Disraeli Gears

Untitled

Disraeli Gears is the second album by British blues-rock group Cream. It was released in November 1967 and went on to reach #5 on the UK album chart. It was also their American breakthrough, becoming a massive seller there in 1968, reaching #4 on American charts. The album features the two singles "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of Your Love". By this time, the group was veering quite heavily away from their blues roots to indulge in more psychedelic sounds.

The title of the album, Disraeli Gears, was actually a bit of an inside joke. Eric Clapton had been thinking of getting a racing bicycle, and was discussing it with Ginger Baker, when Mick Turner, one of the roadies, commented on the performance of "those Disraeli Gears" meaning to say "derailleur gears". The band thought this was hilarious—Benjamin Disraeli was a prominent 19th Century British politician—and decided that it should be the title of their next album. Had it not been for Mick, the album would simply have been entitled Cream.

Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker all contributed songs with the help of lyricist Pete Brown and producer Felix Pappalardi. The track "Blue Condition" was unusual in that Baker, although by any account not a singer, took the lead vocal. The album was recorded in New York by their American label, the Atco division of Atlantic Records during the band's stay in the United States.

The psychedelic cover art was created by Australian artist Martin Sharp, who lived in the same building as Clapton at the time of the Chelsea artists colony The Pheasantry. At their first meeting in a London club, Clapton mentioned that he had some music that needed lyrics, so Sharp wrote out a poem he had composed on a napkin and gave it to Clapton, who recorded it as "Tales of Brave Ulysses".

When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, Bruce stated that when writing the song "Take it Back", he had been inspired by the contemporary media images of American students burning their draft cards and wrote the song in that spirit of rejecting militarism.

In 2004, the album was released as a 2-disc Deluxe edition including the complete album in both mono and stereo, demos, alternate takes and tracks taken from the band's live sessions on BBC radio.

Track listing

Disraeli Gears (original 1967 release)

2. "Strange Brew" (Eric Clapton, Felix Pappalardi, Gail Collins Pappalardi) – 2:46
3. "Sunshine of Your Love" (Clapton, Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) – 4:10
4. "World of Pain" (Pappalardi, Collins) – 3:03
5. "Dance the Night Away" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:34
6. "Blue Condition" (Ginger Baker) – 3:29
7. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" (Clapton, Martin Sharp) – 2:46
8. "SWLABR" (Bruce, Brown) – 2:32
9. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce) – 3:26
10. "Outside Woman Blues" (Blind Joe Reynolds, arr. Clapton) – 2:24
11. "Take It Back" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:05
12. "Mother's Lament" (Traditional, arr. Clapton, Bruce, Baker) – 1:47

Disraeli Gears - Deluxe Edition (2004)

Disc one (stereo) Original album Tracks 1-11 Out-takes 12. "Lawdy Mama" - version 1 1 (Traditional, arr. Clapton) – 2:00 Recorded April 3, 1967 at Atlantic Studios 13. "Blue Condition" - alternate version (Baker) - 3:13 Eric Clapton vocal, previously unreleased Demos 1 14. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce) – 3:49 15. "Hey Now, Princess" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:31 16. "SWLABR" (Bruce, Brown) – 4:30 17. "Weird of Hermiston" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:12 18. "The Clearout" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:58 Recorded March 15, 1967 at Ryemuse Studios, London

Disc two (mono) Original album and out-takes Tracks 1-13 BBC recordings 2 14. "Strange Brew" (Clapton, Pappalardi, Collins) – 3:00 15. "Tales of Brave Ulysses" (Clapton, Sharp) – 2:55 16. "We're Going Wrong" (Bruce) – 3:25 Recorded May 30, 1967, broadcast June 3 on BBC Light Programme 17. "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Booker T. Jones, William Bell) – 3:03 18. "Outside Woman Blues" Reynolds) – 3:18 19. "Take It Back" (Bruce, Brown) – 2:17 Recorded October 24, 1967, broadcast October 29 on BBC Radio 1 20. "Politician" (Bruce, Brown) – 3:59 21. "Swlabr" (Bruce, Brown) – 2:32 22. "Steppin' Out" (James Bracken) – 3:37 Recorded January 9, 1968, broadcast January 14 on BBC Radio 1

1. ^ Tracks previously released on the Those Were the Days box set.
   
2. ^ Tracks previously released on the BBC Sessions compilation album.

Personnel

• Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals
• Jack Bruce - bass, harmonica, lead vocals
• Ginger Baker - drums, percussion, vocals

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1968	Pop Albums	4
1977	Pop Albums	165

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1968	"Sunshine of Your Love" (3:03 edit)	Pop Singles	5

Miscellanea

• The track title SWLABR is an acronym for "She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow". [1]
• In 2003 the VH1 named Disraeli Gears the 87th greatest album of all time. It is number 112 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
• In 2006, a DVD (Cream: Disraeli Gears) was released that looked at what went into recording the album, and the impact the album had on the 1960s.
• The title of the song Weird of Hermiston is a play on Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished book Weir of Hermiston.
• Cream rerecorded the song "Strange Brew" as "Lawdy Mama" with alternate lyrics for their album Live Cream, although the song was the only studio track on the album.

References

• Cream, Disraeli Gears (1967)
• Cream, Disraeli Gears - Deluxe Edition (2004)

External links

• Disraeli Gears. Those Were the Days.
• Disraeli Gears. JackBruce.com.
• Disraeli Gears - Deluxe Edition JackBruce.com.