Got me wondering what Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker were doing before Cream. Crazy story from wikipedia:
"By July 1966,
Eric Clapton's career with
the Yardbirds and
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers had earned him a reputation as the premier
blues guitarist in Britain.
[18] Clapton, however, found the environment of Mayall's band confining, and sought to expand his playing in a new band. In 1966, Clapton met
Ginger Baker, then the leader of
the Graham Bond Organisation, which at one point featured
Jack Bruce on bass guitar,
harmonica and piano. Baker felt stifled in the Graham Bond Organisation and had grown tired of
Graham Bond's drug addictions and bouts of mental instability. "I had always liked Ginger", explained Clapton. "Ginger had come to see me play with the Bluesbreakers. After the gig he drove me back to London in his Rover. I was very impressed with his car and driving. He was telling me that he wanted to start a band, and I had been thinking about it too."
Each was impressed with the other's playing abilities, prompting Baker to ask Clapton to join his new, then-unnamed group. Clapton immediately agreed, on the condition that Baker hire Bruce as the group's bassist;
[3] according to Clapton, Baker was so surprised at the suggestion that he almost crashed the car.
[20] Clapton had met Bruce when the bassist/vocalist briefly played with the Bluesbreakers in November 1965;
[3][21] the two also had recorded together as part of an
ad hoc group dubbed
Powerhouse (which also included
Steve Winwood and
Paul Jones). Impressed with Bruce's vocals and technical prowess, Clapton wanted to work with him on an ongoing basis.
In contrast, while Bruce was in Bond's band, he and Baker had been notorious for their quarrelling.
[22] Their volatile relationship included on-stage fights and the sabotage of one another's instruments.
[22] After Baker fired Bruce from the band, Bruce continued to arrive for gigs; ultimately, Bruce was driven away from the band after Baker threatened him at knifepoint.
[23]
Baker and Bruce put aside their differences for the good of Baker's new trio, which he envisioned as collaborative, with each of the members contributing to music and lyrics. The band was named "Cream", as Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were already considered the "cream of the crop" amongst blues and jazz musicians in the exploding
British music scene."
