Wheels of Fire [LP]

by Cream

Overview

If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio. Of the three, Ginger Baker comes up short, contributing the passable "Passing the Time" and "Those Were the Days," which are overshadowed by how he extends his solo drum showcase "Toad" to a numbing quarter of an hour and trips upon the Wind & the Willows whimsy of "Pressed Rat and Warthog," whose studied eccentricity pales next to Eric Clapton's nimble, eerily cheerful "Anyone for Tennis." In almost every regard, Wheels of Fire is a terrific showcase for Clapton as a guitarist, especially on the first side of the live album with "Crossroads," a mighty encapsulation of all of his strengths. Some of that is studio trickery, as producer Felix Pappalardi cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that's exceptionally exciting, but there's no denying that Clapton is at a peak here, whether he's tearing off solos on a 17-minute "Spoonful" or goosing "White Room" toward the heights of madness. But it's the architect of "White Room," bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter. Aside from the monumental "White Room," he has the lovely, wistful "As You Said," the cinematic "Deserted Cities of the Heart," and the slow, cynical blues "Politician," all among Cream's very best work. And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous. [Wheels of Fire was re-released on LP in 2015.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	06/30/2015
Label:	Polydor
UPC:	0600753548448
Rank:	22322

Tracks

Disc 1

1. White Room
2. Sitting on Top of the World
3. Passing the Time
4. As You Said
5. Pressed Rat and Warthog
6. Politician
7. Those Were the Days
8. Born Under a Bad Sign
9. Deserted Cities of the Heart

Disc 2

10. Crossroads [Live a The Fillmore]
11. Spoonful [Live at The Fillmore]
12. Traintime [Live at The Fillmore]
13. Toad [Live at The Fillmore]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Cream   Primary Artist
Felix Pappalardi   Guest Artist,Flute,Organ,Viola,Trumpet,Bass Pedals,Swiss Hand Bells
Jack Bruce   Bass,Cello,Guitar,Vocals,Calliope,Recorder,Harmonica,Keyboards,Lead Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Eric Clapton   Guitar,Vocals,Lead Vocals,Slide Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Ginger Baker   Drums,Congas,Hi Hat,Vocals,Marimba,Timpani,Tambourine,Glockenspiel,Tubular Bells,Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Lonnie Chatmon   Composer
Marcia McGovern   Coordination,Pre-Production
Stanislaw Zagorski   Design
Mike Taylor   Composer,Composer
Ahmad Jamal   Composer
Felix Pappalardi   Producer
Jack Bruce   Composer
Gene Raskin   Composer
Eric Clapton   Arranger,Composer
Pete Brown   Composer
Robert Stigwood   Arranger
William Bell   Composer
Adrian Barber   Engineer,Remixing,Remastering
Peter Brown   Composer,Composer
Traditional   Composer
Steve Hoffman   Producer,Remastering
Bob Dylan   Composer
Chester Burnett   Composer
Ginger Baker   Composer,Recitation
Bill Halverson   Engineer
Booker T. Jones   Composer
Walter Vinson   Composer
Robert Johnson   Composer
Martin Sharp   Artwork,Composer,Art Direction
Tom Dowd   Engineer
Willie Dixon   Composer