Have you ever noticed that for a lot of music groups their first album is their best? I always think of Bad Company, and how great their first album was and then they went into a continuing decline. You can probably substitute a group or recording artist of your own choice and make the same point. I think the explanation for why that is often the case is when most groups sign a recording contract they have two or three albums worth of material that they perform at their gigs. They pull the best songs for the first album and then they are left with the leftovers. When the debut album of the Doors was a success Elektra rushed out "Strange Days" as their second album and while there were some great tracks, most of what is on that album was pretty forgettable. Clearly, the Doors went on to enjoy success whereas Bad Company did not.

I mention all this because it strikes me that "Disraeli Gears" is arguably one of the best second albums of all time. "Fresh Cream," the first album that Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker put out as Cream was pretty good. It had "I Feel Free," "I'm So Glad," and Clapton showing his guitar mastery on Willie Dixon's "Spoonful." Building on such success most groups trying to provide more of the same, but the premier power trio of the Sixties decided to alter course slightly and influence the artistic blues over any commercial pop sensibilities. My memory is that "Sunshine of Your Love" was the song that announced Cream with authority to the masses, at least as far as I was concerned. When I put in my quarter for five songs in the jukebox at that point in the history of the universe that song would usually be one of the five. The song made it to #5 in 1968 and part of me says that was because a lot of people were just skipping the 45 and going straight for this album, which made it to #4.

You can reduce a Cream song to its three elements: Clapton's blues guitar riffs, Bruce's heavy bass lines, and Baker's eclectic works on the drums. But the songs certainly do not sound all the same. "Strange Brew" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses" show how much range Cream had in setting up Clapton's guitar solos. "Swlabr" is the final member of the album's most recognizable quartet, with "Dance the Night Away" the track that you might not have heard before if all you listen to are hits collections that will stand out when you listen to the entire album. It shows that Cream was willing to venture into psychadelic music a little bit, but do not ask me to explain why the final track, the a cappella "Mother's Lament," is there, because my best guess is the lads wanted one track on the album their mums and dads would recognize (and tolerate).

If you work through the Cream albums in order, you can see how "Disraeli Gears" gets us from "Fresh Cream" to "Wheels of Fire." This 1967 album clearly told the world what is obvious now, that this trio was going to follow their individual and collective Muses wherever the path might lead. But what I find interesting is that while Clapton had a hand in writing three of the four best songs on the album that did not inspire him to greater creativity as a songwriter. At this point he was apparently content to simply play his guitar and there was nobody who was going to suggest he should do anything else. That is why with Clapton it only gets better and better.

This may be heresy to some people, but Disraeli Gears is the best rock album of 1967. Yes, I even think it's better than Sgt.Peppers by the Beatles! The only albums of the 60's that I like as much as this are the Moody Blues "On the threshold of a dream", "Led Zeppelin II", "Abbey Road" by the Beatles, and the Moody Blues "Days of future passed". This is not nearly as bluesy as "Fresh Cream", but it's got more good songs than that one does. I won't mention the two main hits because everybody knows those epic tracks, but the tunes that I like best are "SWLABR", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "Dance the night away", "World of pain", "Take it back", and "Blue Condition". I don't have this remastered version, but have the first issue from the 80's, and it sounds just right sonically to me. This is the only Cream album that I ever liked totally, but each album had at least a handful of good tunes. Enjoy!!!

1967. The days of psychadelia. Back in the day where EVERYBODY had a psychadelic record out (Even the Stones, unfortunately). Cream came out with theirs, and I must say it's pretty good--for the most part.
Strange Brew...whoa. Great track, great harmonies, great guitar...yeah. Sunshine of Your Love...classic stuff. Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton duel on the vocals, and of course there's that riff, up there with riffs of Jumpin' Jack Flash and Stairway to Heaven in terms of recognizability. Things slow down a bit with the strange psychadelia World of Pain, then pick up with Dance the Night Away, a real drugged-out tune, but in a good way. Let us not speak of Ginger Baker's worthless, annoying Blue Condition, which is close to unlistenable.
Next up, another one-two punch: Tales of Brave Ulysses and SWLABR (She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow...yeah). The former a psychadelic mythological track that predates Zeppelin by a decade, the latter a psychadelic hard rocker about (probably) drugs. Both great tunes! We're Going Wrong is also good, but not as good as the previous tunes.
Sadly, it's all downhill from here. They could've picked a lot better of a blues tune than Outside Woman Blues to cover. As for Take It Back, all I have to say is, "Get that thing right out of here!" Lastly, there's one of the dumbest songs Cream ever recorded; Mother's Lament. This has got to be a joke!
Oh well.