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The first Power Trio and the first Supergroup

posted 2 years ago by R_Kane (15828)
1 reply | jump to latest

As such, Cream created an entirely new genre in rock ‘roll. I may be off on this. Traffic was a Supergroup. Steve Winwood was a frigging genius. The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Allen Cooper was another supergroup. I respect and enjoy them all. Something very special happens when truly great musicians jam together. My father played trumpet in The Dorsey Brothers’ orchestra. Their front singer was Doris Day, who at that time was the biggest star in the world, doing singing and romcom movies with guys like, y’know, Clark fucking Gable. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. Dad told me, “When you’re playing with somebody THAT GOOD, you don’t bring your A game. You bring your A+ game.”

In Cream, we had 2 of the indisputably finest musicians of their kind: Jack Bruce on bass, Ginger Baker on drums. Was Eric Clapton indisputably the best rock guitarist? There’s a lot of dispute about that and all of it valid. I favor Jimi Hendrix. Hell, Carlos Santana. Then there is Jimmy Page, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells. Django Reinhardt. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Let’s not overlook Mr. Chuck Berry. Absent Chuck Berry, I doubt there would ever have been any garage band. I concede that is an overstatement, but I want to emphasize his massive importance. The Chuck Berry change-down is to rock ‘n roll what the blowjob is to porn. It provides the launching pad for an AMAZING performance. DAD-AH- Datta, DAD-Ah-Datta, DAD-Ah-WANG-WANG-WANGWANG-WANGWANGWANG” and then you soar into an Alvin Lee or Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy page or your kid’s garage band solo.

[–] ccr1633 (1411) 2 years ago

Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are the only two rock guitarists whose playing occasionally seems superhuman. The wild creative energy in "White Room" and "Voodoo Chile," among others, dazzles me every time I hear it. One night I was driving around listening to Derek and the Dominoes when suddenly the song "Keep on Growing" hit me like a thunderbolt. Previously I hadn't paid much attention to it, but on this night I finally noticed Clapton's inspired multi-tracking. He must have dubbed in at least 3 different guitar lines, any of which you could choose to tune into at any moment, which together create an energy of synergistic genius that maybe even eclipses Hendrix. I once thought in such lofty terms about Jimmy Page, but Clapton and Hendrix are the two guitar gods that sit on the throne at the pantheon.