Best way to buy Cream

I think I just bought a cream album in Ventura CA 2 weeks ago and in the stack to be cleaned.

They were a heavy group back then. Hope you find them.

quote:

I'm looking for the first three (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears & Wheels of Fire).

Good start, they are the only 3 I have,all Stereo AFIKT, as to whether Stereo or mono is better, I don't have an opinion.
Are there 2 mixes? Or just a mono mix stereofied(sp) or Stereo mix Monoed?
You might have to research, if the answer is not forthcoming here.

I am informed by a friend who owns both that the mono version of 'Fresh Cream' is much better than the stereo one.

I have a mono and stereo 'Disraeli Gears' on Reaction. I have to say that neither are great recordings and I would be reluctant to recommend that you spend a lot on either versiion. I've had them both since the 1960s and coming from my youth, both are certainly 'previously enjoyed'. I recently bought the 2CD Deluxe reissue of 'Disraeli Gears'. This contains both mono and stereo mixes with some outtakes and remastered radio sessions. The radio session tracks sound much better than the versions that were released on a single CD. 'Disraeli Gears' was originally mixed in stereo. The mono mix is a fold down of the stereo mix with the exception of 'Tales of Brave Ulysses'. This track was intended as a single release and was therefore, originally mixed in mono. I think you would be happy with the 2CD set and you will certainly pay a lot loss than you would for vinyl copies. If you must have vinyl, get originals on Reaction. The reissues on the RSO label sounded pretty dreadful.

The truth be told, none of the Cream albums are reference recordings, unlike other albums from that time. You might want to consider the box set 'Those Were The Days' which has all the studio material and a few outtakes on the first two discs and the live recordings on the final two discs. The live material runs particularly well.

Excellent - thanks guys

From an initial trawl through Amazon & eBay, prices for the 180g re-releases & the original versions are pretty similar at around the GBP 20 mark.

Am wary about Deluxe CD releases in general, since a few I've bought in the past have been shameless marketing exercises, but will check them out just in case these buck the trend...

This is excellent too

Got Disraeli Gears on Universal Japan's reissue they did a couple of years ago and its stunning but it was on a very limited run so is worth a fortune already I imagine.




Got Wheels Of Fire on original & a Vinyl lovers re-issue and the original is much better than the VL digital effort though to start I would go for originals of both albums and if you like them look out for 180g re-issues other than the VL one.





Dean...

This is the CD set I have and it sounds fine to me and I noticed it is £16 in the Amazon - it contains

Disc one: In the Studio
Non-album single (1966)
1. "Wrapping Paper" (Bruce, Brown) - 2.22

Tracks taken from Fresh Cream (1966)
2. "I Feel Free" (Bruce, Brown) - 2.51
3. "N.S.U." (Bruce) - 2.43
4. "Sleepy Time Time" (Bruce, Godfrey) - 4.20
5. "Dreaming" (Bruce) - 1.58
6. "Sweet Wine" (Baker, Godfrey) - 3.17
7. "Spoonful" (Dixon) - 6.30
8. "Cat's Squirrel" (Traditional, arr. S. Splurge) - 3.03
9. "Four Until Late" (Johnson, arr. Clapton) - 2.07
10. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Waters) - 4.42
11. "I'm So Glad" (James) - 3.57
12. "Toad" (Baker) - 5.11

Studio out-take (1967)
13. "Lawdy Mama" - version 1 (previously unreleased) (Traditional, arr. Clapton) - 2.00
Tracks taken from Disraeli Gears (1967)
14. "Strange Brew" (Clapton, Collins, Pappalardi) - 2.46
15. "Sunshine of Your Love" (Bruce, Brown, Clapton) - 4.10
16. "World of Pain" (Collins, Pappalardi) - 3.02
17. "Dance the Night Away" (Bruce, Brown) - 3.34
18. "Blue Condition" (Baker) - 3.29
19. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" (Clapton, Sharp) - 2.46
20. "SWLABR" (Bruce, Brown) - 2.31
21. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce) - 3.26
22. "Outside Woman Blues" (Reynolds, arr. Clapton) - 2.24
23. "Take It Back" (Bruce, Brown) - 3.05
24. "Mother's Lament" (Traditional, arr. Bruce, Brown, Clapton) - 1.47

Disc two: In the Studio
Tracks taken from Wheels of Fire (1968)
1. "White Room" (Bruce, Brown) - 4.58
2. "Sitting on Top of the World" (Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon; arr. Burnett) - 4.58
3. "Passing the Time" - extended version (Baker, Taylor) - 5.53
4. "As You Said" (Bruce, Brown) - 4.20
5. "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (Baker, Taylor) - 3.13
6. "Politician" (Bruce, Brown) - 4.12
7. "Those Were the Days" (Baker, Taylor) - 2.53
8. "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Jones, Bell) - 3.09
9. "Deserted Cities of the Heart" (Bruce, Brown) - 3.38

Non-album single (1968)
10. "Anyone for Tennis" (Clapton, Sharp) - 2.38

Tracks taken from Goodbye (1969)
11. "Badge" (Clapton, Harrison) - 2.44
12. "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" (Bruce, Brown) - 3.14
13. "What a Bringdown" (Baker) - 3.58

Miscellaneous tracks
14. "The Coffee Song" (Colton, Smith) - 2.44
15. "Lawdy Mama" - version 2 3 (Traditional, arr. Clapton) - 2.46
16. "You Make Me Feel" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown) - 2.39
17. "We're Going Wrong" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce) - 3.49
18. "Hey Now Princess" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown) - 3.31
19. "SWLABR" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown) - 4.30
20. "Weird of Hermiston" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown) - 3.12
21. "The Clearout" - demo version (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown) - 3.58
22. "Falstaff Beer Commercial" (previously unreleased) (Baker, Bruce, Clapton) - 1.00

Disc three: Live
1. "N.S.U." (previously unreleased) (Bruce) - 12.38
Recorded March 9, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
2. "Sleepy Time Time" 3 (Bruce, Godfrey) - 6.48
Recorded March 9, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
3. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" 3 (Waters) - 6.29
Recorded March 7, 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco
4. "Crossroads" 1 (Johnson, arr. Clapton) - 4.24
Recorded March 10, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
5. "Spoonful" 1 (Dixon) - 16.39
Recorded March 10, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
6. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" 4 (Clapton, Sharp) - 4.43
Recorded March 10, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
7. "Sunshine of Your Love" 4 (Bruce, Brown, Clapton) - 7.25
Recorded March 9, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
8. "Sweet Wine" 3 (Baker, Godfrey) - 15.08
Recorded March 10, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco

Disc four: Live
1. "White Room" 4 (Bruce, Brown) - 6.21
Recorded October 4, 1968 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland
2. "Politician" 4 (Bruce, Brown) - 5.08
Recorded October 4, 1968 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland
3. "I'm So Glad" 2 (James) - 9.32
Recorded October 19, 1968 at The Forum, Los Angeles
4. "Sitting on Top of the World" 2 (Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon; arr. Burnett) - 4.55
Recorded October 19, 1968 at The Forum, Los Angeles
5. "Stepping Out" 4 (Bracken) - 13.29
Recorded March 10, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
6. "Traintime" 1 (Bruce) - 7.02
Recorded March 8, 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco
7. "Toad" (previously unreleased extended version) (Baker) - 17.35
Recorded March 7&8, 1968 at Fillmore West, San Francisco
8. "Deserted Cities of the Heart" 4 (Bruce, Brown) - 4.14
Recorded October 4, 1968 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland
9. "Sunshine of Your Love" (previously unreleased) (Bruce, Brown, Clapton) - 4.44
Recorded May 1968 at CBS Studios, Los Angeles for the Glen Campbell Show

Thanks. Had never heard of the Vinyl Lovers label. Can't see much about them online apart from shops selling their records. Presumably they're akin to Mo-Fi and Chesky, but maybe not so good? So far am leaning towards going for the original releases...

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:


This is the CD set I have and it sounds fine to me and I noticed it is £16 in the Amazon...

Wow! That's quite a set! More food for thought. Thanks ROTF.

Jason,

Early issue Cream CDs can be found on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, and turn up at charity shops or record exchanges. I have a first edition Polydor "Wheels Of Fire" that cost me four quid.

Sonically, it is much better than any subsequent release I have heard. I'd beware of delux or special editions - they have a habit of using the most recent remastering and that is not usually as good (there are exceptions).

If you want to take the guesswork out of it go to the Steve Hoffman forum, lots of people will have tried every version that's been issued. On balance, the early WG or Japanese Polydor discs take some beating and are sought after.

Edit.

quote:

So far am leaning towards going for the original releases...

Oops, missed that. Spot on.

Joe

Thanks for the tip about the Steve Hoffman forum Joe. Seems that the Vinyl Lovers label is just a cash in on the vinyl resurgence. To quote Michael Fremer on a review of a John Cale release they did:

'sounds mastered from a CD, using a bad CD player. It's not even close to the original...proceed with caution with everything from "Vinyl Lovers."'.

Looks like it's time to search for the originals for sure...

On CD I would go for the DCC 'Wheels of Fire', you can still get a deal on them if you're lucky.



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I have the Vinyl Lovers W of F if we need a shoot out.

I must admit that a lot of these extras are not worth it , just how many versions of a song does one need? I would swap the extras for a bit more effort being put in to production.
Just because a CD can take 80 minutes does not mean it should, IMO.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MilesSmiles:
On CD I would go for the DCC 'Wheels of Fire', you can still get a deal on them if you're lucky.


Is it so much better than the original WG RSO? WOF isn't one of the discs I'd be anxious to spend much on. The RSO sounds excellent to me.

Joe

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
I have the Vinyl Lovers W of F if we need a shoot out.

I must admit that a lot of these extras are not worth it , just how many versions of a song does one need? I would swap the extras for a bit more effort being put in to production.
Just because a CD can take 80 minutes does not mean it should, IMO.

Howard,
Is your cdp running slow?

It says 80 min,700 Mb on my CD-Rs. So I assume comercial CDs have the same capacity.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason Milner:
Ok. It's recently been bought to my attention that I don't actually own any Cream. TBH, I'm not quite sure how that happened. Think I used to have them on tape, & they got lost somewhere in the mists of time. Clearly I need to rectify this.

I've pretty much decided on Vinyl, as IMO, most stuff that was released on Vinyl sounds better on its original format. Also, a friend recently played a CD release of Fresh Cream & declared it awful. What I haven't decided on yet is...

Mono or stereo. were the original mixes in mono? is it like the Beatles, where the mono mixes were far superior?

Original or 180g. Anyone compared these? Are the 180g actually better?

I'm looking for the first three (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears & Wheels of Fire).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

J

Same as you Jason, always liked Cream but just never got round to buying any. I just got "I Feel Free - Ultimate Cream" on CD and love it. Well I was doing the supermarket shopping - that's when realised I was missing something.
Paul

quote:

Originally posted by northernlad:

quote:

Originally posted by Jason Milner:
Ok. It's recently been bought to my attention that I don't actually own any Cream. TBH, I'm not quite sure how that happened. Think I used to have them on tape, & they got lost somewhere in the mists of time. Clearly I need to rectify this.

I've pretty much decided on Vinyl, as IMO, most stuff that was released on Vinyl sounds better on its original format. Also, a friend recently played a CD release of Fresh Cream & declared it awful. What I haven't decided on yet is...

Mono or stereo. were the original mixes in mono? is it like the Beatles, where the mono mixes were far superior?

Original or 180g. Anyone compared these? Are the 180g actually better?

I'm looking for the first three (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears & Wheels of Fire).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

J

Same as you Jason, always liked Cream but just never got round to buying any. I just got "I Feel Free - Ultimate Cream" on CD and love it. Well I was doing the supermarket shopping - that's when realised I was missing something.
Paul

So it's back to looking for good vinyl now.