"Toad" is an instrumental by British rock band Cream and was released on their 1966 debut album, Fresh Cream. Composed by drummer Ginger Baker, the song is a five-minute drum solo (with a brief guitar and bass introduction and ending), and is notable because it features one of the earliest recorded drum solos in rock history. It can also be seen as an early example of hard rock.

Baker began developing "Toad" while he was still a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, but it was not until he joined Cream that it was first recorded on their first album, Fresh Cream. The solo comprises a sequence of drum patterns that are built up, varied, and then dropped, giving way to a new pattern. On the piece, Baker often produced complementary rhythms on the hi-hat, ride cymbal, double-bass drums and tom-toms simultaneously.

An extended sixteen-minute live version (of which 13 minutes is drum solo) appears on Cream's 1968 album Wheels of Fire. A slightly extended version of this recording, with some additional guitar and bass edited in from another performance, appears on Cream's four-disc compilation album Those Were the Days (1997). "Toad" also featured in Cream's reunion concert in May 2005 at the Royal Albert Hall, and appears on the Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6, 2005 album.

"Toad" was also performed by Ginger Baker's Air Force, and a 13-minute version appears on their 1970 live album, Ginger Baker's Air Force, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in January 1970.

...
Wikipedia