![\"Cream](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Cream-Ginger-Baker-Jack-Bruce-Eric-Clapton-1966-1968-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ General Artists Corporation)<\/p>\n
Mon 16 June 2025 7:00, UK <\/p>\n
Leaving The Yardbirds only two years after joining as lead guitarist, Eric Clapton<\/a>\u2018s unwavering love of the blues pulled him away from the band\u2019s veer toward swinging pop rock and briefly standing as one of John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers to stave off the lysergic trends of the era. Clapton\u2019s disregard for the charts wouldn\u2019t last long, however.<\/p>\n Forming Cream a year later with The Graham Bond Organisation\u2019s respective drummer and bassist, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, Clapton would be thrust to the fore as London\u2019s psychedelic vanguard while at odds with the era\u2019s kaleidoscopic excesses.<\/p>\n Clapton\u2019s guitar helped their counterculture cache \u2013 wielding his iconic Gibson SG slapped with fantastical designs from The Fool Dutch art collective \u2013 but Cream pursued a more raucous and heavy interpretation of psych, stirring jazzy flashes and fuzzed-out pedals that jumped into acid rock more than the baroque pop or studio trickery that smattered the records of their UK peers.<\/p>\n Cream would stand as one of the era\u2019s essential acts, despite their guitarist\u2019s diffident relationship with hippy idyll\u2019s soundtrack of the day.<\/p>\n A handful of collaborators formed vital features of the power trio\u2019s creative process. Mountain bassist and frontman Felix Pappalardi produced three of their records as well as contributed everything from the viola to the Mellotron<\/a> across their work, and The Beatles\u2019 George Harrison would co-write their final 1969 single \u2018Badge\u2019 as well as lend a rhythm guitar line under the pseudonymous L\u2019Angelo Misterioso credit. Forming just as close a relationship with the band, however, was poet and artist Pete Brown.<\/p>\n Having written Beat-inspired poetry since his teens, Brown began organising shows with future Poetry Olympics founder Michael Horovitz and eventually built a following off their national spoken word events, amounting to a residency in London\u2019s Marquee Club in 1963. Off the back of 1965\u2019s International Poetry Incarnation in the Royal Albert Hall, Brown\u2019s literary reputation grew and began melding his poetry with live jazz performances. Becoming acquainted with The Graham Bond Organisation\u2019s saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, Brown was introduced to Baker and Bruce.<\/p>\n A year later, Brown received a call from Baker requesting lyrical assistance on a number they were working on. Heading to Chalk Farm\u2019s Rayik studio, Brown penned the lyrics to Cream\u2019s first single \u2018Wrapping Paper\u2019, a number exploring lost love and the painful obsession with photographs of the old flame. Initially more of a band effort, Brown would develop a sturdy songwriting partnership with Bruce, winning a hit with follow-up \u2018I Feel Free\u2019 and penning the band\u2019s most enduring cuts with \u2018White Room<\/a>\u2018 and \u2018Sunshine of Your Love\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a way, that\u2019s where we got that kind of inspiration to not just do tissues, to do stuff that somehow was built in that the stuff that we were doing was inspired by stuff that lasted,\u201d Brown told Psychedelic Scene, illustrating the depth he tried to pour into the pop medium. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that conscious, but, on the other hand, we weren\u2019t thinking of it as pop frippery. It was more serious than that, so it turned out that a lot of it lasted, which is great. It\u2019s really good. I\u2019m happy about it. Well, it\u2019s the reason I live in a house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
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