170. Cream, "Disraeli Gears"

 


Oh, fine, I guess.  I've already said my piece about Eric fucking Clapton, who is a huge asshole, so let's just move on to this extremely classic rock slab of super derivative blues rock mixed with the burgeoning psychedelia of the era.  (I don't say "derivative" for nothing - even Clapton admitted lifting an Albert King solo note for note on "Strange Brew.")  This is the kind of album that feels important even though it's mostly a dud.  In successive versions of the List, it's fallen from 112 to 114 to now 170.  Maybe we can get it down to the 300s by next time.

Let's get this out of the way: the first two songs, "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of Your Love" are classic rock staples, songs everyone who's ever smoked Tampico ditch weed out of a Coke can knows by heart.  This includes me, btw.  I was thinking about why "Sunshine" in particular is so memorable, and of course it's that guitar riff, because it's sure not the lyrics.  In fact, all the lyrics on this album are pretty terrible.  From the aptly named "World of Pain":

Outside my window is a tree
Outside my window is a tree
There only for me
And it stands in the grey of the city
No time for pity, for the tree or me
There is a world of pain
In the falling rain
Around me

Not great.  The song itself isn't anything to write home about either.  And of songs titled "Dance the Night Away," Van Halen has the better one.  

On the other hand, "SWLABR" (an acronym for "she walks like a bearded rainbow," puke) is a decent blues-psych jam, with a nice Jack Bruce vocal.  And the band's cover of "Outside Woman Blues" is fine, with some, I must begrudgingly admit, great guitar work by Jerkface.  It's followed by "Take It Back," a pretty much straight-up fast blues songs that turns out to be one of the better tracks on the album.

Look, I get that this album is a classic and stuff and I think it's one of those things where it seemed a lot more important 30 or 40 years ago but now it just seems kind of tired and played out.  There are even much better albums from 1967, the year this was released.  And not just Sgt. Pepper's!  You could cut out the middleman and go straight to the source, since Albert King's Born Under a Bad Sign came out in '67.  And Their Satanic Majesties Request.  And Something Else by The Kinks.  All more interesting albums.  So let's give this album a nice cup of tea and put it to bed and listen to something better.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Fine, as long as I don't have to listen to it again

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