Released April 1970 (1970-04) | Length 41:51 Release date April 1970 | |
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Recorded May 1967 at Atlantic Studios, New York City7 March 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, California9 and 10 March 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco, California Similar Cream albums, Blues rock albums | ||
Cream live cream full album
Live Cream (also called Live Cream, Volume 1) is a live compilation album by the British rock band Cream, released in 1970. This album comprises four live tracks recorded in 1968 and one studio track "Lawdy Mama" from 1967. The instrumental track for "Lawdy Mama" is the same as heard on "Strange Brew" with a different vocal and guitar solo by Eric Clapton.
Contents
- Cream live cream full album
- Cream live cream ii 1 deserted cities of the heart
- Critical reception
- Track listing
- CD version track listing
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
Live Cream hit No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and made No. 4 on the UK Top 40.
Cream live cream ii 1 deserted cities of the heart
Critical reception
In a 1970 review, Rolling Stone magazine called Live Cream "an excellent album" and "well-recorded, controlled, and tense; the timing of the band can capture the listener with an excitement that has nothing to do with nostalgia". Paul Kresh of Stereo Review called it "a strangely uneven set of performances" highlighted by the "studio-made" "Lawdy Mama", which he called "three minutes of truly exciting music." He described the album as "disappointing jazz/rock" with excellent recording and stereo quality, particularly "superb" remixing by Adrian Barber, and felt that the longer tracks "suffer from interludes of aimlessness", but are generally "very good".
In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Bruce Eder gave Live Cream four out of five stars and said that it "could well be their most consistently brilliant album for sheer musicianship", despite only featuring songs from Cream's "least ambitious and most rudimentary album" Fresh Cream (1966). Eder found the group's interplay throughout the jams "fascinating" and asserted that "performances like this single-handedly raised the stakes of musicianship in rock." However, Robert Christgau gave the album a "C+" and said that, despite side one's "unmistakable and attractive" intensity, he prefers "Clapton's graceful picking on Fresh Cream's 'Sleepy Time Time' over the flat-out distortions here". J. D. Considine, writing in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), gave it two out of five stars and wrote that both Live Cream and its second volume are "muddled leftovers released solely to cash in on the band's enduring popularity."
Track listing
- "N.S.U." (Jack Bruce) – 10:15
- Recorded 10 March 1968, Winterland, San Francisco.
- "Sleepy Time Time" (Bruce, Janet Godfrey) – 6:52
- Recorded 9 March 1968, Winterland, San Francisco.
- "Lawdy Mama" (Traditional, arr. Eric Clapton) – 2:46
- Recorded May 1967, Atlantic Studios, New York City.
- "Sweet Wine" (Ginger Baker, Godfrey) – 15:16
- Recorded 10 March 1968, Winterland, San Francisco.
- "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (McKinley Morganfield) – 6:42
- Recorded 7 March 1968, The Fillmore, San Francisco.
CD version track listing
- "N.S.U." (Bruce) – 10:15
- "Sleepy Time Time" (Bruce, Godfrey) – 6:49
- "Sweet Wine" (Baker, Godfrey) – 15:16
- "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Morganfield) – 6:42
- "Hey Lawdy Mama" (Traditional) – 2:48
Personnel
Per liner notes
Songs
1Sleepy Time Time
2Lawdy Mama
3Sweet Wine - Part 1