wheels of fire

Cream bubbled over with heavy blues and psychedelic poetry on this classic double helping of stage pyrotechnics and studio gimmickry.  The trio had developed their sound from the blues explorations of 'Fresh Cream' into the expansive strange brew of 'Disraeli Gears' before taking their audio experiments even further on 'Wheels of Fire'.  

The double album features one disk of studio material and one disk of live performances.  The studio sessions took place at IBC Studios in London and Atlantic Studios in New York with producer Felix Pappalardi featuring Jack Bruce on vocals, lead vocals, bass, cello, harmonica, calliope, acoustic guitar, and recorder; Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals; and Ginger Baker on drums, percussion, bells, glockenspiel, timpani, and spoken word; with Felix Pappalardi on viola, bells, organ, trumpet, and tonette.  Pappalardi remembers:    "'Wheels Of Fire' by Cream was never really a planned album. While Eric, Jack and Ginger talked about ideas in England, I discussed it with Ahmet Ertugen and Jerry Wexier at Atlantic. I wanted a double album right from the beginning and it was my job to sell that idea. Nobody was high on it. When I finally convinced everyone of the double album, Cream told me they had been wanting the same thing. Next step was helping choose material and arranging it for the final stages. With Cream this job is particularly important because most of their songs are never played until they come into the studio.  It’s very weird. The music is never discussed. It just happens. We cut the first things for the album in December 1967. We did the instrumental tracks for “White Room,” and “Born Under A Bad Sign.” They had a couple of days off during their U.S. tour so we booked studio time to get something down. Then they came back two months later for ten days and we completed the entire studio album...The whole studio album was completed before we did the live album. The more we got into the studio album the more necessary it became to do the live one. The studio stuff became very electric so I wanted the live Cream right there where you could get at it, Cream as a trio without the arranging and the electronics. I presented it to Atlantic in this exact way...I'd say we worked for a good two weeks on the studio album. Sometimes we’d work till four in the morning if It was cooking. Maybe only one guy was cooking so I’d send Jack and Eric home and just work with Ginger or percussion things."  

The live album was recorded in San Francisco at the Winterland Ballroom and The Fillmore.  'Wheels of Fire' went to number sixteen in Norway; three in the UK; and number one in Australia, Canada, and the US, becoming the first ever platinum selling double-album.   Despite the record's huge success, the band was ready to call it quits.  Baker reveals:   "It just got to the point where Eric said to me: 'I've had enough of this,' and I said so have I. I couldn't stand it. The last year with Cream was just agony. It damaged my hearing permanently, and today I've still got a hearing problem because of the sheer volume throughout the last year of Cream. But it didn't start off like that. In 1966, it was great. It was really a wonderful experience musically, and it just went into the realms of stupidity." 

Clapton says:  “Whistle stop touring America was the beginning of the end for Cream, because once we started constantly working in such an intense way, it became impossible to keep the music afloat and we began to drown.”

Bruce considers:   “I don’t know whether you could say I am proud of that legacy but I realise the value of the band.  Even now people still like the music we made. And I cannot distance myself from it, nor would I want to.  I’m Jack Bruce of Cream just like Paul McCartney is Paul McCartney of The Beatles. I’m not ashamed of what I did with that band.  Put it this way: we wrote some nifty little pop songs. That’s music that I wrote for Cream but I know people would be quite disappointed if I didn’t dip into it from time to time.”





http://www.ericclapton.com/



http://www.jackbruce.com/



http://www.gingerbaker.com/








'White Room' stationed itself at number twenty-eight in the UK and number six in the US.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKyGn_uxkPU





'Crossroads' flagged a ride to number twenty-eight in the US and thirteen in Canada.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=becWr0vc6cA





'Anyone for Tennis' appears on some versions of the album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB2f6-U72Zk











'Wheels of Fire' 
full album:



Disc One: In the Studio
01 00:00 "White Room" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) 4:58
02 04:59 "Sitting on Top of the World" (Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon; arr. Chester Burnett) 4:58
03 09:57 "Passing the Time" (Ginger Baker, Mike Taylor) 4:37
04 14:29 "As You Said" (Bruce, Brown) 4:20
05 18:50 "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (Baker, Taylor) 3:13
06 22:05 "Politician" (Bruce, Brown) 4:12
07 26:18 "Those Were the Days" (Baker, Taylor) 2:53
08 29:13 "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Booker T. Jones, William Bell) 3:09
09 32:24 "Deserted Cities of the Heart" (Bruce, Brown) 3:38

Disc two: Live at the Fillmore
10 36:02 "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson, arr. Clapton) 10 March 1968 at Winterland  4:13
11 40:17 "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon) 10 March 1968 at Winterland  16:43
12 57:02 "Traintime" (Bruce) 8 March 1968 at Winterland  7:01
13 01:04:02 "Toad" (Baker) 7 March 1968 at The Fillmore 16:15