside, this is a fine listen, the main album enduring as the peak of Cream's artistry, as the group blended its original blues-rock with psychedelic pop on well-written songs with a mystical tinge. Almost every song is excellent, and "Sunshine of Your Love," "Dance the Night Away," "Swalbr," "Strange Brew," and "We're Going Wrong" are all among the very best tracks the band laid down. While the extras can't match the album itself, they're all worth hearing for both historical appreciation and actual listening pleasure. The five demos are considerably rougher than the much more polished final record, but offer three songs ("Hey Now Princess," "Weird of Hermiston," and "The Clearout") that didn't make the ultimate cut. None of them really deserved to, but the vituperative "Hey Now Princess" and more whimsical "Weird of Hermiston" are interesting relics of the Jack Bruce-Pete Brown songwriting partnership, while "The Clearout" is a pretty hot instrumental that sounds like a backing track only in need of some good lyrics to make for a worthwhile album cut. Six of the nine BBC recordings are versions of songs from Disraeli Gears itself, while two ("Politician" and "Born Under a Bad Sign") would appear on their subsequent LP, Wheels of Fire, and one (the instrumental "Steppin' Out") had been previously cut by Eric Clapton in his Bluesbreakers days. In the usual BBC tradition, these nine tracks aren't up to the level of their studio counterparts, but make for worthy contrast to the better-known versions, with a certain live edge. ~ Richie Unterberger minimize