So, after the track by track, back to the significance, which isn’t, I suspect, obvious to someone who wasn’t on the ground and listening at the time.
1966 and the first half of 1967 were definitely interesting times as far as pop music was concerned, though we’re still in the realm of the 45 rpm single rather than the album. A glimpse at the listing here will reveal some very interesting items. Take a gander at the equivalent for 1967 and you’ll see the flood gates opening.
And it’s the sequencing that’s the key issue here, a sense of chronology and influence. Look at Fresh Cream alongside Disraeli Gears and the studio half of Wheels of Fire and we’re talking substantially different ball parks. Look at Fresh Cream alongside albums that came out in December 1966 (notably Buffalo Springfield and The Who’s A Quick One),
January and February 1967 (The Doors and The Rolling Stones Between the Buttons, The Byrds Younger Than Yesterday, Mayall’s A Hard Road and the Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow) and the contrast isn’t quite as marked.
Cream didn’t quite have things together at this point. There were things that needed to be sorted, particularly in the writing. It was obvious that they needed someone who could provide a decent lyric and the recording facilities in England, though they were quite capable of turning out quality product, didn’t have the sophistication of eight- or sixteen track recording. Get to New York, which they did for Disraeli Gears and you’re looking at the wherewithal to indulge in overdubbing and sonic possibilities that didn’t exist at home.
So while they weren’t the first electric blues band to come out of the British blues boom, they were the first to emphasise virtuosity over authenticity. They weren’t the first guitar bass drums power trio but they were on the ground ahead of most of the opposition, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix landed in London on 23 September 1966).
Actually, in that regard, with Bruce in the band they were the equivalent of the power trio plus singer outfits like The Who (contemporaries) and the likes of the Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart out the front) and Led Zeppelin and given the chronology they were operating in largely unmapped territory, and doing it before some of the features of the emerging musical landscape, including what I’ve seen described as lengthy improvisations during which mighty civilisations might rise and fall became de rigeur.
As one of the instances where blues, pop and rock elements started to coalesce and settle out as something totally new Fresh Cream delivers a certain degree of virtuosity for its own sake. Take the jazz roots (Bruce and Baker cut their teeth in that sphere) and Clapton’s wailing blues guitar and you’re probably always headed down that path, but at the same time while it might be virtuosity for its own sake you can’t deny the fact that you’re looking at three players who were widely regarded as the very best going around on the English blues circuit.
In some cases those who came after went on to greater heights (in musical terms, let’s leave minor details like chart positions and sales figures out of the equation) and had the chops to surpass one or more of Cream’s trio. There’s no denying the significance of the big names in the pantheon of late sixties guitar heroes, names who are so well known that they don’t need enumerating, but they weren’t all able to sit on top of a rhythm section as good as this one.
Whether you see Fresh Cream as the beginning of a golden age of virtuoso improvisation or the first signs of the emergence of the dinosaurs of heavy metal that needed to be swept away a decade later, there’s no doubt Fresh Cream was one of the key landmarks in the development of late sixties rock music and while what followed often sounded sharper, rocked harder and delivered innovations that may well have happened without it, those things wouldn’t, I suspect, have panned out in quite the same way if Ginger Baker hadn’t sidled up to Eric Clapton and inquired if he was interested in getting a new group together as a slightly better earner.
Fresh Cream was the result, and while it has its share of weaknesses it’s a remarkably complete and consistent effort, and a harbinger of what was lurking just over the horizon.