The Eric Clapton album by album thread

In the context of celebrating one album. It was a precursor to what music fans presently see with super deluxe reissues of classic albums. I still don't think an entire box set of material like discs two and three of the 20th Anniversary Layla box set would have made for a successful mainstream career compilation, which was the premise of Crossroads.

Not sure. Anyone else have a good take on this issue?

 

I think Crossroads did a great job of being what it was supposed to be.

I have no complaints about it, and in the days before iPods, it was a regular companion in my car.

It was a compact package of a career retrospective, mostly highlights, spiced up with a few rarities.

 

This comment is about the discussion of 70's era on Clapton v. his early work. About which some place the dividing line with Derek and the Dominoes on the early part, with his heroin charged hermit period being the dividing mark, others his departure from Blind Faith and thenceforth playing mostly with American musicians. Also that latter time divide falls in with his going to Strats most of the time as compared to an alternating mix of Gibsons with the Telecasters he played with Yardbirds and the special one he had during Blind Faith.

I clearly prefer his earlier work. It was more adventurous and influential, even if here and there somewhat more sloppy. But whether you put Derek and the Dominoes on one side or the other, clearly after his recluse period he had less fire in his playing with exceptions like The Core and some live work. It's not bad music, and I like a lot of it. But I can understand someone with limited time and all the other musicians there are to listen to saying the amount they want to spend on Clapton will tend to be spent on his early work.

 

Looking back they were probably sensible holding back on unreleased material so they could re-sell us the albums via deluxe/super deluxe editions. Clapton doesn't have the archive Dylan has.

 

Its detailed in the Marc Roberty book which alas i don't have to hand right now. From memory the track included Eric and Jim Gordon. Will check the full detail tomorrow.

 

I agree it is good for what it was supposed to be. However, I think you could come up with something pretty good just by including unreleased material and rarities like Roll It Over, Tell The Truth (alternate version), After Midnight (alternate version), Wanna Make Love To You, Too Bad etc. I have bootleg box set somewhere that was supposed to be a companion to Crossroads and it is listenable. I think it is 3 or 4 discs of material from the same time period. Some of the material has since been released on other Deluxe Editions and box sets.

 

Be interested to see the track-listing of that set. Do you have the name of it?

Hopefully "She Rides" was included. Another that could've made Crossroads.

 

It's called Further On Up The Crossroads 1964-1990 and is a 4 cd set. No She Rides.

Bootleg - Further On Up The Crossroads

 

I like the look of that very much. Does miss quite a bit that would make it even better but not a bad set.

 

If you combined some of it with the rarities and unreleased material on Crossroads, it would be a pretty good set.

 

This looks like a challenge. I'll give this a go, looking at 4cd's and going from 1963-1987/8.

 

I'd lean more towards Gordon and Whitlock, no Clapton. I'll wait to hear back from you.

 

Renee Armand is quoted on YouTube as saying that it was her and Gordon who stopped by Clapton's home studio where the three of them cut the track.

 

One thing we forget about the Crossroads set was that it came at the dawn of the CD era. It was kind of a cool Clapton collection or sampler for us folks who already had a bunch of vinyl Clapton but wanted he new shiny CDs with his music on it. Plus it had some nice unreleased tracks as well. Not to mention highlights off those later albums some of us had ignored.

 

IMO the guitarist on this instrumental is the same person that played on Devil Road- I don't think its Clapton.

 

Some other tracks that were left off were the Powerhouse recordings and the Bluesbreakers BBC Sessions.

 

There is an excellent 6:22 slow-version of After Midnight in that set.

 

In my top-10 favorite Clapton live tracks......Not meaning to derail the discussion.



Wonder why this live version wasn't used on CROSSROADS instead of the studio one?

 

So we could get an unreleased track, as opposed to a previously released rack that a diehard fan would already have

 

Aren't all the previously released tracks on that set remixed??

 

On Crossroads? No.

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to the video posted above , that's from the 1994 2CD Dominoes Fillmore set. Liner notes mention remixed.

 

This is the unedited version of the track at the end of the Crossroads box set.

 

Oh, ok! Yes, the 1994 Fillmore set was remixed

 

Oh yes, I should have mentioned that.