A buzz built about the band, since it contained two-thirds of the immensely popular power trio Cream in Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton working in collaboration with British star Steve Winwood, of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The fourth member was bassist Ric Grech of Family. Clapton played acoustic guitar on this track, which is something he rarely did. In his previous group, Cream, he played long, intense solos, something he wanted to get away from with Blind Faith.
They began to work out songs early in 1969, and in February and March the group was in London at Morgan Studios, preparing for the beginnings of basic tracks for their album, although the first few almost finished songs didn't show up until they were at Olympic Studios in April and May under the direction of producer Jimmy Miller. The music community was already aware of the linkup, despite Clapton's claim that he was cutting an album of his own on which Winwood would play. The promoters and record companies got involved, pushing those concerned for an album and a tour.
The album cover was a photo of a young girl with no clothes on holding a model spaceship. According to photographer Bob Seidemann, who shot the cover, he had the idea but did not have someone to pose. While riding the London subway, he saw a young girl who would be perfect and asked her to pose for the cover. He went to the girl's house to ask her parents' permission to pose topless for the cover. They agreed, but the girl backed out. However, the girl's younger sister begged the parents to let her pose instead. They agreed and the younger sister ended up posing for the cover. Bob Seidemann came up with the concept and took the photo, which represents humankind's relationship with technology (this was when the mission to put a man on the moon was big news). The band wasn't yet named, and when Seidemann took the photo, he called it "Blind Faith." Clapton decided that should be the name of the band.
Steve Winwood – keyboards, vocals, guitars; bass guitar
Eric Clapton – guitars
Ric Grech – bass guitar, violin
Ginger Baker – drums, percussion
OoklaTheMok 1 points 3.6 years ago
I absolutely love that site. I've learned so much from it and I wish that you lived closer to me so we could have coffee and just discuss music. That would be awesome. Your musical knowledge surpasses my own by a great magnitude and here I thought that I was well versed in musical origins only to be educated by someone more knowledgeable than I. It's quite refreshing and very interesting. Thanks, COF, for all you do.