And Clapton Didn't Even Know
The Ornette Coleman band reference makes sense to me when listening to the simultaneous soloing on many of the Cream live tracks. Given Baker and Bruce's jazz backgrounds I would imagine that they were familiar with Coleman's work, whereas Clapton coming from a more blues/rock roots might not have been. It's interesting how musicians influence each other. BTW, Blindfaith came before Clapton's D&B gig. |
So "Music From Big Pink" saved rock? Other releases of 1968 include: - White Light/White Heat - Astral Weeks - Bookends - The White Album - Beggar's Banquet - Village Green Preservation Society - Sweetheart Of the Rodeo - We're Only In It For the Money - Truth - Electric Ladyland - Child Is the Father To Man - Cheap Thrills - Lady Soul - Traffic - James Taylor - Wheels Of Fire - Waiting For the Sun - This Was As much as I love The Band I find it hard to single out MFBP as a cornerstone album when viewed amongst this group. Over time the Velvet Underground proved far more influential and we're currently on the third generation of female singers trying to sound like Aretha (Clapton plays a track on "Lady Soul"). I would also point out that the following year (1969) saw the release of two Led Zeppelin albums and the full blown emergence of prog rock. Clearly the long guitar solo still had life post MFBP. The film documentary "Beware Of Mr. Baker" is well worth seeing. Ginger Baker is a fascinating person who's lived a crazed life. The movie provides nice insights into this period of music. |
Frogman, thanks for the video (with a clickable link). A great watch and it has made me re-evaluate "We're Going Wrong". One thing that was nice in the video was how many references there were to Bruce's vocal talents. Like B.B. King, Bruce is primarily known as an instrumentalist, but he was a marvelous vocalist. I see your point about Elvis Costello. |
Love the Linn analogy. Very inventive, but it ultimately falls short. Linn was a wonderful proponent of analog playback and was very influential, but direct drive (Technics) and non-suspended belt drive (Rega) turntables have dominated the market. Linn's now a digital company, is that like Robbie Robertson using samples and creating electronica? Totally agree with Martykl. |
We may never know exactly what Bruce truly meant with his Ornette Coleman quip, but I immediately saw the connection when I read it. I thought I knew Cream, but the quote completely blew my mind! And it's not as if they are playing Ornette, but they were on a parallel path. The standard guitar, bass and drum trio was a guitarist with a backing band and that's not what Cream was doing. Clapton obviously understood that, but he might not have known where it was coming from the way Bruce and Baker did. |
Here's a partial list of guitarist that Jack Bruce was in bands with: - John McLaughlin - Eric Clapton - Larry Coryell - Leslie West - Lou Reed - Steve Hunter - Mick Taylor - Gary Moore - Clem Clempson - Robin Trower - Allan Holdsworth - Rory Gallagher - Peter Frampton - Vernon Reid - Phil Manzanera It's an impressive list, but then again, he was Jack Bruce. |
Americana is a broad category and I would include in addition to Little Feat, Los Lobos, Nelville Brothers and The Blasters (Dave Alvin). You could also include the Mothers Of Invention, but that might be a pushing to boundary. The Band also had a somewhat unique instrumentation. It was far more common at that time period to have two guitar players, but the band instead had twin keyboard players, a pianist and an organist. I can only think of Procol Harum and Mott the Hoople having similar lineups at that time. Were there others? |
