CREAM Wheels Of Fire MFSL 2-066 Double LP Set HALF-SPEED MASTERED Audiophile OOP

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CREAM Wheels Of Fire Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab MFSL 2-066 Double Record Set HALF-SPEED MASTERED from the original analog master tapes - Pressed by JVC of Japan

Tracklist

In The Studio A1 White Room Bass, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums, Timpani [Tympani] – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonViola – Felix PappalardiWritten-By – Jack Bruce, Pete Brown (5) 4:56 A2 Sitting On Top Of The World Bass, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Chester Burnett 4:56 A3 Passing The Time Bass, Organ [Calliope], Lead Vocals – Jack BruceDrums, Glockenspiel, Vocals – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric ClaptonOrgan [Pedals] – Felix PappalardiWritten-By – Ginger Baker, Mike Taylor (9) 4:31 A4 As You Said Acoustic Guitar, Cello, Vocals – Jack BruceCymbal [High Hat] – Ginger BakerWritten-By – Jack Bruce, Pete Brown
4:19 B1 Pressed Rat And Warthog Bass, Recorder – Jack BruceDrums, Other [Recitation] – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonTrumpet, Flute [Tonette] – Felix PappalardiWritten-By – Ginger Baker, Mike Taylor (9) 3:13 B2 Politician Bass, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Jack Bruce, Pete Brown (5) 4:11 B3 Those Were The Days Bass, Lead Vocals – Jack BruceBells [Swiss Hand] – Felix PappalardiDrums, Marimba, Chimes [Tubular Bells] – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Ginger Baker, Mike Taylor (9) 2:52 B4 Born Under A Bad Sign Bass, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums, Tambourine – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Booker T. Jones, William Bell 3:08 B5 Deserted Cities Of The Heart Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Cello, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar – Eric ClaptonViola – Felix PappalardiWritten-By – Jack Bruce, Pete Brown
4:36 Live At The Fillmore C1 Crossroads Bass, Harmonica, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Robert Johnson 4:13 C2 Spoonful Bass, Harmonica, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric ClaptonWritten-By – Willie Dixon
16:44 D1 Traintime Bass, Harmonica, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric Clapton 6:52 D2 Toad Bass, Harmonica, Vocals – Jack BruceDrums – Ginger BakerGuitar, Vocals – Eric Clapton 15:53

*(all photos are of the actual item)

• Recorded At – I.B.C. Studios
• Recorded At – Atlantic Studios
• Recorded At – Winterland
• Recorded At – Fillmore Auditorium
• Mastered At – Original Masteringworks
• Pressed By – Victor Company Of Japan, Ltd.
• Lacquer Cut At – Victor Company Of Japan, Ltd.
• Manufactured By – MFSL, Inc.

• Design [Album Design] – Stanislaw Zagorski
• Engineer – Adrian Barber (tracks: A1 to B5), Bill Halverson (tracks: C1 to D2), Tom Dowd (tracks: A1 to B5)
• Engineer [Re-mix] – Adrian Barber (tracks: C1 to D2)
• Illustration – Martin Sharp (2)
• Mastered By – Jack Hunt
• Photography By – Jim Marshall (3)
• Producer – Felix Pappalardi
• Remastered By – Joseph M. Palmaccio

Notes

Half-Speed Mastered from the original analog master tapes.

While the disc is labelled Live at the Fillmore, only “Toad” was recorded at The Fillmore. The other tracks were recorded live at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. 

Recorded 8 and 10 March 1968 at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California, 7 March 1968 at The Fillmore, San Francisco

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Matrix / Runout (Side A): MFSL-2-066-1A3-2 JH/2 H121 + L
• Matrix / Runout (Side B): MFSL-2-066-1B3-2 JH/2 H121
• Matrix / Runout (Side C): MFSL-2-066-2C3-2 JH/2 H121
• Matrix / Runout (Side D): MFSL-2-066-2D3-1 JH/2 H111

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine       Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio. Of the three, Ginger Baker comes up short, contributing the passable "Passing the Time" and "Those Were the Days," which are overshadowed by how he extends his solo drum showcase "Toad" to a numbing quarter of an hour and trips upon the Wind & the Willows whimsy of "Pressed Rat and Warthog," whose studied eccentricity pales next to Eric Clapton's nimble, eerily cheerful "Anyone for Tennis." In almost every regard, Wheels of Fire is a terrific showcase for Clapton as a guitarist, especially on the first side of the live album with "Crossroads," a mighty encapsulation of all of his strengths. Some of that is studio trickery, as producer Felix Pappalardi cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that's exceptionally exciting, but there's no denying that Clapton is at a peak here, whether he's tearing off solos on a 17-minute "Spoonful" or goosing "White Room" toward the heights of madness. But it's the architect of "White Room," bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter. Aside from the monumental "White Room," he has the lovely, wistful "As You Said," the cinematic "Deserted Cities of the Heart," and the slow, cynical blues "Politician," all among Cream's very best work. And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.