(Credits: Far Out / F. van Geelen / Omroepvereniging VARA)
Tue 19 August 2025 0:00, UK
It must be flattering when you’re a musician and you hear that you’re the reason other people have started playing music. Well, that’s usually the case, although it wasn’t for Jack Bruce.
“We [Cream] did a gig at the Regents Polytechnic. Coincidentally, the guys that became Pink Floyd were in the audience, and apparently seeing that event made them become Pink Floyd,” said Bruce when discussing Cream’s influence on the psychedelic icons, “When I saw them recently, they told me that.”
He continued, “I knew they were there, but I didn’t know that we were responsible for them getting together. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing I leave that for you to decide. I always thought that Pink Floyd were a band for people who don’t like music of rock ‘n’ roll.”
While Bruce may not be the biggest fan of Pink Floyd, his musical outfit, Cream, were one of the biggest influences on them. Pink Floyd aren’t on their own with this devotion towards Cream either, there are plenty of different bands who took some kind of inspiration from the trio, as they were one of the first acts to take rock music to levels beyond the standard parameters of the genre.
“I would presume that people would accept this definition,” Frank Zappa once said when attempting to define prog rock, “Progressive Rock is anything that doesn’t sound like regular Rock. Regular Rock is everything that sounds like itself. All songs which sound the same, everything on MTV, everything on the radio, that’s Rock. Progressive Rock is stuff that doesn’t sound like that.”
The genre has always been ambiguous in how it’s defined, and that means pinning down the origin is tricky, but Cream were certainly a massive factor. All three members, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton contributed towards creating this endearing sound that was unlike anything anyone had heard before.
Of course, while the band are famous for the exceptional commitment to the music they make, there are still some quality control issues. The moment that Bruce heard Baker drum for the first time, he knew he was experiencing something special, and it was only a matter of time before the two of them were looking to start a band together.
“The very first time I met Ginger was in 1962. I was playing in a trad band and we were playing at the Cambridge May Ball. I heard this amazing music coming from the cellar, and I went down and there was this astounding band,” Bruce recalled, “The first thing I noticed was this drummer. He was the loudest drummer I’d ever heard and he looked so weird as well – like a caveman. And his kit looked weird as well. I went up to Dick Heckstall-Smith, the saxophone player, and asked if I could join.”
Baker brought his great drumming ability to Cream and Bruce was grateful for it; however, there were also problems with his playing style, mainly that he didn’t practice it enough. Baker knew how good he was a percussionist, which meant that he wasn’t always keen on practicing because he didn’t feel the need to. It worked okay for Cream songs, but when he stepped in with Jack Bruce to play in a different band.
“Gary was very meticulous about rehearsals, quite rightly. Ginger always said: ‘I don’t need to rehearse,’ and he always got things wrong,” said Bruce, “I remember him storming into Brixton Academy where we were rehearsing, I could hear his voice: ‘I’ll kill that fucking Jack Bruce!’ He’s taking it out on me and I hadn’t even seen him yet! But it was my fault we were rehearsing. That’s Ginger. We’re like the Odd Couple. Having said that, he is one of the greatest drummers of all time.”
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