Cream Disraeli Gears CD

The remastered DISRAELI GEARS is also available in its entirety on the 4 disc set THOSE WERE THE DAYS.
Cream: Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals); Jack Bruce (bass, vocals, harmonica); Ginger Baker (drums, vocals).
Recorded at Atlantic Studios, New York, New York in May 1967.
Personnel: Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar); Jack Bruce (vocals, harmonica, keyboards); Ginger Baker (vocals, drums).
Audio Remasterer: Joseph M. Palmaccio.
Illustrator: Martin Sharp.
Photographer: Bob Whitaker.
Arranger: Robert Stigwood.
Cream teamed up with producer Felix Pappalardi for their second album, Disraeli Gears, a move that helped push the power trio toward psychedelia and also helped give the album a thematic coherence missing from the debut. This, of course, means that Disraeli Gears gets further away from the pure blues improvisatory troupe they were intended to be, but it does get them to be who they truly are: a massive, innovative power trio. The blues still courses throughout Disraeli Gears -- the swirling kaleidoscopic "Strange Brew" is built upon a riff lifted from Albert King -- but it's filtered into saturated colors, as it is on "Sunshine of Your Love," or it's slowed down and blurred out as it is on the ominous murk of "Tales of Brave Ulysses." It's a pure psychedelic move that's spurred along by Jack Bruce's flourishing collaboration with Pete Brown. Together, this pair steers this album away from recycled blues-rock and toward its eccentric British core, for with the fuzzy freak-out "Swlabr," the music hall flourishes of "Dance the Night Away," the swinging "Take It Back," and of course, the schoolboy singalong "Monther's Lament," this is a very British record. Even so, this crossed the ocean and became a major hit in America as well, because for no matter how whimsical certain segments are, Cream is still a heavy rock trio and Disraeli Gears is a quintessential heavy rock album of the '60s. Yes, its psychedelic trappings tie it forever to 1967, but the imagination of the arrangements, the strength of the compositions, and especially the force of the musicianship make this album transcend its time as well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Recorded in the U.S. in a three-and-a-half day flurry of inspired activity before the band members' visas expired, DISRAELI GEARS continued to present the legendary, unprecedented rock power-trio acrobatics pioneered by Cream on their debut FRESH CREAM. The acronymic "SWLABR (She Walked Like a Bearded Rainbow)" for instance, featured some of the band's most fiery instrumental interplay. The album, with its eye-catching day-glo cover, was produced by Felix Pappalardi (who went on to co-found the Cream-inspired Mountain) and once again featured collaborations between singer/bassist Jack Bruce and lyric poet Pete Brown. The Top Five hit "Sunshine Of Your Love," however, was written by Brown and Eric Clapton. That iconic riff-rocker, along with the slinky, bluesy "Strange Brew," and the mythographic, wah-wah stomper "Tales of Brave Ulysses" was a staple of rock radio forever after, making DISRAELI GEARS one of the seminal '60s rock albums. Despite the good humor suggested by the jokey a capella reading of "Mother's Lament," however, all was far from peace and love in the Cream camp at the time, as internal and external pressures broke up the band by the end of 1968.Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.124) - Ranked #112 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[C]olorful, concise songs..."
Uncut (p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 - "The album was a huge, Top 5 success on both sides of the Atlantic, transforming the shape of rock music, which still draws deeply on its power-trio innovations."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.122) - 3 stars out of 5 - "With its perfect Martin Sharp sleeve and disciplined performances, DISRAELI GEARS was always Cream's best record. It remains so..."