Toad (instrumental)
{{short description|1966 instrumental by British rock band Cream}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Toad
| type = instrumental
| artist = Cream
| album = Fresh Cream
| released = {{Start date|1966|12|09|df=y}}
| recorded = July{{snd}}October 1966
| studio = Rayrik & Ryemuse, London
| genre = Rock
| length = 5:09
| label =
| composer = Ginger Baker
| producer = Robert Stigwood
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type = song
| file = Fresh Cream - Toad Cream clip.ogg
| description = Sample from Fresh Cream
}}
}}
"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 piece is a five-minute drum solo (with a brief guitar and bass introduction and ending). Although drum solos are common in jazz, "Toad" is one of the earliest recorded by a rock group.
Background
"Toad" grew out of "Camels and Elephants", a composition Baker had recorded with the Graham Bond Organisation in 1965.{{cite book|first=Harry|last=Shapiro|author-link=Harry Shapiro (author)|title=Jack Bruce Composing Himself: The Authorised Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XukpwAACAAJ|date=June 2011|publisher=Edition Olms|page=70|isbn=978-3-283-01200-7}} When he formed Cream, "Toad" was first recorded for their debut album, Fresh Cream (1966). Baker plays a sequence of drum patterns that are built up, varied, and then dropped, giving way to a new pattern. On the piece, Baker often produced complementary rhythms on the hi-hat, ride cymbal, double-bass drums and tom-toms simultaneously.{{cite book|author=Everett, Walter|title=The Beatles as musicians: Revolver through the Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ebXS3MdaBaQC&pg=PP62|access-date=11 August 2011|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512941-0|page=62}}
Other recordings
An extended sixteen-minute live version (of which 13 minutes is drum solo) appears on Cream's 1968 album Wheels of Fire. A slightly longer version of this recording, with some additional guitar and bass edited into the introduction from another performance, appears on Cream's four-disc compilation album Those Were the Days (1997). "Toad" also featured in Cream's reunion concert in May 2005 at the Royal Albert Hall, and appears on the Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 album.
"Toad" was performed by Ginger Baker's Air Force, and a 13-minute version with drum solos by Baker, Remi Kabaka and Phil Seamen appears on their 1970 live album, Ginger Baker's Air Force, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in January 1970. "Toad" later evolved into "Toady", which featured on Ginger Baker's Air Force 2 (1970).{{AllMusic|class=album|id=ginger-bakers-air-force-2-mw0000836657|title=Ginger Baker's Air Force 2|first=Joe|last=Viglione|access-date=20 September 2018}}
Reception and influence
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."{{citation |url=http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/fresh.htm |title=Fresh Cream |last=Pattingale |first=Graeme |work=Those Were the Days |access-date=31 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721120359/http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/fresh.htm |archive-date=21 July 2008 }}. "Toad" has been "widely imitated",{{cite book|author=Milliken, Robert|title=Mother of Rock: The Lillian Roxon Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNLpoUK-eUkC&pg=PA262|access-date=11 August 2011|date=1 February 2010|publisher=Black Inc.|isbn=978-1-86395-464-8|page=262}} and "paved the way for a decade of heavy-metal drum solos".{{cite book|author1=George-Warren, Holly |author2=Romanowski, Patricia|author3=Pareles, Jon|title=The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll|url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneency00holl|url-access=registration |access-date=11 August 2011|date=30 October 2001|publisher=Fireside|isbn=978-0-7432-0120-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/rollingstoneency00holl/page/42 42]}} Spin magazine gave it the "dubious distinction of introducing the drum solo to the rock LP",{{cite book|title=SPIN|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=otG9qgDiY1cC&pg=PA61|access-date=23 December 2014|date=August 1990|page=61|chapter=35 Most Memorable Moments In Rock'n'Roll Drumming|issn=0886-3032}} and The Drummer: 100 Years of Rhythmic Power and Invention called Baker's drumming on "Toad" "a milestone in drum soloing".{{cite book|author=Budofsky, Adam|title=The Drummer: 100 Years of Rhythmic Power and Invention|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWA6a9AKhzUC&pg=PA62|access-date=11 August 2011|date=1 July 2006|publisher=Hal Leonard|isbn=978-1-4234-0567-2|page=62}} In a review of Cream, Life magazine said that "Toad" "features sustained, imaginative drumming that would knock out a Carnegie jazz audience".{{cite magazine|author=Saltonstall, Richard Jnr.|title=Rock and Jazz in a Creamy Mix|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YEoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12|access-date=11 August 2011|date=26 January 1968|magazine=Life|page=12|issn=0024-3019}}
In a review of Wheels of Fire in Rolling Stone, Jann S. Wenner described Cream's live performance of "Toad" as "pretty good", and "much better" than the studio version on Fresh Cream. Wenner remarked that Baker's "tendency to be sloppy is not evident, and he gets moving quickly and sustains the tension well".{{cite magazine |last=Wenner |first=Jann S. |title=Wheels of Fire |magazine=Rolling Stone |page=20 |date=20 July 1968 |issn=0035-791X}}