Cream - The Last Goodbye [Japan. Box Set 4CD. Live. Bootleg] (2015)

In many ways, it was unlikely that Cream would last as long as they did. By the time they split in November 1968, the group had been going for just over two years and recorded four albums. Before then Eric Clapton had cycled rapidly through the Yardbirds and the Bluesbreakers, racking up a few months in each as well spending time in shorter one-off projects like The Immediate All-Stars and The Powerhouse, while Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were famed for their incendiary relationship in the Graham Bond Organisation.
In that context, Cream were stayers. When they inevitably decided to split, their autumn US shows were renamed the Goodbye Tour and the band signed off with two sets at the Royal Albert Hall. Four entire shows - Oakland, LA, San Diego and London - from this arrivederci have now been collected on Goodbye Tour - Live 1968, including the band’s last show at the Royal Albert Hall, where an unemotional departure is concluded by compere John Peel’s matter-of-fact last words: "That really has to be it."
The Royal Albert Hall show was previously available on VHS and DVD - this is the first time it’s appeared on CD. Sadly the sound hasn’t improved a great deal in this transfer. It’s the muddiest of the four, at times sounding like it was recorded in the bottom of an empty swimming pool. Fortunately, the other three shows sound pretty good, with San Diego probably the pick of the lot. Of the 36 tracks, 19 are previously unreleased. Three tracks from LA - "I’m So Glad", "Politician" and "Sitting On Top Of The World" - appeared on Cream’s studio-live hybrid swansong Goodbye, while three from Oakland - "Deserted Cities Of The Heart", "White Room" and "Politician" - were on 1972’s Live Cream Volume II. LA’s staggering 17-minute finale of "Spoonful" features on the soundtrack album Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars.
"Spoonful" features in every show, invariably in extended, improvised versions, almost unrecognisable from the haunting take recorded for Fresh Cream, let alone Willie Dixon’s original. "I’m So Glad" also gets strung out into double-digit minutes, while "Toad" features an arduous Ginger Baker drum solo - although on the opening night of the tour in Oakland this workout took place during "Passing The Time". These lengthy improvisations and the band’s sheer muscle are what made them such a formidable live proposition. If there are occasions when the rugged soloing gets a little bogged down in detail, there are many others where the trio achieve moments of adrenalising magic, like five minutes into San Diego’s version of "Spoonful" when Baker suddenly hastens the beat and coaxes Bruce and Clapton into ever wilder, faster and exceptionally groovy patterns of playing.
(Full version: uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/cream-goodbye-tour-live-1968-123348/)