It was my senior year in high school and I was listening to Cream’s greatest hits on a spring day. I had the greatest hits cassette in my car…I heard this song with the windows down and at first, I thought…no this can’t be Cream. It grew on me and I love the song. I like when a band does something different. After blitzing audiences with Crossroads, Whiteroom, Sunshine of Your Love, and Strange Brew…out comes this song. It’s not my favorite Cream song…that would be Badge but this one always makes me smile.
The song was recorded during the Wheels On Fire album sessions but not released on that album. Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp wrote the song for the film The Savage Seven released in 1968. It peaked at #64 on the Billboard 100, #37 in Canada, and #40 in the UK and was released on that soundtrack and a single.
Cream released four albums in four years and called it a day in 1969. They would split with Clapton having the most successful career. They would reunite in 1993 for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They had a proper reunion in 2005 with four shows at Royal Albert Hall and three shows at Madison Square Gardens.
I remember the 40th Atlantic Anniversary concert held on May 11, 1988. It was rumored that Led Zeppelin and Cream were going to reunite. Led Zeppelin did, probably to their regret, but Cream didn’t attend. I watched it hoping that Cream would play.
Cream appeared on the Smothers Brothers and mimed this song. Who the hell knows what it means but when I heard “And the elephants are dancing on the graves of squealing mice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?” I was hooked. It’s hard to get it out of your head once you listen to it.
Anyone For Tennis
Twice upon a time in the valley of the tears The auctioneer is bidding for a box of fading years And the elephants are dancing on the graves of squealing mice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
And the ice creams are all melting on the streets of bloody beer While the beggars stain the pavements with fluorescent Christmas cheer And the Bentley driving guru is putting up his price. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
And the prophets in the boutiques give out messages of hope With jingle bells and fairy tales and blind colliding scopes And you can tell they’re all the same underneath the pretty lies. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
The yellow Buddhist monk is burning brightly at the zoo You can bring a bowl of rice and then a glass of water too And fate is setting up the chessboard while death rolls out the dice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
During my senior year in high school in 1985, I had their greatest hits. I wore it out and became a huge Cream fan. I went to an old music store a couple of years ago and they had an original 60s Leslie Cabinet. Why am I bringing that up? That is what Clapton is playing through on this song. A Leslie Cabinet (I have video at the bottom of the post) contains a rotating horn and was designed for organs, but many tried it with guitars. It gives an organ guitar a swirling sound. The Beatles used it a lot.
One of my favorite Cream songs. Badge was written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison. In George’s handwritten lyrics he wrote the word “Bridge” as in bridge of a song and Clapton thought it read “Badge” so they named the song that. In 1969 Badge peaked at #60 on the Billboard 100 Charts, #18 on the UK Charts, and #49 in Canada.
It appeared on Cream’s final album Goodbye. This song is one of only 3 studio tracks on Goodbye…the rest are live cuts. Badge would be the only Cream song to include 5 people…in addition to Clapton, Bruce, Baker and Harrison, Felix Pappalardi played the piano and Mellotron. Pappalardi produced Disreali Gears, Wheels Of Fire, and Goodbye. Robert Stigwood produced their debut album Fresh Cream.
Cream were broke up when this album was released. Clapton was already working with Blind Faith. The did reunite for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1993 and played 3 songs. In 2005 the band reunited at the Royal Albert Hall…the location of their last concert in 1969 and later in the year at Madison Square Gardens.
I will say…it’s hard for me to listen to the 2005 reunion. Clapton chose to play his Fender guitar and it just didn’t have the bite his Gibson SG had in the Cream days. I didn’t expect the long jams but I do wish he would have been a bit dirtier in his sound. The musicianship though was great.
Don’t study the lyrics too much. They don’t make much sense. Supposedly many of them came from drunk conversations with George and Ringo.
George Harrison:I helped Eric write “Badge” you know. Each of them had to come up with a song for that Goodbye Cream album and Eric didn’t have his written. We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part, so I wrote ‘Bridge.’ Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing – ‘What’s BADGE?’ he said. After that, Ringo walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park
Hope I didn’t bore you all with the Leslie Cabinet information, but I really like them. In this video you will see how it works and why an organ gets that swirling sound. A sixties model costs around $3000 and up.
Back to our song of the day!
Badge
Thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car. Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far. And I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table.
I told you not to wander ’round in the dark. I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park. Then I told you ’bout our kid: now he’s married to Mabel.
Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down. Don’t you notice how the wheel goes ’round? And you better pick yourself up from the ground Before they bring the curtain down. Yes, before they bring the curtain down.
Ah Ah Ah, yeh yeh yeh Ah Ah Ah, yeh yeh yeh
Talkin’ ’bout a girl that looks quite like you. She didn’t have the time to wait in the queue. She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.
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 out playing. John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, and Paul McCartney. Those three covered the chaotic, the sliding, and melodic. Jack Bruce had all of these traits.
Cream recorded this and released it on their 1968 album Wheels Of Fire. It was written by Booker T Jones and William Bell for Albert King. King released it on his first Stax album Born Under A Bad Sign in 1967. Clapton stuck close to King’s guitar style on this song.
The Wheels of Fire album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #3 in the UK in 1968.
Cream played this when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1993, in tribute to Albert King, who died the previous year. It was one of two times the band has played together since they broke up in 1968. The first time was at Clapton’s wedding in 1979…three Beatles also played together at his wedding.
Booker T Jones:“My recollection is that we wrote it in my den, late the night before the session. We had been trying to come up with something for Albert. He was coming to town and it was the last opportunity we had to write a song. But you know, now that I think of it, the fact that the song was in D flat, there is definitely an Indiana influence because, you know, a blues song in d flat? I tell you, I learned the value of flat keys and sharp keys and how to use them for emotional value so I could have more range and capacity for touching the human heart. I think that was one of the reasons that song became as huge as it did. Because it was in D flat.”
King’s song is also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of the “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”
From Songfacts
When Albert King signed with Stax Records in Memphis, Booker T. Jones, who was a member of the Stax house band Booker T. & The MGs, was assigned his producer. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Jones explained: “At that time, my writing partner was William Bell. He came over to my house the night before the session. William wrote the words and I wrote the music in my den that night. That was one of my greatest moments in the studio as far as being thrilled with a piece of music. The feeling of it, it’s the real blues done by the real people. It was Albert King from East St. Louis, the left-handed guitar player who was just one of a kind and so electric and so intense and so serious about his music. He just lost himself in the music. He’s such a one of a kind character. I was there in the middle of it and it was exhilarating.”
The “bad sign” is an astrology reference: if you’re “born under a bad sign,” it means the stars are aligned against you from birth. It was the song’s co-writer William Bell who came up with the title – he wanted to do a blues song about astrology.
Born Under A Bad Sign was Albert King’s first album released by Stax. It became King’s signature song, with the classic lyrics, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.”
The song harkens back to blues of the ’30s and ’40s which had similar lyrical content.
King was an American blues musician. Known for his size (6′ 4″, 250 pounds) and custom-made, left-handed Gibson guitar, he died in 1992.
Their guitarist, Eric Clapton, idolized American blues artists and often performed their songs. It marked a change of guitar style for Clapton, who adopted a harder, attacking style on this song in place of the sweeter, sustaining notes he called “woman tone,” which were more apparent on Cream’s first two albums.
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band played this at Woodstock in 1969. They went on Monday morning, two sets ahead of Jimi Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles, recorded an instrumental cover in 1969 as a tribute to King.
This song’s lyricist William Bell performed it at the Grammy Awards in 2017 with Gary Clark Jr. “When you spend your life making music, you were born under a good sign, Bell said when they finished the song.” Bell won the award for Best Americana Album.
Janis Joplin’s guitarist Sam Andrew borrowed the riff for Big Brother & The Holding Company’s song “I Need A Man To Love.”
Christian posted this video in the comments…I thought I would add it…
Born Under A Bad Sign
Born under a bad sign Been down since I begin to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all
Hard luck and trouble is my only friend I’ve been on my own ever since I was ten Born under a bad sign Been down since I begin to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck You know I wouldn’t have no luck at all
I can’t read, haven’t learned how to write My whole life has been one big fight Born under a bad sign I been down since I begin to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck I say I wouldn’t have no luck at all
I ain’t no lyin’
You know if it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have no kinda luck If it wasn’t for real bad luck I wouldn’t have no luck at all
You know, wine and women is all I crave A big-legged woman is gonna carry me to my grave Born under a bad sign I been down since I begin to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck I tell I wouldn’t have no luck at all
Yeah, my bad luck boy Been havin’ bad luck all of my days, yes
I just posted a song by Howlin’ Wolf a week or so ago but I’ve been listening to him lately so here is another. This song comes with an interesting story between Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.
When Jimi Hendrix came to England he made a huge impression right away. At a Cream gig he requested a chance to jam with the band. No one in those days asked to do this because Clapton was “God” on guitar to many people…plus Cream as a unit were super talented. Jack Bruce later said that Jimi was a brave person to do that because Cream were all top notch musicans.
Jimi plugged into Jack Bruce’s amp and broke into Killing Floor. Clapton was blown away by it because he never mastered the song. Jimi was ripping right through it at breakneck speed. According to Chas Chandler…Clapton just dropped his hands and was shocked.
Wolf released his version in 1964 and it was written by him.
Hubert Sumlin played guitar on the original version. He said that Wolf played the field, with several ladies in his stable. One of them, a woman named Helen, was so fed up with his philandering that she got a shotgun filled with buckshot and fired at him from a second-floor window.
So, the killing floor is a metaphor for depression, in Wolf’s case triggered by a woman who was so mad she was literally trying to kill him.
Led Zeppelin later used this song as the basis for The Lemon Song.
Eric Clapton:
“I remember thinking that here was a force to be reckoned with. It scared me, because he was clearly going to be a huge star, and just as we are finding our own speed, here was the real thing.”
“It was amazing,”“and it was musically great, too, not just pyrotechnics.”
From Songfacts
In this song, Howlin’ Wolf sings about how he should have left his woman a long time ago, imagining how much better he would have it if he went to Mexico when he had the chance. Now, he’s down here on the killing floor.
Wolf wasn’t the first to use the phrase “killing floor” in a song; the Mississippi blues musician Skip James recorded “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” in 1931. James’ version was re-released in 1964, a year before Wolf recorded his “Killing Floor.”
Artists to cover this song include Albert King, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush.
Killing Floor
I should have quit you, a long time ago I should have quit you, babe, long time ago I should have quit you, and went on to Mexico If I had-a followed my first mind If I had-a followed my first mind I’d been gone, since my second time
I shoulda went on, when my friend come from Mexico at me I shoulda went on, when my friend come from Mexico at me But no, I was foolin’ with ya, baby, I let ya put me on the killin’ floor Lord knows, I shoulda been gone Lord knows, I shoulda been gone And I wouldn’t have been here, down on the killin’ floor Yeah
Ginger Baker passed away Sunday, October 6th… Ginger was one of the best drummers in rock history.
Paul McCartney:Ginger Baker, great drummer, wild and lovely guy. We worked together on the ‘Band on the Run’ album in his ARC Studio, Lagos, Nigeria. Sad to hear that he died but the memories never will. X Paul
Mick Jagger:Sad news hearing that Ginger Baker has died, I remember playing with him very early on in Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated. He was a fiery but extremely talented and innovative drummer.
John Densmore:A drumming force of nature, Ginger Baker has broke on through. Emblematic of his influence, I put 2 bars of his reverse-beat in “Hello, I Love You.”
Pete Brown wrote the lyrics and Jack Bruce wrote the music to White Room. He was inspired by a cycling tour that he took in France. The “white room” was a literal place: a room in an apartment where Pete Brown was living. It was not, as some suspected, an institution.
The music was written first. Pete Brown’s first attempt at a lyric was something about a doomed hippie girl – the song was called “Cinderella’s Last Goodnight.” Jack Bruce didn’t like it, so he scrapped that idea and pulled up an eight-page poem he had written earlier, which he reworked into White Room.
Pete Brown: “It was a miracle it worked, considering it was me writing a monologue about a new flat.”
The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100 in 1968.
Cream in the 1970s… Pattie Boyd took the photo.
From Songfacts
This song is about depression and hopelessness, but the setting is an empty apartment. The lyrics were written by a poet named Pete Brown, who was a friend of Cream bass player Jack Bruce, the lead vocalist on the track. Brown also wrote the words for “Sunshine Of Your Love,” “I Feel Free” and “SWLABR.”
In a Songfacts interview with Pete Brown, he told the story: “It was a meandering thing about a relationship that I was in and how I was at the time. It was a kind of watershed period really. It was a time before I stopped being a relative barman and became a songwriter, because I was a professional poet, you know. I was doing poetry readings and making a living from that. It wasn’t a very good living, and then I got asked to work by Ginger and Jack with them and then started to make a kind of living.
And there was this kind of transitional period where I lived in this actual white room and was trying to come to terms with various things that were going on. It’s a place where I stopped, I gave up all drugs and alcohol at that time in 1967 as a result of being in the white room, so it was a kind of watershed period. That song’s like a kind of weird little movie: it changes perspectives all the time. That’s why it’s probably lasted – it’s got a kind of mystery to it.”
Upon its release, Wheels Of Fire was given a terrible review by Rolling Stone magazine. They claim that “White Room” has “The exact same lines for guitar, bass and drums” as “Tales Of Brave Ulysses.” If you listen to both songs, they are somewhat similar, but nowhere near the level they claim.
Eric Clapton used a wah-wah pedal on his guitar. He got the idea from Jimi Hendrix.
Clapton’s solo earned the #2 spot on Guitar World’s greatest wah solos of all time in 2015. The #1 spot? Hendrix’ “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).”
Why are the starlings tired? Because the pollution in London was killing them. Pete Brown also told us: “The ‘tired starlings’ is also a little bit of a metaphor for the feminine in a way, as well. It was women having to put up with rather a lot – too much pressure on them at the time.”
More lyric interpretation courtesy of Pete Brown:
“Goodbye Windows” – “Just people waving goodbye from train windows.”
“Black-roof Country” – “That was the kind of area that I lived in. There were still steam trains at one point around that area, so the roofs were black. It was black and sooty. It’s got that kind of a feel to it.”
On their last tour before the band broke up, Cream opened most of their shows with this song. When Cream did a reunion tour in 2005, they played it near the end of the sets.
Clapton refused to play this after leaving Cream until 1985, when Paul Shaffer urged him to play it while he was sitting in with the band on Late Night With David Letterman. That same year, Clapton played it at Live Aid.
This was released as a single after Cream had broken up. It did better in the US than in England, since Cream had caught on in the States.
In 2000, Apple Computer used this in commercials for their white iMacs. While the song does have the word “white” in the title, the subject matter is not good for selling computers.
Jack Bruce recorded a new, Latin-influenced version on his 2001 album Shadows In The Air. Clapton played on this as well as his new recording of “Sunshine Of Your Love.”
Clapton performed this in 1999 for the album Sheryl Crow and Friends: Live From Central Park. Clapton and Crow were an item for a time in the ’90s.
White Room
In the white room with black curtains near the station Black roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes Dawnlight smiles on you leaving, my contentment
I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves
You said no strings could secure you at the station Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows I walked into such a sad time at the station As I walked out, felt my own need just beginning
I’ll wait in the queue when the trains come back Lie with you where the shadows run from themselves
At the party she was kindness in the hard crowd Consolation for the old wound now forgotten Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes She’s just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings
I’ll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves
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