The Story Behind the Misinterpreted Cream Song Written by George Harrison and Eric Clapton

When Cream was working on their 1969 album, Goodbye, Eric Clapton and George Harrison co-wrote a song for the band’s fourth and final release. Harrison was returning the favor to Clapton, who played lead guitar on Harrison’s classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” from the Beatles‘ White Album. At first, their new Cream song didn’t have a title, but somewhere along the way, it ended up mis-titled.

“Each of them had to come up with a song for that ‘Goodbye’ Cream album, and Eric didn’t have his written,” recalled Harrison. “We were working across from each other, and I was writing the lyrics down, and we came to the middle part, so I wrote ‘Bridge.’ Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing. ‘What’s a Badge?’ he said.”

Harrison added, “After that, Ringo [Starr] walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park.”

The song remained as “Badge” and appeared on Goodbye, marking the duo’s first collaboration.

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Thinkin’ ’bout the times you drove in my car
Thinkin’ that I might have drove you too far
And I’m thinkin’ ’bout the love that you laid on my table
I told you not to wander ’round in the dark
I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park
Then I told you ’bout our kid, now he’s married to Mabel

Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down
Don’t you notice how the wheel goes ’round?
And you’d better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down
Yes, before they bring the curtain down

[RELATED: George Harrison Originally Offered This Song to Eric Clapton Before Giving it to Guitarist and Traveling Wilburys Collaborator, Gary Moore]

Harrison and Clapton, Post-Badge

The two later reconnected on more projects during the late-1960s through ’80s. Both play guitar, along with Ringo Starr on drums, on Jackie Lomax’s 1968 single “Sour Milk Sea,” which Harrison had originally written for the White Album. In 1970, Clapton also played guitar on Harrison’s third solo album, All Things Must Pass, and later appeared on Harrison’s 1987 album, Cloud Nine, playing guitar on the title track, “That’s What It Takes,” “Wreck of the Hesperus,” and “Devil’s Radio.”

A few years before touring Japan together in 1991, Clapton began working on his 1989 album, Journeyman, and got another contribution from Harrison: “Run So Far.” Though never released as a single, the track was Harrison’s sole contribution to the album. Harrison also plays guitar on the track and later re-recorded his own version of “Run So Far” for his twelfth, posthumous album, Brainwashed, released in 2002.

For Journeymen, Harrison also offered Clapton two more songs for the album, including “Cheer Down,” which he co-wrote with Tom Petty and later appeared on the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), and “That Kind Of Woman,” first recorded by Gary Moore and later covered by Clapton in 1990.

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