"I went down to the crossroads..."

I bought the new Rolling Stone at the convenience store yesterday because it had The Immortals: The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Many of the artists featured in their list definitely deserved to be there. The Beatle's were number one, and rightfully so. The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, and The Velvet Underground were all in the top 20. So, I was thinking, "Alright, so far, so good." But as I got farther down the list I was somewhat distraught. Cream, a band fronted by Eric Clapton and backed up by Ginger Baker (of the Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums, was not to be found until the 60's. What was really awesome was that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd wrote their tribute article. He tells of how he first heard Cream. I dare you to tell me this wouldn't be absolutely amazing:

At the end of each term we would have a show, and this time we had Cream -- in a small hall where I had once played Happy Loman in Death of a Salesman, which is beside the point.

The curtain drew back and the three of them started playing "Crossroads." I had never seen or heard anything like it before. I was simply staggered by the amount of equipment they had: by Ginger Baker's double bass drum, by Jack Bruce's two 4-by-12 Marshall amps and by all of Eric Clapton's gear. I was an astounding sight.

Two-thirds of the way through their set, one of them said, "We'd like to invite a friend of ours from America out onstage." It was Jimi Hendrix and that was the first night he played in England. He came on and did all that now-famous stuff, like playing with his teeth. That ticked cost about a pound or so. It might have been the best purchase I ever made.

Lucky bastard! ~ Rich