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Rating: Sometimes it happens that a band, due to contractual obligations, is forced to release material dug up from its past or previously discarded, to create albums that are most often mediocre (certainly better than finding bonus tracks after the original tracklist. There's no better way to ruin an album).
This has also happened to the greats of rock and roll, take Led Zeppelin with "Coda," AC/DC with "'74 Jailbreak," the Beatles with "Let It Be" (the exception that proves the rule, one of the few posthumous albums that still contains Songs, note the capital S) ...and also to Cream, who in 1969 managed to release, when there was nothing left of them but the name, an album with an emblematic title: "Goodbye."
The total songs are 6, with the remastered version also featuring a bonus track. To convey to the reader the scantiness of the work, lasting just under 30 minutes, the first 20 minutes are occupied by three tracks from previous albums recorded live: "I'm So Glad," "Politician," and "Sitting On The Top Of The World."
At least the recordings are of good quality and remind us how much these three together could accomplish in the jams spiced with the endless solos of "slow hand," with a bass played at extremely high volumes, a sort of second guitar, and a drummer with a style all his own, the soul of the group.
The remaining tracks, on the other hand, are previously unpublished pieces and include the beautiful "Badge," a pop song sung by Clapton and composed together with George Harrison, who plays rhythm guitar here, "Doing That Scrapyard Thing," reminiscent of psychedelia, and "What a Bringdown," another piece that could have fit perfectly on "Wheels Of Fire." As mentioned, the CD version also includes a bonus track, "Anyone for Tennis," previously released as a single and nevertheless enjoyable.
Overall, it can be considered an album for completists, which nevertheless contains absolutely enjoyable tracks; certainly not the most important record in their discography, which includes many other masterpieces.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Badge (02:47)
Thinkin' 'bout the times you drove in my car.
Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far.
And I'm thinkin' 'bout the love that you laid on my table.
I told you not to wander 'round in the dark.
I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.
Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down.
Don't you notice how the wheel goes 'round?
And you better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down,
Yes, before they bring the curtain down.
Talkin' 'bout a girl that looks quite like you.
She didn't have the time to wait in the queue.
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.
05 Doing That Scrapyard Thing (03:18)
by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown
When I was young they gave me a mongrel piano,
Spent all my time inventing the cup of tea.
Writing your name in the sea,
Banging my favorite head.
Missing the last bed, waving the cheery herring,
Balancing brass bands on the tip of my toe.
Phoning your home from a tree,
Drinking my favorite loch.
When I was old they gave me a model factory,
I met three salads out on the motorway.
Leaving your name at the door,
Breaking my favorite egg.
Missing the walrus, sharing my last banana,
Balancing zeppelins on the end of my nose.
Calling your name in the zoo,
Blowing my favorite mind.
06 What a Bringdown (03:57)
by Ginger Baker
Dainties in a jam-jar, parson's colour in the sky.
Water in a fountain doesn't get me very high.
Moby Dick and Albert making out with Captain Bligh.
So you know what you know in your head.
Will you, won't you, do you, don't you know when a head's dead?
What a bringdown!
Winter leader Lou is grownin' 'Ampsteads in the North.
Betty B's been wearin' daisies since the twenty-fourth.
Wears a gunner when there's one more coming forth.
And you know what you know in your head.
Will you, won't you, do you, don't you wanna go to bed?
What a bringdown!
There's a tea-leaf about in the family,
Full of nothin' their fairy tale.
There's a tea-leaf a-floatin' now for Rosalie,
They'll believe in ding-dong bell.
Take a butchers at the dodginesses of old Bill.
Aristotle's orchestra are living on the pill.
One of them gets very very prickly when he's ill.
And you know what you know in your head.
Will you, won't you, do you, don't you wanna make more bread?
What a bringdown!
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