Cream – Spoonful

I always thought this band was the ultimate power trio…and I mean no offense to ZZ Top. Seeing Cream was like watching a baseball team that has all-star players in each position.

When I first started to listen to Cream, what stood out was not Clapton’s guitar or Baker’s drumming…no it was Jack Bruce’s bass. There are three bass players I listened to while starting to play music. John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, and Paul McCartney.  Those three covered the chaotic, the sliding, and the melodic. Jack Bruce had all of these traits.

Chester Burnett…better known as Howlin’ Wolf was from White Station, Mississippi. He influenced so many including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. This was his signature song although he didn’t write it…the one and only Willie Dixon did. Howlin’ Wolf released this song in 1960.

Fresh cream.jpg

Cream released this single in 1967 and it was off the UK album Fresh Cream in 1966. That album peaked at #6 in the UK and #39 on the Billboard Album Charts. I searched the Canadian RPM archives but this album did not show up.

There have been many rumors about what the song is about. Some say the song is about heroin and cooking it up. Some say it’s about… let’s just say sex. Willie Dixon said no on both. Here is Dixon’s take on it.  “The idea of ‘Spoonful’ was that it doesn’t take a large quantity of anything to be good if you have a little money when you need it, you’re right there in the right spot, that’ll buy you a whole lot. If a doctor give you less than a spoonful of some kind of medicine that can kill you, he can give you less than a spoonful of another that will make you well”. Asked about heroin, he replied, “People who think ‘Spoonful’ was about heroin are mostly people with heroin ideas”.

Cream influenced so many bands. They mixed blues, jazz, and hard rock into new kind of music in 1966. They may have created Heavy Metal/Hard Rock or it evolved from what they were doing. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, and countless more. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker are all probably in the top 5 in rock with each of their instruments.

Its 1968 double album Wheels of Fire features a 16-minute-plus live version of “Spoonful” recorded at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom.

Spoonful

Could fill spoons full of diamonds,Could fill spoons full of gold.Just a little spoon of your precious loveWill satisfy my soul.

Men lies about it.Some of them cries about it.Some of them dies about it.Everything’s a-fightin’ about the spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.

Could fill spoons full of coffee,Could fill spoons full of tea.Just a little spoon of your precious love;Is that enough for me?

Men lies about it.Some of them cries about it.Some of them dies about it.Everything’s a-fightin’ about the spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.

Could fill spoons full of water,Save them from the desert sands.But a little spoon of your forty-fiveSaved you from another man.

Men lies about it.Some of them cries about it.Some of them dies about it.Everything’s a-fightin’ about the spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.That spoon, that spoon, that spoonful.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

50 thoughts on “Cream – Spoonful”

  2. I was once a Cream fan. I bought “Wheels of Fire” when it was released. One day, while sorting through albums, I realized I hadn’t listened to it in years and sold it. Maybe sacrilege to you and your readers, but I came to hear too much of it as self-indulgent noise. Maybe I need to listen to it again, since that was 30-40 years ago. (“Spoonful” and “Born in Chicago” were the first two songs I learned on bass.) I love the Willie Dixon quotation. While I never saw Cream play, I did see Willie Dixon.

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    1. I do that sometimes with bands…I’ll forget or move on to something else…but…I usually come back to them. The Replacements are one band I stopped listening to because of other things going on in the 90s…but I did come back to them.

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  3. 16 minute live jam!! These guys were wound tighter than a top Max. By that I mean their personalities. It must have been something to have been a roadie back in this era.

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    1. I can’t imagine what the roadies heard…and did. Just keeping Jack and Ginger apart would earn your keep.

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  4. The six minute version that appears on Fresh Cream is excellent – yes, it is lyrically unimaginative but man, that deep, rumbling bass and the bluesy harmonica!

    Both the mono and stereo versions are good but although the stereo version has a great sound, it’s stereo separation bit clumsy. The mono one is coal-mine deep and comes booming out of the centre of my speakers with a resounding, invigorating thump.

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    1. Yea those guys were so tight…They turned those songs inside out. I was always caught up in Jack Bruce…those sliding runs he did were incredible.

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    2. Sorry for the typo on “it’s” , I was typing quickly on a tablet. I’ll take more care in future!

      If you are interested in my Cream album reviews (you may not be), click on my name and they are near the top, with Ian Dury as well.

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      2. Just listening to the 16 minute live version. Sure it goes on a bit, but it remains totally captivating – those bass runs at about 11.55. I don’t play bass but I love it and appreciate it.

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  5. No question they were all great at their instruments and they could put out some really catchy songs (‘Badge’ for example , one of the greats of the ’60s) but I’m not far off Half-fast’s take on this one, it seems a little overly long and perhaps a bit self-indulgent. But no denying the talent there …and I’d still agree with you in them topping ZZ Top overall.

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    1. Coming from a musicians point of view…it’s probably more entertaining….just like with the long live jams with the Allman Brothers.

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  6. Thanks for starting my day off with this, Max. This song shows how men search to satisfy their cravings, whether that be for something of sustenance or love. The 1960s pop group The Lovin’ Spoonful took their name from spoonful being the average amount of sperm that a male ejaculates.

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  7. While I am loath to follow that last bit of trivia, that is a great video. I have to say I never thought of this song or even listen to it much but now that you talked about it I can see the easy drug comparison that perhaps came with the cover version rather than the original.

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    1. I started to listen to them when I was a senior in 1985 and I haven’t stopped…I have to be in a mood to listen to extra long songs like that, The Dead live or The Allman Brothers live…but sometimes it hits the spot….but no…I could not take it everyday.

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  8. I was a fan from day one. I was lucky to see them live in Dallas in 1967, about their peak time. Like you say, they were a force of rock. You think ZZ Top is loud, you should have heard Cream, good Lord, they were loud before Zeppelin came along. That was when Clapton played a Gibson 335 or a Gibson SG. I often questioned his switching to a Strat, it changed his sound forever. Jack Bruce, no better bassist ever was in rock, and man he could sing. Baker, a great drummer but a total lunatic.

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    1. That was my biggest problem with him Phil…swtiching to a Strat. In their reunion Clapton went again with the Strat and not with what he used in Cream and you could tell.

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  9. I call Willie Dixon the “poet laureate of the blues.” What gets forgotten is that he was a hell of a bass player himself. He quit when blues bands were moving to Fender bass; he didn’t want to move. When you can play like this, why should you?

    I read an interview with Jack Bruce back before he died, and they asked who his major influences were. He said Johann Sebastian Bach was his main influence…

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    1. That doesn’t surprise me with Bruce…him and Ginger were all about the music.
      I’ve always wanted to play a bass like that one at least once…I’ve never got to.

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  10. My music listening tastes were changed or began with this group. Been listening to them since I was a bad little kid. And Im still listening to them The studio version was the one I heard first. Jack Bruce on vocals just grabs me plus his playing (plus that hat). Went back and got into the original too. Nothing but good listening for me on this Max. Probably into some for high numbers on the times Ive played this one. All Cream music plus solo outputs are in constant rotation at my pad.

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    1. I think they were the first consistently hard blues band but they weren’t hard just to be hard. I found them when I was 18…of all songs… Anyone For Tennis…is the one that got me into them.

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      1. Yeah, that’s a different portal (you just featured that). I was listening to Masters Of Reality. Baker plays drums on one of the albums and does that vocal/talk thing he does on a cut. He did a couple on a few Cream tunes. Off beat like ‘Tennis’,
        CB’s first or second take was Creams first album

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      2. At that time…springtime in 85…I was listening to I Am The Walrus alot…so….it fit perfectly. It was good because it got me in Cream’s door.
        I just watched him on “John Brown” on the Masters Of Reality series…it’s interesting seeing him play more of a straight beat…well at least some.

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      4. I still like that song…don’t know what the hell it means but it’s great. It was not a regular introduction lol.

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  11. Music does not and can not get any more soulful than Cream. Seriously. They inhabit the music. Bruce is the best bassist I know of. And what a voice. Baker is beloved not only for his ability but for who he is, a genius temperamental and often crotchety musician. Clapton is a musical icon by himself, but with the other two, it takes the music into orbit. I speak of them in present tense as Cream is IMMORTAL.

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      1. “And my heaven will be a big heaven” and it will be filled with music. I’ll sit back every evening and watch live music in a Red Rocks type of amphitheater while sipping my Magners.

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  13. I would agree with you, Max, while I generally love ZZ Top, Cream was the ultimate power trio. That clip is pretty cool. Ginger Baker was one scary-looking dude. Obviously, he also had a pretty short fuse. But there can be no argument about his drumming. Keith Moon and Jon Bonham, two other out-of-this-world drummers, were pretty volatile as well. I guess rock drummers can be a peculiar species! I also love Jack Bruce, both as a bassist and as a vocalist. And, of course, Clapton!

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      2. Me either! But that band had some great players at ever position.
        Yea Rush is very talented…very. They are more of an aquired taste because of the subject matter to me. I do like their radio hits.

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      3. My key “challenge” with Rush are Geddy Lee’s high vocals. That said, he seems to be a pretty likeable guy and obviously a great bassist, so I kind of want to dig him! Frankly, I probably haven’t given Rush the attention they deserve!

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      4. Well…after 1980 or so he did lower it considerably. I heard Deke mention this and he was right. Closer To The Heart he was REALLY high but after that he toned it down on purpose. I know what you mean….him and Alex Lifeson are so likeable.

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