3 Blues Rock Songs From 1967 That Still Sound Edgy Today

These 1967 blues-rock songs were edgy in their day, and they still feel dangerous in the modern era. Despite being decades old, the punch they originally packed still lingers. Revisit these tracks to be reminded of how powerful they are.

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“Sunshine Of Your Love” — Cream

Cream was a prime example of blues-filtered rock. This short-lived but important outfit made use of rock’s roots on their signature track “Sunshine Of Your Love”. This 1967 release has a head-bobbing groove akin to the blues but with the warped, weird energy of psychedelia. It was the perfect stepping stone from where the genre started and where it was headed in the late 1960s.

“Yes, I’m with you, my love / It’s the morning, and just we two / I’ll stay with you, darlin’, now / I’ll stay with you ’til my seas are dried up,” the lyrics read. This song about romantic passion has stood the test of time as one of the greatest blues-rock efforts, perhaps ever, but certainly of 1967.

“Purple Haze” — The Jimi Hendrix Experience

This Jimi Hendrix song has major blues influence in its guitar styling in “Purple Haze”. Even more psychedelic than the Cream song, this song takes rock’s roots and runs wild with them. But the blues influence remains intact.

You can hear the fingerprints of blues on Hendrix’s playing here, albeit with some distortion. “Purple haze all in my brain / Lately things, they don’t seem the same / Acting funny, but I don’t know why / ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky,” the lyrics read. Hendrix grounds the otherworldly, trippy ideas in this song with some familiar blues guitar work.

“Strange Brew” — Cream

Circling back to Cream, we have “Strange Brew”. This song, like “Sunshine Of Your Love”, has plenty of blues references. “She’s a witch of trouble in electric blue / In her own mad mind, she’s in love with you / With you / Now, what you gonna do,” the lyrics read. This song has the energy of blues rock but also that of a late 60s rock anthem. It’s the thesis statement of Cream’s musical direction.

It’s impossible to listen to this song and not get transported back to rock’s earliest days when the genre revolved around blues ideas. Cream kept true to that era while paving a new way forward. This song is indicative of that.

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