Cream - TOAD

First performance: 00/09/1968


Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song only once:
 
1968-09-00 Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ
 
Springsteen (along with fellow Earth-band members John Graham and Michael Burke) entered Ocean County College in September 1968. Bruce ended up staying for three semesters, dropping out in December 1969 shortly after his parents moved to California. Earth is believed to have performed several times at Ocean County College during the September to December 1968 period. Springsteen even contributed a piece of poetry to Seascape, the school's Literary Yearbook. The twenty-six mentioned songs are taken from the only known Earth-era repertoire listing. The document is likely to have been created by Springsteen in September or October 1968. The amount of tracks displayed, their sequencing, plus the header and numbering notation by Bruce, all point to this as being an inventory of Earth's live repertoire of 'cover' material. For this reason it is of greater historical significance than an individual gig setlist, particularly in that no Earth audio is circulating. A few of these songs are performance hold-overs from the The Castiles-era. Since Earth was a three-piece band it's hardly surprising that material from both Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (the era's two premier three-piece bands) are abundantly represented. 
 
 
  
photo credit Billy Smith
 

Songinfo

"Toad" is an instrumental by British rock band Cream and was released on their 1966 debut album, Fresh Cream. Composed by drummer Ginger Baker, the song is a five-minute drum solo (with a brief guitar and bass introduction and ending), and is notable because it features one of the earliest recorded drum solos in rock history. The Cream website, Those Were the Days, described "Toad" as "a coherent drums solo that remains unequalled in Rock Music. It influenced many contemporaries and innumerable budding drummers." "Toad" has been "widely imitated", and "paved the way for a decade of heavy-metal drum solos". Spin magazine gave it the "dubious distinction of introducing the drum solo to the rock LP". It is also featured in the 1995 film Casino directed by Martin Scorsese, during the infamous "head in a vise" scene.
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

INSTRUMENTAL