1966-1968 Bbc Sessions [Best of]

BBC SESSIONS collects fourteen months worth of Cream's
appearances on BBC Radio and incorporates both pop songs
from the famous trio's repertoire, as well as a nice
collection of the blues covers that allowed them to
take off into the lengthy live improvisations for which
they became so well known.

Even without the material on BBC SESSIONS, Cream's notable
career as a strong concert attraction has been pretty well
documented, including two sides of live cuts on WHEELS OF
FIRE, two CREAM LIVE albums, and selected tracks from GOODBYE
and half of the THOSE WERE THE DAYS box set. And that's not
counting the farewell concert at Albert Hall on video, a number
of television appearances, and, of course, the reunion shows from
2005.

Although it's understandable that some Cream fans may find the
sound on BBC SESSIONS lacking, it's good enough for the kind of
material that Clapton, Baker, and Bruce were playing. There isn't
much brightness or a sense of immediacy communicated, however, and
one could be forgiven for wondering why that is, given the quality
of Cream's official in-concert recordings.

One of the nice things about BBC SESSIONS is that there are a few
songs included in its contents that were not often featured in
contemporaneous Cream concerts' set-lists. Numbers such as Wrapping
Paper, I Feel Free, SWALBR, and Take it Back don't represent the
peak of the band's abilities, but they are interesting digressions
nonetheless. The version of Politician on SESSIONS includes some
different lyrics not heard on other iterations of the song.

Host Brian Matthew gushing introductions for numbers by "the
fantastic" Cream will strike some listeners as unprofessional
and the fact that Eric Clapton is the only member of the group
to be heard in interview clips is a head-scratcher, too. John
McDermott's notes are informative, with details about the programs
that Cream guested on, complete with broadcast dates. The photos
included in the booklet for BBC SESSIONS do not seem to be from
the band's visits to the BBC.

The record executives don't seem to realize that to fans music isn't a consumer product, it's art (work is because you have to, art is because you want to) For the first time The Cream BBC sessions are available legally, and this is a wonderful thing...because Cream was the kind of band who's really ment to be heard in a live, raw, raunchy, and improvised manner. This album gives a casual listener the chance to be exposed that scratch and pop warmth and genious and serves as a great mounting platform for getting into the legendary bootlegs of this band, 15 minute jams, and all. The songs on this album are concise by comparison, but they paint and exceptionally accurate picture of what this band was about. So here's your first taste of real streetlegal Cream. Get addicted.

I bought this CD in store because of the shear number of tracks on it and I wanted to get a good taste of this band after liking Sunshine of Your Love on Internet radio. Now this stuff is way before my time and I'm more of a Nirvana/Led Zeppelin person, but I wasn't disappointed. I don't listen to this CD everyday like I do others, but this CD is definately good; songs like Tales of Brave Uylesses and Sunshine of Your Love are excellent, and Sweet Wine and Wrapping Paper are really nice. It's interesting to see what they called blues back then and is now very obviously classic rock. If you like classic rock, you'll like this, but I don't recommed this to any die-hard Green Day fans or anything.