Recorded in the summer of 1967 at Atlantic Records and released in the November of that year, Cream's Disraeli Gears is widely regarded as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Their second album, Disraeli Gears sees Cream moving away from the straight ahead blues-rock of their debut Fresh Cream and towards a more psychedelic sound. This becomes immediately evident in the album's opening track, "Strange Brew". Based on a blues song called "Hey Lawdy Mama", "Strange Brew" features surreal lyrics by Gail Collins, the wife of album producer Felix Pappalardi, sung by Eric Clapton over the original song's blues progression. These surreal lyrics continue throughout the rest of the album, appearing on just about every song except "Outside Woman Blues" and "Mother's Lament", both of them covers.
One significant stand-out from the album is "Tales of Brave Ulysses" which features a chord progression written by Eric Clapton (making this one of his first songwriting contributions) and lyrics written by his friend Martin Sharp, who also designed the album cover. Despite the title, the song makes no real mention of Ulysses or the Odyssey; instead, it centers around a sea journey during which the speaker of the song falls in love with a mysterious woman. And even though Eric Clapton wrote the music, it's actually sung by Jack Bruce, as he was the only person who could get the lyrics to work with the melody. However, what really sets this track apart is Clapton's guitar work. Featuring his new wah-wah pedal, this song has the most psychedelic instrumental track, with even "Strange Brew" featuring guitar work mostly influenced by blues legend Albert King. Speaking of the wah-wah pedal, it's probably significant that Jimi Hendrix made his first big splash in England by showing Eric up during an early Cream concert, and later modeled his band around Cream's power trio structure.
But by far the most famous track, and Atlantic's biggest-selling single at the time, is "Sunshine of Your Love", which became a trademark of the band and each of its members, and has become one of the most iconic riffs in all of rock. The story goes that Jack Bruce came up with the riff at the end of a long writing session with Pete Brown, one that had gone on through the night. Just as the sun was coming up, Bruce played a syncopated riff based around the Blues scale, and Brown wrote the line 'It's getting near dawn/When lights close their tired eyes'; later on, Clapton wrote the refrain that would give the song its title. And to cap the song off, Ginger Baker decided to employ a different drum beat, one which accented the first and third beat, rather than the second and the fourth, like most rock songs. The rest is history.
Upon its release, Disraeli Gears was an immediate hit, especially since it came out at the perfect time, just in the wake of the Summer of Love. With its blend of traditional blues with the new palette of psychedelia, supported by musicianship of the highest caliber, the album was pretty much destined for greatness from the beginning. So, while the band that produced it would hardly last a year after its release, the album itself has proven that it has lasting power.
