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Cream: Farewell ConcertRating:
Release Date: 12 October, 1999 Retail Price: $14.99 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Cream: Farewell Concert Reviews
Worth the price
I agree totally with "Fast Eddie". Yes, the production and film quality sucks. But it's pretty typical of what (and who) was available to document rock bands in 1968. Most weren't very professional. But if you're a Cream fan (and I have been since 1968) what you get is well worth the cheap price asked for this video. This band stands alone as a unique icon. There is very little documenting it, especially period stuff of any quality. These are not the folks who became billionaires and household names. If you want high quality production - buy the Albert Hall DVD. It'll gives you goosebumps all over. EC just keeps gettin' better... They've all still got it.
A dichotomy of performance and production
First of all, Cream was the best rock band in history. No one and I mean no one has ever been able to do what they did live. In jazz there are a few musicians who have been able to improvise and play what might be considered more complex music, such as Coltrane's quartet, Davis' quintet, Tony Williams "Lifetime", and so on. But, Cream was a blues band that played in their own way at the level of these other groups. No other rock band has even come close although many have made the attempt. Hendrix, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, The James Gang, Grand Funk, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and even Chicago (Liberation-off the first album with Terry Kath) are some of the bands that played incredible improvisational jams, but any musician who understands what is happening in Cream knows there is no contest.
That brings us to this production disaster that is so bad that the first time I watched it I wanted to hunt down the camerman or men and the production staff and sort of --- well, I don't really know what I wanted to do, because I started getting angry and dozens of thoughts were passing through my mind of what I would like to do to those fools. Being the late 60's it appears the cameraman most surely was stoned out of his mind (just like everyone else in those days). Most likely he was speeding and had smoked something. That could explain some of those long, close ups of Jack Bruce's mouth. Or he was a complete idiot, and that goes for the entire production staff.
Let's say for example you studied history and had access to a time machine and could go back in time and take footage of Alexander the Great fighting the battle of Arbella. The production crew goes back, shoots a lot of film, returns, makes a video, and you buy it. But when you watch it, all you see is Alexander picking his nose at a dinner party or jumping off his horse and saying something like "that was a real battle, whew!" Maybe next you might see some shots of him holding a spear, or you get 10 minutes of him yawning. You would be wondering what happened. Where was the Alexander you expected to see? Well, that's something like this video except not exactly. You do get to see Cream in action occasionally.
And that's the good part. Even as bad as this video is, you get to see the "gods". That alone is exciting. Just like if you could see Alexander the Great, if only yawning, it would be incredible. It's the same here. There really isn't much, but what little there is, is inspiring to watch. Sort of consider it like archaeology or dinosaur bones. If you were to find part of a T-Rex you probably would get estatic and realize you've found something great although you didn't have all the pieces. If you come to this video with an attitude something like that, then I believe you can enjoy it and not be so disappointed by the "three stooges" production that diminished what could have been a masterpiece of rock history.
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