BLOG!: Live Cream Vol. V

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Cream played better live than in the studio, 'nuff said. The three virtuosos musicians had an unrivaled onstage chemistry. Cream's live act to this day burns any other band after it, and if it weren't for Cream bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin definitely wouldn't have played the music they were playing. This trio of music virtuosos, Ginger Baker on drums, Jack Bruce on bass and Eric Clapton on guitar popularised the use of improvisation and extended performances of otherwise short studio songs. Jack Bruce often said in interviews that they were actually a jazz band, they just didn't tell Eric, as he was convinced he was playing in a blues band. Ginger and Jack saw Clapton as their Ornette Coleman, as he would improvise extensively for hours and play smooth melodic lines and push the envelope with his use of feedback and his incredible attack and control of dynamics. The band started doing the jam thing in September 1967 at the Fillmore in San Fransisco, they were expected to do a 2 hour set, but they hadn't written enough songs to fit the time slot, so Ginger just told them to 'play anything'. The crowd loved it and Cream continued to develop their tightness as a improvisational group until the pressure eventually led to their breakup in November 1968. Cream only released 4 studio albums (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire and Goodbye) and only a handful of live tracks were released. Live Cream and Live Cream Vol. II were released after the bands breakup, and contained a slice of the live Cream experience, however it is only a small taste. Live Cream only contains 5 songs, one of which isn't even a live performance but a studio recording of 'Hey Lawdy Mama', Live Cream Vol. II contains 6 tracks, and they're all live... but the songs are no where near as powerful or long as on Live Cream, and 3 of the tracks are taken from Cream's performance at the Oakland Colosseum during their farewell tour, which was recorded after the band hadn't played together for 6 months and failed to reach the very high bar their other performances had set.

Most people when they think of Cream, think of the studio version of Sunshine of Your Love or White Room, and think they're a good band, but leave it at that. Others have heard Wheels of Fire and think they were great because of Crossroads, but assume they were just lucky that night, besides all bands were pretty good back then right? I'm very lucky that I have all of Cream's live bootlegs as I have heard a side of Cream that the average fan hasn't, in an effort to share this live magic with the world I have carefully listened to and compiled the absolute cream of the crop of live Cream songs and presented them in 3 albums continuing from Live Cream Vol I/II, they are live Cream Vol. III, Vol. IV, and Vol. V. Cream didn't have many songs, and therefore their set lists were pretty much the same for most of their live career, most people would wonder why anyone would want to listen to a 10 different 15-20 minute versions of N.S.U from different concerts at different points in their career. The reason is simple, the band brought something new to the table every time, the only similarities between the different versions of the same song is the start and the finish, the songs basically served as spring boards for improvisation, a musical element only heard in jazz prior to Cream. Sometimes they even played the same song twice in a set and they always got away with it because it never sounded the same.

This album Live Cream Vol. V contains a generous 41 tracks (5.4 hours!) of Cream's Farewell Tour in the US starting in October 1968 leading through to their final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1968. Sadly, some of their most energetic and inspired performances were during this Farewell Tour.

Live Cream Vol. V

Farewell Tour - [October, 1968 - Oakland Colloseum]