The Eric Clapton album by album thread

Oh I agree. I've never been one who saw Clapton as a prolific writer. I think its more having songs from one outside writer - not even sure who Jerry Williams is but I'm not that struck on his songs that's all. They're not terrible but just seemed strange having so many from one outside writer on the same album.

My views aside it seems to have been very successful. I'm trying to find my cd single of Bad Love and remember what the B-sides were. I do miss cd singles for the extra tracks. In fact I need to checkout the outtakes and see if they're on youtube.

 

Not EC singing so not sure if this is correct or just an early demo.

 

Journeyman has a lot of sentimental value to it vs the actual songs. This was released around the time I had just become a full fledged Clapton fan and was probably the first album of new material I had bought upon it's release. I still think it's pretty good, just not something I revisit too often.
I saw him twice on this tour and one of my lasting impressions was of him stretching out on "Old Love". Just great fliud minor blues guitar playing.

 

Journeyman was his last great album (imo). He needs to join Steve Winwood again to rekindle his guitar "fire". Does nothing by himself these days.

 

You're not a fan of From The Cradle then?

I know we're currently 5 years/3 albums away from reaching that record but I'd suggest for guitar fire that certainly has more to offer than Journeyman.

 

I have to agree with Chris here : Journeyman is his last great album. It surprised me to see thzat some people don't like the album. Especially because this was basically the moment latter-day-Clapton was lifted to superstar status. Maybe, just maybe , the album didn't age extremely well but seldom has any Clapton album been so full of great compositions.

I'm not gonna jump ahead to From The Cradle, but I certainly can't agree with your comment. But more on thazt when we get there...?

 

[Slight throwback to EC "idealized" Box set portion of thread so "thread purists" can prolly skip my post here - er, uh, any of mine Lol!]
... so backtracking a little but wonder if the cut below might be a good "candidate" for idealized EC Box set:

It's the right era, has just EC on guitar (no George Harrison) and the electric guitar has a kinda/sorta nice ethereal/fluid flavor to it. Bobby Whitlock has said he regrets "rocking it out" - which means (I guess) he counted 38 "oh yeahs" on the coda which was at least 7 too many ... Also (for novelty sake) I'm hoping this album (1972) wasn't discussed earlier ... anyway this one (in particular) suggests "an EC record with Whitlock songwriting" (I think?) even if Bobby faintly plays acoustic 12-string - I'm not a dedicated BW fan and only heard this recently - but it seems pretty good ... and not that it matters, but I'm not too keen on the lyrics and the singing reminds me of Gregg Allman and/or Michael McDonald ... which is fine but prolly nothing to write home about or whatever.

 

I have to also agree, Journeyman is the summit of his albums and broad appeal. Unplugged sustained it for a while, but this is it imo. From The Cradle is a blues tribute album with no Clapton compositions. To hit a summit at over a dozen albums into your solo career with some all time classics that have come before it is a testament to Clapton ... he is a special artist doing what few have done.

 

I think 461 Ocean Boulevard was better. I wouldn't call Journeyman the summit.

 

Very much agreed. I am surprised how popular Journeyman is. But just makes the rest of the albums to come more of an interesting ride with everyone's views. Will get to 24 Nights sometime over the next few days. Give Journeyman longer as the views about the album are very interesting.

 

Not relevant to the album but to the era. Some acting from Eric as well around 1:30. Too lazy to look up if the sessions for the two albums crossed in any way except the guys appearing on each other's. This was when I got aware of Clapton.

 

Never seen that before, and Eric's acting. Always liked the song and his playing on this tune.

 

"I also regret that I never had the good fortune to play with Ray Charles. He was, in my opinion, the greatest singer of all time..." -EC
That's from the "Epilogue" his book, and he has lots of good things to say about other greats, and a lot (prolly most) in there is pastiche or bricolage, so isn't worth putting too much weight on anything here-or-there and in-and-out of context, but I'm glad he said so nonetheless. I'll never forgot reading the booklet came with the Sam Cooke box: “Sam Cooke is somebody other singers have to measure themselves against, and most of them go back to pumping gas.” - Keith Richards
I doubt it really matters much if one agrees or not; I just like to see these guys saying out front what they have strong sentiments about. I dunno what everybody thinks, but a lot of the time is close enough for government work or whatever. I think "career objectives" or whatnot sometimes tends to skew their views of "immediate" peers but even some of that tends to sort itself out eventually.
In his book, EC says it was his producer that "insisted he put 'Hard Times' on the Journeyman album" even if it's not completely clear the way it's introduced "live."
One minor comment about seeing EC live in '90 ... if you went to see the show, and got thirsty, you could spend about 1/2 hour (or more) in line getting a beer (or even diet Coke 'cause I didn't CARE - just hot-summer THIRSTY) which was a real travesty beings ... well as designated beer-boy, anyway did I learn MY lesson. Settle for water if there's ANY concern ... Christ for $9/beer ("small" size Lol!)and what I'd missed I'd almost suggest drink one's own urine LoL! - get about the same return on investment.

Only other thing at the moment I'm curious about - I thought maybe it was the "unplugged" thing that got EC as much "second gen" notoriety as anything ... I could easily be wrong

 

Without a doubt 461 is better, so is Layla. You've misunderstood my use of summit. It wasn't meant as the best album, just that nothing is better on the other side of Journeyman imo, thus Clapton had reached his summit ... all down hill from here ... again imo. I hope Clapton didn't reach the top of his career on his second or third album, then down hill from there. I guess we'll see the consensus from this thread how well Journeyman fares with what's to follow.

 

Ok. I'm gonna take heat for this but although Clapton is a good player and I like his playing, other than a couple of exceptions Clapton's solo career has always been disappointing to me. The majority of his solo albums are just too inconsistent for me. They may have between about 2-5 tracks I like but the majority are just average in my opinion. I think that is why the Crossroads box set works so well is that it picks the majority of the good material and adds some nice rarities. I actually favor his live solo albums to his studio albums for the most part because his set lists usually contain the better material and he can stretch out some with his playing.

When I want to listen to Clapton I usually grab one of the cdrs I have compiled of his better material.

 

I thought (and still do) from Journeyman:
"No Alibis" to be one of the strongest things EC ever recorded.
I've no earthly idea what ***** decided to strip the album (almost 6 minute) version down to a 4 minute single, but I didn't choose Clapton's green and purple outfits in 1990 either. I never bought any Hall and Oates records, though I thought "Sara Smile" (I think it was called) was just fine. I was surprised to see "Air Tonight" replaced by a drum machine - NOT! God, Phil Collins fans must hate me, but I thought the machine to be an improvement ...

Anyway I saw the EC show in early Sept. '90 ---and "being there" I knew that ONE of the numbers had ripped the roof off - strangely enough couldn't recall WHICH - beings it was several years hence I actually bought the album ... but a little FF and rewind here&there w/ the disc and in under two minutes: "WHAM! THAT'S the number - I remember from the show. Absolute barn-burner." [I also distinctly remember the tears rollin' down my face at the show thinking: "This was an act of Grace I actually saw a RnR (blues-rock) act that moved me ... reason bein' I just kinda/sorta tended to see live acts on a lark in the 80's ... Leo Kottke several years prior was only memorable thing I'd seen - outside Lou Reed maybe - and lastly The Kinks - I was also shocked Dave Davies could still do some old solos note-for-note.]

No heat - perfectly acceptable - sage advice actually- if anybody asks Lol!. It looks like your avatar is (if I'm not mistaken) Mick Taylor and I sometimes prefer his playing (style and all) to EC. And yep, the live EC albums do seem (up to now) to strike me as more bang for the buck (after 461).

 

Yes you are correct. My avatar is in fact Mick Taylor.

 

Sure, between these albums I prefer 461, but I don't really care for the albums he did after Journeyman.
Last year I got a nice vinyl pressing of Journeyman, and really enjoyed it.

 

Going through some live tapes (soundboards) from '74 right now. There is guitar playing that just smokes what is on the albums. Just sayin'...

 

I have a sbd from Landover July 14, 1974. Fine guitar playing, though it's sometimes hard to know if it's Eric or George soloing.

 

I think you're right. Journeyman was no big bang; it was probably greeted warmly by old fans, and cautious optimism by reviewers, but didn't really bring any new fans - it was Unplugged that made EC relevant again, and by extenstion a legend instead of a 60s/70s relic, in particular Layla and Tears In Heaven and the related sob story (call me a cynic, but people love sob stories).

 

I usually can tell, but it's nice that they play so well together. Obviously the "big" solos are Clapton's...

 

Yeah, that's where I got off the bus. The story behind the song is truly sad, but I love music for the music, not a story... I did not really appreciate Journeyman till I had a vinyl copy to play (last year).
I was kind of a revelation really.

 

George Terry has a consistently sharper, less fluid tone. It's easy to identify once you train your ear to listen for it.