Disraeli Gears [Remastered] - Cream > Reviews > Eric Clapton says Long Live The Dinosaur Rock-Off

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Advantages:	John Entwistle and Eric Clapton were Gods
Disadvantages:	John is no more .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Well, here I am doing another opinion, and guess what, I don’t care whether you give me a Very Helpful or a Very Useless so neer.”Why” I hear you say. “It’s because 29th Candidate has asked me to join his Dinosaur Rock off” I reply. He also asked me to say "The following op was written as my entry for the 29th_Candidate's "Dinosaur Rock-Off;" a tribute to the memory of rock legend, John Entwistle, recently departed bass player of The Who, and a true artist in every sense of the word."

So, there ya go. He actually sent me a mega large E Mail that crashed through my letter box and smashed our floor, but that’s another story. What else have I been doing this week you want to know ?? Well, it was cheekychicken’s birthday, and I haven’t heard from Sue26 either, but there has been some beer and sheep. Mrsandrewsjk has been preparing for our wedding on September 14, and an excellent job she is making of it. I won an auction on Ebay for a Solido model of a Lancia Stratos, just got to get it from the USA now. What else would you like to know ??

Have you heard that on Ciao I’ve had 1,945 total readings, 1,598 member readings and 1,534 ratings for 24 opinions, that’s an average of 64 ratings per op ?? You haven’t, well sit down and I’ll tell you this enthralling story…… on the other hand let’s stop beggaring around and get on with the op !!

When I was at secondary school the pop and rock phenomenon was just gathering pace, with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones etc. Shortly after this stage, I really got into Blues Music and was always down the record library getting stuff out by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and the like when along came this group, The Cream. I was absolutely dumbstruck, I loved the music. There was Ginger Baker on drums, Jack Bruce on Bass Guitar and Vocals, but there was God, otherwise known as Eric “Slowhand” Clapton, on Guitar/ Vocals.

Eric Clapton is a Legend, he started off with the King of English Blues otherwise known as John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. About this time at school I had a mate John whose dad was rich. We wanted to go see the Blues together so his dad chucked us a set of car keys, one week it would be a Rover, next week a Triumph or a Fiat. John’s brother had an Alfa-Romeo out of “The Graduate”. Anyway I’d drive one of these flash motors up to London, and we’d nearly always go to The Marquee Club in Wardour Street. We’d be jammed in there like sardines shaking our heads and playing air guitars. The music was loud and when we saw The Cream, their numbers lasted 20 minutes. We went looney especially when Ginger Baker was drumming away for that long. And the drugs and stuff…..

I saw The Cream at those free concerts in Hyde Park as well, and once I saw 10 groups in The Royal Albert Hall for £1 including The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones and Joe Cocker, Tina Turner etc. Are you getting the idea that I loved those times ??

Let us say about The Marquee Club that even though the crowd was made to wait half the night, and was packed in like sardines, all was forgiven when Eric Clapton plugged his Les Paul into a 50 watt Marshall amp and played with a fluency and intensity which left everybody stunned. Like everybody else, I was totally hooked and still am, despite the fact that Eric’s career has taken more twists and turns than Michael Schumacher at Monaco !!

One of my favourite Cream albums is Disraeli Gears, which has a psychedelic cover that I hate. Once the BBC played all that psychedelic colour stuff over the recording of God at the Royal Albert Hall and ruined it, yaaa booo to the BBC !! For anybody that cares any more, some of the tracks on Disraeli Gears are Sunshine of Your Love, Tales of Brave Ulysees, Strange Brew. Still, does anyone want to hear Clapton play Badge ?? NSU ?? Layla of course was from a later re-incarnation of God as Derek and the Dominos. How about Spoonful…. That was on Fresh Cream, silly me.

Here are a few lines of Wonderful Tonight for mrsandrewsjk :-
It’s late in the evening
She’s wond’ring what clothes to wear
She puts on her make-up
And brushes her long blonde hair.

And then she asks me
“Do I look all right?”
And I say “Yes, you look wonderful tonight”.

So before I get taken to the nearest hospital, I hope you can see what influence this type of Dinosaur Rock has had, and is still having on my life, long live Slowhand Clapton.

I was of course sorry to hear of the death of John Entwistle, it is always sad to hear of heroes of your younger life going. I was distressed at the time of the death of John Lennon, Lynrd Skynrd, Dudley Moore, Jim Clark etc. John Entwistle was someone I looked up to in my formative years of appreciation of music and now he is gone forever….