This is volume 3, 4 and 5 of my live Cream bootleg compilations. It is my personal continuation from Cream’s official live albums ‘Live Cream Vol. I and Live Cream Vol. II‘, which don’t offer the Cream fan enough live performances. Each volume contains what I consider to be the absolute cream of the crop of all of Cream’s rare live bootleg performances.
For a brief description of the volume, along with the individual track listing click more… below. If you want any of the full bootleg albums which these tracks originate from, send me an email and ask nicely.
Cream played better live than in the studio, ’nuff said. The three virtuosos musicians had an unrivaled onstage chemistry. Cream’s live act to this day burns any other band after it, and if it weren’t for Cream bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin definitely wouldn’t have played the music they were playing. This trio of music virtuosos, Ginger Baker on drums, Jack Bruce on bass and Eric Clapton on guitar popularised the use of improvisation and extended performances of otherwise short studio songs. Jack Bruce often said in interviews that they were actually a jazz band, they just didn’t tell Eric, as he was convinced he was playing in a blues band. Ginger and Jack saw Clapton as their Ornette Coleman, as he would improvise extensively for hours and play smooth melodic lines and push the envelope with his use of feedback and his incredible attack and control of dynamics. The band started doing the jam thing in September 1967 at the Fillmore in San Fransisco, they were expected to do a 2 hour set, but they hadn’t written enough songs to fit the time slot, so Ginger just told them to ‘play anything’. The crowd loved it and Cream continued to develop their tightness as a improvisational group until the pressure eventually led to their breakup in November 1968.
Cream only released 4 studio albums (Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire
and Goodbye) and only a handful of live tracks were released. Live Cream and Live Cream Vol. II were released after the bands breakup, and contained a slice of the live Cream experience, however it is only a small taste. Live Cream only contains 5 songs, one of which isn’t even a live performance but a studio recording of ‘Hey Lawdy Mama’, Live Cream Vol. II contains 6 tracks, and they’re all live… but the songs are no where near as powerful or long as on Live Cream, and 3 of the tracks are taken from Cream’s performance at the Oakland Colosseum during their farewell tour, which was recorded after the band hadn’t played together for 6 months and failed to reach the very high bar their other performances had set.
Most people when they think of Cream, think of the studio version of Sunshine of Your Love or White Room, and think they’re a good band, but leave it at that. Others have heard Wheels of Fire and think they were great because of Crossroads, but assume they were just lucky that night, besides all bands were pretty good back then right? I’m very lucky that I have all of Cream’s live bootlegs as I have heard a side of Cream that the average fan hasn’t, in an effort to share this live magic with the world I have carefully listened to and compiled the absolute cream of the crop of live Cream songs and presented them in 3 albums continuing from Live Cream Vol I/II, they are live Cream Vol. III, Vol. IV, and Vol. V. Cream didn’t have many songs, and therefore their set lists were pretty much the same for most of their live career, most people would wonder why anyone would want to listen to a 10 different 15-20 minute versions of N.S.U from different concerts at different points in their career. The reason is simple, the band brought something new to the table every time, the only similarities between the different versions of the same song is the start and the finish, the songs basically served as spring boards for improvisation, a musical element only heard in jazz prior to Cream. Sometimes they even played the same song twice in a set and they always got away with it because it never sounded the same.
Live Cream Vol. III
This album Live Cream Vol. III contains a generous 28 tracks (4.5 hours!) from March 1967 through to May 1968.
Live in Stockholm [March 1967 – Konserthuset]
- N.S.U – 4:08
Disraeli Gears Live [May 1967 – BBC]
- We’re Going Wrong – 3:27
US Tour – Live at the Fillmore [September 1967, San Fransisco]
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:03
- Sweet Wine – 11:01
- Spoonful – 12:05
- Sleepy Time Time – 7:08
US Tour – Live at Brandeis University [September, 1967, Waltham, Massachussets]
- Steppin’ Out’ – 13:58
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:52
- Toad – 17:00
- Sitting on Top of the World – 6:55
US Tour – Live at the Grande Ballroom [October, 1967, Detroit, Michigan]
- Spoonful – 20:20
- N.S.U – 16:15
- Sitting on Top of the World – 4:22
- Toad – 17:44
- I’m So Glad – 9:38
European Tour – Live in Stockholm, Sweden [ November, 1967, Konserthuset]
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:09
Wheels of Ice – [March, 1968 – Live at the Fillmore]
- Politician – 5:52
- I’m So Glad – 14:09
- Steppin’ Out – 14:29
Wheels of Ice – [March, 1968 – Live at Winterland]
- N.S.U – 10:11
- Sunshine of Your Love – 7:25
- Crossroads – 4:15
- Sleepy Time Time – 6:50
- Sweet Wine – 15:14
- N.S.U – 12:38
- We’re Going Wrong – 6:50
Live at San Jose – [May, 1968 – California]
- Sunshine of Your Love – 10:17
- I’m So Glad – 8:47
Download Live Cream Vol. III here
Enjoy!
Live Cream Vol. IV
This album Live Cream Vol. IV contains a generous 30 tracks (4.8 hours!) from March 1967 through to June 1968.
Live in Stockholm [March, 1967 – Konserthuset]
- I’m So Glad – 5:24
Live in London [April, 1967 – The Ricky Tick Club
- Sweet Wine – 5:25
- Sitting on Top of the World – 4:20
Disraeli Gears Live [May, 1967 – Marquee Club, London]
- N.S.U – 3:30
Disraeli Gears Live [May, 1967 – Barbeque ’67 – Spaulding, England]
- N.S.U – 4:48
- We’re Going Wrong – 6:06
US Tour – Live at the Whisky A Go Go [September, 1967 – West Hollywood, California]
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:52
- I’m So Glad – 10:35
US Tour – Live at Brandeis University [September, 1967 – Waltham, Massachussets]
- Sunshine of Your Love – 12:04
- N.S.U – 19:40
US Tour – Live at the Grande Ballroom [October, 1967 – Detroit, Michigan]
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:01
- Sweet Wine – 13:21
European Tour – Live in England [October 1967]
- Steppin’ Out – 9:59
- We’re Going Wrong – 3:53
European Tour – Live in Stockholm, Sweden [November, 1967 – Konserthuset]
- Sleepy Time Time – 6:14
- I’m So Glad – 9:16
- Spoonful – 8:32
Wheels of Ice – [March, 1968 – Live at the Fillmore]
- N.S.U – 16:50
- Sunshine of Your Love – 9:05
- Toad – 17:38
Wheels of Ice – [March, 1968 – Live at Winterland]
- Spoonful – 16:45
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:43
Live at Back Bay Theatre – [April, 1968 – Boston, Massachussets]
- Sunshine of Your Love – 17:13
- Spoonful – 17:32
- Toad – 16:38
- Sleepy Time Time – 8:48
- Steppin’ Out – 13:25
Live at San Jose – [May 1968, California]
- Tales of Brave Ulysses – 4:26
- Steppin’ Out – 12:12
Live at Oakdale Music Theatre – [June, 1968 – Wallingford]
- Sitting on Top of the World – 5:56
If any of the download links become unavailable then send me an email (located in About section) and I’ll re-upload the files. You can also download all of the Cream albums on this site through any of the following torrents:
- http://ca.isohunt.com/torrent_details/328668485/live+cream+bootlegs?tab=summary
- http://www.seedpeer.com/details/3736527/Live-Cream-Bootlegs.html
- http://btjunkie.org/torrent/live-cream/4239075683908ef9ade626f3aa07371c4b215bd45880
Download Live Cream Vol. IV here
Enjoy!
Live Cream Vol. V
This album Live Cream Vol. V contains a generous 41 tracks (5.4 hours!) of Cream’s Farewell Tour in the US starting in October 1968 leading through to their final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1968. Sadly, some of their most energetic and inspired performances were during this Farewell Tour.
Farewell Tour – [October, 1968 – Oakland Colloseum]
- White Room – 5:59
- Politician – 5:09
- Spoonful – 16:59
- Deserted Cities of the Heart – 4:17
- Passing the Time/Toad – 10:31
- I’m So Glad – 7:07
Farewell Tour – [October, 1968 – University of New Mexico, Albuquerque]
- Politician – 5:28
- I’m So Glad — 8:37
- Sunshine of Your Love – 5:33
- Deserted Cities of the Heart – 5:53
Farewell Tour – [October, 1968 – Live at the Forum, Los Angeles]
- White Room – 6:42
- I’m So Glad – 9:32
- Politician – 6:20
- Crossroads – 4:32
- Sitting on Top of the World – 5:05
- Sunshine of Your Love – 6:41
Farewell Tour – [October, 1968 – Live at the Sports Arena, San Diego]
- White Room – 6:38
- Crossroads – 4:30
- Sunshine of Your love – 6:41
- Toad – 14:17
- Spoonful – 15:09
Farewell Tour – [October, 1968 – Memorial Auditorium, Dallas]
- White Room – 6:20
- Sunshine of Your Love – 6:08
- I’m So Glad – 10:24
- Sitting on Top of the World – 6:03
- Crossroads – 4:13
- Toad – 17:58
Farewell Tour – [November, 1968 – Rhode Island Auditorium]
- Spoonful – 22:41
- Toad – 13:49
Farewell Concert – [November, 1968, Royal Albert Hall, London]
- Sunshine of Your Love – 6:05
- Jack Bruce Interview – 4:53
- White Room – 6:07
- Politician – 6:15
- Crossroads – 4:13
- Eric Clapton Interview/Steppin’ Out – 8:28
- Steppin’ Out – 3:32
- Sitting on Top of the World — 4:36
- Spoonful – 12:17
- Ginger Baker Interview – 5:31
- Toad – 9:30
- I’m So Glad You Came – 7:03
Enjoy!