Wheels of Fire

by

Cream

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Cream's last really deliberate effort in the studio, Wheels of Fire stands out as one of the all-time greatest rock albums, and one of the top ten albums of the sixties. Driven by the singles, "White Room" and "Crossroads," this was Cream's first and only number one album and the first album to be certified platinum, ever. Somewhat less coherent than Disraeli Gears, due to the increasing division between the band members, Wheels of Fire could be called Cream's White Album, showing the band moving off into separate directions with their respective writing partners and turning up with some surprisingly different, innovative and original songs. More melancholy and introspective than Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire jams less and grooves more, particularly on the ever topical "Politician" and the super precise "Sitting On Top of the World." Other songs seem like more of a throwback to Fresh Cream, the dreamy "As You Said" and "Those Were the Days" in particular. The cello-accented ballad, "Deserted Cities of the Heart," is one of Bruce and Brown's best, and there's more than a touch of strangeness in Baker's amusing and quaint recital of "Pressed Rat and Warthog." Eric, sitting out on the song-writing for a while, makes sure that no one completely forgets the blues, contributing arrangements of "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Crossroads." On the second disc, the live material, as usual, is where Cream really shines. It seems as if they picked one song to showcase each band member, then chose the classic "Spoonful" to highlight them all. The instrumentation is even more magnificent than ever, showing incredible precision from all the members, especially Baker, whose drum solo on the live version of "Toad" is the only drum solo I've been able to tolerate, let only enjoy. "Crossroads" shows Clapton's soloing at its best, and "Traintime" features Bruce nearly passing out during a seven minute blues harp marathon. Listening to him gasp for breath near the end, yet keep on singing and playing, is to witness an inspiring sacrifice from an artist truly willing to suffer for his art. Cream's best album really could be considered a toss up between this one and Disraeli Gears, but I favor this one marginally because there's not a single slipup included.

A double CD, featuring one disc of studio material, and one of tracks recorded live at the Fillmore (East? West?). Together the two discs clock in at just under 80 minutes, so this could have easily been made a single disc for anyone but the Cream completist. (Just snip a couple of minutes out of the 16+ minutes of "Toad" and there ya go!).

For the most part the long live tracks here appeal to me only a bit more than those on "Goodbye Cream." The opening live cut, "Crossroads," is a nice, concise version of the Robert Johnson classic. Bruce and Clapton duke it out, seemingly soloing at the same time, and Clapton's vocals are quite strong.

The Bruce composition "Traintime" has some nice blues harp from Bruce backed only by Ginger Baker's shuffling rhythms, and at 7 minutes, doesn't wander off too far in search of ideas. The 16+ minute version of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful" features a lot of bass soloing from Bruce that sounds like a fishing expedition. The 16+ minute version of "Toad" is about what you'd expect, with Baker taking a very long drum solo break. Longer than I can usually sit and listen to.

The studio disc features quite a few gems, beginning with the hit single "White Room" (Clapton's cool wah-wah guitar matched with against Baker's pounding drums and Bruce's falsetto vocals). The instrumentation is quite varied, compared to the electric power-trio recordings most people think of (when they think of Cream). "Passing the Time" reminds me a lot of the Yardbirds (with maybe a hint of early Pink Floyd). Tracks like "As You Said" feature acoustic guitars and viola, reminiscent of XTC, or maybe the Dukes of the Stratosphere, while "Pressed Rat and Warthog" works a spoken story against a drums and trumpet background. "Deserted Cities of the Heart" features a very fuzzed Clapton guitar (which reminds me of the guitar sound featured in the band Copperhead, with John Cippolina) together with some nice acoustic strumming and piano. The Cream standard blues workouts turn up in tracks like "Sitting on Top of the World" "Politician" and "Born Under a Bad Sign" (with Clapton's guitar sounding like it did in his stint in "Tommy").

Overall I could live without the 32 minutes of "Spoonful" and "Toad", and thus a single instead of a double CD. As it is, I think the studio disc is strong enough to make this worth having.