White Room1
Room1
The Cream
[Intro]
Dm C Am G Dm7
e|:-------1---------------------------:|---|
B|:-----3---------1-------1---------0-:|-1-|
G|:---2---------0-------2---------0---:|-2-|
D|:-0---------2-------2---------0-----:|-0-|
A|:---------3-------0---------2-------:|---|
E|:-------------------------3---------:|-1-|
[Verse]
Am Am/G Am/F#
In the white room, with black curtains,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
near the station
Am Am/G Am/F#
Black roof country, no gold pavements,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
tired starlings
Am Am/G Am/F#
Silver horses, ran down moonbeams,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
in your dark eyes
Am Am/G Am/F#
Dawn light smiles, on you leaving,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
my contentment
[Chorus]
G D
I'll wait in this place where the
December 6, 2022 White Room 1
White Room2
Room2
The Cream
F E
sun never shines
G D
Wait in this place where the
F G A N.C.
shadows run from themselves
[Verse]
Am Am/G Am/F#
You said no strings, could secure you,
F G Am Am/G Am/F# F G
at the station
Am Am/G Am/F#
Platform ticket, restless diesels,
F G Am Am/G Am/F# F G
goodbye windows
Am Am/G Am/F#
I walked into, such a sad time,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
at the station
Am Am/G Am/F#
As I walked out, felt my own need,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
just beginning
[Chorus]
G D
I'll wait in the queue when the
December 6, 2022 White Room 2
White Room3
Room3
The Cream
F E
trains come by
G D F
Lie with you where the shadows
G A
run from themselves.
[Verse]
Am Am/G Am/F#
At the party, she was kindness,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
in the hard crowd
Am Am/G Am/F#
Consolation, for the old wound,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
now forgotten
Am Am/G Am/F#
Yellow tigers, crouched in jungles,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
in her dark eyes
Am Am/G Am/F#
Now she's dressing, goodbye windows,
F G Am Am/G Am/F#
tired starlings
[Outro]
G D F E
I'll sleep in this place with the lonely crowd
December 6, 2022 White Room 3
White Room4
Room4
The Cream
G D F
Lie in the dark where the shadows
G A
run from themselves
Dm C Am G Dm7
e|:-------1---------------------------:|---|
B|:-----3---------1-------1---------0-:|-1-|
G|:---2---------0-------2---------0---:|-2-|
D|:-0---------2-------2---------0-----:|-0-|
A|:---------3-------0---------2-------:|---|
E|:-------------------------3---------:|-1-|
"White Room" is a song by British rock band Cream, composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics
by poet Pete Brown. They recorded it for the studio half of the 1968 double album Wheels of
Fire. In September, a shorter US single edit (without the third verse) was released for AM radio
stations, although album-oriented FM radio stations played the full album version. The
subsequent UK single release in January 1969 used the full-length album version of the track.
This song is about depression and hopelessness, but the setting is an empty apartment. The
lyrics were written by a poet named Pete Brown, who was a friend of Cream bass player Jack
Bruce, the lead vocalist on the track. Brown also wrote the words for "Sunshine Of Your Love,"
"I Feel Free" and "SWLABR."
The music was written first. Pete Brown's first attempt at a lyric was something about a
"doomed hippie girl" - the song was called "Cinderella's Last Goodnight." Jack Bruce wasn't
buying it, so he scrapped that idea and pulled up an eight-page poem he had written earlier,
which he reworked into "White Room."
In a Songfacts interview with Pete Brown, he told the story: "It was a meandering thing about a
relationship that I was in and how I was at the time. It was a kind of watershed period really. It
was a time before I stopped being a relative barman and became a songwriter, because I was a
professional poet, you know. I was doing poetry readings and making a living from that. It
wasn't a very good living, and then I got asked to work by Ginger and Jack with them and then
started to make a kind of living.
And there was this kind of transitional period where I lived in this actual white room and was
trying to come to terms with various things that were going on. It's a place where I stopped, I
gave up all drugs and alcohol at that time in 1967 as a result of being in the white room, so it
was a kind of watershed period. That song's like a kind of weird little movie: it changes
perspectives all the time. That's why it's probably lasted - it's got a kind of mystery to it."
December 6, 2022 White Room 4
