SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE
CREAM (1967)

Supergroups are rarely a good idea but the bringing together of former Bluesbreakers Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton with Ginger Baker, who wielded the sticks for the Graham Bond Organisation alongside Bruce, was inspired. These performers were true craftsmen, steeped in the blues and pushing rock's envelope with increasingly heavy sounds. Their virtuoso live jamming had an immense influence on Led Zep and the Grateful Dead as well as numerous prog rock acts of the early seventies. But we can't hold that against them.
'Sunshine of Your Love' is built around a monumental guitar riff and a killer Clapton solo which starts off as 'Blue Moon' and swiftly transmutes into an atonal squall. The lyrics were dreamed up by the poet Pete Brown and fit perfectly with the prevailing psychedelic mood of the day; even if the mention of sunshine does seem somewhat at odds with the song's relentless pounding beat.
Whilst they were too blues oriented to fully embrace flower power 'Disraeli Gears,' the album on which 'Sunshine...' sits, is often described as British rock's great leap forward. It is as good a marriage of psychedelia and blues as any UK band has produced and in that respect can be seen as the culmination of British RnB's journey into the mainstream. And, despite many other great compositions, 'Sunshine of Your Love' remains the band's most popular and defining track.