Run Laughing Through Your Fingers: Best Cream Song

voted "Strange Brew". there's something about the production/arrangement on that song.

lol I made my English Lit. class listen to "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in middle school. teacher wasn't impressed at all ("This has nothing to do with the story of Ulysses").

I kept reminding myself to include "Wrapping Paper," their first single

god i LOVE "Wrapping Paper". the singing on these songs is so nice and rare, you don't often hear this kind of crooning in rock, esp the psychedelic kind.

XP When I was a senior in high school, we got brand new English Lit. textbooks. To provide the illusion of 'hipness', a number of song lyrics were included w/questions about themes etc. "ToBU" was one of them (the only other one I remember was "Not A Pretty Girl" by Ani DiFranco).

this band kind of sucks. the scope of their popularity at their peak has always seemed weird to me. their recorded output is several steps below the other giants of the era imo. shit I wouldn't even rate them above the Small Faces

What's that supposed to mean, the Small Faces were great!

The Airplane comparison up top is apt for me

And me, I don't like them much either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB2f6-U72Zk

found this silly video of Cream promoting a non-album track on Smothers Brothers. lol they all look like they wish they were somewhere else

the Small Faces *were* great! Better than Cream! Not as good as the Kinks/Beatles/Stones/Floyd/Who but close. I'd say they're second tier along w the Hollies, Zombies. Cream is like third tier. Airplane are bottom of the barrel, however.

"Pay You Back with Interest" is great, but most of the time the Hollies are slightly less exciting than shuffleboard. Ranking them with, much less ahead of, Cream and the Jefferson Airplane is really bizarre to me.

Had never heard "Anyone for Tennis" until a couple of years ago (via that clip)--absolutely love it.

nah - King Midas in Reverse, Bus Stop, Carrie Anne, You Need Love, Dear Eloise - so many great singles. And they could sing. Nobody in Cream can sing for shit. Nobody in Airplane can sing for shit either for that matter, the sound of Grace Jones' voice drives me up the wall, so terrible.

xp

Marty Balin had arguably the most soulful white voice of the sixties. You've clearly thought this through very carefully, though, so I cede the floor to you.

we can argue about Marty Balin instead if you want, altho I kinda don't care who the "most soulful white voice of the sixties" was wtf kind of criteria is that

I don't have a problem with Cream at all, but I'd take the collected work of Small Faces over the collected work of Cream in a heartbeat.

I went through a Cream phase when I was 12 (only had an '80s best-of) and again about 20 years later (the morning after being disgusted with the blandness of all the bands at a hardcore show, I went out and bought all the Cream records). The long jams are obviously hit-or-miss; the shorter ones work exponentially better ("I'm So Glad" on Goodbye, in particular), but none of them approach Hendrix- or Who-like intensity (the Who's long jams of that time were decidedly more daring, though poorly recorded).

There's some great moments though: I always loved the garageyness of "Cat's Squirrel," "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" is charming and groovy, and "Toad" minus the awful solo is super heavy.

Voted "Badge," and yeah, I vastly prefer the Small Faces, too. And the Ginger Baker doc is entertaining, but jeez, what an overrated grump.

ha yeah Baker is a charming asshole but his recorded output is not that impressive imo. I do like that record he did w Fela.

Nobody in Airplane can sing for shit either for that matter, the sound of Grace Jones' voice drives me up the wall, so terrible

Would *love* to hear Grace Jones sing "White Rabbit" and other Airplane cuts

haha yes me too lol

looooooool

'Slave to the Rabbit'

heh

Fwiw, I remember enjoying the Ginger Baker's Air Force stuff that I heard. Not essential stuff, but still worth a listen.

Yeah, the one Air Force record I heard was ok. I think if he'd been able to keep a band together, he could've done some interesting things.

And the Ginger Baker doc is entertaining, but jeez, what an overrated grump.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, February 15, 2017 6:48 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My favourite part is when he starts talking about Mick Jagger... "I said 'Jack, who is this little cunt?'" or something like that.

Fair comment though.

I liked Baker's trio album with Bill Frisell and Charlie Haden, but I should give it another listen in case I'm looking back on it too fondly.

Went with Brave Ulysses--I regret nothing

wtf kind of criteria is that

It's not really confusing. It means he was white, and he was essentially a folk singer, and he was unusually soulful as such. Think Christgau made the same observation. But I'm not sure whether Christgau ranks above or below "noted political social scientist greil marcus" on your contempt scale.

the combo of "soulful", "white" and "sixties" implied that there was some qualitative racial signifiers/aesthetics involved (ie "white guy that was best at impersonating a black guy") but ok. leaving aside the fact of Balin's ethnicity, I wouldn't put him anywhere near a list of top 60s male singers, regardless of genre, but then my tastes run more to the guys that could really harmonize (Bee Gees, Beatles, Beach Boys) on the one hand, and R&B shouters (Otis, Righteous Bros, Sam Cooke of course) on the other

Balin and Slick were horrible screechers. I think of the Airplane as a good instrumental band that constantly had a couple of idiots rushing the stage and "helping."

Jefferson Creamplane

Kantner was worse than both (xp)

Screaming Trees 1987 on KXLU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ__x3f3leA

What gets me is, Baker is always complaining about how he didn't make much money out of Cream and resenting Bruce for forming the Bruce/Brown songwriting partnership, but the reality is that Baker has quite a fair amount of songwriting credits for Cream... he just didn't happen to write the hits (although he still thinks he should have got a credit for the 5/4 bolero on 'White Room' ... and thinking about it, aren't 'Tales of Brave Ulysses' and 'White Room' almost the same song!?)

Pete Brown certainly lucked out.

the combo of "soulful", "white" and "sixties" implied that there was some qualitative racial signifiers/aesthetics involved (ie "white guy that was best at impersonating a black guy") but ok.

Believe me, you're reading far too much into the comment. I think Marty Balin has a incredibly beautiful voice on "Come Up the Years," "Today," "Saturday Afternoon," songs like that. Try to imagine that statement without the qualifier: "Marty Balin had arguably the most soulful voice of the sixties"--I'm thinking that might have been greeted with a mountain of ridicule. I brought in Christgau because your "wtf" made me bristle, like I'd just said something beyond the pale or something.

your elision of race here is really weird

like you use a racially loaded phrase but then disavow any racially loaded implications they may have had. My whole issue with your statement is the "most soulful white" construct, hence my wtf

also the singing on Saturday Afternoon is terrible god the off-key caterwauling and slapdash harmonizing/poor arranging blech

I think it's equally weird when you start parsing an innocuous comment because you're looking for...I don't know what. I usually make it a rule to avoid this kind of nonsense on here, but is there something you want to say?

And there you go with that voice-of-God stuff again (why I brought up your timeless Marcus comment, my favourite ILX post ever for a variety of reasons). You don't have to agree that Cream or Jefferson Airplane were anything special--I think Tom D. began the thread by saying he had no use for Cream. It is possible to communicate that without being as aggressively obnoxious as you tend to be--for shit, for shit, wtf, etc.

why I brought up your timeless Marcus comment, my favourite ILX post ever for a variety of reasons

I have no idea what you're talking about tbh

idk how I'm not being clear about what I wanted to say...? Cream were third-rate, the Airplane were terrible. Calling Marty Balin a great singer is strange and the terms you used to defend him were odd and apparently I misconstrued them. the end.

1) I quote Marcus on the election that's about eight months out, his reasons why Trump will win no matter how many people explain why that could never happen.

2) You contemptuously dismiss what he says with your "noted political social scientist greil marcus" post--because obviously he doesn't understand things you've figured out. All that was missing was your signature "uh" or "um" that you usually begin your contemptuously dismissive posts with.

3) Skip forward eight months, the election.

No--is there something you want to say about me that's behind your careful analysis of my Marty Balin comment?

Balin rules.

I was really enjoying this thread for the first 41 posts.

Where are the specific pitch problems with "Saturday Afternoon?"

Man, Marty Balin's really getting punched in the face on this thread.

I really enjoy Balin and Slick (and even Mickey Thomas) tbh.

I wouldn't claim that Ginger Baker or Jack Bruce are great singers in any conventional sense--and truthfully, I'm not even sure who's singing on my favourite Cream songs most of the time. I would argue that the voice(s) that sing "Deserted Cities of the Heart," "White Room," "Those Were the Days," and many other songs perfectly capture the gloominess, strangeness, and sometimes sadness of those songs.

I have no memory of that greil marcus thing but sure i guess you're right he is at least as valuable re: politics as Scott Adams

Xp

I'm sure it's Clapton on 'Strange Brew', Bruce on 'Tales of Brave Ulysses' and Baker on 'Blue Condition' ...

It might be my latin blood but "white room" is for me their grooviest piece (therefore their best).

If you came to vote for "I Feel Free," just make note of it in the thread and we'll see how many votes it gets.

VOTE. Funny that for a band so identified with instrumental virtuosity, my favourite moment on my favourite song is acapella.

Ρεμπετολογια: I like both "Come on Down to My Boat" and "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight"...which doesn't negate your point about how amazing and different "Somebody to Love" would have sounded on the radio in 1967.

Give me Boyce & Hart over Cream and Jefferson Airplane any day of the week.

Kael wrote that Goodfellas' soundtrack didn't connect to its characters' lives the way Mean Streets' soundtrack did. She's right--can't see Jimmy or Tommy settling back with Disraeli Gears and a pair of headphones--and also, I think, completely missing how perfectly matched something like "Sunshine of Your Love" is to De Niro's expression at 0:41.

I think Kael's missing the point. Soundtracks don't have to be so literal; when Karen says, "Who do you think you are, Frankie Valli or some kind of big shot?" was Kael disappointed that the soundtrack didn't play "Walk Like A Man" (or maybe play it when Henry beat up Karen's neighbor)?

Like "Sunshine" in this scene, the seemingly out-of-place "Atlantis" works because it works, not because it spells out something for us about the action or the characters (although as Scorsese later revealed, "though gods they were" did in fact relate to the characters, but not in the sense that Tommy and Henry would sit around grooving to Donovan).

Totally agree. I find pop music used imaginatively as counterpoint to be every bit as effective (and often more so) than when used literally.

Badge, all the way.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Huh Badge!? Had no idea it was that popular. Interesting choice.

Had I known noone would vote for Anyone for Tennis I'd voted for that instead. I loved when my dad played that one when I was like 6.

I said I'd note "I Feel Free" votes: two for sure, and the person who noticed its absence might have been a third. (And maybe there would have been a couple more if it had been on the list.)

Thought I'd be the only "Deserted Cities of the Heart" vote; excellent drone.

I had a feeling 'Badge' was gonna take this about 10 posts into the thread. It's a great song - classic.