Artist: Cream
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 1969
Cream were known from the very beginning as one of those bands that don’t do compromise. And if at the start of their journey that mostly applied to their “live” shows, things soon started going the same way in their relationships with each other. By the summer of 1968, the already badly frayed relations had gotten so tense that the band soon announced its farewell to the stage, which went down on November 26 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Even so, Goodbye once again packs plenty of grandiose interplay and shows the energy typical of the “greatest trio of all time”, as we so often like to call them.
Goodbye, released in March 1969, is effectively a “posthumous” album, a kind of farewell record that at least threw a bone to the legions of fans who still couldn’t come to terms with the band breaking up. All the same, Goodbye is an achievement worth envying, one the guys can be proud of, and proof that they were still capable of creating at the high level you’d expect from them. This “goodbye” kicks off with three live recordings from the final tour, a typical display of the power their shows were known for, with one important difference. For the first time, you can hear a rift that puts each member in their own corner, from which they settle scores with each other at a distance. That doesn’t mean the guys had fallen asleep on their laurels, but on I’m So Glad especially, Jack Bruce’s bass line drifts around in a strangely disharmonic, fascinating way! It’s obvious the guys want to break the monotony, but as individuals they’re all pulling in their own directions. Politician and Sitting On Top Of The World are interesting and seriously amped up, especially the latter, where, thanks to Jack Bruce, the ground shakes hard. The performances of these three gems are usually excellent, but they still don’t top the live half of Wheels Of Fire.
The better part of the album is the last three tracks, with What A Bringdown standing out as one of the album’s best moments, along with the farewell hit Badge, co-written by Clapton and none other than Mr. George Harrison himself. A song that seems to foreshadow Eric’s career as a solo artist, it gives you plenty to think about with its mysterious energy. The last word, at least as far as Cream go, is claimed by Doing That Scrapyard Thing, from the duo of Bruce – Brown, which, like a lot of their earlier work, comes across as playfully goofy while also strongly recalling one of the Beatles’ final songs. The atmosphere running through everything, thick with the smell of a sad farewell, is reflected most beautifully in the already mentioned What A Bringdown, whose author Ginger Baker can be truly proud of it. Bruce, with his deep, emotion-packed vocals, shows off all his mastery one last time, and with Clapton and Baker’s help, he pours it into a fantasy that makes for the perfect ending and a more than worthy farewell for this inimitable musical collective, responsible for some of the best creations in music period, called Cream.
Lineup
Eric Clapton: guitar/vocals
Jack Bruce: bass/vocals
Ginger Baker: drums
Production
Felix Pappalardi
Track list
1.I’m So Glad
2.Politician
3.Sitting On Top Of The World
4.Badge
5.Doing That Scrapyard Thing
6.What A Bringdown
Album length: 30.22
