Cream - Badge - featuring George Harrison (Leslie speaker effect extended mix)

0:00 The bewildering Badge riff played by Eric Clapton with Cream
0:10 The rythm guitar intro played by George Harrison and throughout the rest of the song
0:46 The glorious, ground-shaking, entrance of the riff
1:16 Eric Clapton comes in with his overdubbed fiery solo
2:15 A new Leslie behemoth riff as performed this time by George Harrison
2:48 The return of the Bridge from Badge, performed as before by Eric Clapton
3:18 A sweet encore of Eric Clapton's stretching solo
4:17 The eerie intro played by George Harrison becomes the coda that puts all worries to rest

This is a special mix of songs that feature the famous Leslie rotating speaker effect used on many Beatles and George Harrison recordings. Guess what songs are showcased!

Badge is one of the best unknown rock songs of the sixties, composed by Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
The eerie, otherworldly sound of the guitar during the bridge is obtained by routing the signal through a rotating Leslie speaker made for Hammond organs.
George Harrison (a.k.a. L' Angelo Misterioso) used this spectacular sound on many famous recordings. This special mix lets you hear some of these.
As they used to say, play it loud!

In his book I, Me, Mine, Harrison described the creation of what’s been called Cream’s finest song: “Badge.”
“I co-wrote ‘Badge’ with Eric Clapton. The group Cream decided they were making one last album together and they all had to turn up on such and such a day with a new song each. Eric had some of the melody and I helped him finish the tune and then wrote the words.

‘While writing the words we got to the middle part which I called the ‘bridge,’ so I put that on the paper with the words. Eric was sitting opposite me and he looked at the paper — upside down to him — and cracked up: he said, ‘What’s that — badge?’ and I said ‘it’s bridge.’ So later Eric called the song ‘Badge.’ It’s funny, now he actually sings in concert at the end of the song ‘Where is my badge?’”

Harrison recalled in Secrets From the Masters that the bridge was important because it introduced Clapton’s stunning solo.

“That’s where Eric enters. On the record Eric doesn’t play guitar up until that bridge. He sat through it with his guitar in the Leslie, and I think Felix Pappalardi (bassist from Mountain and producer) was the piano player. So there was Felix, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, and me."
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