I'LL WAIT IN THIS PLACE
WHERE THE SUN NEVER SHINES
WAIT IN THIS PLACE
WHERE THE SHADOWS
RUN FROM THEMSELVES
Wheels of Fire
is the third
studio album
by the British
rock band
It was released in
the US
on
June,14th 1968
as a two-disc
vinyl LP,
with one disc
recorded in the studio
and the other
recorded live.
It was released
in the UK
in the
same format
on August 9th
Background and Recording
Cream's third album
was planned to be a
double album
which would include
several live performances.
Unlike
Disraeli Gears,
which had been recorded
in a matter of days,
the Wheels of Fire sessions
took place in
small bursts over
nearly a year.
The recording engineers
on disc one were
Tom Dowd
and
Adrian Barber.
The live
performances
on disc two
were recorded by
Bill Halverson
and mixed by
Adrian Barber.
Sessions with producer
Felix Pappalardi
began in July
and August 1967
at IBC Studios
in London,
months before
the release of
Disraeli Gears,
with the basic tracks for
"White Room",
"Sitting on Top of the World",
and
"Born Under a Bad Sign"
put to tape.
Jack Bruce
expressed the band's
preference for working
with Pappalardi
and Dowd,
as well as the new
unhurried atmosphere
contrasted with
the first two albums:
"We're all temperamental
but Tom...and Felix
manage to get rid of
that temperament...
We spend a long time
in the studio,
so we don't have to rush.
We usually talk for hours
before we record anything,
then we play,
think and add sounds".
Recordings continued
with short sessions
at Atlantic Studios
in September and October 1967
where overdubs
were added to
the aforementioned
three songs
along with basic tracks for
"Pressed Rat and Warthog"
and the
non-LP single
"Anyone for Tennis".
After more overdubs
in mid-December,
further work took place
at Atlantic from
February 13th- 22nd 1968,
during a break
from the band's
heavy tour schedule,
where basic tracks for
"Politician",
"Passing The Time",
"Deserted Cities of the Heart"
and
"As You Said"
were laid down
along with
further work on
the previous tracks.
The following month,
Pappalardi ordered that
a mobile recording studio
in Los Angeles
be shipped to
The Fillmore Auditorium
and
Winterland Ballroom
in San Francisco.
Six shows
were recorded
at both venues
March 7th to the 10th
by Pappalardi
and
recording engineer
Bill Halverson,
with extra performances
not included on
Wheels of Fire
ending up on
Live Cream
and
Live Cream Volume II.
Further recordings
and mixing for the album
were completed at
Atlantic Studios
in June 1968,
the US
by mid-June.
nearly a year after
they had started,
with the completion of
"White Room",
"Passing the Time",
"Deserted Cities of the Heart",
"As You Said"
and the recording of a
final number,
"Those Were the Days".
By this point,
recording at the end
of two exhausting
back-to-back tours
of America,
tensions between the
band members
had become
considerably strained.
The album was then
rushed to shops
in the US
by mid-June.
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