cream - Disraeli Gears

1967

Track Listing                                                  

1. Strange brew                                      7. Swlabr   

2. Sunshine of your love                         8. We're going wrong

3. World of pain                                       9. Outside woman blues

4. Dance the night away                         10. Take it back                            

5. Blue condition                                     11. Mother's lament                                        

6. Tales of brave Ulysses

Band Members   

Jack Bruce - Bass, Harmonica, vocals       Ginger Baker - Drums, percussion vocals                                

Eric Clapton - Guitar, vocals                            Produced By :  Felix Pappalardi

Notes

Released one year after their debut, Cream proved that they were a band of great originality and their debut was not just a one hit wonder.  Disraeli Gears includes two of Cream's biggest hits, "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of your love."  "Tales of Brave Ulysses" is also a fan favorite in which the lyrics of the song were written by Martin Sharp, who also designed the cover.  The band's next album would contain one of their biggest hits "White Room" which sounds quite similar to Ulysses, yet White room is more popular.  This album is not as bluesy as their debut however it has much more of a psychedelic feel to it.  The album was initially going to be named Cream, but then came up with the title based on a story that happened with the band.  Clapton was interested in purchasing a racing bicycle and one of their roadies, Mick Taylor commented on the performance of the "Disraeli Gears" meaning to say derailleur gears, which is a type of bicycle transmission.  The band though this was hilarious and decided to name the album after this.  Gears was named 112th best album of all time according to Rolling Stone and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard pop charts.

Recommendations

If you enjoyed their first album then you should enjoy this one.  This is a classic 1960's record that really isn't loaded with hits, but has some nice blues, psychedelic groves, and some deep tracks.  Based on that, and the fact that one of the biggest hits of the 60's (Sunshine of your love) can be found here, should be enough to convince you to own it.

If you plan on purchasing Disraeli Gears

There are several releases of this album.  Many of them are imports, but there are two versions that you need to consider when making this purchase.  The version I won is the 1998 remastered version which includes all the original tracks remastered, it sounds great and is inexpensive.  The other version would be the deluxe edition that includes both a mono and stereo version and additional bonus tracks and outtakes.  This deluxe edition is nice for a hardcore fan of the band and the album, but for the price you may be better off with the 1998 remastered version.  The choice is yours.  There is also a VH1 Classic albums DVD of this album, which I highly recommend if you are a fan of the album.  You can purchase all of these at Cdnow.com.

If you don't plan on purchasing Disraeli Gears but want to hear some tracks from it

If your passing this up you are totally missing out on some good tunes.  "Strange brew" and "Sunshine of your love" are must owns for your library.  I recommended my entire top 5 and then some, so your best bet would be to purchase the album.  If you're still not interested you can check out Itunes or Napster to download any of these tracks.  Fore more suggestions check out my ideal compilation for the band at my Cream Home Page. 

My Top 5