Cream
The Farewell Tour 1968

THE REVIEW

The Farewell Tour of '68 was the last one that Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce did together as Cream (excluding later reunions). This bootleg is the recording of one of those 22 concerts, the one at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles. Nine tracks, basically all the Cream classics, beautifully elongated and spread over just over an hour and a quarter of total CD duration. The performance is perhaps a bit imprecise, let's be clear, not that they play badly, they are still three masters in their respective roles, let's say there's some minor mistakes here and there, some imperfections, technically these are not the best Cream, they appear a bit distracted in some moments, not very focused, perhaps with their minds already projected towards their future adventures, and probably under the influence of some strange stuff, surely a bit tipsy. But to counterbalance this, there is tremendous energy, the sound is robust and dirty enough, the performance is very muscular, in short, they seem to play more with their gut than their head, visceral, spontaneous, sincere. They show once again that they are comfortable with long instrumental solos and the usual inventiveness at an improvisational level. Guitar, Bass, and Drums in continuous challenge, the most demonic blues that flows into hard rock and psychedelia.

The record gives its best in the sequence of the first three tracks, the concert's attack is relentless, with a captivating and wild "White Room," at the start of which there seems to be a small cut, then the historic cover "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson), and then reaching the pinnacle already at the third track, one of the most famous riffs ever, "Sunshine of Your Love" with Clapton's guitar taking center stage. Jack Bruce's frenzied harmonica characterizes the subsequent "Traintime," while "Toad" gives Baker's virtuoso percussionism the leading role. Another homage to old Blues is the very elongated "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon), followed by "I'm so Glad," never much loved by the one writing here, and by a very heavy "Politician" that seems to anticipate the gloomy and distorted style and sound of Black Sabbath. It ends with another old famous blues standard "Sitting on the Top of the World" obviously reworked by the three in their own way. Framing the performance is a very warm audience and generally a fun and festive atmosphere, despite it being a farewell tour.

This is just one of the many records that testify how hard rock was present on stages already a few years before its official debut on record (LED ZEPPELIN, 1969), and confirms the important pioneering role played by Cream in the genre.

The sound of the recording is good, not crystal clear, after all, it is a bootleg, but the three instruments and the vocals come through distinctly. The upper part of the CD looks like a small vinyl and is enclosed in a simple cardboard case, but charming in its simplicity. If you like heavy blues and the instrumental improvisation typical of Cream, but I would say common to much of the music of that period, then consider giving it a thought, you might like it.