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About their cover of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" (a/ka/ "Cross Road Blues"), Wikipedia says:
On March 10, 1968, Cream recorded a live version of "Crossroads" during a performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. It features an up-beat hard rock arrangement by Clapton and an eight-note guitar riff and has both major and minor scale centers.[12] According to Clapton, the riff is an embellishment of Robert Johnson's guitar lines and "was the easiest for me to see as a rock and roll vehicle".[7] Unlike Johnson's or James' versions, Cream's song has "a straight eighth-note [rock] rhythm", with Bruce's bass line "combin[ing] with [Baker's] drums to create and continually emphasize continuity in the regular metric drive", according to Covach.[7] In addition to Johnson's opening and closing lyrics, Clapton twice adds a section from Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues".[13]
Cream's Winterland recording of "Crossroads" was released on the group's Wheels of Fire album in August 1968. A single was also released, reaching number 28 in the Billboard Hot 100.[14] Although extensively reworked by Clapton and Cream, both the original album and single credit the songwriter as Robert Johnson or R. Johnson. Writer Anthony DeCurtis describes "Crossroads" as a "Cream classic—edited, as it was, by engineer Tom Dowd for the Wheels of Fire album—compared to the much longer renditions the band typically fired up".[15] Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine attributes the editing to producer Felix Pappalardi, who "cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that's exceptionally exciting".[16]
From the 1968 "Wheels of Fire" album, here are Cream with "Crossroads".
