Cream and The Doors live on CD

Through the years I've built up a substantive record collection. This will not come as a surprise for those following this blog. A result of having so many records is that (once) new additions sort of fade from memory and can easily remain hidden inside that collection for years, even decades.

To change this somewhat and not return to old time favourites or chasing new releases for this blog the whole of the time, I've decided to pull out an LP or CD from the collection and put it on without looking at the artwork and label. Quite often it works. Do I recognise the music? That answer is sometimes no, but in general the answer is yes. Do I like what I hear? That answer is more often yes than no and even better than at the time for some albums.

Recently, something very coincidental happened. I consecutively pulled out two live CDs. There were more similarities. I did not like the CDs really after I bought them. Both are from bands that were active about the same time, Cream 1966-1969, The Doors 1965-1971 (with Jim Morrison). Both bands caught my attention right when or soon after I got my first Radio Veronica Top 40 leaflet in October 1968. 'White Room' for Cream and 'Hello, I Love You' and 'Touch Me' for The Doors. So, what happened during the two listening sessions?

What has altered, is that I liked both albums in 2026. They are 'Live Cream' and 'Absolutely Live' both from 1970. Up front, I have never become a true Cream fan, where I became a truly deep The Doors fan from the early 1990s onwards. Because of the Oliver Stone movie 'The Doors'? Yes, that was the moment I took out all my LPs once more. I do not have a favourite Cream album, but dote on 'L.A. Woman', one of the best albums ever made.

On 'Live Cream' the band shows what a live jam band it was. A powerful b-side of two minutes something, 'N.S.U.', is transformed into a 10 minutes plus monster. Is it good? The short version of my conclusion is, it is far better than I once thought, because it is so powerful. Live the band is on fire, certainly, but an edit would have done the song good. It is more a thing of you should have been there, then essential to listen to at home. Fact is, it did not turn me off, where it did that in the 1990s when I bought the CD at a discount or second hand. The truth is that the isolated solo themes Clapton plays are simply not that interesting, (BTW, N.S.U. is not the German car but stands for "non-specific urethritis, a common type of sexually transmitted infection", source Wikipedia.) That Bruce is off on his own planet is what makes the song more interesting. Baker keeps it together, while doing his own thing as well. It is a miracle how they all keep time. The following three songs are all this long drawn out. It seems easier to jam on a blues theme then on the self-penned Jack Bruce music. This makes it far easier to listen to. The final track is not live at all, but a studio recording called 'Lawdy Mama', that obviously was later transformed into 'Strange Brew'. And yes, I recognised 'N.S.U.' in the first two seconds.

I can't claim that for 'Absolutely Live', as it starts with a venue announcement that the people in Philadelphia have to take their seats, as otherwise the show will not start. Should it have started with 'Who Do You Love' instead, the organ sound of Ray Manzarek would have given it away immediately. Which album it was, was harder to determine, as I own a few of the later live releases also, although I stopped buying them after some time. I would like to buy the "Matrix", but it is too expensive to my taste.

I taped 'Absolutely Live' from a friend and flat mate in my student years. What did me in was 'The Celebration Of The Lizard'. It still does, as it is not my favourite The Doors music. The rest is super though. Yes, The Doors did a lot of live jams also, a bit less on this album though, but it always seemed to go somewhere. Comparing The Doors' jams to Cream's 'N.S.U.', for me the latter simply lacks clarity and direction. Next to that, The Doors had the better composers in it. The average The Doors track is simply better that Cream's. A few Cream songs are absolute top. The Doors have many songs that fit right under their absolute top songs. Cream not that many.

The question had Bruce and Baker not fought that much, would the band have developed further?, will never be answered. But I doubt it. For me, it is often the U.K. bands that win out on U.S. ones. Here it is definitely the other way around. The Doors grew beyond its live reputation. The songs stood out and several may live for ever. With Cream people still point to the great live shows, while the songs are definitely fading away. So will its live reputation, when people who were there have left this world. The reunion shows in the 00s more or less underscores this. The Doors are immortalised because Jim Morrison joined the 27 club, yes, but it already had the songs to make this possible.

The proud winner of this coincidental contest is: The Doors.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght