Don't let Pete Brown's lyrics befuddle you too much. It was the 60's, psychedelia was big, there was LSD, weed, free expression. Sometimes words would get strung together because they flowed and sounded good together. The ambiguousness might mean something, then again it might not. It was a special place and time. :)
It made for better overall songs when lyricism was focused on less. I even have found rap I've enjoyed without understanding the lyrics much, just great organic jazz and rock samples with cool flow and rapping voices. Good lyrics are a nice bonus, and bad lyrics can certainly hurt a song, but for me it's really about feeling emotion through the melody, rhythm and tone of the music. I find it funny that anyone would prioritize lyrics, as many seem to, in a MUSICAL art form.
Peter Brown was a poet who wrote the lyrics and was a friend of the band : "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." Forgot to add: listen to 'Sunshine of your love' Another awesome song by Cream 😄
Cream had just moved their allegiance to Atlantic Studios, under the ownership direction of Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler - they also pulled The Rolling Stones over to them, because this producing duo were just that good. When Cream created this 2nd album they were unsure of which song to use as a radio single. It would be Ahmet's 13 year old daughter who would insist on "Sunshine Of Your Love", and she was right. That song would become possibly their biggest hit. You might wish to know that Ahmet played the piano behind Ray Charles in his song, "Mess Around" - a wonderful song with incredible piano. I had the good fortune to meet Jerry Wexler late in his life. He was full of wonderful stories about the incredible musical artists he worked with. As to that "White Room with Black Curtains" I always understood that it was a setting for going "cold turkey" to break one's addiction to heroin. The two of you do a wonderful show. It is very much my favorite!
Cream is getting on 55 years ago formed. They were labeled the first “super group,” and quite frankly, they were super. Arguably the best rock trio…ever. Their Disraeli Gears album is incredible.
I don't care what anyone says, in my opinion Cream started it all. They were so enormously innovative at the time and influential even today. If you guys want to hear some more of their greatness, check out Tales Of Brave Ulysses.
Cream inspired so many players. EVH was a huge fan of Cream. Jimi Hendrix reportedly first heard a wah wah pedal in action when Cream released White Room.
Modern rock started with Cream. After they appeared, EVERY band wanted a lead guitarist with a heavy and dynamic rhythm section-which was most certainly provided by Baker and Bruce.
A Starling is a common English bird. “Tired starlings” is like saying even the birds were tired as seen through the window. It is a song about hopelessness
Killer psychedelic blues- rock with that cool lyric. "Whete the shadows run from themselves". Cream were 3 great blues musicians that had a short-lived run before disbanding.
Always liked this Cream song. Great lyrics and musically superb. It was written by poet named Pete Brown, who was a friend of Cream Bass player Jack Bruce, the lead vocalist on the track. Pete said, "It was a transitional period where I lived in this actual white room(not a padded institution), and was trying to come to terms with various things that were going on. It's a place where stopped, I gave up all drugs at the time in 1967 as a result of being in the white room"
This song was written during the psychedelic period, LSD, and hallucinations. Awake dream states.It was common to use lyrics that were dream like. Luv you guys
His woman leaves him in the morning light. They go down to the train station where she tells him that she won't let any strings keep her there. As he walks home to his white apartment, alone, he feels the depression come on immediately. He waits in that room alone and feeling hopeless. He waits in the lines whenever the trains come back, hoping she'll return. He reminisces about meeting her at a party, how what she gave was kindness in the middle of an uninviting crowd, and how she repaired an old wound in his soul that he has now long since forgotten about. He reminisces about her beautiful eyes and the day she left, as she was getting ready to go. He sleeps alone in his room with only shadows to keep him company. Or at least, that's the most literal interpretation. The song is simply an impressionistic retelling of the feelings of hopelessness and depression that the protagonist is feeling, alone in his white room.
the first verse is referring to an ending relationship "silver horses run down moonbeans in her dark eyes" describing her, the second verse describing how he felt as she left on the train " i walked into such a sad time at the station. 3rd verse is him meeting some new "osolations for the old qeen now forgotten ", some one that was stong ,wild, and alive"yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes!" . and the white room being the loft he was living in overlooking the station.
Wife here...Literally have heard this great classic rock hit all my life..BJ..Hey, the song is highly metaphorical...You're both doing an amazing job as always..!! The song is said to be about an actual "White Room" for rent....representing..emptiness..depression and hopelessness...So you two are perfectly on point as always!!..Thank you for the amazing insight!!
Yes the anguish of a lost love.... All that sound from 3 guys,... Drums (Ginger Baker) Bass and singing on this song (Jack Bruce) and Clapton on guitar). .Each considered one of the best. The lyrics are taken from a poem ... It is about a lover that moves on .(You said no strings could contain you) .. He sees her later on in life (At the party she was kindness in a hard crowd) but it brings up his pain again
1968.…. 14 years old… Buy Cream album. With 4 friends pass around two pipes and a bong…. Listen to the album and change our lives forever. I had these experiences often back in those days…. Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Byrds and many more. The Greatest Music In History
This was one of the super groups of the 60's. Everyone of the 3 guys (Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker & Eric Clapton) was super talented but they also had big egos. So they didn't always get a long. They all came from previous successful bands. But in the few short years they were together they produced some classic songs such as "Crossroads", "Born Under A Bad Sign", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "White Room", "Strange Brew", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "SWLABR" etc.
When I saw them, they opened with this classic. The horripilation! Jack the Bruce and Ginger the Baker toured in the '80s, with another guitarist or two, but it was otherworldly even without Eric. What impressed me was that young and old, everyone seemed to know all the lyrics, while like much in the age of psychedelia, was surreal and poetic.
I always admired Ginger Baker and I've realised over the years just what an innovative drummer he was. He was always coming up with new ideas such that instead of just being the guy at the back, bashing out a rhythm, he played like he was the lead! So much intricacy in every track. A true master of the skins - in more ways than one!
Mid-late 60s supergroup with Eric Clapton on guitar. When Jimi Hendrix's British manager was trying to talk Jimi into going to England, Jimi asked him one thing - 'can I meet Eric Clapton?' Clapton's influence on rock was huge...he was also Eddie Van Halen's biggest early influence.
Here is what I found. Song about addiction to Heroine. The entire song is laced with quasi-euphemisms. White room is a place where the deed takes place. Black curtains suggesting privacy and station refers to the part of town. Tired starlings are used needles, silver horses are the spoons that are used.
Love watching you guys listening to this classic tune. Claptons wah wah guitar is stellar. Jack Bruce bass and vocals Ginger Baker, an incredible drummer. As someone else said in comments don’t get caught up on the lyrics. This was the height of the psychedelic 60’s.
This was in the peak of the psychedelic era when lyrics weren't meant to be taken literally sometimes. They sort of just create images that the listener could sort of float along with. We basically got high and didn't pay much attention to the lyrics. 😁. It's another one of those "ya hada be there" things. 😁✌💛 Isn't the guitar great?!
Great song and album, they were the gold standard for pioneering hard rock. Try their amazing live interpretation of Spoonful, it is an amazing banger and jam. Enjoy! 🎸
Cream was a British Rock "power trio", that featured Jack Bruce (lead vocals, bass), Eric Clapton (lead guitar), and Ginger Baker (drums). Cream recorded and toured from 1966 to 1968. Prior to the formation of Cream, Eric Clapton teamed up with John Mayall and His Bluesbreakers to record one album together. That album featured some of the best Blues guitar work of Eric Clapton's career. Check out their stereo version of their cover of the Otis Rush song, "All Your Love" here on UA-cam.
He's at a railway station and the white room is the 'waiting room' there. When the train leaves you say goodbye at the carriage window. Starlings fly everywhere in many UK cities - they must get tired. He says goodbye to his gf, then returns to wait in a queue for her to come back through the barriers. It's a difficult thing having a long distance relationship.
Just caught up with this, it brings back memories. I bought every cream vinyl album there was and I was 16yrs old, just left school, got a job, plenty of money, own flat, lambretta LI 150cc motor scooter...the 60s/70s...Best time of my life...oh the nostalgia..thankyou for this ❤ 🇬🇧
One of those superbands that I wish had stayed together longer ,Eric Clapton is one of those very few who can say their guitar is a extension of them .
My favorite Cream song was always “Strange Brew”. First heard these guys when I was about 5. I used to have an album called “Heavy Cream” and listened to it a lot. I think it was a greatest hits kinda thing, but I haven’t seen it in a long time. All three of them were great musicians, but Ginger Baker always caught my ear. Oddly, as a guitar player, I was a middling fan of Eric Clapton. I know that’s sacrilege to many guitarists out there, but hey, everyone has their preferences. Great to see you guys moving through the spectrum of rock’n’roll. Keep up the good work!
I remember HEAVY CREAM. A best of Cream album. If I remember correctly, it was white w/ 3 exaggerated extra lankey figures of the band members playing their instruments. Album was 1of 4 in a best of collection. The Best of Clapton, The best of Jack Bruce & The best of Ginger Baker.
Erick Clapton does share lead vocals in various versions of this song but pretty sure was just Jack Bruce on entire vocals here, neither Clapton, Bruce, or Baker wrote the lyrics of the song, it was written by the lyricist Pete Brown. Here's a quote from him; "It was a miracle it worked, considering it was me writing a monologue about a new flat." It's just a song about a new home that is obviously not furnished" . . . and if you didn't know already, a starling is a bird you sometimes find nesting in empty buildings, perhaps there was a starling trying to escape out the window when they arrived, which would have made it the window it left by or the goodbye window, too pooped to leave trapped by the glass coz it freaked out...who knows
This has all three members of the group at their peak. Baker's drums are incessant, Pete Brown's lyrics are float-away, all supporting the virtuoso performances of Jack and Eric. I loved it back in 1968 and I love it now. Then there was "Badge" and Cream were gone.
it's based on an 8 page poem by the lyricist, also, someone in the band or the writer did live or seclude himself in that room, and there's talk of "substances" use in that station
An approach to lyricism that happened in the 60s was very special in that people told their own stories in ways that, while while mostly concrete to them, was meant to express the inner turmoil rather than describe the nature of where, when, why and how that turmoil was happening. As a result we got poetry that, when overanalyzed, felt nonsensical (as does anything that you hear out of context), but when felt gave you an insight into the soul of the writer and thus opened up a conduit into the greater mystery of human experience.
P.S. It's difficult to rationalize art this is like this because it makes you ask more difficult philosophical questions. "Am I a soul driving a body or are body and soul one single mechanism?" "Are there objective metrics with which we can evaluate beauty or is it simply in the eye of the beholder?" And to one greater level of abstraction: "Are either of those two previous questions simply a matter of perspective or is there a right and wrong answer to them?" The wonder of trying to figure these things out does not lie in finding the answers, but in the discovery of better and better questions which such a journey might guide you to ask.
This song is about depression and hopelessness, but the setting is an empty apartment. 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."
Seems like most of these great songs are about trouble of one kind or another with the opposite sex. A common concept for many people. Bassist Jack Bruce did the main verses and Guitarist extraordinaire Eric Clapton was doing the higher register vocals on the "where shadows run from themselves" line. Ginger Baker was just smacking the skins in the back.
The Power Trio!!! Two guitarists and a drummer making the most of their gifts (check out Sunshine of You Love). Drummer Sina does a drum cover that will edify the drum work. :)
This was released in 1968. Cream influenced a lot of bands that would become hard rock and eventually metal. Jack Bruce on vocals and bass was a big influence on Geddy Lee of RUSH. Clapton on guitar and Ginger Baker on drums, all 3 of them influenced so many.
Ginger Baker was a Jazz drummer! Eric Clapton is a Rock/Blues guitar player and Jack Bruce was a Classically trained bass player who went on to play Blues. They were not all blues pickers and combining the three types of music is something that lead to an incredible sound. I just wanted to clarify that...
A quick '60s Rock history lesson for you. Eric Clapton got his start in the early '60s as the lead guitarist for a British Blues band called The Yardbirds. When they hit it big with a more pop-oriented sound in 1965, Clapton basically accused them of selling out and quit. He went on to do the Blues Breakers project with John Mayall, and then got with bassist/singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form Cream. They're one of the most important bands in the early development of Hard Rock music. Meanwhile, The Yardbirds hired Jeff Beck as Clapton's replacement. He stuck around for a few years, then left to form the Jeff Beck Group, which is less famous now but was a big influence on other Rock musicians at the time. HIS replacement was a young guitar prodigy named Jimmy Page. But by then The Yardbirds were already on their last legs, and broke up shortly after he joined. None of the original members were interested in taking the trademark for the band name, so Page ended up with it. He got a group of guys together to form a band that was going to be called "The New Yardbirds", but instead they decided to go with the name Led Zeppelin.
Cream 1966 to 1968. First super group. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Thats when Clapton played Gibson Guitars. With the thur Marshall plexi amp. With Cry baby wahwah
don't worry about the words or "meaning". This is Music, the meaning can be abstract (as music is). Music doesn't need a story to be great, it needs melody rhythm and structure. Words are tacked onto music. And yes, Clapton is playing "lead". Especially that part that is a "lead solo". On the verse he has an orchestral role. Cream defined "power trio" like none other because Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were much more than blues players, and Clapton was a virtuoso.
Clapton's guitar work is unmistakable, if someone did not know who played guitar and heard this for the first time, he would be the first guess of many.
The lyrics were written by the poet Pete Brown and are a sound picture of what is in his mind as he looks at his relationship with a woman. I don't think the white room is a padded cell, it's just his own room. For example, 'Goodbye windows' is a description of her leaning out of the train window and waving him goodbye. 'Black roof country' is a description of the slate roofs of the houses round about him and also a sense of his mood now that she's gone.
CREAM, "WHITE ROOM".. 1967 ENGLISH BAND CONSIDERED THE FIRST SUPER GROUP. BASS VOCALS :Jack Bruce, :GUITAR BACK UP VOCALS: Eric Clapton, DRUMS: Ginger Baker. More.. "CROSSROADS", "TALES OF BRAVE ULYSSES", "SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE", "I FEEL FREE", "BADGE", and "STRANGE BREW". LYRICS, PSYCHODELIC ROCK..
Yes there is a story behind the lyrics. And yes it had to do with a facility, I believe kind of a rehab. And a girl who was there, not to be seen again.
Eric Clapton was in this band & in the Yardbirds, before he went off on his own. I think Jack Bruce sang this one. Many songs of this era made no sense, because they were usually talking about drugs, using 'code'. I believe this one was written by Pete Brown at a time when he was quitting drugs & alcohol. He was dealing with facing himself.
I think the padded cell thing might have some relevance because if you listen later in the sing the tired starlings aren't visible anymore, and why, cause he's now in a room with 'no windows'.
I can follow, that it's saying goodbye, to one woman, that got on a train, and there's some consolation of getting with another woman. It has lots of imagery, but it's a bit more clear to me, feeling-wise, when I sing it. It's experience, that brings context, and sounds like dude's painting only portions of it. It's not an illustration, it's glimpses. Spirit/Soul archetype vibration descriptors, are there. One woman is Silver Horses, and Moonbeams... type with flowing hair and of a ethereal glow, and the other is Yellow Tigers Crouched In Jungles...type of exotic ferocity, ready to pounce.
The legit-true rock band is only 3 members - guitar, bass, and drums (the vocalist is also one of the instrumentalists - in the case of "White Room", the bassist, Jack Bruce, is the vocalist and bassist), Eric Clapton on guitar, and Ginger Baker on drums.
"White Room" One of the all time greats from the background of my youth. -- May I suggest - { KISS Detroit Rock City Paul Lynde Halloween Special 1976 (Remastered) } With Margret Hamilton, the wicked witch from the Wizard of OZ, introducing Kiss. Copy and paste between the brackets to UA-cam for the best version.
composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown. Cream’s “White Room” is a song that is highly-metaphorical. The term “white room” is derived from the song’s writer, Pete Brown, literally living in a white room in 1967. And what was particular noticeable about that juncture in time is that he stopped consuming drugs and alcohol. And accordingly, the lyrics featured throughout the song are widely interpreted as being about the singer’s on-again/off-again relationship with drugs. Another way it can be understood is as him recounting his association with a romantic interest. And once again, this relationship doesn’t appear as if it is a consistent one. And Brown has alluded to the idea that the “meandering” nature of this song is about both a romance and his relationship with substances.
Someone has already introduced the members of the greatest trio ever to grace the stage in my humble opinion. Great to see you guys. Best wishes from the UK.
Best ending to a song ever. Gingers drumming was amazing but that long pause into solo? I want that at my funeral. It’s like you can close your eyes and see the main protagonist of a film walking off into the sunset….
This song is metaphorical and it literally means living in a white room back in 1967. The songwriter had stopped consuming drugs and alcohol at that time. The lyrics throughout the song are interpreted as being about the singers on again/ off again relationship with drugs. Also another way it was understood was, as him recounting his association with a romantic interest which doesn’t appear to be consistent. Peter Brown, the writer, has refused to acknowledge that it is about either, or.
The psychedelic sound of the late sixties combined instrument virtuosity with lyrics of beautiful imagery designed to combine with the instrumentation to invoke feelings with mental imagery that mimicked what one might experience when tripping on acid or psilocybin. Think Cream, Jimmy Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Electric Prunes. I think the music is more about creating a feeling than telling a story.
When I lived in Vail Co "80's 90's " In the winter time when it snow 1ft - 2ft ,We would ski in that deep snow and We would say " I was in WHITE ROOM today "!!, it was Sooooo Deep you could not see no matter WHAT !! 🌨️❄️⛷️ Plus higher than a Kite on Mushrooms🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪😍😁!!
I think the white room is the office. The curtains being black means the windows aren't for looking out of. The tired starlings are office girls. He waits at the train station, which signifies their journey home. I think he's looking at corporatism and it's effects. ?
A psychedelic perspective on saying goodbye to somebody in a dark train station, restless diesels goodbye windows, talking about the trains coming and going, with other psychedelic meanings mixed in.
I was told (but only Eric can say), it was a Heroin loading house. They would all take they turns (the train) and load up in an orderly fashion and it was a trip.
the "white room" was a Psyche ward at the jail with black curtains, but no windows and the beautiful starling who took LSD was taken there to save her from Hurting herself. It was a Police station seperate from the city jail for celebrities.
Guys it's about Cocaine addition. Cream - Born Under a Bad Sign.. is a bad ass blues rock song.. would be a great follow up reaction for the next Cream song 💗💗
Nice!! You should do "Sunshine of Your Love" Cream was a vibe. Listen to your subscribers, concerning the lyrics, it was psychedelia. It came and we came to accept it in the music of that day. Love the reaction. Peace
Don't let Pete Brown's lyrics befuddle you too much. It was the 60's, psychedelia was big, there was LSD, weed, free expression. Sometimes words would get strung together because they flowed and sounded good together. The ambiguousness might mean something, then again it might not. It was a special place and time. :)
Like John's opinion of Paul's Hello, Goodbye, "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions."
A TRIP !
Yeah, can't ever make sense of these lyrics 50 years later, LOL!
A Time of "Free Associations",...run rampant (No Boundaries), for Good or for Naught.
It made for better overall songs when lyricism was focused on less. I even have found rap I've enjoyed without understanding the lyrics much, just great organic jazz and rock samples with cool flow and rapping voices. Good lyrics are a nice bonus, and bad lyrics can certainly hurt a song, but for me it's really about feeling emotion through the melody, rhythm and tone of the music. I find it funny that anyone would prioritize lyrics, as many seem to, in a MUSICAL art form.
Eric Clapton's guitar, Jack Bruce's bass and vocals, and Ginger Baker's drums. So simple, so compelling.
Ginger!!!!
Amazing how much sound came from only three musicians.
I concur
Peter Brown was a poet who wrote the lyrics and was a friend of the band : "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."
Forgot to add: listen to 'Sunshine of your love' Another awesome song by Cream 😄
Cream had just moved their allegiance to Atlantic Studios, under the ownership direction of Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler - they also pulled The Rolling Stones over to them, because this producing duo were just that good. When Cream created this 2nd album they were unsure of which song to use as a radio single. It would be Ahmet's 13 year old daughter who would insist on "Sunshine Of Your Love", and she was right. That song would become possibly their biggest hit.
You might wish to know that Ahmet played the piano behind Ray Charles in his song, "Mess Around" - a wonderful song with incredible piano.
I had the good fortune to meet Jerry Wexler late in his life. He was full of wonderful stories about the incredible musical artists he worked with.
As to that "White Room with Black Curtains" I always understood that it was a setting for going "cold turkey" to break one's addiction to heroin.
The two of you do a wonderful show. It is very much my favorite!
Cream is getting on 55 years ago formed. They were labeled the first “super group,” and quite frankly, they were super. Arguably the best rock trio…ever. Their Disraeli Gears album is incredible.
Rush and ZZ Top are superb too:)
They were good, but it's hard to top Rush.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience...and then everyone else🤔
In July it will be 56 years. Disraeli Gears is their best Album.
@@richardfromtexas Cream “topped” Rush with ease.
I don't care what anyone says, in my opinion Cream started it all. They were so enormously innovative at the time and influential even today. If you guys want to hear some more of their greatness, check out Tales Of Brave Ulysses.
Jimmy was right there. I’d have to put him on top for blues-based hard rock. Cream a close second. IMO
Opinions. We all got 'em.
Cream inspired so many players. EVH was a huge fan of Cream. Jimi Hendrix reportedly first heard a wah wah pedal in action when Cream released White Room.
Modern rock started with Cream. After they appeared, EVERY band wanted a lead guitarist with a heavy and dynamic rhythm section-which was most certainly provided by Baker and Bruce.
Jack Bruce is so good on bass. He often gets overshadowed here by Clapton but he lays down a great groove here.
Jack Bruce was classically trained and played blues on the stand up bass before he met Clapton and Baker
Not to mention his vocal tone is better than god
He is the singer too!
to be fair anyone with exception being Hendrix would be overshadowed by Clapton
A Starling is a common English bird. “Tired starlings” is like saying even the birds were tired as seen through the window. It is a song about hopelessness
Somewhat similar to blackbirds.
@@richdiddens4059 Yep, and the lyrics were by Pete Brown (music by Cream) who was largely a surrealistic English poet.
Ralph...hopelessness...like now?
@@michaelasay8587 I hear ya. Good song for these times eh?
Killer psychedelic blues- rock with that cool lyric. "Whete the shadows run from themselves". Cream were 3 great blues musicians that had a short-lived run before disbanding.
Smart view
Short-lived but left an indelible mark on modern rock.
It was about depression & hopelessness. He was actually living in an empty apartment. Written by Pete Brown.
Always liked this Cream song. Great lyrics and musically superb. It was written by poet named Pete Brown, who was a friend of Cream Bass player Jack Bruce, the lead vocalist on the track. Pete said, "It was a transitional period where I lived in this actual white room(not a padded institution), and was trying to come to terms with various things that were going on. It's a place where stopped, I gave up all drugs at the time in 1967 as a result of being in the white room"
This song was written during the psychedelic period, LSD, and hallucinations. Awake dream states.It was common to use lyrics that were dream like. Luv you guys
The exquisite and melodic timing of Ginger Baker!
His woman leaves him in the morning light. They go down to the train station where she tells him that she won't let any strings keep her there. As he walks home to his white apartment, alone, he feels the depression come on immediately. He waits in that room alone and feeling hopeless. He waits in the lines whenever the trains come back, hoping she'll return. He reminisces about meeting her at a party, how what she gave was kindness in the middle of an uninviting crowd, and how she repaired an old wound in his soul that he has now long since forgotten about. He reminisces about her beautiful eyes and the day she left, as she was getting ready to go. He sleeps alone in his room with only shadows to keep him company.
Or at least, that's the most literal interpretation. The song is simply an impressionistic retelling of the feelings of hopelessness and depression that the protagonist is feeling, alone in his white room.
the first verse is referring to an ending relationship "silver horses run down moonbeans in her dark eyes" describing her, the second verse describing how he felt as she left on the train " i walked into such a sad time at the station. 3rd verse is him meeting some new "osolations for the old qeen now forgotten ", some one that was stong ,wild, and alive"yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes!" . and the white room being the loft he was living in overlooking the station.
Wife here...Literally have heard this great classic rock hit all my life..BJ..Hey, the song is highly metaphorical...You're both doing an amazing job as always..!! The song is said to be about an actual "White Room" for rent....representing..emptiness..depression and hopelessness...So you two are perfectly on point as always!!..Thank you for the amazing insight!!
"Sunshine of your Love" is a must hear Cream song. Short - lived band, 3 legendary musicians.💞
Yes the anguish of a lost love.... All that sound from 3 guys,... Drums (Ginger Baker) Bass and singing on this song (Jack Bruce) and Clapton on guitar). .Each considered one of the best. The lyrics are taken from a poem ... It is about a lover that moves on .(You said no strings could contain you) .. He sees her later on in life (At the party she was kindness in a hard crowd) but it brings up his pain again
1968.…. 14 years old… Buy Cream album. With 4 friends pass around two pipes and a bong…. Listen to the album and change our lives forever. I had these experiences often back in those days…. Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Byrds and many more. The Greatest Music In History
Same!! We didn’t know how lucky we were to experience this first hand!
Great reaction...new subbie! You guys are awesome.
This was one of the super groups of the 60's. Everyone of the 3 guys (Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker & Eric Clapton) was super talented but they also had big egos. So they didn't always get a long. They all came from previous successful bands. But in the few short years they were together they produced some classic songs such as "Crossroads", "Born Under A Bad Sign", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "White Room", "Strange Brew", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "SWLABR" etc.
When I saw them, they opened with this classic. The horripilation!
Jack the Bruce and Ginger the Baker toured in the '80s, with another guitarist or two, but it was otherworldly even without Eric. What impressed me was that young and old, everyone seemed to know all the lyrics, while like much in the age of psychedelia, was surreal and poetic.
I always admired Ginger Baker and I've realised over the years just what an innovative drummer he was. He was always coming up with new ideas such that instead of just being the guy at the back, bashing out a rhythm, he played like he was the lead! So much intricacy in every track. A true master of the skins - in more ways than one!
Mid-late 60s supergroup with Eric Clapton on guitar. When Jimi Hendrix's British manager was trying to talk Jimi into going to England, Jimi asked him one thing - 'can I meet Eric Clapton?' Clapton's influence on rock was huge...he was also Eddie Van Halen's biggest early influence.
Here is what I found.
Song about addiction to Heroine. The entire song is laced with quasi-euphemisms. White room is a place where the deed takes place. Black curtains suggesting privacy and station refers to the part of town. Tired starlings are used needles, silver horses are the spoons that are used.
"White Room" shows off what a wah-wah pedal can do to the sound of an electric guitar.
Cream's farewell concert performance on November 26, 1968, at the Royal Albert Hall in London is a must see and listen 😎🎸
Love watching you guys listening to this classic tune. Claptons wah wah guitar is stellar. Jack Bruce bass and vocals Ginger Baker, an incredible drummer. As someone else said in comments don’t get caught up on the lyrics. This was the height of the psychedelic 60’s.
Jack Bruce sang lead vocals on most Cream songs, including this one. Pete Brown has said it was about his experience withdrawing from Heroin in 1967.
My all time favorite band. The first supergroup. They helped change music and influenced so many to follow. Powerhouse blues.
A drummer isn't happy until they've mastered this back beat masterpiece.
This was in the peak of the psychedelic era when lyrics weren't meant to be taken literally sometimes. They sort of just create images that the listener could sort of float along with. We basically got high and didn't pay much attention to the lyrics. 😁. It's another one of those "ya hada be there" things. 😁✌💛 Isn't the guitar great?!
Great song and album, they were the gold standard for pioneering hard rock. Try their amazing live interpretation of Spoonful, it is an amazing banger and jam. Enjoy! 🎸
Cream was a British Rock "power trio", that featured Jack Bruce (lead vocals, bass), Eric Clapton (lead guitar), and Ginger Baker (drums). Cream recorded and toured from 1966 to 1968.
Prior to the formation of Cream, Eric Clapton teamed up with John Mayall and His Bluesbreakers to record one album together. That album featured some of the best Blues guitar work of Eric Clapton's career. Check out their stereo version of their cover of the Otis Rush song, "All Your Love" here on UA-cam.
That ending guitar solo by Clapton is absolutely one of my favorites of all time and at 60 I have pretty much heard everything.
He's at a railway station and the white room is the 'waiting room' there. When the train leaves you say goodbye at the carriage window. Starlings fly everywhere in many UK cities - they must get tired.
He says goodbye to his gf, then returns to wait in a queue for her to come back through the barriers.
It's a difficult thing having a long distance relationship.
I was the drummer for a High School band back then. We played this
tune...and very GOOD, I might add!
Just caught up with this, it brings back memories. I bought every cream vinyl album there was and I was 16yrs old, just left school, got a job, plenty of money, own flat, lambretta LI 150cc motor scooter...the 60s/70s...Best time of my life...oh the nostalgia..thankyou for this ❤ 🇬🇧
One of those superbands that I wish had stayed together longer ,Eric Clapton is one of those very few who can say their guitar is a extension of them .
My favorite Cream song was always “Strange Brew”. First heard these guys when I was about 5. I used to have an album called “Heavy Cream” and listened to it a lot. I think it was a greatest hits kinda thing, but I haven’t seen it in a long time. All three of them were great musicians, but Ginger Baker always caught my ear. Oddly, as a guitar player, I was a middling fan of Eric Clapton. I know that’s sacrilege to many guitarists out there, but hey, everyone has their preferences. Great to see you guys moving through the spectrum of rock’n’roll. Keep up the good work!
I remember HEAVY CREAM. A best of Cream album. If I remember correctly, it was white w/ 3 exaggerated extra lankey figures of the band members playing their instruments. Album was 1of 4
in a best of collection. The Best of Clapton, The best of Jack Bruce & The best of Ginger Baker.
Erick Clapton does share lead vocals in various versions of this song but pretty sure was just Jack Bruce on entire vocals here, neither Clapton, Bruce, or Baker wrote the lyrics of the song, it was written by the lyricist Pete Brown. Here's a quote from him; "It was a miracle it worked, considering it was me writing a monologue about a new flat." It's just a song about a new home that is obviously not furnished" . . . and if you didn't know already, a starling is a bird you sometimes find nesting in empty buildings, perhaps there was a starling trying to escape out the window when they arrived, which would have made it the window it left by or the goodbye window, too pooped to leave trapped by the glass coz it freaked out...who knows
One of my very best favorites. Never tire of it. Thank you for presenting this gem.
Glad you enjoy it!
This has all three members of the group at their peak. Baker's drums are incessant, Pete Brown's lyrics are float-away, all supporting the virtuoso performances of Jack and Eric. I loved it back in 1968 and I love it now. Then there was "Badge" and Cream were gone.
it's based on an 8 page poem by the lyricist, also, someone in the band or the writer did live or seclude himself in that room, and there's talk of "substances" use in that station
The lead vocals in Cream are done by Jack Bruce the Bassist, Eric Clapton sang backing vocals mainly.
I was about 16 when this album came out, I vividly remember being in my best friends bedroom, listening to this. Our minds were blown!
An approach to lyricism that happened in the 60s was very special in that people told their own stories in ways that, while while mostly concrete to them, was meant to express the inner turmoil rather than describe the nature of where, when, why and how that turmoil was happening. As a result we got poetry that, when overanalyzed, felt nonsensical (as does anything that you hear out of context), but when felt gave you an insight into the soul of the writer and thus opened up a conduit into the greater mystery of human experience.
P.S. It's difficult to rationalize art this is like this because it makes you ask more difficult philosophical questions. "Am I a soul driving a body or are body and soul one single mechanism?" "Are there objective metrics with which we can evaluate beauty or is it simply in the eye of the beholder?" And to one greater level of abstraction: "Are either of those two previous questions simply a matter of perspective or is there a right and wrong answer to them?" The wonder of trying to figure these things out does not lie in finding the answers, but in the discovery of better and better questions which such a journey might guide you to ask.
This song is about depression and hopelessness, but the setting is an empty apartment.
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."
Seems like most of these great songs are about trouble of one kind or another with the opposite sex. A common concept for many people. Bassist Jack Bruce did the main verses and Guitarist extraordinaire Eric Clapton was doing the higher register vocals on the "where shadows run from themselves" line. Ginger Baker was just smacking the skins in the back.
I can still remember the late 60s turning on the radio and bands like Cream,Sabbath and Deep Purple coming out of the tiny speaker,Class.
Totally classic song and insanely good!!
The Power Trio!!! Two guitarists and a drummer making the most of their gifts (check out Sunshine of You Love). Drummer Sina does a drum cover that will edify the drum work. :)
Just a little info
I’ve been a psych nurse for over 30 years. Yes, we have padded rooms but usually they’re not white. A more calming color is used.
Clapton's defining moment came on Cream's Crossroads live at Wonderland on the Wheels of Fire album.
This was released in 1968. Cream influenced a lot of bands that would become hard rock and eventually metal. Jack Bruce on vocals and bass was a big influence on Geddy Lee of RUSH. Clapton on guitar and Ginger Baker on drums, all 3 of them influenced so many.
Ginger Baker was a Jazz drummer! Eric Clapton is a Rock/Blues guitar player and Jack Bruce was a Classically trained bass player who went on to play Blues. They were not all blues pickers and combining the three types of music is something that lead to an incredible sound. I just wanted to clarify that...
A quick '60s Rock history lesson for you. Eric Clapton got his start in the early '60s as the lead guitarist for a British Blues band called The Yardbirds. When they hit it big with a more pop-oriented sound in 1965, Clapton basically accused them of selling out and quit. He went on to do the Blues Breakers project with John Mayall, and then got with bassist/singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form Cream. They're one of the most important bands in the early development of Hard Rock music.
Meanwhile, The Yardbirds hired Jeff Beck as Clapton's replacement. He stuck around for a few years, then left to form the Jeff Beck Group, which is less famous now but was a big influence on other Rock musicians at the time.
HIS replacement was a young guitar prodigy named Jimmy Page. But by then The Yardbirds were already on their last legs, and broke up shortly after he joined. None of the original members were interested in taking the trademark for the band name, so Page ended up with it. He got a group of guys together to form a band that was going to be called "The New Yardbirds", but instead they decided to go with the name Led Zeppelin.
1 st concert was " Goodbye Cream " tour 1968 @ the fabulous forum Los Angeles. The cut I love to this day :" B.A.D.G.E "
This song is a haiku style type of poetry. And when your hi (it was the 60's, 70's everyone was hi) you write alot of poetry for some reason.
Cream 1966 to 1968. First super group. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Thats when Clapton played Gibson Guitars. With the thur Marshall plexi amp. With Cry baby wahwah
don't worry about the words or "meaning". This is Music, the meaning can be abstract (as music is). Music doesn't need a story to be great, it needs melody rhythm and structure. Words are tacked onto music. And yes, Clapton is playing "lead". Especially that part that is a "lead solo". On the verse he has an orchestral role. Cream defined "power trio" like none other because Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were much more than blues players, and Clapton was a virtuoso.
Damn....and oldie but goodie for all us OLDIES !!!!!
The song was written in a train station with soldiers coming & going during Vietnam
Clapton's guitar work is unmistakable, if someone did not know who played guitar and heard this for the first time, he would be the first guess of many.
The lyrics were written by the poet Pete Brown and are a sound picture of what is in his mind as he looks at his relationship with a woman. I don't think the white room is a padded cell, it's just his own room. For example, 'Goodbye windows' is a description of her leaning out of the train window and waving him goodbye. 'Black roof country' is a description of the slate roofs of the houses round about him and also a sense of his mood now that she's gone.
The great jack Bruce vocals and bass
CREAM, "WHITE ROOM".. 1967 ENGLISH BAND CONSIDERED THE FIRST SUPER GROUP. BASS VOCALS :Jack Bruce, :GUITAR BACK UP VOCALS: Eric Clapton, DRUMS: Ginger Baker. More.. "CROSSROADS", "TALES OF BRAVE ULYSSES", "SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE", "I FEEL FREE", "BADGE", and "STRANGE BREW". LYRICS, PSYCHODELIC ROCK..
Yes there is a story behind the lyrics. And yes it had to do with a facility, I believe kind of a rehab. And a girl who was there, not to be seen again.
Eric Clapton was in this band & in the Yardbirds, before he went off on his own. I think Jack Bruce sang this one. Many songs of this era made no sense, because they were usually talking about drugs, using 'code'. I believe this one was written by Pete Brown at a time when he was quitting drugs & alcohol. He was dealing with facing himself.
I think the padded cell thing might have some relevance because if you listen later in the sing the tired starlings aren't visible anymore, and why, cause he's now in a room with 'no windows'.
I can follow, that it's saying goodbye, to one woman, that got on a train, and there's some consolation of getting with another woman. It has lots of imagery, but it's a bit more clear to me, feeling-wise, when I sing it.
It's experience, that brings context, and sounds like dude's painting only portions of it. It's not an illustration, it's glimpses.
Spirit/Soul archetype vibration descriptors, are there. One woman is Silver Horses, and Moonbeams... type with flowing hair and of a ethereal glow, and the other is Yellow Tigers Crouched In Jungles...type of exotic ferocity, ready to pounce.
Eric Clapton was with Derek and the Dominos too.
Their biggest hits was,
Layla
Bell Bottom Blues
Thank you for your love music and this is one of millions of songs I like and groove out to👍
The first "super-group". Ginger Baker's drums, Clapton and Jack Bruce's voice..... banger.
The legit-true rock band is only 3 members - guitar, bass, and drums (the vocalist is also one of the instrumentalists - in the case of "White Room", the bassist, Jack Bruce, is the vocalist and bassist), Eric Clapton on guitar, and Ginger Baker on drums.
Clapton / Cream cowrote and performed " BADGE" with George Harrison ( from the Beatles) Harrison had to use an alias because of label restrictions
I remember going and buying the Wheels Of Fire double album on vinyl in 1968. White room is on it, and I played the album until it almost wore out :)
"White Room" One of the all time greats from the background of my youth. -- May I suggest - { KISS Detroit Rock City Paul Lynde Halloween Special 1976 (Remastered) } With Margret Hamilton, the wicked witch from the Wizard of OZ, introducing Kiss. Copy and paste between the brackets to UA-cam for the best version.
composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown. Cream’s “White Room” is a song that is highly-metaphorical. The term “white room” is derived from the song’s writer, Pete Brown, literally living in a white room in 1967. And what was particular noticeable about that juncture in time is that he stopped consuming drugs and alcohol. And accordingly, the lyrics featured throughout the song are widely interpreted as being about the singer’s on-again/off-again relationship with drugs. Another way it can be understood is as him recounting his association with a romantic interest. And once again, this relationship doesn’t appear as if it is a consistent one. And Brown has alluded to the idea that the “meandering” nature of this song is about both a romance and his relationship with substances.
Someone has already introduced the members of the greatest trio ever to grace the stage in my humble opinion. Great to see you guys. Best wishes from the UK.
This was a three-man band that was ahead of their time. Can't believe this music can come out of the sixties can you?
Best ending to a song ever. Gingers drumming was amazing but that long pause into solo? I want that at my funeral. It’s like you can close your eyes and see the main protagonist of a film walking off into the sunset….
This song is metaphorical and it literally means living in a white room back in 1967. The songwriter had stopped consuming drugs and alcohol at that time. The lyrics throughout the song are interpreted as being about the singers on again/ off again relationship with drugs. Also another way it was understood was, as him recounting his association with a romantic interest which doesn’t appear to be consistent. Peter Brown, the writer, has refused to acknowledge that it is about either, or.
I love the extended pause before the lead comes in. Classic!
This band is credited with starting the Power Trio.
The psychedelic sound of the late sixties combined instrument virtuosity with lyrics of beautiful imagery designed to combine with the instrumentation to invoke feelings with mental imagery that mimicked what one might experience when tripping on acid or psilocybin. Think Cream, Jimmy Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Electric Prunes. I think the music is more about creating a feeling than telling a story.
Great song. It was already about 15 years old when I discovered it.
Saw Clapton a few time's in Van, allway's played a few Cream songs. Thanks you guy's!!!😊🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
Thanks for listening
It's up to the listener to interpret the song. The times called for abstract songs that featured the talents of Clapton, Bruce and Baker.
A brilliantly written song. Every line, apart from the chorus, is comprised of 4 syllables.
When I lived in Vail Co "80's 90's " In the winter time when it snow 1ft - 2ft ,We would ski in that deep snow and We would say " I was in WHITE ROOM today "!!, it was Sooooo Deep you could not see no matter WHAT !! 🌨️❄️⛷️ Plus higher than a Kite on Mushrooms🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪😍😁!!
I'm amazed you didn't comment on the incredible drumming of ginger Baker, renowned as the greatest drummer of all time.
I think the white room is the office. The curtains being black means the windows aren't for looking out of. The tired starlings are office girls. He waits at the train station, which signifies their journey home. I think he's looking at corporatism and it's effects. ?
One of the greatest rock band off all time for me.....nice , fantastic....oh
A psychedelic perspective on saying goodbye to somebody in a dark train station, restless diesels goodbye windows, talking about the trains coming and going, with other psychedelic meanings mixed in.
I was told (but only Eric can say), it was a Heroin loading house. They would all take they turns (the train) and load up in an orderly fashion and it was a trip.
the "white room" was a Psyche ward at the jail with black curtains, but no windows and the beautiful starling who took LSD was taken there to save her from Hurting herself. It was a Police station seperate from the city jail for celebrities.
Good song! Still played on the radio :D "Sunshine Of Your Love" is another good one.
1969 brought us Cream, Z Z Top, and Grand Funk Railroad!🔥🤗 Amazing 3 man bands!💯😁❤✌
This double album consisted of 2 records. One from the studio and the other a live recording. You should check out the live version of Crossroads.
Guys it's about Cocaine addition. Cream - Born Under a Bad Sign.. is a bad ass blues rock song.. would be a great follow up reaction for the next Cream song 💗💗
Nice!! You should do "Sunshine of Your Love" Cream was a vibe. Listen to your subscribers, concerning the lyrics, it was psychedelia. It came and we came to accept it in the music of that day. Love the reaction. Peace