Some Rock & Roll nostalgia for us old farts....

[Panama Red]

Most of today's youth only know Eric Clapton as the guy who makes some cool ring tones for their mobile phones. But back in "The Day" when the Brits are credited with "invading" the US rock and roll scene, there was a short lived group whose instrumental prowess was and is one of the all time best. They played their last concert in Nov. 1968 as young chaps and reunited as veterans last night in London. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Cream"!!!

Another story

[thefultonhow]

Wow, Cream is back? That's pretty cool. I'm not really heavily into them, but I enjoy a good "White Room" or "Sunshine of Your Love" every once in a while.

We just need to get Pink Floyd back together with Roger Waters and everything will be right in the music world.

Well, okay, maybe not everything.

[rjfvillarosa]

In 1973 at the ripe old age of 16 I hitch hiked to London on a Friday afternoon with a few friends, slept on the pavement outside the Oval Cricket ground in South London and then paid to get in to see a day of performing by some of the biggest rock groups around at the time. The three main headliners were Argent, Genesis and Emerson Lake and Palmer. During the interlude before ELP came on for the final show, some "geezer" named Jack Bruce (never heard of him) came on the stage and the place went beserk, he jammed for about an hour with Peter Gabriel and Rod Argent on vocals, Phill Collins (when he still had hair) on drums and a line of guitarists too long to mention. I have never forgotten that warm sunny June day

BTW a mate in the UK has all the Cream albums in mint condition on vinyl.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa In 1973 at the ripe old age of 16 I hitch hiked to London on a Friday afternoon with a few friends, slept on the pavement outside the Oval Cricket ground in South London and then paid to get in to see a day of performing by some of the biggest rock groups around at the time. The three main headliners were Argent, Genesis and Emerson Lake and Palmer. During the interlude before ELP came on for the final show, some "geezer" named Jack Bruce (never heard of him) came on the stage and the place went beserk, he jammed for about an hour with Peter Gabriel and Rod Argent on vocals, Phill Collins (when he still had hair) on drums and and a line of guitarists too long to mention. I have never forgotten that warm sunny June day

Wow!! That group of "jammers" gives me a chill just to read the names! Those were indeed "the good ol' days".

[rjfvillarosa]

PR.. I am struggling here to remember the name of the theme that Genesis were running around with in that year, all I can remember is Peter Gabriel used to wear a Fox head mask and he was wearing it that day through all his performances.
ELP had those two blue/grey "Elephant with a huge gun barrel sticking out of the front of them" type thingies one on each side of the stage, Tarqa's or something like that they were called.

[sdkfz]

That would be for the Album "Foxtrot" and more specifically for the song "Supper's Ready" which except for a short 1:38 song called 'Horizon's" took up the entire B side of the vinyl. The release date was October 1972.

"open your eyes, it's full of surprise, everyone lies
like the fox on the rocks"

Oh yeah -the ELP theme was Tarkus

[rjfvillarosa]

Thanks SD...the mind is going you know, it's been thirty years after all.

[Force Flow]

Cream was a classic case of rock excess with Clapton freely admitting that their legendary extended solos were due more to insobriety than creativity. "We'd be in the middle of a song and not remember what it was. You just kept playing until you recalled what it was you were coming back to," he recalled in a radio interview before the gig.

I couldn't help but grin at that one

[rjfvillarosa]

Just found this thread in another forum that list's Wishbone Ash at that oval concert.
http://216.12.215.215/users/rpowell/...14619&start=45
On another site it says the concert was in September, not sure about that one, I could have sworn it was at the end of the school term in June.

[doctorgonzo]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow We just need to get Pink Floyd back together with Roger Waters and everything will be right in the music world.

That would be great, but unfortunately pigs will fly before that happens...wait...didn't Pink Floyd make pigs fly?

I'm not an old fart by any means, but I did seem to inherit some of my father's musical tastes, so I even know who Cream is. Used to have "Wheels of Fire", but I lost it somewhere. I do have Clapton's "Crossroads" though.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by doctorgonzo I do have Clapton's "Crossroads" though.

I have a 30 year old copy of "461 Ocean boulevard" on vinyl back home in the UK.

Brilliant thread/Topic PR... brought back some great old memories.
Thanx Mate...

[David M]

I never thought of myself as an old fart at 44...but (sigh)...I guess so. I remember those groups well playing on the radio and wish we had more superstar groups playing now. Maybe I am showing my age when I ask if music today is worse than the music and the bands of the 60's and 70's? Are there musicians now equal in talent to Clapton, Waters, Hendrix, Don Henley, Jimmy Page and Elton? If there are, I would like to know of some so I can buy their music. It would be refreshing to hear some new extremely talented bands. Maybe the younger farts have some ideas? Although limited in the number of songs, Joe Satriani comes to mind. Perhaps rock is passe' and the younger generation wants to hear rap? I won't debate the merits of whether or not rap is music...it is, unfortunatly.

[doctorgonzo]

It sems that everybody ends up thinking that contemporary music is worse than music from the good old days, so maybe it's too hard to figure out if that is really true. Technically, though, it's hard to see how anybody these days could match the skill of Hendrix or "Slowhand". Today's skills are elsewhere like sampling, I guess.

[David M]

Gonzo....thats kinda what I meant. Musicians skills seem to be lacking. Maybe todays musicians are not learning the fundamentals? Its not easy to learn those fundamentals, it involves thousands of hours of practice and repetition....not to mention music theory. One cannot be a slacker and learn to play an instrument well.

[Panama Red]

My Clapton collection includes Crossroads too, but it's on cassette yet. Haven't taken the time to transfer it to CD or my computer "juke box". One of the best CD's tho is titled The Cream of Clapton. Great cuts from Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes and Clapton solo. Another great cassette that needs digitizing is Clapton with John Mayall on Raw Blues. The only Cream in my collection is their last - Goodbye.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by doctorgonzo Today's skills are elsewhere like sampling

To me sampling is just ripping off somebody else's music, BUT having said that, I dare say you need a certain amount of musical talent to be able to mix the samples together.


For me one of the best latin jazz albums of all time is Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles live at the Hollywood bowl, and I am fortunate enough to have copies on both vinyl and CD.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by David M I remember those groups well playing on the radio and wish we had more superstar groups playing now. Maybe I am showing my age when I ask if music today is worse than the music and the bands of the 60's and 70's? Are there musicians now equal in talent to Clapton, Waters, Hendrix, Don Henley, Jimmy Page and Elton? If there are, I would like to know of some so I can buy their music. It would be refreshing to hear some new extremely talented bands. Maybe the younger farts have some ideas?

I'm 19 and I think you're right -- music has gone downhill. The problem is that record companies only market what they think people want to hear -- and that means pandering to the lowest common denominator. Radio stations do the same thing; all of music is now a big business.

With that said, many of the superstars are still cranking out music. David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, for example, both continue to make excellent music. I believe that King Crimson is still together, although with some different members (Robert Fripp has of course been a constant). There are also some good current artists; Radiohead and Coldplay are both excellent and I've hear dgood things about some other lesser-known bands too. But I don't think any of them really measure up to classics like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Hendrix, Clapton, and even New Wave stuff like the Police and Tears for Fears.

BTW, if you're looking for some good Clapton, my dad has both a Cream boxed set (Those Were the Days) and a four-CD set called Crossroads that has, among other things, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes, and Clapton's solo stuff.

[nocturnx]

Yea I was trying to get tickets for the concert last month since im currently stationed here in germany, but it sold out in 2 hours and now the tickets are going for around 2 grand. I hear they will be putting out a live dvd of the show though, guess i will have to settle for that. The cream of clapton is an excellent cd but is definatley missing some classics, like tears in heaven. Slowhand is still the man after all these years!

[fudtone]

I think I will own that DVD for the right price. (I'm cheep)

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by Panama Red My Clapton collection includes Crossroads too, but it's on cassette yet. Haven't taken the time to transfer it to CD or my computer "juke box". One of the best CD's tho is titled The Cream of Clapton. Great cuts from Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes and Clapton solo. Another great cassette that needs digitizing is Clapton with John Mayall on Raw Blues. The only Cream in my collection is their last - Goodbye.

I have those 2 CD's as well, and I'm not an old fogey, I'm only 21

Originally Posted by rjf To me sampling is just ripping off somebody else's music, BUT having said that, I dare say you need a certain amount of musical talent to be able to mix the samples together.

When you've heard someone who can't mix and sample, you'll realise there is actually a bit of skill and talent in it, believe me, it's horrible otherwise

[PMich]

Originally Posted by David M ...Maybe I am showing my age when I ask if music today is worse than the music and the bands of the 60's and 70's? Are there musicians now equal in talent to Clapton, Waters, Hendrix, Don Henley, Jimmy Page and Elton? If there are, I would like to know of some so I can buy their music. It would be refreshing to hear some new extremely talented bands. Maybe the younger farts have some ideas? Although limited in the number of songs, Joe Satriani comes to mind.

As an transitional fart (neither young nor old) I may be able to make a few recommendations. The truly great musicians of today are no longer mainstream sucesses and most of them, IMHO, are playing blues and bluegrass instead of rock because of the image issues. As far as rock musicians on par talent wise with the guys from the supergroups of the 60s and 70s, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang are two that come to mind immediately although they are both heavily blues influenced.