Cream

Released: February 5, 1969

Songwriter: Ginger Baker

Producer: Felix Pappalardi

Dainties in a jam-jar, Parson's colour in the sky
Water in a fountain doesn't get me very high
Moby Dick and Albert making out with Captain Bligh

So you know what you know in your head
Will you, won't you, do you
Don't you know when a head's dead?
What a bringdown

Winter leader Lou is grownin', Hampstead's in the north
Betty B's been wearin' daisies since the twenty-fourth
Wears a gunner when there's one more coming forth

And you know what you know in your head
Will you, won't you, do you
Don't you wanna go to bed?
What a bringdown

There's a tea leaf about in the family
Full of nothin', their fairy tale
There's a tea leaf a-floatin' now for Rosalie
They'll believe in ding-dong bell

Take a butchers at the dodginesses of Old Bill
Aristotle's orchestra are living on the pill
One of them gets very, very prickly when he's ill

And you know what you know in your head
Will you, won't you, do you
Don't you wanna make more bread?
What a bringdown
Yeah

The members of this power trio, formed in the autumn of 1966, were all veterans of the blues revival. Guitarist Eric Clapton was the same prodigy who revealed himself with the Yardbirds, and who had contributed to the legendary recording of Bluesbreakers with John Mayall. Drummer Peter “Ginger” Baker, skilled at many forms of percussion, had already played, in 1960, with the Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and in 1962 with Alexis Korner and the Graham Bond Organisation. Scottish bassist Jack Bruce had traveled some of the same roads as Baker, before joining Manfred Mann. Bruce and Clapton had met each other in the Powerhouse, a short-lived lineup put together by John Mayall, that also included Steve Winwood at the keyboard. With Cream these three virtuosos simply brought to fruition the experience that they developed in the London clubs, bringing to the rock concert stage long, electric, high volume improvisations.

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