I’m thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car/
I’m thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far.
Eric Clapton was in several super-famous bands: Cream, Blind Faith, Derrick & the Dominoes, and he had success as a solo artist. When you combine those bands’ works you get one of the all-time great collections of music. He is a rock contributor up there with The Beatles, Dylan, Elton John and The Stones.
Most of Clapton’s work is heavily based on the electric guitar and “Badge” is no different. The song came about due to a collaboration with George Harrison. They worked together on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The Beatles got that song, Cream got this one.
The intro bass-line in “Badge” is a classic. The song also features piano and does not bring out the electric guitar until the bridge. The bridge sounds very different than the verse like most psychedelic rock.
As far as the lyrics go, they are mostly nonsensical. Or perhaps non-linear is more charitable. It sounds like there was some sort of loving relationship between a man and a woman and she might have become a partier and that no longer interested him. It is hard to tell.
Badge Lyrics
Thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car.
Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far.
And I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table.
I told you not to wander ’round in the dark.
I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you ’bout our kid, now he’s married to Mabel.
Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down.
Don’t you notice how the wheel goes ’round?
And you better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down,
Yes, before they bring the curtain down.
Talkin’ ’bout a girl that looks quite like you.
She didn’t have the time to wait in the queue.
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle.
written by George Harrison/ Eric Clapton
I just discovered a Very Best of Cream CD, and found the title track, Badge, to be the BEST. Haunting, mysterious, melodic. The very best part is the Bass (Jack Bruce) and the Drumming (Ginger Baker). Just love how they put out those changing beats! Wonderful.
— Yes, Clapton’s and Harrison’s guitar work were famous and ringing, but the very best of Cream was the Complex Beats in that song, and I listened to all the supposed BEST, and that was it. Track one: Badge.
— The rest of the “best” music was too heavy, too me-macho-boy-of-the-times and socially uncool in today’s climate.
— There are two kinds of creatives (giggle): one that prefers Psychedelics and the other that do alcohol and opiates. Obviously Cream was the later. It was Harrison that elevated them in this one track.