Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / What Really Happened Between Cream and Bill Graham in 1968? [Highlight From Episode 372]

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What Really Happened Between Cream and Bill Graham in 1968? [Highlight From Episode 372] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

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  Speaker 1: Here's just a part of a recent episode of Booked
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  Speaker 1: on Rock. Neddie Baker. Neddie is the eldest daughter of
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  Speaker 1: legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker, and was there throughout every
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  Speaker 1: stage of his remarkable career. She collaborated with her father
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  Speaker 1: on his twenty ten autobiography, Ginger Baker Hell Raiser, and
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  Speaker 1: has since written several books of her own, including Tales
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  Speaker 1: of a Rock Star's Daughter, More Tales of a Rock
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  Speaker 1: Star's Daughter, and Full Cream. Her latest book, Cream Chronicled,
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  Speaker 1: documents every live performance by the iconic band Cream, the
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  Speaker 1: Winterland Ballroom and the Fillmore West shows in San Francisco
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  Speaker 1: late February into March of sixty eight. Those are considered
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  Speaker 1: the pinnacle of Cream's live powers, capturing them at the
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  Speaker 1: height of their skills, their improvisational skills. What do you
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  Speaker 1: think was about that city and its audiences that connected
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  Speaker 1: so strongly with Cream.
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  Speaker 2: I think they just were in the right place at
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  Speaker 2: the right time, and they said they had a fantastic time.
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  Speaker 2: Most of the audiences in America said they couldn't believe
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  Speaker 2: that the bands they were used to listening to just
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  Speaker 2: didn't have that standard of musicianship and they were quite
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  Speaker 2: blown away by it, which is what you know. My
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  Speaker 2: dad said, we went there to teach the Yanks how
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  Speaker 2: to play, and I think that did happen, But I
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  Speaker 2: think the audience were also you know, Summer of Love.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone was tuning in, turning on and all of that malarkey.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that they it was just caught the
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  Speaker 2: zeitgeist at the right time, and that's how it really
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  Speaker 2: took off.
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  Speaker 1: Tom Dowd produced those live albums. He just seemed to
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  Speaker 1: have some certain magic there with capturing the live essence
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  Speaker 1: of bands.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, my dad rated Tom Dowd. He thought that the
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  Speaker 2: way he put everything together was really amazing, and you
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  Speaker 2: know contemporary he really rated him, and he talked well
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  Speaker 2: of him also much later, so I think he did
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  Speaker 2: rate what Tom did, Yes, very much.
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  Speaker 1: So there was some kind of altercation between Cream's camp
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  Speaker 1: and promoter Bill Graham, which resulted in the band never
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  Speaker 1: playing those venues again. What do we actually know about
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  Speaker 1: what happened?
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  Speaker 2: There are so many different stories and they're absolutely hilarious.
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  Speaker 2: But I mean, I do remember being somewhere where I
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  Speaker 2: am pretty but I can't placed exactly where it was,
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  Speaker 2: but I remember a big argument that he did have
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  Speaker 2: with Bill. I don't know whether it was to do
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  Speaker 2: with you know, and it could have been that Bill
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  Speaker 2: wasn't going to pay the amount Stigmod wanted, but there
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  Speaker 2: seems to be also Ben Palmer mentioned something about, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there was a problem with a running order. I just
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  Speaker 2: don't feel I think they just didn't feel they were
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  Speaker 2: getting the right sort of respect for the amount of
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  Speaker 2: punters they were pulling in. And therefore, you know, he
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  Speaker 2: was quite an abrasive character. So if you put him
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  Speaker 2: up against my dad, that's not going to go very well.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a mystery, but I think it was
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  Speaker 2: probably a few different things that all contributed to one argument,
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  Speaker 2: and that was it.
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  Speaker 1: Going back to the fan responses, one fan called that
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  Speaker 1: after one performance, the crowd was just staring at each
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  Speaker 1: other in stun silence because the band was so good.
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  Speaker 1: Did you find many accounts like that from those in
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  Speaker 1: attendive that those shows, and how did you go about
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  Speaker 1: getting those people just reach out to you? Did you
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  Speaker 1: go on social media saying, hey, I'm looking for people
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  Speaker 1: who are there let me know what you remember.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I went on social media and asked everyone And
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  Speaker 2: but the thing you have to be wary of is
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  Speaker 2: after a long time, you know, memories aren't always right.
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  Speaker 2: But so what you have to do is you have
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  Speaker 2: to find out as many accounts agree with each other,
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  Speaker 2: then you then you get in somewhere near the truth.
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  Speaker 2: And there were a lot of accounts of that sort
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  Speaker 2: of stunned silence, sort of as it was a religious
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  Speaker 2: experience and that had come you know, I remember hearing that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, decades ago, so I think, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: can be said, and I think people have forgotten that.
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  Speaker 2: So that's I think the book brings it back to
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  Speaker 2: what it was like at the time. People don't they
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  Speaker 2: now it's overrated? Did is there is? It's that, Oh
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  Speaker 2: it's boring. But at the time that's what people wanted,
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  Speaker 2: what was selling, what was you know, into the stratosphere.
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  Speaker 2: And that's I think what the book really brings people
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  Speaker 2: back into sixty six, sixty seven, sixty eight, so they
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  Speaker 2: can be there listen to
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  Speaker 1: The full episode wherever you get your podcasts.