cream, “deserted cities of the Heart,”
from: wheels of fire, 1968
“Upon this street where time has died.
The golden treat you never tried.
In times of old, in days gone by.
If I could catch your dancing eye.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
The street is cold, its trees are gone.
The story’s told the dark has won.
Once we set sail to catch a star.
We had to fail, it was too far.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
I felt the wind shout like a drum.
You said, “My friend, love’s end has come.”
It couldn’t last, had to stop.
You drained it all to the last drop.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
On this dark street the sun is black.
The winter life is coming back.
On this dark street it’s cold inside.
There’s no retreat from time that’s died.
It was on the way,
On the road to dreams.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Now my heart’s drowned in no love.
”
From the moment these three gentlemen jump on this tune, you can tell something important is at stake. Perhaps life as we then knew it. The year was 1968 with Viet Nam raging, racial turmoil; all the usual cultural suspects misbehaving. I was 18 and this record landed on the turntables in our college dormitory seldom getting off. As I have grown older, I find its ingredients even more spellbinding. In rock trios, there’s no where to hide. No matter, especially if you are the mythically talented wankers in this outfit. All 3 create the manic instrumental bridge/solo. That would be Eric Clapton, with what appears to be a triple speed guitar, Jack Bruce’s titanic bass work and the man who was thrown out of 23 countries for firearms violations, the cathartic drummer Ginger Baker. It even has an appropriate string section that doesn’t suck and ruin everything. If you’re looking for a national anthem of this staggering part of human history, here’s a candidate.
