The first ever platinum-selling double album by the first ‘supergroup’, comprised of the best and most influential rock/blues/bit-o’-jazz guitarist, bassist and drummer of their era in the greatest ever power trio (cat, pigeons) just got more wheels. But does that make the five-CD Super Deluxe Edition (there’s also a three-LP Expanded In The Studio Edition) of Cream's Wheels Of Fire go any faster or burn any brighter? Yes and no. Yes in that it’s 50 tracks bigger (calm down) than the original double album, no because a lot of the additions are available on other albums or are just sonic tweaks.
The studio tracks on the original ’68 Wheels Of Fire double ranged wide, from blues-rock classic White Room, with its iconic descending bass line, the melodic, drums-driven Those Were The Days with Eric Clapton’s then-novel speeded-up guitar solo, grooving covers of blues ‘standards’ including Born Under A Bad Sign and the riff-driven Politician, to the acoustic As You Said with Jack Bruce on cello, and the thumping-meets-lullaby Passing The Time.
