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Fresh Cream

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Fresh Cream
Studio album by
Cream
Released9 December 1966 (1966-12-09)
RecordedAugust–November 1966
StudioRayrik & Ryemuse (London)
GenreBlues rock[1] psychedelic rock[2]
Length37:48 (LP version), 40:39 (CD version)
LabelReaction
ProducerRobert Stigwood
Cream chronology
Fresh Cream
(1966) 		Disraeli Gears
(1967)
Singles from Fresh Cream
  1. "Spoonful"
    Released: September 1967

Fresh Cream is the debut studio album by the British rock band Cream, consisting of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker.

Songs and recording

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Almost as soon as Cream were formed in July 1966, they entered Rayrik Studios at Chalk Farm, London, to begin work on their debut single and album with Robert Stigwood producing and John Timperley as engineer. Clapton later noted that the budget was minuscule, working with four track machines and basically running each song a few times through until they got a satisfactory take, with minimal overdubbing afterward.[3] The first sessions at Rayrik on August 3 produced the outtakes "Coffee Song", "You Make Me Feel" and "Beauty Queen", followed later in the month by the group's debut single "Wrapping Paper", a music hall influenced piece designed to showcase the group's stylistic versatility, but which was received with puzzlement upon its October release by fans expecting a blues-oriented sound.

After the band moved to Ryemuse Studios (now known as Mayfair), the bulk of the album was recorded between September and November, neatly divided between old blues covers ("Spoonful", "Cat's Squirrel", "Rollin' And Tumblin'", "I'm So Glad", "Four Until Late") and original material penned by bassist Jack Bruce, with two contributions by Ginger Baker ("Sweet Wine" and his groundbreaking extended drum solo "Toad") and two by Bruce's first wife Janet Godfrey, who co-wrote "Sleepy Time Time" with Jack and "Sweet Wine" with Ginger. A session in September also produced the single "I Feel Free" (included on the US version of the album), the first product of the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and bohemian poet Pete Brown which proved a more typical representation of their sound than "Wrapping Paper"; released on the same day as the album, it climbed to No. 11 in the UK charts.[4]

Bruce later said that the opening song "N.S.U." was written for the band's first rehearsal. "It was like an early punk song... the title meant "non-specific urethritis. It didn't mean an NSU Quickly – which was one of those little 1960s mopeds. I used to say it was about a member of the band who had this venereal disease. I can't tell you which one... except he played guitar."[5] The mellow pop of "Dreaming" showcased Bruce's ghostly falsetto vocal style, which was also used on "I Feel Free" and would become more prominent on later releases. Clapton's lengthy, swirling solos on "Sweet Wine" and "Spoonful" pointed toward psychedelia and heavy metal, with Clapton employing much echo, fuzz and feedback,[6] which had been directly inspired by his first meeting with Jimi Hendrix on October 1.[4] Overall, the group's fusion of blues with hard rock and improvisational jazz on this record proved seminal on the development of rock music from that point forward.

Release

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Fresh Cream was released in the UK on 9 December 1966, as the first LP on the Reaction Records label, owned by producer Robert Stigwood. It was released in both mono and stereo versions, at the same time as the release of the single "I Feel Free".[7] Interest in the supergroup's first album was intense, and it peaked at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. Over two years later, around the time of the band's final album Goodbye in February 1969, the album saw another surge in the charts that placed it as high as No. 7.[8] The album was released in a slightly different form in January 1967 by Atco Records in the US, also in mono and stereo versions, where it peaked at No. 39.[9]

The mono versions were deleted not long after release and for many years only the stereo recordings were available. The UK mono album was reissued on CD for the first time in Japan, by Universal Music, in late 2013 as part of a deluxe SHM-CD and SHM-SACD sets (both editions also contain the UK stereo counterpart).[10]

In January 2017, the album was again reissued, by Polydor, in a 4-CD box-set containing mono and stereo versions of the original UK and US release along with singles and B-sides.

Reception and legacy

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Robert ChristgauA−[11]
Daily Express(Positive)[13]
MusicHound Rock[14]
The 1000 Best Pop-Rock Albums[citation needed]
Uncut[12]

Upon release, critical reaction in the UK was largely positive. While Melody Maker opened its review opining "not quite as fresh as it could have been", they said "it's still a great record. Clapton, Baker and Bruce, working like trojans to construct exciting, free, wild music of life, love and soul", concluding sensational things to come from the group.[15] Record Mirror noted "their style on this LP is a very mellow and relaxed sort of music, which oozes confidence...sort of progressive British Rhythm and Blues".[16] Disc & Music Echo claimed "it's good, although not as good, one feels, as it might have been, not enough Eric Clapton for one thing" before picking "Dreaming" as the best track.[17]

One person not happy with the album was Clapton himself, who felt its sound was already outdated. In an interview not long after the album's release, he stated "it could have been better. We were working on it so long ago, and we have greatly improved since then. I'm also not completely happy with the production".[4]

Retrospectively, Uncut describes the songs as "all about playing in a band and relaxing, the joy of being young, and they walk it like they talk it, being jumping-off points for wonderful spur-of-the moment improvisations".[18] Writing for the BBC, Sid Smith notes that "blues, pop and rock magically starts to coalesce to create something brand new".[19] Michael Galluci of Ultimate Classic Rock concluded the album "helped spur a bigger, louder and heavier way of playing rock 'n' roll...the amount of power the band manages to generate on this album is remarkable. It's safe to assume groups like Led Zeppelin and The Who would never have traveled in a similar direction without Cream leading the way."[2] Similarly, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic opined that the album was "instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and jam rock".[6]

In 2012, the album was ranked number 102 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time (the highest-ranking album by Cream on the list, calling it "tight and concise, a blueprint for the band's onstage jams").[20]

Track listing

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Original UK release

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Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."N.S.U."Jack BruceBruce2:43
2."Sleepy Time Time"Bruce, Janet GodfreyBruce4:20
3."Dreaming"BruceBruce1:58
4."Sweet Wine"Ginger Baker, GodfreyBruce3:17
5."Spoonful"Willie DixonBruce6:30
Total length:18:48
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Cat's Squirrel"Doctor Ross, arr. Bruce, Baker, Eric ClaptonInstrumental3:04
2."Four Until Late"Robert Johnson, arr. ClaptonClapton2:07
3."Rollin' and Tumblin'"Hambone Willie NewbernBruce4:42
4."I'm So Glad"Skip JamesBruce3:58
5."Toad"BakerInstrumental5:09
Total length:19:00

Original U.S. version

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Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."I Feel Free"Bruce, Pete BrownBruce2:52
2."N.S.U."BruceBruce2:43
3."Sleepy Time Time"Bruce, Janet GodfreyBruce4:20
4."Dreaming"BruceBruce1:58
5."Sweet Wine"Baker, GodfreyBruce3:17
Total length:15:10
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Cat's Squirrel"Ross, arr. Bruce, Baker, ClaptonInstrumental3:03
2."Four Until Late"Johnson, arr. ClaptonClapton2:07
3."Rollin' and Tumblin'"NewbernBruce4:42
4."I'm So Glad"JamesBruce3:57
5."Toad"BakerInstrumental5:09
Total length:18:58

Later U.S. release

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Original reissues in the U.S. on RSO/Polydor use the same track listing as the original UK edition given above in which "I Feel Free" is replaced with "Spoonful" on Side 1. Polydor's original CD release from the 1980s combines the UK and US track lists but also includes "The Coffee Song" and "Wrapping Paper," which were removed from subsequent CD releases starting in the 1990s.

Scandinavian release

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An edition released originally only in Scandinavia was a 12-track release, It had the same ten tracks as the UK version plus added two tracks: "Wrapping Paper", written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, and "The Coffee Song", written by Tony Colton and Ray Smith. Both vinyl and cover were made in Germany and exported to the Swedish market only – the German original had the same 10 tracks as the UK. The group didn't want "Coffee Song" to be issued at all, but a mono version was mixed and coupled with "Wrapping Paper" as a single. There were no plans at this stage to release it in stereo, so for the Swedish issue, a crude stereo mix was used. This was made during the sessions in early August 1966 for instructive purpose – the whole track as basic mono is mixed far right and a solo guitar overdub far left. Never intended for release, this mix was soon lost and for later stereo issues a new one was made.

The front cover and record no. (623 031) are the same as the German issue, but three different back covers exist. The first listed the correct 12 tracks, the second listed 10 tracks, and a third where the 12 track listing has been "glued" over the 10 track listing.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."N.S.U."Jack BruceBruce2:43
2."Sleepy Time Time"Bruce; Janet GodfreyBruce4:20
3."Dreaming"BruceBruce1:58
4."Sweet Wine"Ginger Baker; GodfreyBruce3:17
5."Spoonful"Willie DixonBruce6:30
6."Wrapping Paper"Bruce, BrownBruce2:24
Total length:21:12
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Cat's Squirrel"Doctor Ross, arr. Bruce, Baker, ClaptonInstrumental3:03
2."Four Until Late"Robert Johnson, arr. ClaptonClapton2:07
3."The Coffee Song"Ray Smith, Tony ColtonBruce2:45
4."Rollin' and Tumblin'"Hambone Willie NewbernBruce4:42
5."I'm So Glad"Skip JamesBruce3:57
6."Toad"BakerInstrumental5:09
Total length:21:43

This version of Fresh Cream was also released by Polydor (2384 067) in the UK in 1974 under the title "Cream".

This version of Fresh Cream was released by RSO (2658 142) & Polydor (2658 142) in Germany during 1981 as a boxset under the title "Cream".

Personnel

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Cream

Technical

Charts

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Chart (1966–1967) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[22] 10
Finnish Albums (Soumen Virallinen)[23] 4
French Albums (SNEP)[24] 20
UK Albums (OCC)[25] 6
US Billboard 200[26] 39

Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[27] Gold 35,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[28] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[29] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ "The Top 30 British Blues Rock Albums of All Time". Classic Rock. Future plc. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  2. ^ a b "How Cream Merged Superstar Talent for the Bold 'Fresh Cream'". Classic Rock. Future plc. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Eric Clapton (1993) on the making of Fresh Cream: We were not taking it seriously at all". YouTube. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c Thompson, Dave (2005). Cream: The World's First Supergroup. London: Virgin Books Ltd. ISBN 1852272864.
  5. ^ Welch, Chris (1 December 2000). Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup. Backbeat Books. ISBN 9781476851501.
  6. ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Cream: Fresh Cream > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  7. ^ Clapton, Eric (2007). "Cream". Clapton: The Autobiography (1st ed.). United States: Broadway Books. pp. 73–79. ISBN 978-0-385-51851-2.
  8. ^ "Fresh Cream". Official Charts. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  9. ^ Eyries, Patrice; Edwards, Dave; Callahan, Mike (22 January 2007). "RSO Album Discography, Part 1: The RSO Story & Pre-RSO Releases". bsnpubs.com. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  10. ^ "Fresh Cream (Stereo & Mono) +12 [Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP)] [Platinum SHM-CD] [Limited Release] Cream CD Album". CDJapan. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  11. ^ "Robert Christgau: Online Exchange, part 3". RockCritics.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  12. ^ "Cream – Fresh Cream Deluxe". Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  13. ^ "ALBUM REVIEW: Fresh Cream will satisfy the taste buds of any ultimate Cream fan". express.co.uk. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  14. ^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 288. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  15. ^ "Cream working to produce a great album" (PDF). Melody Maker. 24 December 1966. p. 11. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  16. ^ "XMas Goodies" (PDF). Record Mirror. 17 December 1966. p. 7. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  17. ^ "The New LPs" (PDF). Disc & Music Echo. 24 December 1966. p. 12. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Uncut". cduniverse.com. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  19. ^ Smith, Sid (17 April 2007). "Cream Fresh Cream Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  20. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  21. ^ "Fresh Cream (1966)". JackBruce.com. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  22. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  23. ^ Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. p. 100. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
  24. ^ "Le Détail des Albums de chaque Artiste – C". Infodisc.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2024. Select Cream from the menu, then press OK.
  25. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  26. ^ "Cream Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
  27. ^ "Australian Fun Countdowns: Accreditation Awards". Warner Music Sales International. BMI Music International. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  28. ^ "Best-selling Rock LPs". Billboard Magazine. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 28 September 1968. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  29. ^ "American album certifications – Cream". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
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