Today we have Cream's third studio album Wheels of Fire. Released in 1968, the album is a double album with the first half consisting of studio recordings and the second half of live recordings. Once the album was released, Clapton began becoming more interested in the work of The Band. This, paired with reading a negative review of the album, made him decide to quit the band. However, he took part in a farewell tour and the band agreed to release one more album before they broke up.
On the studio half, the band branches out more than ever before. The cello-driven "As You Said," the psychedelic "White Room," and blues rockers "Those Were the Days" and "Deserted Cities of the Heart" are all among my favorite Cream songs. However, many of the other songs sound like precursors to progressive rock, a genre I don't care for these days, and the obtuse riff that drives "Politician" is a clear template for heavy metal, a genre I've always disliked. On the live half of the album, Clapton's reworking of the Robert Johnson classic "Crossroads" becomes a classic itself and the sixteen minute "Spoonful" has one of Bruce's best vocal performances and catches the band soaring pretty high instrumentally. Not only do those two speak volumes of the band's abilities, they make up the best side of any Cream album so far. The two songs of side four--"Traintime," which is fine but who cares, and "Toad," which is sixteen minutes of drumming aka nothing--make up the worst side of any Cream album. B
