Sometimes There Are Substitutes When the Original Article Fizzles Out

I am among those collectors of music that find it irritating that Crosby Stills Nash (& sometimes Young) only made two albums and one single (which was supposed to herald a third album) from their awe-inspiring "hippie" period. By the time at least three of them patched up their differences to re-form the band in the late seventies, their sound (along with most of the rest of the popular music world) had changed. An opportunity (it would seem) was forever lost. Well, it may be heresy for me to say this, but you can get a darn good fix of that kind of breathtaking vocal blend and blissed-out acoustic/electric balance from their contemporaries of that golden period in music. A different trio came on the scene back then by the name of America, and they brought forth a freshman album called "Homecoming" in 1972 that was the sort of thing that CSN (&Y) should have made after Deja Vu, if their third album hadn't aborted in '73 from egotistical bickering (to which the peace-maker, Graham Nash, to his credit, was not a party). America consisted of multi-instrumentalists and talented vocalists, Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. While I absolutely love the solo albums from Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Neil Young from what I have loosely called, "the hippie era" (which came to an end sometime in the mid-seventies), the folk-rock "power-house" feeling of those musicians when they were all united as the three or four musketeers can only be found in that album by another group, Homecoming, which was not faux CSN but an original effort by America that picked up where their pioneering predecessors left off.

Another gripe I have is that Cream broke up too soon. It would have been okay if there had come along some true heirs of their sound, but there really weren't (Led Zeppelin are often cited but they are rather a different kettle of fish). Cream had just the right balance of heavy blues rock and jazzy British folk rock. That power-trio was truly unique, but their sound did briefly continue, albeit not by Eric Clapton (who went the way of country-rock pop) nor by Ginger Baker (who turned to jazz-rock fusion). I am not talking about the nearly abortive group Clapton and Baker formed with Steve Winwood (Blind Faith), which aside from being a false start sounded too laid back to be a new incarnation of Cream. No, it was the passionate Scotsman from the fallen trio, Jack Bruce, who carried on (though briefly) the true Cream standard during his solo career. This he managed with his two fine rock albums, Songs for a Tailor (1969), and Harmony Row (1971). In these one of course misses Clapton's voice being a part of musical milieu, but I have always identified with Bruce's vocals as being as much an intrinsic part of the Cream sound, and on these two solo releases by Bruce, he does not deviate from the special style alchemized by Cream, and nor does his backing band.

Still, there are some wonderful groups for which there never arose a substitute after they came (for their fans at least) to an untimely end. No one picked up the ball after it was dropped (although some might have claimed to) when Led Zeppelin broke up. There was never again anything like the glam-rock synergy of Ziggy and his Spiders. And there was never another Beatles, though there have been pretenders to the throne. Oh well...