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Una dimensione parallela, un inferno/paradiso popolato da strane figure, esplosioni di fluidi, nuvole acide, raggi di luce monocromatici. Una maschera con tre occhi, sorridente, svanisce in un tripudio orgasmico e acido di lisergica memoria. La cover perfetta per un album che è l'esplosione della creatività, la rottura definitiva dei vecchi schemi della musica intesa come "blues".
Anno 1968, simbolicamente al centro della nuova cultura: un anno prima, la Summer Of Love; poco dopo, nel '69, i Jefferson Airplane, dall'altra parte del mondo, grideranno per "abbattere il muro", mentre gli Zeppelin cominceranno l'inesorabile decollo, destinati a gesta impensabili. Anno 1968, "Wheels Of Fire" dei britannici Cream. Il culmine della loro breve ma densissima carriera.
Un LP diviso in due: l'anarchia moderna della sperimentazione in studio, la battaglia tra i tre membri della band; la viscerali composizioni violentate dal vivo, al Fillmore, dove il vecchio blues viene squartato e riassemblato con distorsioni folli (per l'epoca). "White Room", blues-rock tagliente a firma Jack Bruce (con testo di Pete Brown), inaugura la parte registrata in studio, si prosegue con il bluesaccio "Sitting In The Top Of The World": per qualche mese, lo furono davvero, in cima al mondo, assieme a Hendrix, i Doors e pochi altri baciati dall'adorazione delle folle. Ogni membro ha un suo momento di sfogo: Ginger Baker, poliedrico batterista, ha la sua "Pressed Rat And Warthog", con ritmica tribaleggiante e una preziosa e discreta sezione di fiati (Felix Pappalardi); Eric Clapton esalta i vecchi pezzi con la sua chitarra incandescente, donando assoli rispettosi della classicità a "Born Under A Bad Sign". L'ugola di Bruce svetta pulita mentre il suo basso si fa solista per buona parte del minutaggio.
La seconda metà dell'opera, quella dal vivo, risulta incredibile, storica. Una "Spoonful" dilatata oltre i 16 minuti dove si nota la crepa che farà affondare l'ensemble: ogni membro vuole primeggiare, Clapton e Bruce si sfidano in assoli interminabili, mentre Baker regala (pretende) 16 minuti di assolo tribale con i tamburi percossi senza grazia. Senza dimenticare una celebre "Crossroads" dedita al blues-rock più denso. In "Traintime" Bruce accantona il basso per portare un po' di old-style con la sua armonica.
Questo monumentale affresco rimarrà l'epitaffio del gruppo, non contando live postumi (ed il trascurabile "Goodbye"). Esagerato, prolisso, eccezionale pur nei suoi eccessi: manca la spontaneità di "Fresh Cream" e la giusta misura di "Disraeli Gears", in questo "WHeels Of Fire" c'è di tutto, ed anche troppo.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 White Room (05:03)
In the white room with black curtains, near the station
Blackroof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings
Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes
Dawnlight 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
02 Sitting on Top of the World (05:01)
One summer day, she went away;
Gone and left me, she's gone to stay.
She's gone, but I don't worry:
I'm sitting on top of the world.
All the summer, worked all this fall.
Had to take Christmas in my overalls.
Chorus
Going down to the freight yard, gonna catch me a freight train.
Going to leave this town; worked and got to home.
Chorus
05 Pressed Rat and Warthog (03:18)
by Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor
Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
They didn't want to; 'twas all they had got.
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rat's collection of dog legs and feet.
Sadly they left, telling no one goodbye.
Pressed rat wore red jodhpurs, warthog a striped tie.
Between them, they carried a three-legged sack,
Went straight round the corner and never came back.
Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
The bad captain madman had told them to stop
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rat's collection of dog legs and feet.
The bad captain madman had ordered their fate.
He laughed and stomped off with a nautical gate.
The gate turned into a deroga tree
And his pegleg got woodworm and broke into three.
Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
They didn't want to; 'twas all they had got.
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rat's collection of dog legs and feet.
06 Politician (04:16)
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
I want to just show you what my politics are.
I'm a political man and I practice what I preach.
I'm a political man and I practice what I preach.
So don't deny me baby, not while you're in my reach.
I support the left, though I'm leaning, leaning to the right.
I support the left, though I'm leaning to the right.
But I'm just not there when it's coming to a fight.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
I want to just show you what my politics are.
07 Those Were the Days (02:57)
When the city of Atlantis stood serene above the sea,
Long time before our time when the world was free,
Those were the days.
Golden cymbals flying on ocarina sounds,
Before wild Medusa's serpents gave birth to hell
Disguised as heaven.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
Those were their ways, miracles everywhere are they now?
They're gone.
Those were their ways, yes they were, those were their ways.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
Tie your painted shoes and dance, blue daylight in your hair,
Overhead a noiseless eagle fans a flame.
Wonder everywhere.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
Those were their ways, miracles everywhere are they now?
They're gone.
Those were their ways, yes they were, those were their ways.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
08 Born Under a Bad Sign (03:13)
Born under a bad sign
i've been down since i began to crawl
if it wasn't for bad luck
i wouldn't have no luck at all
bad luck and trouble is my only friend
i've been down ever since i was ten
Born under a bad sign
i've been down since i began to crawl
if it wasn't for bad luck
i wouldn't have no luck at all
More wine and women
is all i crave
big bad women gunna carry me to my grave
Born under a bad sign
i've been down since i began to crawl
if it wasn't for bad luck
i wouldn't have no luck at all
bad luck and trouble is my only friend
i've been down ever since i was ten
Born under a bad sign
i've been down since i began to crawl
if it wasn't for bad luck
i wouldn't have no luck
if it wasn't for real bad luck
i wouldn't have no luck at all
born under a bad sign
born under a bad sign
09 Deserted Cities of the Heart (03:38)
Upon this street where time has died.
The golden treat you never tried.
In times of old, in days gone by.
If I could catch your dancing eye.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah.
The street is cold, its trees are gone.
The story's told the dark has won.
Once we set sail to catch a star.
We had to fail, it was too far.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah.
I felt the wind shout like a drum.
You said, "My friend, love's end has come."
It couldn't last, had to stop.
You drained it all to the last drop.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah.
On this dark street the sun is black.
The winter life is coming back.
On this dark street it's cold inside.
There's no retreat from time that's died.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Now my heart's drowned in no love.
Carico i commenti... con calma
