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Lot Essay
EC: I think this is the star of the show. This is the second electric guitar I bought ..I had a pinky red Telecaster, and then this. The first one, which was bought for me by my grandparents, was a Kay...with a double cutaway, that I'd seen Alexis Korner use...it had a huge...plastic embossed headstock. It was an outrageous guitar and in a very short time it became...unplayable...I bought this brand new...either from Denmark Street or..Charing Cross Road..
KK: Was the purchase of this guitar influenced by ..Chicago Blues players?
EC:..There wasn't a [great] deal of footage or still photos or album covers that I could refer to [that showed examples of this model], and the people that I was idolising...like Freddy King...played a Les Paul..at that time...But I did see a...Freddy King instrumental album and he was playing one of these [on the cover]. I think it was really acceptable [to me] on every front. It was a Rock guitar, a Blues guitar...the real thing... Even in those days I may have had reservations about Fenders, in that they were solid, whereas this one's semi-acoustic..What...I love about Fenders now, I would probably have held in a little bit of contempt in those days, in that they didn't have any purfling down the side of the neck, and so on. This guitar has got all the finish you would ever want, and all...the credibility a guitar needed at that time, and the fact that Alexis Korner and I played those Kays, was [because]...you couldn't get [these Gibsons] in England - you didn't see them. You got copies....German guitars [like] Hagstroms, Hofner... I...went and bought [this] guitar [as soon as I saw it] with the first money I managed to save up [by] playing with the Yardbirds ... I've had it ever since. That [guitar] has been played... regularly over the years. It gets on albums...it has never really changed. It's never got old, it's never worn down. It's never lost anything...I'd play that now.
LD: The only thing that's been done to this guitar is a little fretwork...a few years ago...a little light dressing...also one volume part has been changed...[Eric] changed the machine heads [early on]...put Grovers on it...Whenever this guitar comes out...when you pull that case out...and put the guitar on the rack...crews that are helping us...they always ask to have their picture taken with the case [which has CREAM stencilled on it]...
EC: It's worked really hard...It went everywhere.
LD: It's a nice sounding guitar...It was played a lot on the Blues Tour as well. We had two 335s, a 1960s tobacco sunburst, which went in the auction last time [Lot 46 in 1999] ...They were only a couple of years apart but they were such extraordinarily different sounding guitars...
LD to EC: ...you know one of the best things I ever heard you play on this guitar...just one of those magical moments, was with Dr. John, St. James' Infirmary, at that little place in New York [May 9th, 1996, Roseland, New York], it was one of those nights where it just was... like liquid..
KK to EC: There's a point in time when the 100 watt amp is introduced...the driving high volume, and you're playing SGs and Les Pauls...guitars [which] really lend themselves to that type of amp. But your playing this [335] also. How do you make that choice...will I take the Les Paul or this one - is it particular music?
EC: ..In those days..I was less of a collector.. I didn't have the... money or facilities ...I wasn't really sure where I was living half the time, and it would have been cumbersome to have had more than two or three guitars. So guitars like the Les Paul of this, would have been...the focus of my work for a long period of time. ...It wouldn't have [occurred to me to think]...'Oh, for this song I'll use that', I wouldn't have thought like that at all. I just was very focused on a guitar and would play that exclusively for a year, two years and ...then for some reason I'd go somewhere else...
CW: When you've come back to this guitar more recently, is there a specific reason you've had for picking it up?
EC: Nostalgia. Anything that's been that long in my life and is still functional...There aren't too many things that can command that kind of respect. There's no cars that I've had that long for instance. There's no other tools in my life that have been as long serving.
CW: Have you used it in every genesis of your career? John Mayall etc.
EC: Yes.
CW: Are there any songs that you particularly associate with this guitar?
EC: Badge...most of the Blind Faith songs.
CW: Is that when George Harrison would have given you that sticker [Hare Krishner sticker on back of the headstock] to put on, around the Badge period?
EC: Maybe...although I think it was a little later actually, Bangladesh time, around that time [George Harrison's Concert For Bangladesh August 1st, 1971]...I was using a Gibson Byrdland at Bangladesh...this also went on The Rolling Stones Circus [Rock 'N' Roll Circus, 11th December 1968] ...if you want to go into its full provenance - that was the Crossroads guitar..
MF: ...It's come in a full circle.
ES: Yes.
KK: It's amazing it's survived in this condition..
KK: Was the purchase of this guitar influenced by ..Chicago Blues players?
EC:..There wasn't a [great] deal of footage or still photos or album covers that I could refer to [that showed examples of this model], and the people that I was idolising...like Freddy King...played a Les Paul..at that time...But I did see a...Freddy King instrumental album and he was playing one of these [on the cover]. I think it was really acceptable [to me] on every front. It was a Rock guitar, a Blues guitar...the real thing... Even in those days I may have had reservations about Fenders, in that they were solid, whereas this one's semi-acoustic..What...I love about Fenders now, I would probably have held in a little bit of contempt in those days, in that they didn't have any purfling down the side of the neck, and so on. This guitar has got all the finish you would ever want, and all...the credibility a guitar needed at that time, and the fact that Alexis Korner and I played those Kays, was [because]...you couldn't get [these Gibsons] in England - you didn't see them. You got copies....German guitars [like] Hagstroms, Hofner... I...went and bought [this] guitar [as soon as I saw it] with the first money I managed to save up [by] playing with the Yardbirds ... I've had it ever since. That [guitar] has been played... regularly over the years. It gets on albums...it has never really changed. It's never got old, it's never worn down. It's never lost anything...I'd play that now.
LD: The only thing that's been done to this guitar is a little fretwork...a few years ago...a little light dressing...also one volume part has been changed...[Eric] changed the machine heads [early on]...put Grovers on it...Whenever this guitar comes out...when you pull that case out...and put the guitar on the rack...crews that are helping us...they always ask to have their picture taken with the case [which has CREAM stencilled on it]...
EC: It's worked really hard...It went everywhere.
LD: It's a nice sounding guitar...It was played a lot on the Blues Tour as well. We had two 335s, a 1960s tobacco sunburst, which went in the auction last time [Lot 46 in 1999] ...They were only a couple of years apart but they were such extraordinarily different sounding guitars...
LD to EC: ...you know one of the best things I ever heard you play on this guitar...just one of those magical moments, was with Dr. John, St. James' Infirmary, at that little place in New York [May 9th, 1996, Roseland, New York], it was one of those nights where it just was... like liquid..
KK to EC: There's a point in time when the 100 watt amp is introduced...the driving high volume, and you're playing SGs and Les Pauls...guitars [which] really lend themselves to that type of amp. But your playing this [335] also. How do you make that choice...will I take the Les Paul or this one - is it particular music?
EC: ..In those days..I was less of a collector.. I didn't have the... money or facilities ...I wasn't really sure where I was living half the time, and it would have been cumbersome to have had more than two or three guitars. So guitars like the Les Paul of this, would have been...the focus of my work for a long period of time. ...It wouldn't have [occurred to me to think]...'Oh, for this song I'll use that', I wouldn't have thought like that at all. I just was very focused on a guitar and would play that exclusively for a year, two years and ...then for some reason I'd go somewhere else...
CW: When you've come back to this guitar more recently, is there a specific reason you've had for picking it up?
EC: Nostalgia. Anything that's been that long in my life and is still functional...There aren't too many things that can command that kind of respect. There's no cars that I've had that long for instance. There's no other tools in my life that have been as long serving.
CW: Have you used it in every genesis of your career? John Mayall etc.
EC: Yes.
CW: Are there any songs that you particularly associate with this guitar?
EC: Badge...most of the Blind Faith songs.
CW: Is that when George Harrison would have given you that sticker [Hare Krishner sticker on back of the headstock] to put on, around the Badge period?
EC: Maybe...although I think it was a little later actually, Bangladesh time, around that time [George Harrison's Concert For Bangladesh August 1st, 1971]...I was using a Gibson Byrdland at Bangladesh...this also went on The Rolling Stones Circus [Rock 'N' Roll Circus, 11th December 1968] ...if you want to go into its full provenance - that was the Crossroads guitar..
MF: ...It's come in a full circle.
ES: Yes.
KK: It's amazing it's survived in this condition..