The Lost Tapes 1967-1968

The sleeve is almost a total waste, the front, back and insert are all the same picture. The front is a single sheet, no info at all. Excellent sound quality throughout, shame about the silence between tracks. I presume these are rejects from pro tapes used for their other live albums and guess they were rejected due to the few miss steps. One to buy though as it adds to the few albums they made. Oh the track listing is wrong on the Amazon page It's 69 minutes long. although the original version is 73minutes, yes, it is a rereleased bootleg, previously issued with a different cover and called Western tour 68. That one has the applause between the tracks and intros and outros too. RIP OFF. There seem to be a lot of dodgy stuff coming out on the Laser Media label, I bet the forthcoming Swedish one will be the same.J

Great live recording. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of reproduction (based on Live in Detroit, for example, which is good for the music, but disappointing on sound). For me this is on a par with Polydor live Cream official releases. Sufficiently different live versions of songs, particularly 'Sunshine' and 'Spoonful', make this a very worthwhile addition to my Cream library,

As other reviews have said, this is really great sound quality although why sharp fade-out of applause between tracks was necessary defeats my understanding.

After the release of Live Cream Vols 1 & 2 Atlantic asked Felix Pappalardi to look at the remaining live masters and prepare a Live Cream Vol 3. Three things happened to prevent its release; Clapton returned to recording in 1974 so another archive release was not required that may detract from new sales; all of the songs had already been released in live versions on previous albums; the Atlantic tape facility fire in 1974 destroyed all the multi track recordings.Skip forward 40 years and Pappalardi's estranged wife ( she shot him in 1983!) died in Mexico and the the 1/4" rough mixes of Live Cream Vol 3 came to light. One track, Spoonful, appeared on the 2018 Clapton compilation Life in 12 Bars. This "unofficial" release has the rest of the tape in top sound quality - only marginally lesser quality than the officially released track. The complete listing of 9 tracks comes from 3 concerts on the 1968 Goodbye Tour; Oakland Colosseum October 4th 68 (used on Live Cream Vol 2), LA Forum 19th November 68 ( Used on Goodbye) and the unreleased San Diego Sports Arena 20th November 68. The individual tracks are:-White Room (San Diego) ( Live Cream Vol 2 has the Oakland version)Politician ( San Diego ) ( Live Cream Vol 2 has the Oakland version, Goodbye the LA Forum)I'm So Glad ( San Diego) ( Goodbye has the LA Forum version)Sitting on Top of the World ( San Diego) ( Goodbye has the LA Forum Version)Sunshine of Your Love (Oakland)Crossroads (San Diego)Traintime (LA Forum)Toad (LA Forum)Spoonful ( LA Forum) ( As used on Life in 12 Bars)So what you get is a storming live album, the personality clashes within the band at the time producing highly energetic, even manic performances as if the anger was coming out in the music - very different to the sympathetic musical interplay on Live at the Fillmore from an earlier US Tour. Sound quality is the best you will get this side of an official release by universal records, So enjoy perhaps the greatest live band ever in top quality, unreleased performances. A real treat for fans

professional grade multi track recordings...definitely NOT from a broadcast (as stated on the cover!), but rather outtakes from the 68 Fillmore/Winterland recordings. Buy with confidence. Pity about the sparse information and the bland cover design.

I was given this as a present and the recording quality is excellent, as is the music. The version of Spoonful here comes from the LA Forum and can also be found on Life in 12 Bars. Highly recommended if you're a Cream fan.

ok

fab