I spent last week listening to a dozen Greatest Hits CDs. Strange Brew: The Very Best of Cream (1983) and The Essential Paul Simon (2007) stood out among the various discs. I actually saw Cream live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at a bar called The Scene on May 03, 1968. The venue was jammed with fans. I really didn’t know all that much about Cream, but the performance was electric! I don’t remember the entire Set List, but I do remember Cream playing:
- “Sunshine of Your Love”
- “Spoonful”
- “Toad”
- “I Feel Free”
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker delivered a blistering performance that energized the crowd. I still marvel at Ginger Baker’s searing drum solo! GRADE: A
I’ve never seen Paul Simon live, but I have seen plenty of concert videos and TV performances. The Essential Paul Simon includes two CDs of Simon’s music, and a DVD with Saturday Night Live performances, other TV appearances, and some MTV music videos. I enjoy the songs from Paul Simon’s early career, especially the songs with Art Garfunkel. But, the pair broke up and Simon and Garfunkel went solo.
I’ve always admired Paul Simon’s lyrics: smart and savvy. “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” still gets played on Sirius/XM radio. I just heard it again yesterday. Love “Homeward Bound.” Are you a Paul Simon and/or Cream fan? Any favorites? GRADE: A
TRACK LIST:
| Badge | |||
| Sunshine Of Your Love | |||
| Crossroads | |||
| White Room | |||
| Born Under A Bad Sign | |||
| Swalbr | |||
| Strange Brew | |||
| Anyone For Tennis? (The Savage Seven Theme) | |||
| I Feel Free | |||
| Politician | |||
| Tales Of Brave Ulysees | |||
| Spoonful |
TRACK LIST:
| 1-1 | Paul Simon– | Mother And Child Reunion | |
| 1-2 | Paul Simon– | Loves Me Like A Rock | |
| 1-3 | Paul Simon– | Me And Julio Down By The School Yard | |
| 1-4 | Paul Simon– | Duncan | |
| 1-5 | Paul Simon– | Kodachrome | |
| 1-6 | Paul Simon– | 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover | |
| 1-7 | Paul Simon– | Slip Slidin’ Away | |
| 1-8 | Paul Simon With Phoebe Snow & The Jessy Dixon Singers– | Gone At Last | |
| 1-9 | Paul Simon– | Something So Right | |
| 1-10 | Paul Simon– | Late In The Evening | |
| 1-11 | Paul Simon– | Hearts And Bones | |
| 1-12 | Paul Simon– | Take Me To The Mardi Gras | |
| 1-13 | Paul Simon– | That Was Your Mother | |
| 1-14 | Paul Simon– | American Tune | |
| 1-15 | Paul Simon– | Peace Like A River | |
| 1-16 | Paul Simon– | Stranded In A Limousine | |
| 1-17 | Paul Simon– | Train In The Distance | |
| 1-18 | Paul Simon– | The Late Great Johnny Ace | |
| 1-19 | Paul Simon– | Still Crazy After All These Years | |
| 2-1 | Paul Simon– | Graceland | |
| 2-2 | Paul Simon– | Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes | |
| 2-3 | Paul Simon– | The Boy In The Bubble | |
| 2-4 | Paul Simon– | You Can Call Me Al | |
| 2-5 | Paul Simon– | Under African SkiesVocals – Linda RonstadtVocals – Linda Ronstadt | |
| 2-6 | Paul Simon– | The Obvious Child | |
| 2-7 | Paul Simon– | Born At The Right Time | |
| 2-8 | Paul Simon– | The Cool, Cool River | |
| 2-9 | Paul Simon– | Spirit Voices | |
| 2-10 | Paul Simon– | Adios HermanosBacking Vocals – Briz, DeWayne Snype, Derrick James, Ed Vasquez, Karen Bernod, Kia Jeffries, Myrna Gomila*, Renee Connell-AdamsBacking Vocals – Briz, DeWayne Snype, Derrick James, Ed Vasquez, Karen Bernod, Kia Jeffries, Myrna Gomila*, Renee Connell-Adams | |
| 2-11 | Paul Simon– | Born In Puerto RicoBacking Vocals – Nestor Sanchez, Ray De La PazVocals – Danny RiveraBacking Vocals – Nestor Sanchez, Ray De La PazVocals – Danny Rivera | |
| 2-12 | Paul Simon– | Quality | |
| 2-13 | Paul Simon– | Darling Lorraine | |
| 2-14 | Paul Simon– | Hurricane Eye | |
| 2-15 | Paul Simon– | Father And Daughter | |
| 2-16 | Paul Simon– | Outrageous | |
| 2-17 | Paul Simon– | Wartime Prayers | |
| Bonus DVD (Videos/TV Appearances) | |||
| DVD-01 | Paul Simon– | Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard (Video) | |
| DVD-02 | Paul Simon– | You Can Call Me Al (Video) | |
| DVD-03 | Paul Simon– | The Boy In The Bubble (Video) | |
| DVD-04 | Paul Simon– | Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Video) | |
| DVD-05 | Paul Simon– | The Obvious Child (Video) | |
| DVD-06 | Paul Simon– | Father And Daughter (Video) | |
| DVD-07 | Paul Simon– | Mrs. Robinson (Dick Cavett Show) | |
| DVD-08 | Paul Simon– | Loves Me Like A Rock (Saturday Night Live) | |
| DVD-09 | Paul Simon– | Sweeney Sisters (Saturday Night Live) | |
| DVD-10 | Paul Simon With George Harrison– | Homeward Bound (Saturday Night Live) |
I’m fans of both. The cream CD contains a couple songs I don’t like-Politicia, Anyone for Tennis?. A couple others which were done much better on their live album. Little Steven in one of his monologues between songs talked about how they came over to America and were scheduled to play one of their multi artist shows that were popular innthe mid 60’s. Cream was told that they had ten minuts to play 3 songs to which they replied their songs were all longer than ten minutes. They hated that time of show as did The Who. I saw one of these package tours as a teen and all I remember was that The Four Seasons were awful. Frankie Valli couldn’t keep his falsetto on key and Lesley Gore couldn’t carry a tune live. No Who or Cream on this tour.
I like Paul Simon for the first half of his career but have found his work for the last several decades boring.
Steve, we share the same attitudes towards Cream and Paul Simon. Sometime around the 1990s I lost interest in Paul Simon’s current music and stopped buying his CDs.
I’ve generally liked Cream’s work (though like the Yardbirds even more) and Paul Simon’s (even such later work as “The Boy in the Bubble” from GRACELAND, though that IS several decades ago now, and only about 25 years or so into his pro career), but a key segment of the famous cinema verite film HIGH SCHOOL juxtaposes an older teacher, bored as she recites “Casey at the Bat” to her hs class, and a much younger teacher, entirely too enthusiastic about presenting to her students The Poetry of “The Dangling Conversation”, one of the most clumsy of Simon’s (“the poet of the duo” the teacher notes carefully) S&G lyrics. That Did catch in the memory.
You could do worse on any afternoon, George! “Anyone for Tennis” is amusing in its original context, as noted, the theme for the film THE SAVAGE SEVEN…
Todd, I have dozens of Greatest Hits CD collections and I’m slowing working my way through them.
Naturally, I like music by both (although Clapton seems to have entered his “grumpy old man” phase these days). My favorites by Cream are “White Room” & “Badge”. I loved Paul Simon up to the mid-1980s, but haven’t kept up with him since then. Anything from the “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to the “Graceland” albums are full of favorites and gems.
Deb, I followed your timeline with Paul Simon and abandoned him in the early 1990s. Love his classic songs from the 1960s and 1970s most!
I like them both but really have to give the edge to Cream.
Not much of a Cream fan but I love Paul Simon.
Last night, while shopping, I was delighted to hear Simon & Garfunkel’s Faking It. I don’t think it was ever a top 40 hit but still … one of my favorites.
With people just buying a single song nowadays, deep cuts have become a thing of the past. Their loss.
Beth, I love “Faking It.” I grew up listening to albums so this whole streaming single songs doesn’t appeal to me.
I’m also a fan of both since the 1960s.
Clapton used to be a team player – my favourite was Blind Faith (which stayed together just for one LP …) and I was so unbelievably happy when around 10 years ago my wife and I could book his open air concert with Steve Winwood on the Castle Square in Munich. One of my sisters lives near Munich so we stayed with them on our way from Germany to Hungary two nights and on the evening of the concert they looked after our dog.
Re Paul Simon:
I really like his collaborations with Art Garunkel – what a pity they couldn’t stay together for a longer time.
Wolf, I bought that Blind Faith album back in the 1960s and wore out the grooves! Clapton’s long career produced a ton of great music!
My brother was a huge fan of Ginger Baker’s drumming too, and of Cream in general. I’m sure he saw them in concert, probably more than once. We never did. Jackie is definitely not a fan.
Paul Simon we have seen. In the late ’60s we saw Simon & Garfunkel at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium. We (along with my cousin Larry & his wife Fran) spent Saturday, September 19, 1981 in Central Park as part of the massive crowd for the Simon & Garfunkel reunion concert. We couldn’t see them, but we could hear perfectly.
Since then, we saw:
7/30/99 Paul Simon & Bob Dylan at Jones Beach. A weird combination. Each did their own sets and they did a few of each other’s songs together.
7/24/01 Paul Simon & Brian Wilson at Jones Beach. Similar to the above, but a better fit, I thought.
12/2/03 Simon & Garfunkel at Madison Square Garden…with the Everly Brothers! Of course, Simon & Garfunkel covered “Wake Up Little Susie” (which they did at the 1981 concert), and they sang it and a couple of others with Phil & Don on this “Old Friends” Tour.
5/7/06 Paul Simon at Jazzfest in New Orleans. The first Jazzfest after Katrina, and our first. We saw Little Feat and Doug Kershaw on Friday, Frankie Ford, Buckwheat Zydeco and Jimmy Buffett on Saturday, and Simon and Irma Thomas on Sunday. New Orleans seemed empty and dark and we had our doubts that it would ever come back, but a few y ears later, it was almost back to normal.
“I Am a Rock” meant a lot to me in the late ’60s, and I liked “Homeward Bound” too as well as a bunch of their other songs. I am a big fan of the GRACELAND album.
Jeff, I wish I’d made more of an effort to see Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel when they were touring together. Paul Simon performed in Buffalo in 1991, but for some unknown reason, I didn’t go. Here’s the Set List:
The Obvious Child
The Boy in the Bubble
She Moves On
Kodachrome
Born at the Right Time
Train in the Distance
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
I Know What I Know
The Cool, Cool River
Bridge Over Troubled Water
(Simon & Garfunkel song)
Proof
(followed by Michael Brecker instrumental)
The Coast
Graceland
You Can Call Me Al
You Can Call Me Al
(Second performance)
Still Crazy After All These Years
Loves Me Like a Rock
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Hearts and Bones
Late in the Evening
America
(Simon & Garfunkel song)
The Boxer
(Simon & Garfunkel song)
Cecilia
(Simon & Garfunkel song)
Play Video
The Sound of Silence
(Simon & Garfunkel song)
Jeff, I really envy you!
Only managed to see a few rock musicians live over 60 years – as a student no money to travel and later working in other cities and no chance to travel a few hundred miles just for a concert..
But I treasure every one of those performances.
Wolf, Jeff and Jackie Meyerson have seen more concerts (and plays/musicals) than any one I know!
Jeff, I thought I recognized you and Jackie in the audience in the video of that 1981 Central Park concert. (I turned to Kitty and said, “Isn’t that…?” and she replied, “Yeah, I think so.”) You have hardly aged since then.
While the Big Story has always been that Ann saw the Beatles touring in the 1960s, she also saw Simon & Garfunkel then.
Jeff, Ann can claim TWO historic sightings!
Most of my very popular-artist-attendance has run to jazz giants toward the end of their careers and punk rockers (and the Bangles) usually pretty early on. And some classical and bluegrass/folk folk.