Goodbye

Description

Cream 1966-1972 traces the rise and fall of the jam-friendly power trio, which brought Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce together for a tumultuous (yet prolific) brief run before splintering due to tension between band members. Theyve reunited periodically over the years, most recently for a series of shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2005.

Goodbye is the fourth and final studio album by the English rock band Cream. The album was released in Europe by Polydor Records and by Atco Records in the United States, debuting in Billboard on February 15, 1969. A single, Badge, was subsequently released from the album a month later. The album was released after Cream disbanded in November 1968.

Just before Creams third album, Wheels of Fire, was to be released, the groups manager Robert Stigwood announced that the group was going to disband after a farewell tour and a final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Before the start of their farewell tour in October 1968, Cream recorded three songs at IBC Studios in London with producer Felix Pappalardi and engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw. The songs Badge and Doing That Scrapyard Thing featured Eric Clapton using a Leslie speaker, while all three recordings featured keyboard instruments played by either Jack Bruce or Felix Pappalardi.

The group started their farewell tour on October 4, 1968 in Oakland, California and 15 days later on October 19, the group performed at The Forum in Los Angeles where the three live recordings on Goodbye were recorded with Felix Pappalardi and engineers Adrian Barber and Bill Halverson.

This British rock supergroup was formed in 1966 and their sound was characterized by a hybrid of blues rock, hard rock, and bourgeoning psychedelic rock as performed by Eric Claptons innovative blues guitar, Jack Bruces operatic voice and fluid bass playing, and Ginger Bakers jazz-influenced drumming. Cream soon evolved further, creating a trademark approach built around each musicians virtuoso playing. The bands imaginative lyrics were often written by poet Pete Brown.

The live music on the whole is better than that on Wheels of Fire, capturing the trio at an empathetic peak as a band. Its hard, heavy rock, with Cream digging deep into their original Politician with the same intensity as they do on Sitting on Top of the World, but its the rampaging Im So Glad that illustrates how far theyve come; compare it to the original studio version on Fresh Cream and its easy to see just how much further theyre stretching their improvisation. The studio side also finds them at something of a peak. AllMusic