Those poor kids! All this time hearing great tunes and they say this? Let’s hope it was a slip of the tongue because anything else would be to horrid to imagine.
It's all about context. If you are used to the more bombastic bands and recordings we have access to today, this will seem soft by comparison. When you put it in the context of its time you know it was pretty edgy.
Patty Boyd will go down in history as one of the great music muses of all time. The songs written for and about her are some of the greatest selling records. Layla, Something, Wonderful Tonight and many others will live on long after we are all long gone. ✌️
George Harrison’s wife (at that time), Patty Boyd inspired the Beatles songs “I Need You”, “Something”, the Derek and the Dominoes song “Layla” (written by Clapton), the Clapton songs “Wonderful Tonight” and “Old Love”, and the Ronnie Wood song “Breathe On Me” (from his affair with Boyd when she was married to Harrison)
Patty was married to George, but had a roving eye in those days. Clapton had her, and then talked her into leaving George. She then married Clapton(later on) and then also had affairs with other musicians.
That woman is Patti Boyd. She inspired Layla and Wonderful Tonight AND Something by George and The Beatles. Arguably some of the greatest love songs ever, all about the same woman. Crazy
And George also did a cover of Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers on his Dark Horse album in which he added the line "There goes my baby with you know who. I hope she's happy and Old Clapper too."
Eric actively pursued Patty while she was married to George and they were greT friends. Incidentally her little sister, who is the hotter sister was married to Mick Fleetwood for several years.
George Harrison played the opening guitar solo on this. Eric Clapton played the guitar solo on The Beatles song, written by George Harrison “ While my guitar gently weeps”. They were both married to Patti Boyd. Boyd inspired Harrison's song "Something", and Clapton's songs "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight".
are you talking about the guitar at 2:36 ? Because George actually said it's funny everyone thinks that's him because it's a Beatles sounding guitar but it's really not. And that's eric playing the solo after that. George plays one of the rhythm guitars and helped write the song.
Being my all-time favorite musicians over the last 40 years have been both George Harrison and Eric Clapton equally you are def. Correct Clapton plays the solo but Eric plays it on George’s favorite guitar to solo on at time a Les Paul. So that’s maybe why so many fans think it’s Harrison and George has said people would always come up to him and complement him on that solo. But Harrison who co wrote the track plays the rythem guitar on track and the chica guitar part but it is still disputed who plays the more George sounding arpeggio part that leads up to the guitar solo.
Geez, you fall over yourselves praising (for good reason) Harrison, Clapton, and Baker for their contribution to this work, but fail to mention at all Jack Bruce for his wonderful soaring bass playing that, quite frankly, MADE THIS SONG!!!
My favorite too. They brought up Harrison’s wife, Patty Boyd. DID YOU KNOW that she inspired the Beatles songs “I Need You”, “Something”, the Derek and the Dominoes song “Layla” (written by Clapton), the Clapton songs “Wonderful Tonight” and “Old Love”, and the Ronnie Wood song “Breathe On Me” (from his affair with Boyd when she was married to Harrison)
Clapton wrote this with George Harrison, and in fact George plays the guitar intro until the break where Eric breaks loose. The song title is a mistake based on Ringo who was in the room as they wrote the song out long hand. He looked at the paper upside down and saw the word "bridge", part of the song structure. He asked, "What's Badge?" George and Eric cracked up, and named the song Badge.
You've got it a bit mixed up. It was Eric who saw Bridge upside down and thought it was badge. Ringo's connection to the song was that he came in, not completely sober, and came up with the "I told you 'bout the swans that they live in the park" line. This was all written in George's "I Me Mine" book.
Ringo walked in while George and Eric were in the middle of writing the song and just off the top of his head, he ad-libbed the line "I told you about the swans that they live in the park." They decided to use it. He never got credit for it but they kept it.
I saw this great band Cream with my best friend back in the day ... they were playing on top floor of a pub in middle of nowhere in England ..... cost just the price of a drink to get in !! Those were the days ... we were so lucky to be in our teens then ...... saw so many legendary bands in those days...took it for granted. Great times ❤ x
Thank you Amber for talking about Ginger Baker! One of the best drummers ever imo. Also, the song was called Badge because Clapton couldn't fully read Harrison's hand writing too well. It was actually written bridge as in the bridge part in the song. But the kept Badge and the rest is history.
I don't know if I'd call this soft rock, for me it's rock - it rocks! A good example of soft rock is Bread - WAY softer than Cream! Cream is considered by some to be proto-metal; listen to their live Albert Hall offerings (the 60's concert). Another great posting Kiddos! (I'm an old guy; I can call you Kiddos)
Great song by Cream! Just to clarify Cream is blues rock or Psychedelic rock. Examples of soft rock are The Carpenters, Carly Simon, Bread, Jim Croce and Seals & Croft etc.
George plays the guitar solo in the middle, or bridge of the song. When Eric wrote the song he scribbled the word "bridge" to indicate where George would solo. When George looked at the sheet, he misread it as "badge". And that's how the song got it's name. Incidentally, on the album George is credited as L'Angelo Mysterioso (Mysterious Angel) because he couldn't be named due to contractual reasons.
Cream = soft rock? Where did that idea come from? Sure, this particular song is a tad on the mellower side, but good golly. As for Pattie Boyd, if you know who to look for, you can spot her as an extra in The Beatles first movie, "A Hard Day's Night," where George and Pattie first met. Pattie Boyd is also in the video for The Beatles's song "Something," written and sung by George. As The Beatles began to fall apart, George ended up becoming very good friends with Eric Clapton as. As you already know, Pattie and Eric fell in love. Eric was really torn up about it: how could he betray his best friend? Or could he deny what was in his heart? That's what the album "Layla (and Other Assorted Love Songs)" is all about. (Album credited to Derek and the Dominoes.) You can truly hear the anguish in Eric's voice and guitar on so many of that album's songs. (For example, the song "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" features the lyric: "...all the time you know/She belongs to your very best friend.")
A great song. I also hear George Harrison on guitar. One of the greatest musicians in history. The great drums from Ginger and the awesome bass from Jack. Simply the best!
Yes, Pattei Boyd was George Harrison's first wife, whom George wrote "Something" about. And, as things went along, Clapton found himself falling for Pattie, and wrote "Layla" about that. Indeed, the whole album (1970) is pretty much about Pattie. But when Clapton in 1971 told Pattie that songs were about her and he was in love with her, Pattie rebuffed him and stayed with George, even though George was not terribly faithful. Clapton got depressed and became a heroin addict. It took him until 1974 to get clean. As George and Pattie's marriage was on the rocks by then, Eric tried to get with her once more and as he and George were still friends, they staged a guitar "duel" in Hyde Park (London) for Pattie's affections. Obviously that wasn't what resolved things, but on July 4, George and Pattie formally separated, so eventually Eric and Pattie got together, and Eric wrote "Wonderful Tonight" about how much he loved being with her (Pattie was starting to become alcohol-dependent, though), and they got married in 1979 and Pattie kept feeling unhappy (she thought that Eric didn't really love her, he was only competing with George) and eventually the marriage crumbled. Allegedly they're all happy in their new lives, though. Meanwhile, also in 1974, George decided to get over his break-up and do a big tour of North America, with Ravi Shankar as his co-star and Ringo on the drums. (They didn't play Ringo''s songs, though.) However, this didn't work so well, for 3 reasons: • they booked the tour dates too close and George's voice gave out • George was doing a rather large amount of cocaine and it affected his playing • George was banging Ringo's wife, Maureen Cox (perhaps as revenge for Eric and Pattie?) and that wrecked Ringo's marriage, leading to hard feelings. (I know George did some dates in Japan with Paul later on, but I don't think he and Ringo ever played together again.) MEANWHILE, Pattie's little sister Jenny was also a model, and she was dating Donovan, who wrote "Jennifer Juniper" for her. However, Peter Green, who had taken over as the star of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers once Clapton left to join the Yardbirds, had by now founded Fleetwood Mac, and by 1969 they were the biggest group in England (not that you have EVER played any of these Fleetwood Mac songs, grumble grumble) and so all of a sudden, while Mick Fleetwood was still a big creepy looking guy who once went two years without being able to get a woman (Peter Green wrote a hilarious song about how Mick had to, er, self-pleasure himself and the band kept playing it long after Peter was gone), being the drummer for the hottest act in Britain apparently was an aphrodisiac, and Creepy Mick and Sexy Model Jenny got married in 1970. Alas, Peter Green also retired in 1970 (Peter had always planned to retire; he named the band after Mick Fleetwood and John McVie so they could keep it going once he was gone), and the band fell off the charts. By 1973 they were a struggling act consisting of singer Dave Walker (from Savoy Brown), guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston, Mick and John and John's wife, Christine McVie. But after one tour, they decided Dave wasn't working, so they gave Walker his walking papers and decided to let Christine and Bob Welch do the singing. Unfortunately, Christine started having an affair with the band's longtime producer, Martin Birch, which wrecked the McVies' marriage (although they didn't formally divorce until 1978) and they also needed to find a new producer, but they had tour dates to cover and so they went out on the road. Unfortunately, while on tour in early 1974, Mick found out that Jenny was sleeping with Bob Weston. Which led to the tour being cancelled, Mick and Jenny getting divorced, Bob Weston getting fired (which is a pity as he was a really good slide guitar player [check out "Say It Isn't So, Joe" by Murray Head], but understandable), the band's manager (Clifford Davies) sending out an imposter Fleetwood Mac (they guys who later became Stretch and btw check Stretch out, they're very good!) to cover the dates, possibly with Mick's consent, the fakes being exposed, Clifford Davies getting fired, lots of lawsuits, and a very good album from a group that suddenly had Bob Welch as the only guitarist, which is a bit of a problem as al the old Peter Green hits required at least two guitars (they actually had three guitarists before Peter left) and so the new tour was a bit stressful and Mick decided they should get another guitarist to help Bob Welch out. So when Mick ran into Lindsay Buckingham at a recording studio, he hired him and Lindsay was "cool, can I bring my girlfriend? She sings!" and Mick said yes, and then Mick went to Bob Welch and was like "hey, I found a new guitarist" and Bob was like "great, I quit" (because the past year had been really stressful and with all the other marriages falling apart, he was worried about his own), which was not Mick's plan after all. But now he had Lindsay and Stevie and we know what a success that was. Of course, then Mick started sleeping with Stevie and Lindsay found out and we got all the "I hate you!"/"no, I hate you more!" songs from Rumours, but that didn't hurt the band, either. And basically, if Jenny hadn't cheated on Mick, there never would have been a chance for Mick to wreck Stevie and Lindsay's relationship, so…yay???? Lol. After all that, Mick and Jenny remarried [they have kids, after all]. And then they got divorced again, less than two years later. (Fleetwood Mac is THE rock soap opera.) And eventually, Jenny, just like her big sister Pattie, decided maybe ti was better to date somebody other than a rock star, and she has also lived Reasonably Happy Ever After. The end. :) (And perhaps the Fleetwood Mac stuff is extraneous, but I still want you to do a LOT of pre-Stevie FM, and stuff from Stretch, and the Murray Head song, so I figured I might as well get in a plug. Gotta keep plugging, right?)
I didn't get through all of this, but you were absolutely wrong about one thing early on: the child Clapton lost was not with Patty Boyd, it was Conor, his son with Italian model Lory del Santo.
George Harrison plays guitar on this one too. It's him on the rhythm guitar at the beginning up until the break and then Eric comes in. The song gives me chills to this day.
Layla was not "psychedelic music." Listen to Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Pink Floyd, Country Joe and the Fish, etc etc.... C'mon man!
My favourite Cream track also! Don’t forget Jack Bruce’s bass line, the foundation of the whole song, all three artists were the best of their time, maybe all time!
I Feel Free is my favorite Cream tune. They got back together in 2005 and played 3 concerts at MSG in NYC. Was at the second concert and was blown away!
I was at the second show as well. Ginger baker was awesome. Jack Bruce was a tower of power. Eric Clapton… took the money and ran. Mailed in his effort. I felt great and cheated at the same time. Two weeks later I listened to a boot of the show. Was I wrong about my review of the show? No. I will grant that Eric is a great guitarist, but as a showman he does NOT rise to the occasion. I had a similar reaction to a Clapton show at MSG in 2001. I thought perhaps he had an off night. No, the level of effort was the same: UNDERWHELMING. I’ve been to 500+ shows of various Bands and artists. Clapton two shows were the only times that I felt that I didn’t get my moneys worth. The Cream show should have been so much more..and it wasn’t; EC had checked out.
Funny you mentioned lyrics being out there- Eric and George were writing lyrics in a room and Ringo came in to visit but he was drunk and was rambling on about Swans in the park so Eric put that in his lyrics 😅
Yes, they were both married to Pattie Boyd at one time. I believe she was still married to George Harrison when Clapton wrote the song "Layla", which was about her. Badge seems to be a favorite of many. It seems that almost every time a conversation comes up about Cream, it's the first song most people mention. At least in my experience.
I’ve been bingeing your channel for a little over a week. Most videos are a year or two old, so to see new videos is very fun 🤩 And still discovering music I love. And how much you guys have learned about classic bands is wonderful 😁 I just watched your first Cream reaction, when you had no idea who any of the members were, to now when can dissect each member’s contributions of the group. Good job!
From Wikipedia Harrison remembered the story thus: 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. George Harrison credited, for contractual reasons, as "L'Angelo Misterioso" You can hear George's distinctive guitar style at the beginning of the solo before Eric comes in.
They were both married to the lovely model + muse, Pattie Boyd. Some of the best luv songs ever written were about her- lncluding "Something"( George), +Layla( Eric).
Funny because I read that one of them wrote bridge on the music as they were writing it and the other thought that it said badge and that’s how it got it’s name.🎼
George Harrison and Eric Clapton both married patty boyd. First George met her on the set of hard days night. She's in the movie. The beautiful blonde. Eric was smitten with her for years and was trying to win her heart and finally did. George wrote "something" on abbey road about her and Eric wrote Layla and wonderful tonight about her. Their might even be some more but not sure. But she had two of the biggest performers ever dedicate songs to her and George and Eric remained friends to the end. You should do "isn't it a pity" from the concert for George that Eric put together with all the artist that George knew a year after his death. POWERFUL POWERFUL song
The lady in the pic is Patti Boyd who was married to George Harrison but then left him and married Eric Clapton. Cream was a great band. It was one of the first bands that Eric was in. He was also in a later band called Derek and the Dominoes. Great reaction, thanks for posting.
I am surprised you hadn’t found that out before. We certainly told a dozen times. Patti Boyd was married to George Harrison it was for her that he wrote the song Something. She and Eric Clapton married in 1977? She of course was Layla and the inspiration behind Bell Bottom Blues. Need to pay more attention to our comments 🙂 This song was released in 1969.
After about a fifty year absence from playing electric bass,I bought one at a pawn shop in Killeen,Texas and one of the bass lines I learned was to "Badge".I've been a big fan of Cream since 1968.By and large,Cream was a very hard rocking group.Another one to listen to was "SWALBR".Ginger Baker was actually a jazz drummer.Even though both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker have since passed on,I'm still a big fan of Cream.I took up bass guitar in 1973 and did my first professional gigs on bass guitar.
Jay, that woman is Patti Boyd. She and George met when she was hired as an extra on The Beatles' movie, "A Hard Day's Night." George asked her out, and she said no! A decade later. Patti started seeing Clapton when she learned that George had been cheating on her, believe it or not. Interesting side story, the term in England for a guy who cheats is "Dark Horse." In the U.S., it means someone who has been ignored, suddenly taking the lead. In 1974, George had a hit with a song (and album) called, "Dark Horse." We all thought he meant that he had pulled into the lead with his solo career over John and Paul, but he was actually singing about coming clean that he was cheating on her. That's definitely the next hit song you and Amber should hit from George. You'll be astonished at his vocals on this one. The B-side was called, "I Don't Care Anymore," and it's about him missing Patti after she left him for Clapton. Another amazingly well-sung song.
One of Cream's best! And that's saying a lot...they were sooo good. The back stories about Eric/George's friendship are heartwarming...and I'm glad Pattie 's happy today. She was their muse. She also lived through hell with a drunken, wife beating Clapton. Great times for music...relationships not so much.
The thing that was possible in songs then that really can't happen anymore is silence. That moment before the guitar riff, like you are waiting and then it comes, is what makes rock real, because it can breathe...
You are showing your age and I am showing mine. This was NOT Soft Rock. At least not in the 60's. Ask any of mine or my friends parents. They hated this stuff and thought we were degenerates for listening to it. What really was cool was to be in an elevator or department store in the mid 70's and suddenly the Beatles music was being played, but slower and by some orchestra. We knew our parents were finally coming around and recognizing good music is good music.
Hey guys...Dwight Twilley just passed away. He was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had a medium sized hit in mid-1975 called "I'm On Fire." You should check out his song if you want to react to a cool twangy rockabilly tune
I’m so sorry to hear of Dwight Twilley’s passing. I’m a big fan of his, back to when he and Phil Seymour did I’m On Fire on American Bandstand. I have a big collection of his records and CD’s. I had the privilege of seeing him in concert once, in 1984, on the Jungle Safari Tour. The show was amazing, everything I could have hoped for. Tulsa(1999) is an incredibly great album! His originals and covers were equally wonderful. Farewell Dwight Twilley and thanks for the music! 😢
Something I started realizing now that I'm very old, I get very extreme nostalgia and feel tugs on my heartstrings about how music was so much different back then. Not just the music itself and the artist but as a listener, where today you just go online and stream a song, no big deal, but back then as a youngster I would save up my money and purchase a record... An owning the record was sort of a big deal back then what kind of gave me a personal connection with the music that you don't get anymore. Maybe it was just me but it was much more of a personal experience back then
I love playing this one on acoustic! I use to play this a lot on open mic nights. Between Clapton,Baker and Bruce the band truly represented their name.
Jay/Amber, you'll love their "SWLABR"!!! One of the great short lived groups, so much talent in 3 guys. Note: Eric Clapton has an excellent blues covers album, 'From The Cradle' (1994)
Cream = the original "super group" -- all three guys (Clapton, Bruce, and Baker) were virtuosos with their respective instruments. My older brother was lucky enough to see them at the Fillmore East around the time their double LP "Wheels Of Fire" was released, and he said that concert experience was one he'll NEVER forget.
The "swans in the park" part was inspired by Ringo Starr coming in, stinking drunk, to where George and Eric were writing and getting frustrated telling them about the swans in the park and them having a laugh.
Personal anecdotes, in the late sixties my friends and I listened to Cream a lot, usually in an altered state of consciousness. One day in 1969, a friend of mine and I were going to make some sandwiches and later go surfing. But first we took some purple haze. Then things changed, we put on "Goodbye Cream" and got focused on "Badge" and played it over-and-over. It took us hours to make the sandwiches because we forgot what we were doing. We never did get out surfing. Ah, those were the days.
Love this song, love this band, when I think of the early British invasion rock bands... Beatles, Rolling Stones, Blind Faith, Cream, The Kinks, The Yardbirds , Dave Clark Five, The Animals.... all legends, all great bands
Cream? Soft Rock? I guess this song was a little soft, but... They were literally one of THE first *Hard Rock* bands. They were a huge influence on Heavy Metal and were also part of the Acid Rock, Blues Rock, and Psychedelic movements. I've literally never heard anyone refer to them as Soft Rock, though. Soft Rock was a completely different strain of music related to the Singer/Songwriter and Folk-Rock traditions, like Carole King and Paul Simon and was a genre largely established in the early-to-mid-1970s, while Cream was a late 60s band.
Listen to "Layla" (album version, not acoustic version). Layla is Patti Boyd. "...your old man has let you down" is George Harrison. Eric eventually stole her away from George who hadn't been the most attentive husband in history.
This is my favourite song by Cream. The title is a mistake, when Clapton saw Harrison's notes on the song he misread 'Bridge' as 'Badge' and thought it was the title of the song. The lyrics are parts of a conversation which Harrison had with Ringo, doesn't make sense but this still a wonderful song regardless.
This is my hands down favorite song from Cream. But Cream is hardly "soft rock". You could say they were one of the foundational bands for the hard rock bands to come from say, 1969, and all throughout the 1970s. And Pattie Boyd isn't the inspiration for this particular song. I think the song is filled with general musings from Clapton and Harrison, with a one-line, unintentionally inspired, contribution from Ringo Starr.
Have always totally loved this song, one of my faves from the 60s. But I also never thought of Cream as soft rock. They play very tastefully, and not as raucous generally as others. But for ex. Sunshine of your love is totally rockin.
You know the song was untitled when they were recording in the studio, the name came about because Eric misread Harrison's note on the lyric sheet, which said “bridge.” The song is about someone he loved which in spite of his best efforts was going to be defeated, blames himself but in reflection upon it nothing ever being good enough for her. Last lyric: "She cried away her life, since she fell out the cradle."
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 "White Room", "Crossroads", "Born Under A Bad Sign", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "Strange Brew", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "SWLABR" etc.
George met Patty Boyd on the set of the movie A Hard Days Night. At the the time she was a model in swinging 60s London. In the movie she played a school girl. She had many songs written with her in mind .. Bell Bottom Blues my favorite. Everyone talks about Eric, and Jack Bruce. But Ginger Baker is by far the “crazy” glue of Cream. Beware of Mr. Baker … incredible documentary on his life, well worth a watch
The song was named Badge because someonein the session misread "bridge" as badge. Suggestion: China Grove by the Doobie Brothers, and Free Ride by Edgar Winter,
If you don't understand the lyrics, it is not surprising. Cream recorded much of their 1968 goodbye tour to release as a live album, aptly titled Goodbye Cream. But the 3 of them agreed to each write 1 song to studio record and include on Goodbye Cream. Badge was Clapton's contribution. He wrote the music but asked Harrison to help. If the lyrics seem hard to follow, it is no surprise. According to both Clapton and Harrison in later interviews, they were in one of the studios at Abbey Road, the Beatles' recording studio, and were having a tough time with the lyrics. They both said Ringo Starr came and was pretty drunk. They said he was rambling and not making any sense, and they were laughing and started playing around, singing some of what Ringo was saying to the music to Badge. And a lot of it became part of the finished song. Another interesting tidbit about Badge is the first time Cream played Badge live was in 2005 at their reunion shows in May of that year, 37 years after it was written.
As said below, Patti Boyd was married to both Clapton and Harrison. The Layla album (full title "Layla and other Assorted Love Songs') was Clapton trying to win her over, which he did. Listen to Have you Ever Loved a Woman". There is a line that says When she belongs to your very best friend".
Patty Boyd was my dream girl back then, George wrote 'Something' about her and Eric Clapton wrote 'Layla' & 'The Way You Look Tonight' about Patty. George & Eric were life long mates and loved the same woman :)
Love this song. In high school, i went to a boys school, and the girls school was right next door. My girl at the time was a good singer, and we got permission for her and her friends to come over at lunch times to learn this song. She never did, but we did do lots of kissing!! Jeff Healey also did a great version of this song.
This has to be the first time I have ever heard someone describe Cream as Soft Rock
Was thinking the same thing. Clearly, psychedelic/blues rock
It made my head wobble. I need a moment to recover.🤦🏿
Those poor kids! All this time hearing great tunes and they say this? Let’s hope it was a slip of the tongue because anything else would be to horrid to imagine.
Very odd.
It's all about context. If you are used to the more bombastic bands and recordings we have access to today, this will seem soft by comparison. When you put it in the context of its time you know it was pretty edgy.
Patty Boyd will go down in history as one of the great music muses of all time. The songs written for and about her are some of the greatest selling records. Layla, Something, Wonderful Tonight and many others will live on long after we are all long gone. ✌️
Utterly amazing music with her as its inspiration...
Wonderful Tonight
George Harrison’s wife (at that time), Patty Boyd inspired the Beatles songs “I Need You”, “Something”, the Derek and the Dominoes song “Layla” (written by Clapton), the Clapton songs “Wonderful Tonight” and “Old Love”, and the Ronnie Wood song “Breathe On Me” (from his affair with Boyd when she was married to Harrison)
@clh35 one of the greatest love songs ever written!❤❤❤
Patty was married to George, but had a roving eye in those days. Clapton had her, and then talked her into leaving George. She then married Clapton(later on) and then also had affairs with other musicians.
That woman is Patti Boyd. She inspired Layla and Wonderful Tonight AND Something by George and The Beatles. Arguably some of the greatest love songs ever, all about the same woman. Crazy
And George also did a cover of Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers on his Dark Horse album in which he added the line "There goes my baby with you know who. I hope she's happy and Old Clapper too."
Her sister was not left out. Donovan wrote Jennifer Juniper about her.
She was the inspiration for "Old Love" by Clapton, "River of Tears," "She's Waiting." and "She's Gone"
Eric actively pursued Patty while she was married to George and they were greT friends. Incidentally her little sister, who is the hotter sister was married to Mick Fleetwood for several years.
And Bell Bottoms Blues....
Those of us who grew up in the era think of America, Bread, and Seals and Crofts as soft rock groups.
Cream was Rock.
This was definitely my favorite.
Def
Jazz/rock/blues.
UK Blues Revival...
.
George Harrison played the opening guitar solo on this.
Eric Clapton played the guitar solo on The Beatles song, written by George Harrison “ While my guitar gently weeps”.
They were both married to Patti Boyd. Boyd inspired Harrison's song "Something", and Clapton's songs "Layla", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight".
are you talking about the guitar at 2:36 ? Because George actually said it's funny everyone thinks that's him because it's a Beatles sounding guitar but it's really not. And that's eric playing the solo after that. George plays one of the rhythm guitars and helped write the song.
Being my all-time favorite musicians over the last 40 years have been both George Harrison and Eric Clapton equally you are def. Correct Clapton plays the solo but Eric plays it on George’s favorite guitar to solo on at time a Les Paul. So that’s maybe why so many fans think it’s Harrison and George has said people would always come up to him and complement him on that solo. But Harrison who co wrote the track plays the rythem guitar on track and the chica guitar part but it is still disputed who plays the more George sounding arpeggio part that leads up to the guitar solo.
The whole Layla album was about his love of Patti Boyd.
Geez, you fall over yourselves praising (for good reason) Harrison, Clapton, and Baker for their contribution to this work, but fail to mention at all Jack Bruce for his wonderful soaring bass playing that, quite frankly, MADE THIS SONG!!!
This is my absolute favorite song by.Cream. I listen to it at least once a week. Every week since at least 1973. ♥️💖♥️
My favorite too. They brought up Harrison’s wife, Patty Boyd. DID YOU KNOW that she inspired the Beatles songs “I Need You”, “Something”, the Derek and the Dominoes song “Layla” (written by Clapton), the Clapton songs “Wonderful Tonight” and “Old Love”, and the Ronnie Wood song “Breathe On Me” (from his affair with Boyd when she was married to Harrison)
My favorite Cream song too!
I concur, i was in the 7th grade when it first came out, still sounds great !
@karenh. You should check out the live version from 1985. He's wearing a blue t-shirt.
And mine !!
This song has so much George in it. Wasn't surprised when i found out he co-wrote it.
"Soft rock", Jay and Amber? I'm scratching my head lol
Clapton wrote this with George Harrison, and in fact George plays the guitar intro until the break where Eric breaks loose.
The song title is a mistake based on Ringo who was in the room as they wrote the song out long hand. He looked at the paper upside down and saw the word "bridge", part of the song structure. He asked, "What's Badge?" George and Eric cracked up, and named the song Badge.
I also heard that Ringo wasn't serfectly pober at the time.
You've got it a bit mixed up. It was Eric who saw Bridge upside down and thought it was badge. Ringo's connection to the song was that he came in, not completely sober, and came up with the "I told you 'bout the swans that they live in the park" line. This was all written in George's "I Me Mine" book.
The line, "Told you 'bout the swans that they live in the park" was attributed to a drunk Ringo who evidently was attacked by those swans.
Ringo's mistake sayings play a big role in rock. He said "tomorrow never knows" in a Beatles press conference, and it became the name of John's song.
George's book "I Me Mine" has an actual photo of the lyric sheet in question.
When did Cream get called soft rock? That is genuinely the first time I've ever heard that. They were a rock band.
Or as Jack Bruce said in an interview , we were a jazz band , we just didn’t tell Eric .
Ringo walked in while George and Eric were in the middle of writing the song and just off the top of his head, he ad-libbed the line "I told you about the swans that they live in the park." They decided to use it. He never got credit for it but they kept it.
I wanna say he also came up with the title: he misread the word "Bridge" on the sheet music as "Badge".
@radicaladz Eric misread it. George wrote the word "bridge" and Eric saw it and laughed and said "badge?"
@@magneto7930 - ah. Tbf, it does strike me as something one would expect from Ringo. ;)
@@radicaladz I'd have to agree with you there.
It's a horrible line. Ringo was drunk when he said it, too.
I saw this great band Cream with my best friend back in the day ... they were playing on top floor of a pub in middle of nowhere in England ..... cost just the price of a drink to get in !! Those were the days ... we were so lucky to be in our teens then ...... saw so many legendary bands in those days...took it for granted. Great times ❤ x
That is so cool! I was young in those days and could only listen to radio!
Thank you ! Ha ! We sure thought we were 😎 cool. ❤ x
We may be old now but we saw some great bands play.
Thank you Amber for talking about Ginger Baker! One of the best drummers ever imo. Also, the song was called Badge because Clapton couldn't fully read Harrison's hand writing too well. It was actually written bridge as in the bridge part in the song. But the kept Badge and the rest is history.
Cream... soft rock... 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Additionally, the song was called Bridge, but it was late at night, and Clapton"s writing was sloppy, so it was interrupted as Badge the next day.
The bass line is what drew me to this song.
George Harrison co-wrote this song with Eric Clapton and plays rhythm guitar. Harrison is listed on the album credits as "L'Angelo Misterioso".
at least he got a listing … better than Clapton got on "while my guitar gently weeps". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@jaewok5G they were under contract with their respective record companies at the time, making it a giant legal headache if they got actual credit
Ringo Starr contributed the line " I told you about the swans that they live in the park",
And amazingly so George & Eric remained great friends through their lives.
I don't know if I'd call this soft rock, for me it's rock - it rocks! A good example of soft rock is Bread - WAY softer than Cream! Cream is considered by some to be proto-metal; listen to their live Albert Hall offerings (the 60's concert). Another great posting Kiddos! (I'm an old guy; I can call you Kiddos)
It might have to do with Felix's lame producing. Should'a gotten Page to do it.
If in doubt just call it rock. It’s the parent genre of heavy, soft, hard, metal, prog. At least that’s how I view it.
Harrison co-wrote & played rhythm guitar on this. Ringo Starr provided the line "I told you bout the swans that they live in the park"
Great song by Cream! Just to clarify Cream is blues rock or Psychedelic rock. Examples of soft rock are The Carpenters, Carly Simon, Bread, Jim Croce and Seals & Croft etc.
George plays the guitar solo in the middle, or bridge of the song. When Eric wrote the song he scribbled the word "bridge" to indicate where George would solo. When George looked at the sheet, he misread it as "badge". And that's how the song got it's name. Incidentally, on the album George is credited as L'Angelo Mysterioso (Mysterious Angel) because he couldn't be named due to contractual reasons.
Other way round, it was George who wrote "Bridge" and Eric who misread it. Amber, please do more Beatles! "Because" or "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
George doesn't play any guitar solos on Badge, he's the very first guitar that comes in, the percussive sounding rhythm guitar
@@BenWillyums
The chunka chunka riff
Cream = soft rock? Where did that idea come from? Sure, this particular song is a tad on the mellower side, but good golly. As for Pattie Boyd, if you know who to look for, you can spot her as an extra in The Beatles first movie, "A Hard Day's Night," where George and Pattie first met. Pattie Boyd is also in the video for The Beatles's song "Something," written and sung by George. As The Beatles began to fall apart, George ended up becoming very good friends with Eric Clapton as. As you already know, Pattie and Eric fell in love. Eric was really torn up about it: how could he betray his best friend? Or could he deny what was in his heart? That's what the album "Layla (and Other Assorted Love Songs)" is all about. (Album credited to Derek and the Dominoes.) You can truly hear the anguish in Eric's voice and guitar on so many of that album's songs. (For example, the song "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" features the lyric: "...all the time you know/She belongs to your very best friend.")
My absolute favorite Cream song!
A great song. I also hear George Harrison on guitar. One of the greatest musicians in history. The great drums from Ginger and the awesome bass from Jack. Simply the best!
Yes, Pattei Boyd was George Harrison's first wife, whom George wrote "Something" about. And, as things went along, Clapton found himself falling for Pattie, and wrote "Layla" about that. Indeed, the whole album (1970) is pretty much about Pattie.
But when Clapton in 1971 told Pattie that songs were about her and he was in love with her, Pattie rebuffed him and stayed with George, even though George was not terribly faithful. Clapton got depressed and became a heroin addict. It took him until 1974 to get clean.
As George and Pattie's marriage was on the rocks by then, Eric tried to get with her once more and as he and George were still friends, they staged a guitar "duel" in Hyde Park (London) for Pattie's affections. Obviously that wasn't what resolved things, but on July 4, George and Pattie formally separated, so eventually Eric and Pattie got together, and Eric wrote "Wonderful Tonight" about how much he loved being with her (Pattie was starting to become alcohol-dependent, though), and they got married in 1979 and Pattie kept feeling unhappy (she thought that Eric didn't really love her, he was only competing with George) and eventually the marriage crumbled. Allegedly they're all happy in their new lives, though.
Meanwhile, also in 1974, George decided to get over his break-up and do a big tour of North America, with Ravi Shankar as his co-star and Ringo on the drums. (They didn't play Ringo''s songs, though.) However, this didn't work so well, for 3 reasons:
• they booked the tour dates too close and George's voice gave out
• George was doing a rather large amount of cocaine and it affected his playing
• George was banging Ringo's wife, Maureen Cox (perhaps as revenge for Eric and Pattie?) and that wrecked Ringo's marriage, leading to hard feelings. (I know George did some dates in Japan with Paul later on, but I don't think he and Ringo ever played together again.)
MEANWHILE, Pattie's little sister Jenny was also a model, and she was dating Donovan, who wrote "Jennifer Juniper" for her. However, Peter Green, who had taken over as the star of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers once Clapton left to join the Yardbirds, had by now founded Fleetwood Mac, and by 1969 they were the biggest group in England (not that you have EVER played any of these Fleetwood Mac songs, grumble grumble) and so all of a sudden, while Mick Fleetwood was still a big creepy looking guy who once went two years without being able to get a woman (Peter Green wrote a hilarious song about how Mick had to, er, self-pleasure himself and the band kept playing it long after Peter was gone), being the drummer for the hottest act in Britain apparently was an aphrodisiac, and Creepy Mick and Sexy Model Jenny got married in 1970.
Alas, Peter Green also retired in 1970 (Peter had always planned to retire; he named the band after Mick Fleetwood and John McVie so they could keep it going once he was gone), and the band fell off the charts. By 1973 they were a struggling act consisting of singer Dave Walker (from Savoy Brown), guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston, Mick and John and John's wife, Christine McVie. But after one tour, they decided Dave wasn't working, so they gave Walker his walking papers and decided to let Christine and Bob Welch do the singing. Unfortunately, Christine started having an affair with the band's longtime producer, Martin Birch, which wrecked the McVies' marriage (although they didn't formally divorce until 1978) and they also needed to find a new producer, but they had tour dates to cover and so they went out on the road.
Unfortunately, while on tour in early 1974, Mick found out that Jenny was sleeping with Bob Weston. Which led to the tour being cancelled, Mick and Jenny getting divorced, Bob Weston getting fired (which is a pity as he was a really good slide guitar player [check out "Say It Isn't So, Joe" by Murray Head], but understandable), the band's manager (Clifford Davies) sending out an imposter Fleetwood Mac (they guys who later became Stretch and btw check Stretch out, they're very good!) to cover the dates, possibly with Mick's consent, the fakes being exposed, Clifford Davies getting fired, lots of lawsuits, and a very good album from a group that suddenly had Bob Welch as the only guitarist, which is a bit of a problem as al the old Peter Green hits required at least two guitars (they actually had three guitarists before Peter left) and so the new tour was a bit stressful and Mick decided they should get another guitarist to help Bob Welch out.
So when Mick ran into Lindsay Buckingham at a recording studio, he hired him and Lindsay was "cool, can I bring my girlfriend? She sings!" and Mick said yes, and then Mick went to Bob Welch and was like "hey, I found a new guitarist" and Bob was like "great, I quit" (because the past year had been really stressful and with all the other marriages falling apart, he was worried about his own), which was not Mick's plan after all. But now he had Lindsay and Stevie and we know what a success that was.
Of course, then Mick started sleeping with Stevie and Lindsay found out and we got all the "I hate you!"/"no, I hate you more!" songs from Rumours, but that didn't hurt the band, either. And basically, if Jenny hadn't cheated on Mick, there never would have been a chance for Mick to wreck Stevie and Lindsay's relationship, so…yay???? Lol.
After all that, Mick and Jenny remarried [they have kids, after all]. And then they got divorced again, less than two years later. (Fleetwood Mac is THE rock soap opera.) And eventually, Jenny, just like her big sister Pattie, decided maybe ti was better to date somebody other than a rock star, and she has also lived Reasonably Happy Ever After.
The end. :)
(And perhaps the Fleetwood Mac stuff is extraneous, but I still want you to do a LOT of pre-Stevie FM, and stuff from Stretch, and the Murray Head song, so I figured I might as well get in a plug. Gotta keep plugging, right?)
I didn't get through all of this, but you were absolutely wrong about one thing early on: the child Clapton lost was not with Patty Boyd, it was Conor, his son with Italian model Lory del Santo.
@@jpmnewyork Well, I knew I'd miss one somewhere. Thanks for the catch. Off to fix it.
George Harrison plays guitar on this one too. It's him on the rhythm guitar at the beginning up until the break and then Eric comes in. The song gives me chills to this day.
The mutual wife (Patty Boyd) is also the "Layla" that inspired the Cream song. Some of the original psychedelic music.
Layla was a song by Derek and the Dominoes, not Cream.
Layla was not "psychedelic music." Listen to Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Pink Floyd, Country Joe and the Fish, etc etc.... C'mon man!
@chetcraman3530 Don't know much about music, hey?
My favourite Cream track also! Don’t forget Jack Bruce’s bass line, the foundation of the whole song, all three artists were the best of their time, maybe all time!
I truly wore off the grooves of every one of their albums....yes I said Albums 🤩🤩🤩
Love this song too. Played this on my car casset player. All the time
My favorite song of Cream
Great reaction
Even Jay describing Cream as “Soft Rock”?
@@cliffwheeler7357 Yeah...even that. 😉👍
I Feel Free is my favorite Cream tune. They got back together in 2005 and played 3 concerts at MSG in NYC. Was at the second concert and was blown away!
Complicated lyrics
I was there the second night too!
Incredible experience!🎶✌
Mine, too
I was at the second show as well. Ginger baker was awesome. Jack Bruce was a tower of power. Eric Clapton… took the money and ran. Mailed in his effort. I felt great and cheated at the same time. Two weeks later I listened to a boot of the show. Was I wrong about my review of the show? No. I will grant that Eric is a great guitarist, but as a showman he does NOT rise to the occasion.
I had a similar reaction to a Clapton show at MSG in 2001. I thought perhaps he had an off night. No, the level of effort was the same: UNDERWHELMING. I’ve been to 500+ shows of various Bands and artists. Clapton two shows were the only times that I felt that I didn’t get my moneys worth.
The Cream show should have been so much more..and it wasn’t; EC had checked out.
Funny you mentioned lyrics being out there- Eric and George were writing lyrics in a room and Ringo came in to visit but he was drunk and was rambling on about Swans in the park so Eric put that in his lyrics 😅
Yes, they were both married to Pattie Boyd at one time. I believe she was still married to George Harrison when Clapton wrote the song "Layla", which was about her.
Badge seems to be a favorite of many. It seems that almost every time a conversation comes up about Cream, it's the first song most people mention. At least in my experience.
Love your channel great song from an unbelievable band
Side note: Donovan's song "Jennifer Juniper" is written about Patty Boyd's sister Jennifer.
Soft Rock? Cream was a blues rock band! A rock n roll hall of famer!
This may be my favorite Cream track. Great stuff. Patti Boyd quite the muse.
Yes! So glad you're doing this song! SO MUCH fun to play on the bass.
Hey y’all. Ringo contributed the line “ I told you about that swans that they live in the park” on this song.
Thank you! I was trying to remember which line it was that they took from Ringo.
The first semi solo Eric plays was the first time I heard a Guitar played through a "Leslie " usually used for the B3 Organ for that Tremelo effect
I’ve been bingeing your channel for a little over a week. Most videos are a year or two old, so to see new videos is very fun 🤩 And still discovering music I love. And how much you guys have learned about classic bands is wonderful 😁 I just watched your first Cream reaction, when you had no idea who any of the members were, to now when can dissect each member’s contributions of the group. Good job!
From Wikipedia
Harrison remembered the story thus:
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.
George Harrison credited, for contractual reasons, as "L'Angelo Misterioso"
You can hear George's distinctive guitar style at the beginning of the solo before Eric comes in.
They were both married to the lovely model + muse, Pattie Boyd. Some of the best luv songs ever written were about her- lncluding "Something"( George), +Layla( Eric).
The best bridge in history !! Thank you.
Funny because I read that one of them wrote bridge on the music as they were writing it and the other thought that it said badge and that’s how it got it’s name.🎼
@@brendahhstiles9992 I'm pretty sure that person was Ringo.
As the ‘60’s wrapped up, Cream was my favorite trio…they still are.
And Patti had Something and Layla written about her. I exchanged some pleasantries with her a few years ago and she seemed to be a very sweet lady.
George Harrison and Eric Clapton both married patty boyd. First George met her on the set of hard days night. She's in the movie. The beautiful blonde. Eric was smitten with her for years and was trying to win her heart and finally did. George wrote "something" on abbey road about her and Eric wrote Layla and wonderful tonight about her. Their might even be some more but not sure. But she had two of the biggest performers ever dedicate songs to her and George and Eric remained friends to the end. You should do "isn't it a pity" from the concert for George that Eric put together with all the artist that George knew a year after his death. POWERFUL POWERFUL song
The lady in the pic is Patti Boyd who was married to George Harrison but then left him and married Eric Clapton. Cream was a great band. It was one of the first bands that Eric was in. He was also in a later band called Derek and the Dominoes. Great reaction, thanks for posting.
The sound you make in the middle of the song where it pauses and Eric starts to play that Lesley speaker guitar sound.......It does that to me too :)
Mick Fleetwood was married to that woman’s sister.
Yes. Mick Fleetwood was brother-in-law to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton. :-)
A strawberry field was planted across the street from The Brownstone Apt.
I am surprised you hadn’t found that out before. We certainly told a dozen times. Patti Boyd was married to George Harrison it was for her that he wrote the song Something. She and Eric Clapton married in 1977? She of course was Layla and the inspiration behind Bell Bottom Blues. Need to pay more attention to our comments 🙂 This song was released in 1969.
sounds like Harrisons guitar tone first before what we know is Claptons
one of my favorite songs, it was also covered by the all female band from the 70's "Fanny"
It's like this song should have never ended...just play it forever...keep playing it after you've passed and gone...the never ending song...
After about a fifty year absence from playing electric bass,I bought one at a pawn shop in Killeen,Texas and one of the bass lines I learned was to "Badge".I've been a big fan of Cream since 1968.By and large,Cream was a very hard rocking group.Another one to listen to was "SWALBR".Ginger Baker was actually a jazz drummer.Even though both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker have since passed on,I'm still a big fan of Cream.I took up bass guitar in 1973 and did my first professional gigs on bass guitar.
Jay, that woman is Patti Boyd. She and George met when she was hired as an extra on The Beatles' movie, "A Hard Day's Night." George asked her out, and she said no! A decade later. Patti started seeing Clapton when she learned that George had been cheating on her, believe it or not. Interesting side story, the term in England for a guy who cheats is "Dark Horse." In the U.S., it means someone who has been ignored, suddenly taking the lead. In 1974, George had a hit with a song (and album) called, "Dark Horse." We all thought he meant that he had pulled into the lead with his solo career over John and Paul, but he was actually singing about coming clean that he was cheating on her. That's definitely the next hit song you and Amber should hit from George. You'll be astonished at his vocals on this one. The B-side was called, "I Don't Care Anymore," and it's about him missing Patti after she left him for Clapton. Another amazingly well-sung song.
One of Cream's best! And that's saying a lot...they were sooo good. The back stories about Eric/George's friendship are heartwarming...and I'm glad Pattie 's happy today. She was their muse. She also lived through hell with a drunken, wife beating Clapton. Great times for music...relationships not so much.
SOFT ROCK?!?!
Heck! My ears are STILL ringing from when I saw them at the Fillmore! 😊 You aren't listening to it loud enough
LOVE CREAM!!!
The thing that was possible in songs then that really can't happen anymore is silence. That moment before the guitar riff, like you are waiting and then it comes, is what makes rock real, because it can breathe...
You are showing your age and I am showing mine. This was NOT Soft Rock. At least not in the 60's. Ask any of mine or my friends parents. They hated this stuff and thought we were degenerates for listening to it. What really was cool was to be in an elevator or department store in the mid 70's and suddenly the Beatles music was being played, but slower and by some orchestra. We knew our parents were finally coming around and recognizing good music is good music.
Hey guys...Dwight Twilley just passed away. He was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had a medium sized hit in mid-1975 called "I'm On Fire." You should check out his song if you want to react to a cool twangy rockabilly tune
I’m so sorry to hear of Dwight Twilley’s passing. I’m a big fan of his, back to when he and Phil Seymour did I’m On Fire on American Bandstand. I have a big collection of his records and CD’s. I had the privilege of seeing him in concert once, in 1984, on the Jungle Safari Tour. The show was amazing, everything I could have hoped for. Tulsa(1999) is an incredibly great album! His originals and covers were equally wonderful. Farewell Dwight Twilley and thanks for the music! 😢
Something I started realizing now that I'm very old, I get very extreme nostalgia and feel tugs on my heartstrings about how music was so much different back then. Not just the music itself and the artist but as a listener, where today you just go online and stream a song, no big deal, but back then as a youngster I would save up my money and purchase a record... An owning the record was sort of a big deal back then what kind of gave me a personal connection with the music that you don't get anymore. Maybe it was just me but it was much more of a personal experience back then
Song is absolute beautiful
I love playing this one on acoustic! I use to play this a lot on open mic nights. Between Clapton,Baker and Bruce the band truly represented their name.
Jay/Amber, you'll love their "SWLABR"!!! One of the great short lived groups, so much talent in 3 guys.
Note: Eric Clapton has an excellent blues covers album, 'From The Cradle' (1994)
Cream = the original "super group" -- all three guys (Clapton, Bruce, and Baker) were virtuosos with their respective instruments. My older brother was lucky enough to see them at the Fillmore East around the time their double LP "Wheels Of Fire" was released, and he said that concert experience was one he'll NEVER forget.
or "Riding w the king" or "me and mr. Johnson" or 'the beano album' … etc
SWLABR - She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow
George was mentioned as L'Angelo Misterioso playing rhythm guitar in the liner notes for the Cream album Goodbye.
The "swans in the park" part was inspired by Ringo Starr coming in, stinking drunk, to where George and Eric were writing and getting frustrated telling them about the swans in the park and them having a laugh.
Eric fell in love with George's wife Patti and she left George for him. 10 songs were written about her between George and Eric.
Clapton wrote the song Layla , which you guys did , about her
Personal anecdotes, in the late sixties my friends and I listened to Cream a lot, usually in an altered state of consciousness. One day in 1969, a friend of mine and I were going to make some sandwiches and later go surfing. But first we took some purple haze.
Then things changed, we put on "Goodbye Cream" and got focused on "Badge" and played it over-and-over. It took us hours to make the sandwiches because we forgot what we were doing. We never did get out surfing. Ah, those were the days.
Love this song, love this band, when I think of the early British invasion rock bands... Beatles, Rolling Stones, Blind Faith, Cream, The Kinks, The Yardbirds , Dave Clark Five, The Animals.... all legends, all great bands
One of my favorite Cream songs, so many to choose from though.
You guys are on fire tonight!
Cream? Soft Rock? I guess this song was a little soft, but... They were literally one of THE first *Hard Rock* bands. They were a huge influence on Heavy Metal and were also part of the Acid Rock, Blues Rock, and Psychedelic movements. I've literally never heard anyone refer to them as Soft Rock, though. Soft Rock was a completely different strain of music related to the Singer/Songwriter and Folk-Rock traditions, like Carole King and Paul Simon and was a genre largely established in the early-to-mid-1970s, while Cream was a late 60s band.
Listen to "Layla" (album version, not acoustic version). Layla is Patti Boyd. "...your old man has let you down" is George Harrison. Eric eventually stole her away from George who hadn't been the most attentive husband in history.
This is my favourite song by Cream. The title is a mistake, when Clapton saw Harrison's notes on the song he misread 'Bridge' as 'Badge' and thought it was the title of the song. The lyrics are parts of a conversation which Harrison had with Ringo, doesn't make sense but this still a wonderful song regardless.
This is my hands down favorite song from Cream. But Cream is hardly "soft rock". You could say they were one of the foundational bands for the hard rock bands to come from say, 1969, and all throughout the 1970s. And Pattie Boyd isn't the inspiration for this particular song. I think the song is filled with general musings from Clapton and Harrison, with a one-line, unintentionally inspired, contribution from Ringo Starr.
Song written by George Harrison. Actual title is “Bridge”- the title was misread as “Badge”. It truly sounds like a Harrison song.
...by a drunken Ringo!
Have always totally loved this song, one of my faves from the 60s. But I also never thought of Cream as soft rock. They play very tastefully, and not as raucous generally as others. But for ex. Sunshine of your love is totally rockin.
Love this song! Played it over and over on a homemade cassette with multiple tunes, but I think I wore the tape out with this one!
You know the song was untitled when they were recording in the studio, the name came about because Eric misread Harrison's note on the lyric sheet, which said “bridge.”
The song is about someone he loved which in spite of his best efforts was going to be defeated, blames himself but in reflection upon it nothing ever being good enough for her. Last lyric: "She cried away her life, since she fell out the cradle."
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 "White Room", "Crossroads", "Born Under A Bad Sign", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses", "Strange Brew", "Sunshine Of Your Love", "SWLABR" etc.
And one of my Cream favorites, "Deserted Cities Of The Heart" which is 🔥 from start to finish!
George met Patty Boyd on the set of the movie A Hard Days Night. At the the time she was a model in swinging 60s London. In the movie she played a school girl.
She had many songs written with her in mind .. Bell Bottom Blues my favorite.
Everyone talks about Eric, and Jack Bruce. But Ginger Baker is by far the “crazy” glue of Cream.
Beware of Mr. Baker … incredible documentary on his life, well worth a watch
The song was named Badge because someonein the session misread "bridge" as badge. Suggestion: China Grove by the Doobie Brothers, and Free Ride by Edgar Winter,
George Harrison met Patty Boyd when the Beatles were making their first movie, A Hard Day’s Night in 1964. A must for your movie channel.
When the guitar kicks in at 2:35 it reminds me of the song, "It Don't Come Easy".
The first solo is credited to 'la angelo mystereouso'. It was actually George Harrison. Clapton played the second solo.
If you don't understand the lyrics, it is not surprising. Cream recorded much of their 1968 goodbye tour to release as a live album, aptly titled Goodbye Cream. But the 3 of them agreed to each write 1 song to studio record and include on Goodbye Cream. Badge was Clapton's contribution. He wrote the music but asked Harrison to help.
If the lyrics seem hard to follow, it is no surprise. According to both Clapton and Harrison in later interviews, they were in one of the studios at Abbey Road, the Beatles' recording studio, and were having a tough time with the lyrics. They both said Ringo Starr came and was pretty drunk. They said he was rambling and not making any sense, and they were laughing and started playing around, singing some of what Ringo was saying to the music to Badge. And a lot of it became part of the finished song.
Another interesting tidbit about Badge is the first time Cream played Badge live was in 2005 at their reunion shows in May of that year, 37 years after it was written.
As said below, Patti Boyd was married to both Clapton and Harrison. The Layla album (full title "Layla and other Assorted Love Songs') was Clapton trying to win her over, which he did. Listen to Have you Ever Loved a Woman". There is a line that says When she belongs to your very best friend".
Patty Boyd was my dream girl back then, George wrote 'Something' about her and Eric Clapton wrote 'Layla' & 'The Way You Look Tonight' about Patty. George & Eric were life long mates and loved the same woman :)
One of my top 5 fav songs. It strikes deep.
Love this song. In high school, i went to a boys school, and the girls school was right next door. My girl at the time was a good singer, and we got permission for her and her friends to come over at lunch times to learn this song. She never did, but we did do lots of kissing!!
Jeff Healey also did a great version of this song.
The piano licks are a textbook example of briliance when it comes to coming out with subtle Pop hooks.
One of my favorite songs!!