Verse/Chorus 1: Upon this street where time has died / The golden treat you never tried. / In times of old, in days gone by. / If I could catch a dancing eye. // It was on the way, / On the road to dreams, yeah. / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Verse/Chorus 2: The street is cold, its trees are gone. / The story’s told the dark has won. / Once you set sail to catch a star. / We had to fail, it was too far. // It was on the way, / On the road to dreams, yeah. / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah.
Verse/Chorus 3: The street is cold, its days are gone. / The story’s told the dark has won. / It couldn’t last, had to stop. / You drained it all to the last drop. // It was on the way, / On the road to dreams, yeah. / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, yeah, yeah, yeah. / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams.
Verse/Chorus 4: The street is cold, trees are gone. / There’s no retreat from time that’s died. / On this dark street the sun is black. / The winter life is coming back. // It was on the way, / On the road to dreams, yeah. / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams, / Now my heart’s drowned in no love streams.
Cream flamed out shortly after this album and tour, and probably for the better. Even so, although I find Hendrix more compelling (and probably always will), a few Cream songs stay with me for some reason.
You know, a funny thing: this is the first time I’ve really examined the lyrics, which goes to show I don’t really listen to Cream for the words. Reading them now, they don’t make a whole lot of sense. It doesn’t matter. I could listen to Jack Bruce sing the alphabet and I’d be happy. I’m not a huge Clapton fan. Compared with Beck, Page, Hendrix, etc., he bores me. But I don’t consider listen to Cream to be the same as listening to Clapton. He was only one third of Cream. It occurs to me that he needed the other two thirds to bring out his most fiery playing.
Another funny thing: the only Cream albums I had growing up were Live Cream II and the Best of Cream. I didn’t have Fresh Cream, Disraeli Gears, Wheels of Fire, or Goodbye. The first time I heard Cream was when I lived in Canada in 8th grade, at my friend Akram’s house. His older brother had all these classic rock albums I had never heard before, including Disraeli Gears, Dark Side of the Moon, and The Song Remains the Same. I remember hearing “Sunshine of Your Love” for the first time at his house. I thought I knew my classic rock, even at that young age, but I couldn’t name the band. Even when he told me it was Cream, I was like, Who?
“Deserted Cities of the Heart” is one of those throwaway Cream songs, unlike “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room,” etc. Part of its appeal is the fact that it hasn’t been overplayed. Even “Tales of Brave Ulysses” falls into that category. “Deserted Cities” is a little nugget of monochromatic psychedelic bliss that never fails to grab my attention.
Clapton’s tone on his solo sounds like a collection of sped-up 8-bit samples thrown together. There’s a chugging momentum that carries all the way through this song, one that doesn’t even get slowed down by the bizarre time signature changes, characteristic of Wheels of Fire-era Cream (again, think of the intro of “White Room”).
Album Info: Wheels of Fire (1968)
