Cream – I Feel Free

Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp I feel free…Jack Bruce’s voice in this is great and sets the tone of the song. The song peaked in the UK at #11 in 1967. It’s Cream before they were CREAM, before the mountain-top solos and the molten lava blues.

The track kicks off with that cool a cappella intro, a call-and-response chant that suspends it mid-air. Then Jack Bruce’s bass drops in like a swinging anchor, thumping along with a walking groove that practically skips. The whole song feels like it’s walking a line between psychedelia and British pop, and it works. It’s a perfect single from a band that rarely, if ever, cared about making singles.

Cream wasn’t known for a lot of fun songs. White Room, Sunshine of Your Love, and others meant business, but this one is fun and a little pop. They didn’t have many of those, but they did have a few. Wrapping Paper, I’m So Glad, and my personal favorite, the wonderfully bizarre Anyone For Tennis, have a place in my heart. 

British poet Pete Brown helped the band write the lyrics. Brown, who was a beat poet, had worked with Baker and Bruce before. He also wrote lyrics to Sunshine Of Your Love and White Room. Eric Clapton played a borrowed Les Paul guitar on this track, as his Beano album guitar had been stolen during album rehearsals. It was plugged into a new, 100-watt Marshall amp.

Speaking of Clapton, he used what he called his “Woman Tone” on his guitar in this song. It was one of the first times he used it. He got it by turning the amp all the way up, boosting the treble, cutting the bass, and playing a sustained guitar note.

I Feel Free

Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free
Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp
I feel free

Feel when I dance with you,
We move like the sea.
You, you’re all I want to know.

I feel free.
I feel free.
I feel free.

I can walk down the street, there’s no one there
Though the pavements are one huge crowd.
I can drive down the road; my eyes don’t see,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud.

I, I, I, I feel free.
I feel free.
I feel free.

I can walk down the street, there’s no one there
Though the pavements are one huge crowd.
I can drive down the road; my eyes don’t see,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud,
Though my mind wants to cry out loud.

Dance floor is like the sea,
Ceiling is the sky.
You’re the sun and as you shine on me,

I feel free.
I feel free.
I feel free.

I, I, I, I

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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.

44 thoughts on “Cream – I Feel Free”

  2. I’ve always loved that song. And you’re right, that a cappella intro immediately hooks you. Now, ironically, “I Feel Free” is stuck in my brain. But, hey, one could do much worse.

    I might get to listen to that song Saturday live when I return to Atlantic City for “British Invasion Festival.” One of the three bands scheduled to play there is a tribute to Eric Clapton, and they also include some Cream!

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    1. It does stick with you…you know it’s weird but of all the great songs they have….and as you know, they have many…Anyone For Tennis is the one that sticks in my head. I heard it for the first time the year I was graduating high school in the spring…brings back great memories.

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      1. “Anyone for Tennis”? You just introduced me to a Cream song I did not recall, even though I’ve listened to “Wheels Of Fire” in its entirety more than once! I agree it’s a really neat song. But, wow, quite a deep cut!

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      2. It charted at #40 in the UK! Something about it plus I first listened to it when I was graduating from high school in the spring….it brings back great memories. It’s such an odd song…even for them!

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      3. I’ve since listened to “Anyone for Tennis” a few more times. It’s surprisingly folky. I love Jack Bruce’s bassline, as well as the viola, which as I found out was played by producer Felix Pappalardi. This song is a hidden gem!

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      4. Yes it is! It’s my favorite Cream song dude…don’t know why….probably the memories it brings back as well.

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  5. bass drops like a swinging anchor – that’s some great prose! I’d not heard it before, it’s not bad. I like that ‘bomp bomp bomp’ opening. Clapton, another guy who could’ve been picked for the last round of Turntable Talk, artists who left big bands to go solo.

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    1. Thank you! I meant to say boat anchor but it works lol. That surprises me that you haven’t heard this one before but I had Cream’s greatest hits when I was teen.
      Yea with Eric…you could have picked Yardbirds, Dominos, or Cream lol.

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  9. Your question a few takes ago was “First song” well i answered that but in the same vein this song (album) was the start of my music journey. It set the tone of the kind of music that would draw me in and keep me for years. I wore out my brothers album (At risk to physical well being). I know every second on the album. The beginning of this song is catchy. It takes you on a bit of a journey. The term has been said many times but I hadnt heard anything like it and I liked it. A lot!

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  10. One of my favorite Cream songs. Some critics wanted to pigeon hole Cream as “just another white group trying to do blues band.” But this is early Cream and to me it’s more airy, psychedelic and pop than blues.

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  11. You mention a few things, as do the commenters, but what comes through is the confidence, the belief to ‘do what we want to’ without thought of getting a hit. No compromises, and you get the song without any fripperies a producer might want to throw in to make it more commercial. This was around at the same time Hermans Hermits and Peter And Gordon were cluttering up the charts!

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    1. Cluttering up is a great word! The best hits are when they are not going for hits. It’s just commercial enough to make some people happy and a little off enough to make us happy.

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      1. Yes, it is undiluted, ‘free’🙄 of all those strings and bells and whistles that got added in to ‘fill out the sound.’ Nah, let a three piece do what they know.

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      2. OK, I admit I’m being a tad churlish here, I like ‘Woman’ more than a little as well; but then their ‘Knight In Rusty Armour’ puts a lump a lump, ahem, deeper down!

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      1. Ummmm, sorry, I’m not exactly sending out good vibes and happy memories with my grate observations today am I? 😬😬😬. And Mr Asher did some fine producing if I remember. (He said, placatingly.)

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    1. You hit a nerve with that one! I get so pissed listening to Clapton’s 70s output playing on a Fender…he belongs on a Les Paul. Yes some songs like Wonderful Tonight…I get that but not many of the others. So I totally agree with you and I’ve been on that soapbox with the Fender vs Les Paul with Clapton.

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