Jack Bruce names his favourite Cream song
Cream were widely considered one of the first rock supergroup, an outfit whose sound was defined by the unrivalled guitar showmanship of Eric Clapton with the wild and unpredictable nature of Ginger Baker’s drumming, married together with the grooving basslines of Jack Bruce.
Bruce had originally played in the Graham Bond Organisation, where he met Baker. He then met Clapton whilst playing in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers band. By the time 1966 came around, Bruce and his two new acquaintances formed one of the most significant rock groups of the 21st Century.
When asked what his favourite Cream track was, Bruce once replied, “‘White Room’”. When detailing further, he added: “The inspiration for the music came from meeting Jimi Hendrix and his approach to playing. In fact, he came to the recording session of that in New York and said to me, ‘I wish I could write something like that.’ I said, ‘But it comes from you!’ It’s a synthesis of things and not a completely original chord sequence. It’s the way we placed certain things in time that makes it original.”
However, Bruce also noted that the song’s unconventional time signature led to Cream’s record label being unsure as to the commercial viability of the track. Bruce said: “I had problems with the record company because of the introduction being 5/4 and those suspended second inversion chords. They didn’t think it would make it.”
‘White Room’ arrived on Cream’s 1968 double album Wheels of Fire. It was largely composed by Bruce himself, although the poet Pete Brown wrote the lyrics. Though a shorter single version was later released, several radio stations played the full version as they wanted to let the band be heard in its full glory.
Discussing the disparity between record labels and the public who actually buy their records, Bruce felt a lack of respect from the former for the latter. “I always thought that record companies, in particular, look down on their audiences much too much. In a way, it is a commercial thing,” he said. “They think, ‘well, if the audience gets too intelligent and likes really good musical things, we’re going to have to keep finding those things.’”
However, Bruce also notes that the music industry is one of the most fickle around. He added: “If you can reduce it to a fairly low common denominator as far as the music goes, there’s always a bunch of other guys or girls coming along who can do that. But I don’t want to overstate the importance – it’s only rock and roll, you know.”
