Psychedelic rock bands dominated the music scene in the 60s and 70s. The most popular ones are Cream, Hendrix, and Pink Floyd. These three have always topped the list when it comes to that element of music. These three are actually very much connected with each other and it might come as a surprise but there’s that.
While Cream and Jimi Hendrix, are the frontmen when it comes to psychedelic rock, Pink Floyd revealed that they were very much inspired by both of them. It was also them that made the band change their musical way of things.
This was revealed by the former bassist of Cream, Jack Bruce. Even after the band was not there, he was able to enjoy a great career that revolved around rock and playing with his heroes like Rory Gallagher and Ringo Starr. He is one of the rock’s bass heroes. Even Black Sabbath’s Butler considers him his “biggest influence and favorite bass player”.
Back in 2008, in an interview with Classic Rock, he shared his encounter experience with Cream’s bandmates like Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton. He also met George Harrison and Graham Bond. He also talked about his meeting with Jimi Hendrix and how it totally helped in the formation of Pink Floyd.
He said, “I first met Hendrix when we [Cream] did a gig at the Regents Polytechnic. Coincidentally, the guys that became Pink Floyd were in the audience, and apparently seeing that event made them become Pink Floyd. When I saw them recently, they told me that. I knew they were there, but I didn’t know that we were responsible for them getting together.” He also added,
“Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing I leave that for you to decide. I always thought that Pink Floyd was a band for people who don’t like music or rock’n’roll. So anyway, back to Hendrix.”
He continued on recalling and said, “We were playing Regents Polytechnic. I was just having a pre-gig pint in a pub across the road and in comes this guy who turns out to be Jimi Hendrix. Now, we had already heard about Jimi on the grapevine. Jimi came up to me and said: ‘Hi. I would like to sit in with the band.’ I said it was fine with me but he’d obviously have to check it out with Eric and Ginger.”
In the end, he said, “So we went across to the gig, and Eric immediately said yes and Ginger said: ‘Oh, dunno about that’ [laughs]. So he came on and plugged into my bass amp, and as far as I can remember he just blew us all away. Hendrix had a positive effect on everybody, especially guitar players. He came to the sessions when we [Cream] did White Room in New York and was very encouraging about the song. He came up to me and said: ‘Wow, I wish I could write something like that.’ I said: ‘Jimi, what you’ve got to realize is that I probably nicked it off you.'”
