When I was a stripling, living in Sheffield, most of a lifetime ago, I was a great fan of the
band Cream, so much so that I was a member of their fan club, which was called Cream
Addicts Anonymous. At the time, the drug reference went over my head.
I’m pretty sure it was organised by the band’s management, The Robert Stigwood Organisation, but the newsletters were written by someone called Anne Hartzen and it all felt quite homely. And so since I was just starting to play guitar I wrote to the fan club and said ‘I’m trying to work out the chords to “I feel Free,” can you help me?’
FYI, 'I Feel Free' does contain the lyrics, ‘I can walk down the street, there's no one there/Though the pavements are one huge crowd ..’ - but that’s not what drew me to the song.
In a perfect world Jack Bruce would have scribbled the chords on the back of an envelope and sent them to me, but in fact I received the sheet music, which looked (and still looks) like this:
I was knocked out by the photograph on the front – which (I now know) shows the band in front of the dinosaurs of Crystal Palace Park (there are 2 dinosaurs in the picture but you can only really make out one) – though I had no idea of that at the time, and it took a couple of decades before I found out.
It was even longer before I went and walked round Crystal Palace Park and its dinosaurs, which in fact I did last week. I wish I’d gone sooner. It was a great walk: chilly, bright, muddy, and the park was full of runners and people with dogs and babies. The dinosaurs weren't hard to find:
And the pavement was not one huge crowd. And I saw the very dinosaurs that the band were posing in front of. These ones, though very much not from the same angle.
The band got much closer than I could; they’re standing on an island right next to the beasts, but that area is now out of bounds. I don’t know whether the dinosaurs were more accessible back then or whether the band got special permission because they had a photographer with them. And I’ve not been able to find the name of the photographer. Can anybody help?
And OK, I admit that Cream were not actually going for a walk in Crystal Palace Park, though I guess they must have done some walking to get to the dinosaurs. So here’s a picture of the lads walking elsewhere.
NB - I did eventually own and wear a fringed jacket but (obviously) it wasn't as cool as Eric's.
