Wow, only 20 posts for this guy.
Sad, sad, sad. In all senses. The guy was a giant among giants.
EC first hit the bigtime with the Yardbirds, and was invited by Ginger Baker (not Jack Bruce) to join Cream. After Cream, Clapton’s career has been on a whole other plane to either Bruce or Baker. But his whole career is down to Bruce? Who knows given that none of us have a crystal ball but it’s a helluva call to make.
Jack Bruce was one of the best rock vocalists ever.
Sigh… remember when you’d hear about a rock star dying and you’d immediately think, “Must have been drugs.” Now, all the classic rock stars are old enough to die of natural causes.
I hear you, but am not surprised. Cream was his big thing and at this point, folks have Sunshine, White Room and maybe one or two other songs in their “cultural soundtrack” but only diehard classic rock folks and musicians are really going to stop and think hard about this loss, his contribution and his wonderful musicianship.
Watching history happen over time can stink when you have a lot invested in a particular period or within a specific subset of art…so many artists just don’t make it into the Big Narrative.
Just last week at our Tuesday Night living-room session we pulled ‘Crossroads’ out of the memory banks and I did my best JB imitation (such as it was). Very hard to hear of his passing as he was a big influence for me when I first started playing.
I think that most folks are quite familiar with his Cream days, but I find that I play Songs For a Tailor and Harmony Road way more often. The song-writing and instrumentation are fabulous. ‘Folk Song’ still sounds like a contemporary composition.
Like the ending grooves after The Consul At Sunset, here’s a memorial toast to Jack.
You are missed.
Am dismayed to hear of this. Loved his voice on those Cream albums.
Damn.
White Room is just so good.
We also played “Crossroads” at a jam session last night. I was there mainly to play sax and flute, which doesn’t really suit “Crossroads,” but I jumped in with a harmonica and it worked all right.
I’m not surprised that Zappa wiould have a problem working with Jack Bruce or with ANYONE who had ideas of his own.
Zappa was a talented man, but he was also a dictator by nature. He was the boss, and never let anyone around him forget it. He expected everyone to do EXACTLY what he told them or to take a hike. Hired musicians who relied on him for a paycheck were willing to take orders, but Jack Bruce DIDN’T need Zappa and wasn’t inclined to back down and follow orders.
Collaboration was not Frank’s strong suit. If he wanted a bass player who’d just play the notes on the sheet music, he should have hired a session man.
Or as Susan Sarandon says in “Bull Durham”: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”