Oakland Coliseum, October 4, 1968 Cream concert....after 2 hours of ear-splitting ecstasy and after the 3rd encore, Ginger executed his signature end of concert drumstick maneuver. Smashing both sticks, somewhere, somehow on his kit, they flip end over end high into the crowd. My buddy and I are sitting well back on the floor of the arena but the sticks keep coming and, lo and behold, they flip end over end down right toward us. Seemingly half the arena leap into the air to secure one of these priceless memories of this epic event. Miraculously (I was pretty athletic in my younger days), I get a hold of one - but so do a bunch of other folks. For a second, I thought I had it to myself but sadly it is ripped rather painfully away.
I always worried that Ginger would end up dying an early death like so many other other rock icons - he usually looked like hell and death warmed over but he ended up living as long as any one has the right to expect and gave us all some beautiful memories. Sadly, his frenemy Jack Bruce went first. We still have Eric though.
Cream was amazing and really too complex to last long. Thanks for that time though.
