Songs for A Tailor – JACK BRUCE***

Never Tell Your Mother She’s Out Of Tune/Theme For An Imaginary Western/Tickets To Water Falls/Weird Of Hermiston/Rope Ladder To The Moon/The Ministry Of Bag/He The Richmond/Boston Ball Game 1967/To Isengard/The Clearout

Songs For A Tailor was the debut solo album from Cream bassist Jack Bruce. It is unfortunately the case that none of the solo albums from former Cream members ever came close to the brilliance of those released by the group. (US:55 UK:6)

“This is one of those albums that never met my expectations and is still a bit of a disappointment. The bass playing is stellar, there are a few nice tracks but the rest is much akin to audio wallpaper. I really wanted to like it more, for what it's worth.”

“Three OK songs, the rest are some random dull British stuff. Still some good bass playing and rather entertaining.”

“Musically, this is as dry as the cover art would suggest. There are, however, some moments where I find myself saying this sounds like Cream. Bruce without Clapton, however, is an acquired taste. It's decent, mostly because he's a rock-solid bass player and vocalist.”

“By 1969 standards this is a very disappointing release, inferior in all departments to Cream. Poor sound quality, although the compositions show promise, and Cream could have made much more of them. The break up of this band was a disaster for Bruce, who promptly disappeared from the ranks of significant acts. I think this was his last ever appearance in the UK album charts.”

“The key to this album is that its not just mere rock, but a formulation of some great music, in the jazz/rock/blues form. It never gets pretentious - it is allowed to be progressive without going on too long. It knows when to stop and when to move on. And it knows when to be dramatic and when to be deep, insightful and, in the case of the first track, loud and fun.”

“On his first solo outing Jack Bruce eschews Cream's commercial accessibility for esoteric chord sequences and surreal lyrics. A complex album that covers a lot of ground, it demands intelligent listening. With his perfectly matched lyricist Pete Brown, he created a thoughtful, energetic, emotionally evocative collection of songs.”