Credit: Far Out / F. van Geelen / Omroepvereniging VARA
Wed 13 May 2026 11:31, UK
As hard rock evolved into its own unique entity at the end of the 1960s, two of the biggest bands leading the charge were Cream and Led Zeppelin.
The two acts overlapped for the briefest of periods, with Cream breaking up just as Zeppelin was forming in the summer months of 1968. Both bands had insanely talented rhythm sections bolstered by legendary lead guitarists, but if you ask the members of Cream, that’s where the similarities end.
Even though Eric Clapton remains the only surviving member of the band, you could still probably get a strongly worded opinion out of him if you try to compare Cream with Zeppelin. “We had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz,” Clapton explained to Nigel Williamson in 2004. “Led Zeppelin took up our legacy. But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for.”
As per usual, Clapton proved to be the calmest of the three Cream members. Before their respective deaths in 2014 and 2019, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker took plenty of swipes against Zeppelin. Whether it was because Zeppelin was the next in line to the hard rock throne or simply because the two tended to be naturally miserly and combative, Bruce and Baker were none too kind in their opinions toward Led Zeppelin.
“Fuck off, Zeppelin, you’re crap,” Bruce claimed. “You’ve always been crap, and you’ll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they’re sold. Cream is ten times the band that Led Zeppelin is. You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with fucking Jimmy Page?”
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While being interviewed by director Jay Bulger for the 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, Baker gleefully took down some of his rock and roll contemporaries. While showing admiration for The Rolling Stones’ longtime stickman Charlie Watts, Baker scoffed at being compared to the like of Keith Moon and John Bonham. Although he was willing to admit that Bonham was talented, Baker wouldn’t give him any other compliments.
Part of the resentment likely stemmed from how differently the two bands approached the blues. Cream treated the genre almost like a jazz exercise, stretching songs into long improvisational workouts where each musician had space to showcase technical ability.
Further reading: From The Vault
Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, were more interested in power and atmosphere, building enormous riffs and darker textures that connected with a wider rock audience. To musicians like Bruce and Baker, that approach may have seemed less sophisticated, even if it proved massively influential.
Despite the criticism, Zeppelin would eventually eclipse Cream commercially and become the defining hard rock band of the 1970s. Bonham’s thunderous drumming and Page’s layered guitar work laid the groundwork for countless heavy bands that followed.
Even if Baker dismissed Bonham’s sense of swing, generations of drummers have continued to study both men for entirely different reasons. Cream may have embodied virtuosity, but Zeppelin captured scale in a way few bands ever managed.
“The general public are so fucking dumb that anyone could think [that] Bonham was anywhere near this kind of drummer I am is just extraordinary,” Baker claimed in Beware of Mr. Baker. “Bonham had technique, but he couldn’t swing a sack of shit. Or Mooney, for that manner. I mean, if they were still alive today, ask them!”
Check out Led Zeppelin taking on classic blues down below.
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