I Feel Free was the first Cream song I ever heard. I was immediately impressed. Like quite a few of Cream’s early songs its lyric was written by Pete Brown who died recently.

Cream: I Feel Free

I remember Brown more though for his perhaps unforgettably named band Pete Brown and Piblokto! who were responsible for one of the longest album titles in pop history, their first, Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever  (though it wasn’t quite as long as this one.)

This is the B-side of Piblokto!’s second single.

Pete Brown and Piblokto!: Broken Magic

Peter Ronald (Pete) Brown: 25/12/1940 – 19/5/2023. So it goes.

As I’m sure everyone knows by now, the man credited with changing rock drumming for ever, Ginger Baker, died earlier this week.

He first came to my attention as part of Cream, the so-called first supergroup. I somehow didn’t notice their first single, Wrapping Paper, when it came out, but caught them on Top of the Pops with their second, I Feel Free. Then came Strange Brew and the other songs from Disraeli Gears.

I have already featured their imperious Badge, from 1969.

This track from Wheels of Fire, shows off Ginger’s drumming.

Cream: White Room

Peter Edward “Ginger” Baker: 19/8/1939 – 6/10/2019. So it goes.

And today it was Jack Bruce. I heard him on the radio about six months ago promoting a new album and while he sounded a bit fragile he didn’t seem to be ill. Sad.

I remember Cream from the rather unCream-like Wrapping Paper on through I Feel Free to Badge which was no 15 in my “Friday on my Mind” category.

Bruce’s bass playing is more to the fore on this song.

Cream: Sunshine of Your Love

John Symon Asher (Jack) Bruce, 14/5/1943 – 25/10/2014. So it goes.

Every time I hear this song it takes me back to the Church Hall in Dumbarton and the youth club I used to go to.

I suggested it to the guy in charge of putting the records on. He asked if it was any good. It was.

It is.

The guitar riff at the start of the break is similar to the one in You Never Give Me Your Money (repeated in Carry That Weight) from that great medley of songs on side two of The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Not surprising since George Harrison had a hand in Badge’s conception and he and Eric Clapton often worked together.

Cream: Badge

Later edited to add: the line about “the swans that they live in the park” was apparently thought up by one Ringo Starr.