| Disraeli Gears | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Cream |
| Cover: | DisraeliGears.jpg |
| Recorded: | 11–15 May 1967 |
| Studio: | Atlantic, New York City |
| Genre: | |
| Label: | Reaction |
| Producer: | Felix Pappalardi |
| Prev Title: | Fresh Cream |
| Prev Year: | 1966 |
| Next Title: | Wheels of Fire |
| Next Year: | 1968 |
Disraeli Gears is the second studio album by the British rock band Cream. It was released in November 1967 and reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart.,[1] and No. 1 on the Swedish and Finnish charts. The album was also No. 1 for two weeks on the Australian album chart and was listed as the No. 1 album of 1968 by Cash Box in the year-end album chart in the United States. The album features the singles "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of Your Love", as well as their respective B-sides "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and "SWLABR".
The original 11-track album was remastered in 1998, and then subsequently released as a two-disc Deluxe Edition in 2004.
The album was recorded at Atlantic Studios in New York between 11 and 15 May 1967,[2] following the band's nine shows as part of Murray the K's "Music in the 5th Dimension" concert series. Cream's American label, ATCO, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlantic Records.[3] [4]
The sessions were produced by future Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi – who co-wrote the tracks "Strange Brew" and "World of Pain" with wife Gail Collins – and were engineered by Tom Dowd – who would later work with Clapton on projects such as Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and 461 Ocean Boulevard. Atlantic Records owner Ahmet Ertegun was also present during the sessions.[5]
According to Dowd, the recording sessions took only three-and-a-half days. The band's visas expired on the very last day of recording.[6]
Drummer Ginger Baker recalled how the album's title was based on a malapropism which alluded to 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli:
The cover art was created by Australian artist Martin Sharp who lived in the same building as Clapton, The Pheasantry in Chelsea. Sharp would go on to create the artwork to Cream's next album Wheels of Fire and co-wrote the songs "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and The Savage Seven movie theme "Anyone for Tennis" with Clapton. The photography was by Bob Whitaker, known for his work for the Beatles, including the controversial Yesterday and Today "butcher" cover. Most of the photographs were taken in July 1967, with shoots in London's Hyde Park as well as in the Scottish Highlands. Some of the images were shot on Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the British isles. The photos show a clean-shaven Clapton with a bouffant, permed hairstyle. By the time of the album's release in November, however, he was letting his hair grow out straight and had grown a moustache.
The front cover consists of a psychedelic collage with the title centred and band name below, surrounded by a floral arrangement. Martin Sharp was attempting to capture the sound of the music in the cover, which he describes as a "warm fluorescent sound":[7]
The cover art was later used for the compilation Those Were the Days.
Disraeli Gears features the group veering away, quite heavily, from their blues roots and indulging in more psychedelic sounds, in particular on tracks such as "Tales of Brave Ulysses", "SWLABR", "World of Pain" and "Dance the Night Away", the last of which features a 12-string guitar (the only time the instrument would be used on a Cream recording). The most blues-like tunes on the album are Clapton's arrangement of "Outside Woman Blues", the Bruce-Brown composition "Take It Back" which had been inspired by the contemporary media images of American students burning their draft cards which featured harmonica work by Jack Bruce,[8] and the opening track "Strange Brew", which was based on a 12-bar blues song called "Lawdy Mama".
Unlike the previous Fresh Cream, which was vocally dominated by Bruce, the vocals on Disraeli Gears were a more democratic affair. Clapton sings lead on "Strange Brew" and "Outside Woman Blues", and co-lead on "World of Pain", "Dance the Night Away" and "Sunshine of Your Love". Baker, meanwhile, performs lead vocals on his composition "Blue Condition". All three band members sing together on "Mother's Lament".
In contrast to much of the band's other work, Disraeli Gears comprises mainly short, self-contained songs, with none of the improvisation and jamming for which the band was known onstage.
The album was released in November 1967 by Reaction Records.[9]
The original 11-track album was remastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio at PolyGram Studios for a 1998 release, including bonus photographs accompanying the original album artwork.
The Disraeli Gears Deluxe Edition includes the complete album in both mono and stereo, demos, alternative takes and tracks taken from the band's live sessions on BBC radio. Included is an outtake of "Blue Condition" with Eric Clapton on lead vocals, and demos of the songs "Weird of Hermiston" and "The Clearout" which were not released until Jack Bruce's first solo album Songs for a Tailor.
Writing for the BBC, Chris Jones described the album as "a perfect encapsulation of the point where the blues got psychedelic and in turn got heavy". Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic describes the album as "a quintessential heavy rock album of the '60s". Dave Swanson of Ultimate Classic Rock believes the album to be "their masterpiece".[10]
In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[11]
It was voted number 182 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[12] In 2003 the album was ranked number 112 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[13] then was re-ranked at number 114 in a 2012 revised list,[14] and at number 170 in a 2020 revised list.[15] VH1 named it 87th-greatest album of all time in 2001.[16]
In 2008, the album won a Classic Rock Roll of Honours Award for Classic Album.[17]
| valign=top | Disc one (stereo)
Recorded 3 April 1967 at Atlantic Studios Recorded by Ahmet Ertegun
Eric Clapton vocal, previously unreleased
Recorded 15 March 1967 at Ryemuse Studios, London | valign=bottom | Disc two (mono)
Recorded 30 May 1967, broadcast 3 June on BBC Light Programme
Recorded 24 October 1967, broadcast 29 October on BBC Radio 1
Recorded 9 January 1968, broadcast 14 January on BBC Radio 1 |
A. Side One, B. Side Two
Cream
Production
| Chart (1967–1969) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[18] | 1 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[19] | 1 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[20] | 2 |
| New Zealand Albums (Recorded Music NZ)[21] | 4 |
| Chart (2019–2021) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[22] | 16 | |
| Swedish Vinyl Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] | 1 | |
| UK Vinyl Albums (OCC)[24] | 18 |
| Chart (1968) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) | 8 | |
| New Zealand Albums (Recorded Music NZ) | 9 | |
| US Top Pop Albums (Cashbox)[25] | 1 |
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | November 1967 | Reaction Records | mono LP | 593 003 | |
| stereo LP | 594 003 | ||||
| United States | November 1967 | Atco Records | mono LP | 33-232 | |
| stereo LP | SD 33-232 | ||||
| Germany | November 1967 | Polydor Records | stereo LP | 184 105 | |
| Japan | May 1968 | Polydor Records | stereo LP | MP-1390 | |
| United States | 1977 | RSO Records | LP | RS 1–3010 | |
| United States | 1986 | Polydor Records | CD | 823 636-2 | |
| United States | 2004 | Polydor Records/Chronciles | Deluxe Edition CD | B0003331-02 | |
| United Kingdom | 2004 | Polydor Records | Deluxe Edition CD | 0602498193129 | |
| Japan | 2013 | USM Japan | SACD | UIGY 15002 |