Cream vs. ELP

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Two power trios with frustratingly short discographies (at least the parts people like to listen to). Obviously one of them has a much cooler name, but which band do you like better in general??

Edited April 25, 2022 by Entre_Perpetuo

[Entre_Perpetuo]

This is tough for me. On one hand, the two Cream albums I've heard are pretty consistently fantastic. On the other hand, I've only heard those two and I have very little interest in checking out their debut or their goodbye record, and my artist-listener relationship with Clapton grows more and more strained the more I learn about the guy and the more I feel he's got nothing on his contemporaries in the guitar department. Seriously, Hendrix, Beck, Harrison, Page, Townsend? I prefer all of them to Clapton, even if what Clapton did in Cream was perfect for that band, he just doesn't inspire me like those other stars do.

 

Anyway on to ELP. I have everything from them from the debut through the first live album (that triple LP monster), and I also have Works Vol. 2. I'm often not in the mood for them, though currently I am as I sit here listening to Brain Salad Surgery.  They are a very off and on band.  Not a single one of their classic records is all killer no filler, and the best ones don't have much better filler than the less great ones.  But sometimes I just want to hear the three virtuosos go nuts, and it's times like that I'll willingly sit through something like Toccata so I can enjoy the rest of the record. Oddly I don't have much of a problem with the corny joke songs, but then I never had a problem with Paul's corny songs in The Beatles, so that's probably why.  But I'm off topic. Unlike with Cream, I have to specifically be in an ELP mood (not even just a prog mood) to get much out of these albums, but when I am, they're fantastic and little else will do.  

 

So I'm not really sure. The Cream albums are better, but ELP are just waaaayyy more interesting to me, and they don't have tepid moments (at least in their classic run). Everything's either insanely hot or a bewildering misfire. Cream are just consistently good to great quality, even in their weird moments on the first disc of Wheels Of Fire (which are some of my favorites of theirs), but can get a bit boring when they let Eric just keep noodling away instead of really rocking out. 

[blueschica]

Did this one come up on your random generator, or you are just interested?  It's a hard one!  I really, really like ELP but I love Cream, I think because I heard them first and was blown away by Jack Bruce's bass playing. So anyway, I voted for Cream but it was very close.  Karn Evil 9 (#2 or whatever the show never ends is) was always a good party song, though. I always kind of liked "Pictures At An Exhibition" and being the dumbass I am it took my son to tell me it was based on a classical music piece!  

Edited April 25, 2022 by blueschica

[Entre_Perpetuo]

32 minutes ago, blueschica said:

Did this one come up on your random generator, or you are just interested?  It's a hard one!  I really, really like ELP but I love Cream, I think because I heard them first and was blown away by Jack Bruce's bass playing. So anyway, I voted for Cream but it was very close.  Karn Evil 9 (#2 or whatever the show never ends is) was always a good party song, though. I always kind of liked "Pictures At An Exhibition" and being the dumbass I am it took my son to tell me it was based on a classical music piece!  

 

 

Just interested! lol Pictures might actually be their best album. At least their most consistent.  Jack Bruce is definitely my favorite member of Cream. I wonder what it would've been like if he'd gone on to similar or greater levels of success with his next ventures. Or if he had replaced Greg Lake in King Crimson... oo that would've been interesting.

[custom55]

ELP for me.

 

I owned all ELP albums up and including Works Vol 2 and only one Cream album ( Live Vol II ).

Edited April 25, 2022 by custom55

[pjbear05]

Both. Though the journeys were different.

Cream was immediate. I would frequently snak upstairs into my sister's room to secretly play her vinyl albums.  Saw this cover of 3 guys in old aviators leather jackets and helmets and the words, "Fresh Cream".  OK,  interesting, lets try this.  From the opening notes of "I Feel Free" I was hooked.  So catchy a tune that the Amboy Dukes  stole it for their first album.  Became a Cream fan that day.

ELP was sudden, but not as quick.  Listened to "Lucky Man"  and what litle else was played on radio, yeah, its alright. What sealed that was the 3 consecutive late Friday nights that ABC broadcast the California Jam and ELP's over the top live set, with the revolving piano, Carl Palmer's massive kit, and  course "The Beast."  I subsequently destroyed 2 vinyl copies of " Welcome Back My Friends... " before picking up the CD, and a number of their albums.  "Trilogy" will forever remain a favorite of mine.

[stoopid]

I voted both.  Different bands trying to do different things.  I've been more of a fan of ELP, for longer and in general I listen to them much more often.  There's plenty of bands since Cream that were better at "rock".  They were important at the time, but since that time they're a bit dated.  ELP will always be a standout oddity, at a time where virtuoso's making music still interested record companies and the music buying audience.  Marketing companies have been whittling away at that level of free expression for as long as I've been around.  Thankfully they can't take back the music already created before they applied their algorithms to it.

[Nova Carmina]

Cream for me.  ELP has great moments, but if I could only have the discography of one of them on a desert island, it'd be Cream.