Three established players
Cream was formed in London in mid-1966 and was one of the first groups to be described as a supergroup, although the label was applied more loosely then than it is now. Its three members already had reputations in the British blues scene. Eric Clapton, on guitar, had played with the Yardbirds and then John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Jack Bruce, who played bass and sang, had worked with the Graham Bond Organisation and Manfred Mann. Ginger Baker, the drummer, had also been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, and the relationship between Baker and Bruce was well known to be difficult.
Their first album, Fresh Cream, came out in December 1966. It mixed blues covers with original songs, and it established the band, but their second record was where they found a fuller identity.
The power trio
Cream is often cited as a defining example of the power trio: guitar, bass and drums, with no second guitarist or keyboard player to fill the sound. The format put pressure on each player. Bruce’s bass was played in a busy, melodic way instead of simply following the guitar, and Baker’s drumming was more active than usual in rock, with a jazz influence. Clapton had to carry the lead and the rhythm.
On stage this led to long improvised pieces, which became part of the band’s reputation. In the studio, the trio had to make that energy fit into the songs. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was another trio working in the same period, and the two groups are often compared, although Hendrix’s band took the format in a different direction. Hendrix is reported to have sat in with Cream soon after reaching London in autumn 1966, though accounts of the occasion differ in detail.
Recording in New York
Much of Disraeli Gears was recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York in the early part of 1967, during a period when the band was in the United States for concert dates. The producer was Felix Pappalardi, a musician and arranger who would later play with the band Mountain, and the engineer was Tom Dowd, who was already well known for his work on Atlantic’s soul and jazz records. In the United States Cream’s records were issued on Atco, a label within the Atlantic group.
Pappalardi’s contribution was both technical and creative. He shaped the arrangements, added instrumental touches, and helped give the group a more polished and concise sound than Fresh Cream had. Pappalardi’s wife, Gail Collins, co-wrote “Strange Brew” with him and Clapton.
The songs
The album’s best-known track is “Sunshine of Your Love”. Its opening riff is credited to Bruce, who is reported to have been inspired after attending a Hendrix concert. Pete Brown, the lyricist who worked often with Bruce, wrote the words, and Clapton also shares the writing credit. The song was issued as a single and became a hit in the United States at the end of 1967 and into early 1968, reaching the top five of the American chart.
“Strange Brew” opens the record with a bluesy riff built on a single-note guitar line. “Tales of Brave Ulysses” uses a wah-wah pedal, still a novelty in 1967, and its lyrics were co-written by the Australian artist Martin Sharp, who was also a friend of Clapton. “SWLABR”, short for “She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow”, has a heavy, distorted sound. The album also includes a blues, “Outside Woman Blues”, showing that the band had not abandoned its roots.
The title and the sleeve
The odd title is said to come from a remark by one of the band’s road crew, who mixed up the cycling term “derailleur gears” with the name of the Victorian prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. This has been repeated in many accounts, though the exact circumstances are hard to verify. It was also seen by the band as an amusing slip, and they kept it.
The sleeve was designed by Martin Sharp, and its bright, saturated colours and fluorescent inks are among the best-known examples of psychedelic album art. It reflected the same imagery associated with psychedelic rock posters, which were then being produced in San Francisco and London. Sharp had connections with the London underground scene, and the cover helped place Cream within it. The band is reported to have played the UFO Club, one of that scene’s centres.
Release and reception
The album was released in November 1967. In the United States, it sold strongly, helped by the success of “Sunshine of Your Love”, and it reached the top five of the Billboard album chart. In Britain it also did well, although accounts of its exact chart position vary, so it is safest to say it was a clear commercial success.
Critics at the time were divided, with some admiring the discipline and others missing the long improvisations of live performances. Later writers have usually treated Disraeli Gears as the band’s most consistent studio album. A year after its release, Cream announced it would split, and it played farewell concerts in late 1968.
The record sits alongside the other British blues-rock and psychedelic work of 1967, and it helped establish a model of the guitar-led trio that hard rock and heavy metal bands later used. Its wider setting, the Summer of Love and the arrival of FM radio, is part of why it reached American listeners so quickly.