The Wheels on the Cream bus are going 50

Hard to believe that this album turns 50 this week.  It was so ahead of the curve and classic in every sense of the word.  The musicianship sounds like this is a band of five or six or more depending on what song your listening to.  Cream's Wheels of Fire was the second double LP I picked up as a young kid.  What attracted me to the album was not only Cream the band which I heard on Classic Rock radio. I also was attracted to the aluminum foil type cover along with the florescent colors inside.

When I first played this album on my turntable I was amazed right away.  I was a huge fan of the song White Room and hearing it all in analog glory made me start to fall in love.  The album started from there an went higher and higher which each listen.  Each song is layered with sometimes Clapton doubling or even on the song Passing the Time Jack Bruce plays cello and there is organ and Ginger Baker plays glockenspiel.  It's multilayered is why it's so good. Multilayered because you can hear other instruments beside the bass, guitar and drums.

The studio sessions yielded some really great stuff and hearing the songs today it's amazing the playing by Clapton, Bruce and Baker.  My only wish is that I wish there was more music from the sessions.  When you at the 1:51 mark on Deserted Cities Of The Heart and to near the end their is so much going on.  It's a song that is a great closer to the studio part of this great two LP set.

Now lets talk about the Live Side.  Only four songs you say, but there is a lot in those four.  Crossroads was the second single off the album and people who were like, lets see this band.  In that small window from when the album came out and where they announced they would break up.  The other songs would feature each member in the band and their talents.  Jack Bruce on Traintime and Ginger Baker on Toad.  Leaving Eric Clapton to show off his guitar playing on Crossroads.

So, Happy Birthday to a 50 year old landmark album Wheels of Fire is not groundbreaking, but it shows what three highly talented and respected musicians can do.  After this group each went their unique and separate ways.  Too bad too, their last album Goodbye sure had promise.  Cream to me was a great, great band.  Each had super talent and each could easily make a simple band so much better.  By the way this post is dedicated to the unknown and awesome great fourth man in the band Felix Pappalardi.  Without Felix I'm sure they would be good, but he added some great touches.  Just listen to the album.