Pete Brown became an important songwriting partner with the Cream bandmembers; he and Jack Bruce were the songwriters on four songs on Disraeli Gears that included “Sunshine of Your Love” (which was co-written with Eric Clapton).  

Disraeli Gears marked the arrival of the man who became essentially a fourth bandmember in Cream, Felix Pappalardi.  He was the record producer on this album and the next two, and Pappalardi plays many different instruments (often uncredited), particularly on Wheels of Fire.  With his wife Gail Collins Pappalardi, Felix Pappalardi also wrote two songs on this album, “Strange Brew” and “World of Pain”.  

With this album, Cream introduced psychedelia into their mixture of styles and influences.  Besides their hit “Sunshine of Your Love”, outstanding songs on the album include “Strange Brew”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Swalbr” – the curious title of the last song comes from the initials for “She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow” (or “She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow”). 

Writing for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls Disraeli Gears “a very British album”, and never more so than on the closing track “Mother’s Lament”, showing that Cream was also attracted to traditional songs other than the blues.  For a change, no attempt was made to market a different album in the U.S. from the one that was released in England, and Americans responded by driving the album to #4 on the Billboard album charts, even better than the #5 showing that Disraeli Gears reached in the U.K. 

(May 2014)

(Year 5 Review)