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The ‘Eric Clapton’ Album: The Solo Spotlight Falls On A Guitar Master
Eric Clapton spent the 1960s forming his peerless reputation in one great band after another, but it was on July 25, 1970 that his name appeared on the charts as a solo artist for the first time. After...
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Making History: The 6th National Jazz And Blues Festival
When the 6th National Jazz and Blues Festival was held on the last weekend of July 1966, it was the first to be held at Windsor, a little further west than its original home in Richmond, Surrey. As...
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First Spoonful: Cream’s Live Debut, In The Home Of Northern Soul
History records the official live debut of Cream in 1966 taking place at the sixth annual National Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor. But the trio’s actual first live performance was a last-minute,...
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‘They All Learned From Ahms’: Atlantic Records’ Visionary Ahmet Ertegun
Few record executives have had played such a role in shaping the music business as Ahmet Ertegun. The great co-founder of Atlantic Records helped steer the careers of countless superstar acts and was...
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‘John Barleycorn Must Die’: Traffic’s Multi-Layered Rebirth
“Winwood. Traffic. Here is some group,” raved Circus magazine, when the band reconvened for the John Barleycorn Must Die album. “There is no better,” drooled their reviewer Jonathan Eisen. “It is not...
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For Three Nights Only: Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, And Keith Moon
Eric Clapton was a busy man in the summer of 1974. In the US touring his new 461 Ocean Boulevard album since mid-June, the schedule took him on August 1 to Atlanta, and a gig at the Omni Coliseum that...
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The Best Songs Based On Books
Going back to the dawn of civilization, stories were songs: Homer’s celebrated epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, were initially performed to the lute and serve as the bedrock of the oral tradition;...
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Three Wheels Good: Cream Find Their Essence On ‘Wheels Of Fire’
Four months before The Beatles made their bid for the best double album of 1968, Cream made theirs. Wheels Of Fire, the record that introduced the classic “White Room” and other great performances by...
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‘Play Them Loud’: A Celebration Of Fabulous Fenders
Fender guitars are iconic. They have a look, an aura of sleek refinement that says “Play me, play me loud, play me subtly and play me well.” Our celebration of this unique instrument honors Clarence...
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Grand Funk Railroad Arrive Right ‘On Time’
They’re an American band, and this was their first album. Grand Funk Railroad played their first gig in March 1969 and On Time came out five months later on August 25. The LP was recorded in the...
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‘Songs For A Tailor’: After Cream, Jack Bruce’s Strongest Suit
A quick look at the songwriting credits on any of Cream’s albums will quickly show that they covered some blues classics. But it will also highlight the songwriting talent of John Symon Asher Bruce –...
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Down In The Soul Cellar: Spencer Davis Group Reopen Twisted Wheel
The Twisted Wheel is one of those night spots and music venues that remains in the hearts of those who frequented it, decades after its heyday. The original R&B club in Brazennose Street,...
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‘Blind Faith’: The Ultimate Supergroup’s Transatlantic Triumph
They were formed from the top division of British rock talent of the late 1960s and lasted for precisely one album. But September 20, 1969 was the date of perhaps the ultimate supergroup’s...
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‘White Room’: The Definitive Cream Recording?
There’s no question; if we had to pick just one track by Cream that epitomizes Jack Bruce’s vocal delivery, it would be “White Room.” There is something so special about the way he comes in following...
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Psychedelic Blues: When The Blues Turned On And Tuned In
After psychedelia came to a boil in the late 60s, the blues and rock heroes of the 50s took a brief but thrilling walk on the wild side, with fuzz guitars, wah-wah effects, and epic jams to the fore....
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It’s Goodbye From Us: Cream Hit The Road For Their Long Farewell
The feelings must have been bittersweet when Cream arrived on stage in America in October 1968. At the beginning of their farewell tour, the group were in the hottest commercial form of their short...
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Cream Wrap Up The Charts With Their First Single
While it never made it to their debut album, Cream’s very first single was a jazz-influenced song called “Wrapping Paper” that caught the music world off guard. The band that became the model for just...
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Derek And The Dominos’ ‘At The Fillmore’: Clapton’s Complicated Recording
Unravelling the Derek And the Dominos In Concert album and its subsequent incarnations is a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. The different versions, culled from different shows, make it extremely...
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‘Disraeli Gears’: How Cream Shifted Into Psych-Blues Legends
Cream’s second album was recorded over three and a half days between May 8-16, 1967 in Atlantic Studios at 1841 Broadway, on the corner of 60th Street in New York City. Produced by Felix Pappalardi who...
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How Derek and The Dominos’ Historic Layla Sessions Birthed A Classic
From The Roosters to the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and Delaney and Bonnie; Eric Clapton had certainly gotten around prior to forming his new band in early summer 1970....
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Best Psychedelic Albums: 30 Mind-Expanding Records
Look up the word “psychedelic” in the dictionary, and one of the first definitions will be “mind-expanding.” That’s what all of the best psychedelic albums have in common. Most were made during the...
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So This Is Goodbye: When Cream Said Farewell At The Royal Albert Hall
By 1968, London’s Royal Albert Hall was seen by most people as the UK’s home of classical music. Despite hosting concerts by the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and others over the previous five...
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‘Fresh Cream’: A Rise To The Top For Cream’s Stirring Debut
From the first chord of the first song, the debut album by Cream was something new. Eric Clapton’s power chord gave way to handclaps and Jack Bruce’s humming, then Clapton returned in tandem with...
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‘Out Of The Storm’: How Jack Bruce Went Solo Again In 1974
There are hidden gems beyond number in the recording catalog of the late and great Jack Bruce. One of them is his solo entry that enjoyed its brief US chart run in December 1974, Out Of The Storm. The...
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Back Home: Eric Clapton’s Love Affair With The Royal Albert Hall
Eric Clapton’s return visits to his beloved Royal Albert Hall in London are a frequent reminder of the history of this rare relationship between artist and venue. In September 2018, it was literally...
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The Best Guitar Solos: 108 Hair-Raising Moments
There are plenty of ways to play a great guitar solo: You can make jaws drop by shredding for minutes on end, or you can do a simple but unforgettable bit that makes a great song even greater. We’ve...
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The Rhythm & The Blues: A Salute To Jerry Wexler
Plenty of record executives like to think they have changed the shape of popular music in one way or another. Jerry Wexler, born on January 10, 1917, not only changed its shape, he changed its name....
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‘Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert‘: Slowhand Comes Back To Life
As his countless devotees remember, the early 1970s were a difficult time in the life of Eric Clapton. Brought low by heroin addiction, he entered a downward spiral after appearing at his friend George...
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‘Sunshine Of Your Love’: Cream’s Majestic Dawn Surprise
In their short lifespan, Cream were one of the top album bands on the British, and indeed the world, rock scene. But they also amassed quite a sequence of hit singles, and in the chart week of January...
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Double Cream: Eric, Ginger And Jack At The Crossroads In A White Room
It happened when their active life as a group had already come to an end, but one week early in 1969 was doubly significant for Cream. Their version of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” (otherwise known as...
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Clapton Meets The Queen Of Soul: When Eric Played For Aretha Franklin
In December 1967, Eric Clapton was uneasily carrying the “God” nickname that had followed him since his emergence as the UK‘s premier electric blues-rock guitarist of his generation. He was about...
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‘Goodbye’: Cream Say Farewell With Final Studio Album
Cream may have had all too short a lifespan as far as their millions of admirers around the world were concerned – but at least they had the chance to say Goodbye to each other. That, of course, was...
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The Rhythm & Blues Legacy: The Secret History Of Rock And Pop
The annals of rock and pop are full of artists who had the good sense and the timing to take existing material and give it a wider audience with their own interpretation. To mark Black History Month,...
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The 120 Best Blues Albums: Classic Records You Need To Hear
A list of the best blues albums ever? We’ve set ourselves another, almost, impossible challenge. As usual, we haven’t just dreamed up this list; we’ve trawled the net and looked through numerous...
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Best Guitarists Of All Time: 75 Legendary Musicians
The guitar is the very backbone of rock – not to mention blues and country music – and the world is a better place to live in thanks to all the six-string geniuses that have come along. The best...
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The Ealing Club, The Rolling Stones, And The Birth Of British Rock
A humble west-London basement next to a long-lost ABC bakery is an unlikely place to find one of the most significant venues in music history. Yet the Ealing Club, an overlooked historic venue – at 42A...
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Up To 11: The Songs That Inspired Heavy Metal
From heavy blues outings of the late 60s to pioneering hard rock anthems from the early 70s, we bring you some of the heaviest proto-metal songs that inspired heavy metal and today’s headbangers…...
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Cream and The Who Make Their Live Debut In America
When both The Who and Cream made their live debut in America, it could hardly have been any less auspicious. It happened for both of them on March 25, 1967, at the RKO Keith Theater on 58th and 3rd Ave...
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Heavy Metal Thunder: The Origins Of Heavy Metal
Where does metal music come from and how did it get its name? In a technical sense, heavy metal was born in 1839. It’s a chemistry term describing a loosely connected set of metals defined as...
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Best Muddy Waters Songs: 20 Essential Tracks
For many, he was the greatest bluesman ever to growl into the mic. His authority was absolute. Whether his easy, wry smile was crossing his avuncular face, or he was barking tough warnings in deadly...
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An Eric Clapton History Lesson: EC’s First Compilation
In the early 1970s, Eric Clapton’s release schedule was a mixed bag of retrospectives. He enjoyed UK success in the summer of that year with the reissue of his Derek and the Dominos single “Layla.”...
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The 13 Best Rock Band Trios Ever
Pivoting away from the traditional rock set-up of a singer, two guitars, bass, and drums, the best power trio find their strength in stripping down to more simplistic elements. The format has allowed...
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Americana: How Country And Roots Music Found A “Brand New Dance”
When the term “Americana” was included in the prestigious Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2011, Americana Music Association executive director Jed Hilly joked that they would be selling T-shirts...
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Robert Johnson: The Life And Legacy Of The Blues Giant
One of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) was a legendary blues musician, whose influence spanned multiple generations and genres. A brilliant guitarist...
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‘How’s Tricks’: ‘Punch And Drive’ From The Jack Bruce Band
The solo career of Jack Bruce contains many a hidden gem, and there are plenty on an album that was showing its face on the US album chart in May 1977. How’s Tricks was a record that also had...
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Remembering Jack Bruce, A True Giant Of Music
Legend is an overused term in music, and the world in general, but Jack Bruce was a genuine legend. Jack, christened John, was born on May 14, 1943, in Scotland. He took to music early and won a...
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‘Badge’: Cream Wear ‘Mysterious’ Collaboration With George Harrison
Cream were far more of an album rock band than they were concerned with hit singles during their all-too-brief, two-year lifetime. Nevertheless, they notched up no fewer than seven visits to the UK Top...
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‘Tales Of Brave Ulysses’: Cream’s Mythological Rock Landmark
At first, to some, it was just the B-side of a new single by the most happening power rock trio of the day. Soon, we were realizing that Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses” was quite a strange brew of its...
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‘Spoonful’: Howlin’ Wolf’s Classic Blues Song
In 1960, Chicago-based Chess Records released a single that became one of the most influential and much-covered recordings in its catalogue. It was called “Spoonful” and was delivered by a singer who,...
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When Blind Faith Made Their Debut In Hyde Park
1969 was THE year of the festival – a stellar year by which all others have been judged. Across North America and the U.K., there seemed to be a festival happening somewhere, almost every weekend of...
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