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.
But the real heat came with Wheels Of Fire’s four live tracks: the phenomenal Crossroads, with Clapton on truly breathtaking form, the sprawling tour de force Spoonful showcasing three outrageously on-fire instrumentalists, Bruce’s honking gob-iron solo showcase Traintime, and Ginger Baker’s dynamic, controlled-thunder drum solo Toad. All in all, an album that in the late 60s was the gold standard for broad-based and improvisational rock.
If you haven’t creamed before, then this re-packaging isn’t for you (1995’s The Very Best Of Cream is a good entry point). If you’re a Cream must-have-everything fan, then it’s time to weep at forking out around £150 for a fair bit of what you’ll already have.
You get the original album remastered, with impressive increased brightness, clarity and definition; Stereo Reference Reel or Mono Reference Reel and Phase Corrected versions from the studio tracks (if you can hear differences in the latter, then your name’s probably Fido or Patch); some different stereo positioning or mono versions (interesting for one listen); alternative mixes and versions – a no-strings Deserted Cities Of The Heart, one of White Room that shows why Felix Pappalardi probably asked: “Want to have another go at that, Eric?”; all of Live Cream 1 & 2 except for Deserted Cities and Politician, but adding a truly dreadful mix of We’re Going Wrong from Winterland. Plus a 28-page illustrated book.
Not so much a scraping of the Cream barrel, more using a bigger spoon and re-cooking stuff.
