Cream recorded Doing That Scrapyard Thing at IBC Studios in London in October 1968. It would later be released on February 5, 1969 as Jack Bruce’s contribution to the studio portion of Cream’s aptly named Goodbye album.

Pete Brown wrote the lyrics after a phone call from Bruce. As he explains here
“A funny thing happened with Goodbye. Dick Heckstall-Smith was living with me at the time as his marriage had just broken up. Jack [Bruce] was staying in Los Angeles and called me from there at 3 AM. He said, 'I want you to write the words to this song.' And he played me a theme over the phone, which I recorded on a terrible old Grundig tape recorder. I wrote the lyrics and then phoned him back. That song was 'Doing that Scrapyard Thing'.”

Eric Clapton said that the song, along with Badge and What a Bringdown were recorded due to a lack of proper live material for the album:

We did those cuts after we decided to break up. That was after the last tour — the farewell tour. We were told by Atlantic [Records] that we didn't really have enough live stuff to release on the Goodbye album that was acceptable. So we had to go into the studio and cut some tracks after the tour. We all had bits of songs, so we went into the studio in L.A. and cut them — all in the space of three or four days.
— Eric Clapton

The basic track most likely consisted of Jack Bruce on piano, Eric Clapton on his Leslie-treated Gibson ES-335, and Ginger Baker on drums. Overdubs included two Leslie lead guitar parts from Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce’s bass part on his Gibson EB-3 and lead vocals, and producer Felix Pappalardi’s Mellotron. I’m using an original 1980s Gibson ES-335. Unlike Eric Clapton’s, mine is Sunburst and has dot inlays while his was cherry with block inlays.

Interesting Notes:

0:10 Eric Clapton’s basic track guitar enters
0:17 Eric starts playing the verse shuffle
0:24 One of the overdubbed 335s enters, doubling the ‘Scrapyard riff’
0:32 The overdubbed 335 enters slightly late, missing the first note of Eric’s fill leading into the chorus
0:37 The overdubbed 335 slides up one fret to a B note on the 3rd string, while the main slides up to a B minor chord on the 7th fret
0:42 The basic track guitar does a cool Hendrix-esque double stop
0:45 Eric’s fill leading into the main verse is doubled
1:14 The basic track guitar does a double stop on the 12th fret pulling off from the 14th, creating a 4-3 suspension
1:48 The third 335 enters, playing an octave up
1:50 The basic track guitar does a pull-off on the low D string, while neither of overdubbed 335s do
2:32 Both guitars 1 and 3 do a quick hammer-on from D to E on the 3rd and 5th and 15th and 17th frets respectively
2:45 The overdubbed 335 goes up to the 14th fret while the basic stays on the 13th, creating dissonance
2:58 The intro figure returns for the final time, ending on a D power chord (023)

свернуть