The story of how Buddy Guy convinced Eric Clapton to form Cream
The only thing one can hope to do as a musician is inspire those that came before. It’s nice when people can sing along to one of your tunes, but the highest compliment is being able to follow in someone’s footsteps, and Eric Clapton owes a lot of people a debt of gratitude when combing through his list of blues favourites.
From the minute that Clapton got a guitar in his hands, he was always much more than a rock and roll guitar player. He had a calling to play some of the greatest blues licks that he could think of, and even if not all of them were the most commercial thing in the world, it didn’t matter as long as he was having fun. And even for a band as indebted to blues as The Yardbirds, Clapton knew when things were going a little sideways.
As much as Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page eventually morphed into something else after leaving The Yardbirds, Clapton was always the blues student every time he got into the studio. His collaborations with John Mayall and Blind Faith were nice experiments, but he always knew that there was someplace else he could go. He only needed the right musicians, and when Cream started to jam for the first time, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were the perfect complement to his blues licks.
Then again, not everything that they made was specifically tailored to a rock and roll or even blues affair. Baker was always interested in jazz composition, and while he could make a band sound primitive on songs like ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, he had a knack for throwing in strange fills that no one would have thought of. Clapton didn’t know what he was in for, but he figured that there was a path for him when he saw people like Buddy Guy.
Guy was far from the first guitar hero Clapton had ever come across, but the fact that he was shredding blues licks in a three-piece was the first time Clapton had the idea of making his own power trio, saying, “I had something of the technical ability, or was at least heading in the right direction. I was seeing Buddy Guy and thinking, ‘I can do that.’ But, in fact, I’d never really sung in my life. I’d seen myself as the front guy with Cream. But when we got there, the reality was that Jack was easily the best equipped for that role. And that’s how it immediately evolved.”
At the same time, Clapton doesn’t get enough credit for the songs that he sang during Cream’s prime as well. ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ is practically a vehicle for Bruce’s operatic voice, but when listening to Clapton duetting with him throughout the verses, there’s a certain gentleness in his voice that no one was going to get listening to Bruce carrying the entire band
Although the band was a lot different from what Clapton saw in his head when he first started, the fact that they made it through three albums without killing each other is one of the most impressive instrumental runs anyone had ever taken in the 1960s. Absolutely none of their stuff sounded like Buddy Guy, but sometimes all it takes is that little push to inspire someone to change the musical landscape.
