Day 93: Cream – Goodbye
I was wondering which album to go for today, and while scrolling around for the right one, I saw a Cream record titled Goodbye with the band on the cover in silver/purple suits and top hats looking like they’re going to burst out into a jaunty rendition of “Luck Be a Lady” as the evening’s entertainment in a seaside resort. I used to listen to them quite a bit when I was younger but I’ve missed this one, so I thought I’d see if I’ve been missing out.
Album cover courtesy of Polydor
Cream (as I’m sure most people who are dorky enough to read a music blog will know) was a UK supergroup consisting of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. When Clapton met Baker, they were playing in a group called the Graham Bond Organisation, but Baker said he felt stifled by the band and sick of Graham Bond’s volatility and drug problem, so he asked Clapton to join the band he was starting. Clapton said yes, but stipulated that he also had to get bassist Jack Bruce along, who had also played in the Graham Bond Organisation.
Baker agreed, although he and Bruce weren’t exactly on good terms at the time: Baker says he nearly killed the bassist for saying that he’s playing too loud, and they frequently had fights on stage. Baker had also threatened him with a knife in the middle of a gig when they were playing together, and by some accounts also slashed him, so it’s safe to say they weren’t the best of friends.
As one could probably imagine, it wasn’t exactly a stable foundation to build a long-lasting band on, and they originally only stayed together from 1966 to 1968. Cream soured from trying to tour too much and spending too much time together on the road. Baker says their last year together was agony, adding “It was really a wonderful experience musically, and [during the last year] it just went into the realms of stupidity.”
Goodbye was released posthumously in 1969 after the group had disbanded. It included three live songs from their gig at the Forum in LA, as well as three new songs, one from each member. “What a Bringdown” is Ginger Baker’s contribution, while Jack Bruce was behind “Doing That Scrapyard Thing”. Clapton wrote “Badge” together with his pal, George Harrison, who also played on the song and is credited as L'Angelo Misterioso.
The live songs on the record are honestly just fine. They’re great songs but it feels like they could have dug a bit deeper to really find their best performances for the album that marks their end. And the songs are just a mishmash of the three of them making songs with no cohesion at all. One of the reasons the trio called it quits was that they were too focused on themselves to listen to what the other people are doing, with Clapton saying he once stopped playing while they were on stage and neither of the other guys noticed. You can hear this lack of unity on the album, too.
Goodbye is nice for the Cream stalwarts but for casuals like me, you’re better off just listening to Disraeli Gears. It seems like they were in a hurry to get something out to milk the last few dollars out of the project, but they were all kind of over it by that time. Three alright live tracks and three good songs just doesn’t cut it. 6.5/10. For any other band, it would be a bit higher, but I just expected more. Some songs are worth more than I gave the record, but since 50% of the album is just filler, that’s not bumping it any higher.