White Room ~ Cream

Cream were a 1960s British rock band consisting of bassist/lead vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker. Their sound was characterised by a hybrid of blues, hard rock and psychedelic rock. Retrospectively determined to be “the first supergroup”, Cream combined Clapton’s blues guitar playing with the powerful voice and intense basslines of Jack Bruce and the jazz-influenced drumming of Ginger Baker.

Cream’s music included songs based on traditional blues such as “Crossroads” and “Spoonful”, and modern blues such as “Born Under a Bad Sign”, as well as more eccentric songs such as “Strange Brew”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Toad”. Cream’s biggest hits were “I Feel Free”, “Sunshine of Your Love”, “White Room”, “Crossroads”,  and “Badge”.

Cream, together with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, made a significant impact upon the popular music of the time, providing a heavy yet technically proficient musical theme that foreshadowed the emergence of bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and The Jeff Beck Group in the late 1960s. The band’s live performances influenced progressive rock acts such as Rush,  and jam bands such as The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and Phish, and heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath.

White Room

After bassist Jack Bruce wrote the guitar pieces, Cream’s lyricist, poet Pete Brown, grouped colorful four-syllable phrases, loosely organized around images of waiting in an English railway station influenced by the drugs he was taking. The combination is often considered one of the shining moments in British psychedelia. “White Room” is further noted for its unusual time signature of 5/4 in the introduction and bridge, with triplets played on toms by Ginger Baker, his thunderous bass drum part also lacing the verses. Finally, “White Room” is notable for showcasing guitarist Eric Clapton’s best known use of the wah-wah pedal (possibly aside from “Tales of Brave Ulysses”) in the bridge and extended solo.

In the white room with black curtains near the station.
Black-roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings.
Silver horses run down moonbeams in your dark eyes.
Dawn-light smiles on you leaving, my contentment.

I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines;
Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves.

You said no strings could secure you at the station.
Platform ticket, restless diesels, goodbye windows.
I walked into such a sad time at the station.
As I walked out, felt my own need just beginning.

I’ll wait in the queue when the trains come back;
Lie with you where the shadows run from themselves.

At the party she was kindness in the hard crowd.
Consolation for the old wound now forgotten.
Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes.
She’s just dressing, goodbye windows, tired starlings.

I’ll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd;
Lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves.

Other Songs Posted for this Artist

• March 13, 2010 -- Those Were The Days – Cream
• December 14, 2009 -- Born Under a Bad Sign – Cream
• March 10, 2008 -- Sunshine of Your Love ~ Cream

Tagged as: Cream