Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

4. CreamFresh Cream

I was in a band called The Herd and we were recording a day session in 1966 at this studio in New Bond Street called Rymuse Studios. Our engineer was going straight into an evening session with this ‘supergroup’ with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, all from great bands already. This was the first release after Blues Breakers which was the John Mayall album that really declared Eric Clapton as “God”. It was written in graffiti all over England at the time “Clapton is God”. So God was going to join a band now [laughs], and he formed Cream. Anyway, they came in the studio after us and we would get stories the next day about how the sessions went and everything because we were all huge fans of the three of them. I think this is a memory lane kind of thing for me; it’s not necessarily their best album and there are tracks that I like even better, but this was the birth of Cream, and this is the top one for me. The tracks are great! ‘I’m So Glad’, etc. They’re all so good. It was the first time I was really interested in Jack Bruce and Pete Brown’s songwriting. It was great stuff.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Ginger Baker
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