Songfacts®: You can leave comments about the song at the bottom of the page.
This was written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison. Harrison, who is listed on the album as "L'Angelo Misterioso," also played rhythm guitar on this, since Cream had only one guitarist: Clapton.
The title has nothing to do with the song. Clapton saw Harrison's notes for this, and misread "Bridge" as "Badge." He thought this is what Harrison named the song, so they used it for the title.
The lyrics are not intended to make sense. Many of them were taken from drunken conversations Harrison had with Ringo Starr.
Cream recorded this a week after they played their last shows: 2 sold out performances at Royal Albert Hall in England. It was one of 3 studio recordings on their last album. The rest of it was filled with live cuts.
Cream had broken up by the time this was released. Clapton was already working with his new group, Blind Faith.
This is one of the shortest Cream songs. They were known for their long, improvised jams. The Wheels Of Fire live album, for example, contains only 4 songs.
This is one of the few Cream songs that Eric Clapton sang lead on, as Jack Bruce usually handled vocals. Also, this is the only Cream song to include 5 people: in addition to Clapton, Bruce, Baker and Harrison, Felix Pappalardi played the piano and Mellotron. Pappalardi was the producer of 3 of Cream's 4 albums (Disreali Gears, Wheels Of Fire, and Goodbye) and contributed by playing a wide variety of instruments on those albums. (thanks, Geoff - Lake Arrowhead, CA)
Clapton ran his guitar through a Leslie speaker cabinet to create a swirling sound. The Leslie Cabinet contained a rotating paddle and was designed for organs, but many musicians tried it with guitars. Jimmy Page used the technique on "Good Times, Bad Times."
The song titles were written on tombstones inside the album, leaving little doubt that it was their last.
Clapton had played on Harrison's album
Wonderwall the previous year, and on The Beatles' "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which was released the same month as this.
Comments (57):
Get the Ringtone
Get Song @ Amazon
Get the Sheet Music
View Lyrics
my version is George wrote that riff but Clapton played it;
it would be great to ask Eric though to have the definite truth, I personally hope it's George who played it.
This has haunted me since my bar band- up in smoke- youth when we all jumped to conclusion over titles, lyric meanings,who plays what, etc. Is it possible they added a track after naming it by mistake??,,,I always summed the tunes name up probably mistakably by this, my own fabrication. Listen closely to what is probably "OOOO,yeah, yeah, yeah",,before you lash out at me for this one; It does sound like 'Burning my badge'.
The only thing that could fit or really make sense is random non-sense. Some of the finest musicians of our lifetime coming into their prime. Making eternal music-magic out of what may have seemed at the time to be almost a throw-away. The song's one and only shortcoming is that it's just too short. It begs us to complete the verse about the girl who wouldn't wait on line. Still, maybe, even that one imperfection is what makes the creation so insanely fine.
quite the same riff with the 'Leslie sound'.
Anyone have anything more definitive on this? Richard from Switzerland has an interesting comment, but since I don't play guitar, I can't test it. Richard is saying it is definitely Harrison playing the solo. Comments?
Royal Albert Hall concert? I didn't see him do anything in peticular. But is was a great sound!
- Bill otterbein In.
He said when it was released the British press began dissecting its meaning, going so far as to suggest that it was a brilliant piece of political satire, and allowing that a certain government scandal of the day was referenced by "the swans that... live in the park."
Clapton, Harrison and Ringo thought this all very amusing as Clapton remembered someone simply writing down the gibberish eminating from Ringo's mouth one night when they were all loaded. Harrison & Clapton were picking out random tunes, began riffing off each other, and Ringo started a drunken rap.
What the hell, that's probably as good as any other political satire.