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CREAM - WHEELS OF FIRE: IN THE STUDIO - ORIGINAL BRITISH PRESSING - ORIGINAL1968 POLYDOR UK MONO SINGLE LP ALBUM 582-033 SINGLE-DISC VERSION CONTAINING ONLY THE STUDIO HALF OF THE ORIGINAL US RELEASE: IN BRITAIN, AFTER THE ALBUM WAS BRIEFLY ISSUED AS A 2-LP SET, AFTER WHICH IT WAS SOLD SEPARATELY AS TWO SINGLE-LP UNITS: ONE STUDIO, ONE LIVE
ORIGINAL U.K. PRESSING
EXTREMELY RARE MONO PRESSING, MANY TIMES RARER THAN STEREO
ORIGINAL RED POLYDOR LABEL WITH BLACK PRINT AND LOGO
THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.K. PRESSING THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.
ORIGINAL, SILVER FOIL THIN CARDBOARD COVER EUROPEAN STYLE
THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING
CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS
MACHINE-STAMPED MATRIX NUMBER IN TRAIL-OFF VINYL DEAD WAX OF THE RECORD
MATRIX NUMBER IN TRAIL-OFF VINYL DEAD WAX ENDS WITH -A1/-B1 . ON SOME LABELS, SUFFIX 1 DENOTES THE VERY FIRST, ORIGINAL PRESSING
MONO version of this album has NEVER been available on legitimate Compact Disc or in any other digital format.
PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW
Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a recycled image from our previous auction. What you see is what you ll get. GUARANTEED
If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it s sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn t, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio. Of the three, Ginger Baker comes up short, contributing the passable Passing the Time and Those Were the Days, which are overshadowed by how he extends his solo drum showcase Toad to a numbing quarter of an hour and trips upon the Wind the Willows whimsy of Pressed Rat and Warthog, whose studied eccentricity pales next to Eric Clapton s nimble, eerily cheerful Anyone for Tennis. In almost every regard, Wheels of Fire is a terrific showcase for Clapton as a guitarist, especially on the first side of the live album with Crossroads, a mighty encapsulation of all of his strengths. Some of that is studio trickery, as producer Felix Pappalardi cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that s exceptionally exciting, but there s no denying that Clapton is at a peak here, whether he s tearing off solos on a 17-minute Spoonful or goosing White Room toward the heights of madness. But it s the architect of White Room, bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter. Aside from the monumental White Room, he has the lovely, wistful As You Said, the cinematic Deserted Cities of the Heart, and the slow, cynical blues Politician, all among Cream s very best work. And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream s very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention and indulgence of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn t quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.
EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY STEPHEN THOMAS ERLEWINE, ALL MUSIC GUIDE /ALLMUSIC.COM/
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CONDITION:
RECORD
IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded we grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight
a WE GRADE THE VINYL AS NEAR MINT. Some VERY LIGHT AND SUPERFICIAL abrasions mostly sleeve scuffs - are barely visible, but are probably inaudible, and do not affect visual integrity or beauty of the vinyl. The original luster is very much intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.
b The record comes in the original Made in Great Britain stock inner sleeve.
c The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording
d Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more preferable to its stereo counterpart. We think that the mix is more natural, humane, organic and that the mixes are somewhat different than on the stereo version. We estimate that stereo copies of this album outnumber mono pressings by a ratio of at least 10:1.
e Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording
COVER
THE COVER IS NICE --- ABOUT VERY GOOD VG .
The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:
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