And Clapton Didn't Even Know

Um...McVie also played in the Bluesbreakers with Clapton, no?

I'll have to listen to Change of the Century again to fully appreciate this. I know Cream's live playing pretty well and I think they had few equals--probably none in their time. A few years later the Mahavishnu Orchestra kicked up a similar amount of dust, but there were five of them and the bass player stuck to the bassics.

Marty, McVie is on the cover and on the record: The band on this album includes Mayall on piano, Hammond organ, harmonica and most vocals; bassist John McVie; drummer Hughie Flint; and Clapton. Augmenting the band on this album was a horn section added during post-production[citation needed], with Alan Skidmore, Johnny Almond, and Derek Healey (misrepresented on the sleeve as 'Dennis Healey'). (from Wikipedia)

Oops, sorry Marty--I didn't read subsequent posts before re-posting!

That may be true--however, the music discussed here is from the 60s. His addiction was in the 70s.