Jack Bruce Trounces Zeppelin, Steven Tyler Jams with Page and Jones

After picking up an award for Cream's "Disraeli Gears" at the Marshall Classic Rock Roll Of Honour a couple of nights ago, bassist Jack Bruce launched into a pretty crazy anti-Zep tirade.

From the full interview at Classic Rock Magazine:

After the ceremony, Classic Rock magazine's Dave Ling grabbed Bruce for a quickfire interview — and was stunned when the legendary bassist launched into an extraordinary anti-Led Zeppelin tirade.

An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Classic Rock: The million dollar question: Are Cream going to do anything again?

Jack Bruce: Oh yeah, I'm sure we will. But we'll have Todd Rundgren [who's just walked by] in the band by then.

Classic Rock: It's good news that there might be more from Cream.

Jack Bruce: Well, the trouble is that I'm doing so many amazing things on my own. Cream is just a band from many, many years ago, and we did do something [referring to the reunion shows in 2005]… Everybody talks about Led Zeppelin, and they played one fucking gig — one fucking lame gig — while Cream did weeks of gigs; proper gigs, not just a lame gig like Zeppelin did, with all the [vocal] keys lowered and everything. We played everything in the original keys. [Becoming animated]: Fuck off, Zeppelin, you're crap. You've always been crap and you'll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they're sold. Cream is 10 times the band that Led Zeppelin is.

Classic Rock: That's a bold opinion.

Jack Bruce: What? You're gonna compare Eric Clapton with that fucking Jimmy Page? Would you really compare that?

Classic Rock: To be fair, they're different kinds of player, aren't they?

Jack Bruce: No! Eric 's good and Jimmy 's crap. And with that I rest my case.

I'm sorry but I can't make it through ONE full Cream album. There are certainly some great tunes and they had the hard rock thing going pretty much before anyone else in the 60s, but come on dude!

In other Zeppelin news, the Plant replacement singer rumors keep flying. Chris Cornell, Jack White (from the White Stripes) and of course Myles Kennedy have all countered rumors that they are Zep's new vocalist.

But here is the really weird one. Seems that Aerosmith's Steven Tyler actually jammed with the band a couple of weeks ago.

From various stories, here is some more on this:

Aerosmith guitarist Whitford has confirmed Tyler has been singing with the rockers, but is convinced it is part of a plan to win Plant back. He says, "First of all, they did it for fun. I actually think Jimmy (Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist) wanted Steven to come over and play a little bit because, I think, he was trying to light a fire under Robert (Plant)." And Whitford thinks Page wanted to send Plant a message to persuade him to tour with the band: "Come on! Come on, Robert, let's go!"

Whatever. Just don't call it Led Zeppelin!

UPDATE:

Wednesday morning the JJ & Lynne Morning Show at 94.7 WCSX (a Detroit radio station) called Jack at his home in London, where he clarified his comments:

"I was just having some fun with the press gallery really… being fairly tongue in cheek.

"The thing about Zeppelin is obviously it's a little bit of jealousy on my part, or more than a little bit because the audience was created by Cream and Jimi Hendrix… this sort of very large audience… then Zeppelin came along and had a very easy ride in that way.

"We were the pioneers and pioneers don’t always get the recognition they deserve. On the other hand, let’s face it: Jimmy Page ain’t no Eric Clapton… no matter what anybody thinks.”

Bruce also had this to say (jokingly) about Zeppelin:

“The only decent guy… the one good guy in that band is dead… so what are you gonna do? The trouble is if you say anything about the establishment… In Britain you mustn’t criticise the Queen or Led Zeppelin.”

The Dirty Mac

In late 1968, The Rolling Stones decided to put on a concert event on a soundstage, invite a ton of the day's top musicians and film the whole thing for a movie. Jagger was the ringleader and of course The Stones closed the whole thing out with their own set. On paper, what a great idea! They called it The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

The trouble is, their set stunk. They had been up for days, ingesting all sorts of recreational fuel, and when it came time to take the stage, they put in a mediocre performance.

Other performers were not so unlucky, and, for example, The Who blew everyone away with their blazing rendition of A Quick One. This is the highlight, for me, of the band's The Kids Are Alright film, and I know many others share my opinion.

Another top performance was the supergroup put together by John Lennon, just for the event. Here we had Lennon on guitar and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. He called the band "The Dirty Mac."

They did one song, "Yer Blues" from the White Album. As much as everyone loves The Beatles, this version totally slays the original. They did another little jam with Yoko but it's not really worth mention.

Lennon's live performances after The Beatles were pretty spotty. He put bands together very quickly for benefit concerts and did one off appearances, but I have never heard anything that really blew me away like the R&R Circus performance. He seems under rehearsed and even a bit nervous.

However, here he is fully confident. It's great to watch.

Needless to say, The Stones shelved the whole movie idea due to their lousy set, and none of this saw the light of day (except for the Who's Quick One) until The Stones decided to release the film on DVD almost 30 years later, in 1996.

The YouTube clip below starts with Lennon and Jagger having a pretty glazed chat. You can taste their huge egos here, and can sense their rivalry but also friendship. Then we get the full song. Enjoy.

Book Review - Clapton

Santa was very good to me this year, spoiling me with CDs, DVDs and books I am too lazy to go out and get myself.

One of the books I got was Eric Clapton’s autobiography, Clapton, which I plowed through in just a few days. It’s organized well and moves at a good clip.

I really wanted to read this book despite the fact that I am still an emerging fan of Clapton. I have always been a fan of his when he sits in with other people or does one off jams. For example, his work on Roger Waters’ The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, or his blazing rendition of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” from the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert.

But I find his solo work spotty and totally overrated for the most part. My faves are things like the RUSH soundtrack, 24 Nights and the album he did with B.B. King, Riding With The King. I find most of his 70s and 80s work pretty forgettable.

The book helped me appreciate his work much more, however, because I got the impression that Clapton would agree with me about the spotty nature of his career! I mean, I always knew he had addiction issues – heroin in the 70s and booze later on. But I had no clue the guy was a full blown raging, pathetic alcoholic for more than 20 years. Even when he was riding high in the 80s, with all those bogus (but successful) albums with Phil Collins producing, he was growing worse and worse in his addictions.

The first thing my friend Al and I agreed on about Clapton’s book was what a total pile this guy was. He stole his friends’ women, totally corrupted a minor who eventually overdosed, fired his bandmates and managers left and right, and had zero loyalty, breaking up every successful group he ever played in. Of course, when you spend most of your childhood raised by your grandparents, who tell you your mother is your sister when it’s really your mother, you’re bound to have issues.

The book is a fascinating and sobering (no pun intended) look at addiction. For example, at one point Clapton has a bottle of booze and a shotgun and is going to kill himself because he has hit bottom. But he doesn’t do it because he thinks, “If I am dead, I won’t be able to drink anymore.” Wow. That is serious addiction. I can’t even fathom that level of addiction and it made me reel out a mile more rope with which to cut Clapton some slack.

But somewhere in the late 80s, when he finally kicks his addictions and his unhealthy relationship patterns, he turns into a pretty good guy. And miraculously, he stays clean (and has been for more than 20 years), even when his son dies tragically by falling out a 40 story window in downtown New York.

Now, Clapton helps people beat addiction through his Crossroads facility in Antigua, is a caring father and husband and by all accounts has his shit fully together and is the happiest he’s ever been in his life. Not the ending I would have predicted.

The books reminds the reader that life is a journey and it’s never over. Yeah, you may be an addict – and a total prick to boot – but you can always change. You can always turn it around and there is always hope. And now, I want to go and re-visit all of the albums I looked over, now that I feel that I know the man a bit better.