The Eric Clapton album by album thread

There's something I feel doesn't quite work with "Tears in Heaven" but I'm not quite sure I know what it is. I think it's the arrangement. Sounds too sentimental in a 'country' way, maybe? The Unplugged version is a bit closer to what I think it should sound like, but even then it's still not quite there...

Obviously a very sad song but maybe he should have saved it for Pilgrim...

 

OK a long time ago I think I seem to remember the term "rave up" used as a term describing a long, instrumental jam, but it seems the expression may have fallen out of favor. Of course there was a Yardbirds record by the name, probably confused the issue - and may even have led to its disuse. Slightly odd/unfortunate beings Beck/EC seemed to have sorta/kinda institutionalized the whole concept and then maybe Cream furthered "it" and maybe ... along comes Hendrix ...

IOW, I don't know the history. But it almost seems like a damn shame, because if there's anybody ever carried the tradition ... Watching Rock In Chile 1990, I found myself wanting to FF "I Shot the Sheriff" (as I confess I almost always FF that number - sorry) but then caught myself, catching the instrumental, wanting to say "Good thing I didn't FF that one, beings (maybe) he gives it a great rave up!"
I mean what the hell do you do? I'm not even British.
Anyhoo "Before You Accuse Me" Phil Palmer finally catches attention of the cameraman (and gets his own full front-center solo). This performance of BYAM can't match the studio (nothing ever will correct me if I'm wrong) but he s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s out the end nicely (and goes at least half-chipmunk) so clearly found a groove and speaking of groove it segues into a Help Me/Green Onions/Canned Heat Boogie feel at the very end --- so it's all good. Directly launches into "Alibis" from there and so it looks like momentum of the show is placed at about the center of gravity. "Running on Faith" is the obvious "breather" from all the frenetic energy. It looks like Phil Palmer brings the feel (back) [from the record] of the slide guitar and EC points him out - introduces him.

 

And not too long after that happens Old Love which I thinks brings (along with Phil Palmer) a more natural (according to most - prolly inc. EC) climax or crescendo and overall fluid milieu than the summer/fall dates in the States which generally brought out "Alibis" second in the lineup - and kinda/sorta peaked too early.
Palmer is maybe/prolly the natural reason for the more effective distribution, and the way the "oldies" are interspersed that way flows better, too.

 

A bit of a digression but we talked a bit about those in the John Mayall album-by-album thread...

Also I forgot to mention, I like those Clapton/Page instrumentals. Some pretty neat playing on e.g. Miles Road and West Coast Idea...

 

Wow! I never knew that Eric had been so active on the soundtrack front.
So Clapton experts, if one had to compile a "best of the soundtrack recordings" single CD, what would be on there?

 

I picked up Rush on cd a while ago. The score is not that interesting, but it has three "regular" songs, "Help Me Up", "Don't Know Which Way to Go" with Buddy Guy, and the original studio version of "Tears In Heaven", which didn't generate much interest at the time, not until it was done on Unplugged.

 

I'd be up for a good best of his soundtrack performances but again I guess like the suggested "best of his sessions/guest performances," it all comes down to licencing. But would be interesting as I haven't listened to much of the OST's but I have searched out and made my own playlists of guest performances before.

Has anyone got a best of soundtrack performances playlist suggest they could share?

 

I must admit that I never really played any of the soundtracks. I'm not really a fan of that Ry Cooder-like guitar noodling. But things could get interesting if a compilation could include some of his work with Roger Waters, some of the unreleased stuff (such as for Rainman) and some regular songs (rather than that backdrop music). So an interesting CD is possible !

 

Everybody's getting a lot of mileage out of "Beck's Bolero" ... has taken me some time to catch up with (or fully appreciate or whatever is the expression) Jeff Beck. Doesn't matter; I'd "forgot" Bolero (slide part) was also used in James Gang's "Bomber" --- is amazing the amount of "controversy" about writing/production of "Beck's Bolero" when it (apparently, according to some) derives from Ravel's Bolero (1928) - which was also apparently based in "traditional bolero" (dance) given orchestral arrangement. Even that seems difficult to ... So maybe it doesn't?
OK in simplest terms ... I can't figure it out cha cha cha.

For me, at A.R.M.S. (1983 NY) e.g. Page introduces HIS (take on) "Theme from Edge of Darkness" as "Chopin" (prelude 4 or E minor or whatever) which is surely almost exactly what it "sounds like" i.e. Chopin.
But that also sounds a lot like Beck's Bolero w/o slide guitar likewise EC Edge of Darkness.

So (it seems) nobody wants to give anybody much credit except Page ex post facto and maybe (who knows) that's why he thinks it's all so funny.

Apologies - I "missed" Edge of Darkness from 24 Nights - maybe didn't make it to DVD

 

Could you expand on the "Rainman" reference?

 

"Apologies - I missed Edge of Darkness from 24 Nights - maybe didn't make it to DVD ..."
Whups - EOD is indeed on the 24 Nights DVD - who KNOWS what ... and was even posted here earlier w/ "Hard Times" ... brain fart is all Lol!

 

I think we've slowed down quite a bit because of the soundtrack stuff. Initially, I did not answer when asked if we should pursue soundtracks in this thread. I was against it though. I wanted to see how far we'd go...not very. Lol.

I say we skip soundtracks completely. Hate to slow down some great momentum about some great music/albums.

Anyone want to second that we should move to his next release? Unplugged, I think? Mr. Simon, thoughts?

 

It might be more useful to compile a list of which songs are good from his work on the soundtracks rather than reviewing each soundtrack.

 

No objections here.
But I'm an outlier anyhow Lol!, w/ nothin' but time.

OTOH is always a good suggestion. Multi-tasking lol ... didn't know until today Michael Kamen was musical director of both buddy-cop Die Hard/Lethal Weapon franchises. I had thought Hans Zimmer did action movie music and was totally wrong about that - incidentally I read today he scored the music for Rain Man - which is maybe totally irrelevant but I dunno.

 

Ha Ha, had a few comments before about the thread going fast in the past, this is the first one hurrying it along

I have Unplugged ready to go and have just logged on this evening so give me a short while and it will be up. It was my plan to post it this evening anyway. Yes, Soundtracks are fairly limited and i only have one but gives the opportunity for everyone to comment. Now back to the main albums. His most successful sales-wise up next.

 

Unplugged (1992)






Recorded: 16 January 1992, Bray Studio's, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England
Released: 25 August 1992
Produced By Russ Titelman

1. "Signe" Eric Clapton 3:13
2. "Before You Accuse Me" Bo Diddley 3:44
3. "Hey Hey" Big Bill Broonzy 3:16
4. "Tears in Heaven" Clapton, Will Jennings 4:36
5. "Lonely Stranger" Clapton 5:27
6. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" Jimmy Cox 3:49
7. "Layla" Clapton, Jim Gordon 4:46
8. "Running on Faith" Jerry Lynn Williams 6:30
9. "Walkin' Blues" Son House 3:37
10. "Alberta" Traditional, arr. by Huddie William Ledbetter 3:42
11. "San Francisco Bay Blues" Jesse Fuller 3:24
12. "Malted Milk" Robert Johnson 3:36
13. "Old Love" Clapton, Robert Cray 7:54
14. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" Muddy Waters 4:11

2013 Deluxe Version - Outtakes & Alternates:

1. Circus
2. My Father's Eyes (take 1)
3. Running on Faith (take 1)
4. Walkin' Blues (take 1)
5. My Father's Eyes (take 2)
6. Worried Life Blues

Eric Clapton – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, dobro, kazoo
Katie Kissoon – backing vocals
Tessa Niles – backing vocals
Andy Fairweather Low – acoustic guitar, harmonica
Nathan East – acoustic bass, backing vocals
Steve Ferrone – drums
Ray Cooper – percussion
Chuck Leavell – piano

 

I went in for the Radio 1 competition to be in the crowd for Unplugged. Sadly I didn't win. I did enjoy the album when released and played it a lot but haven't listened to it in a long while, will do tomorrow hopefully so i can post my review.

The one comment i can make now is how disappointed I was upon release that this song wasnt part of the album. He'd played it live in concert and was part of the original MTV broadcast. I don't know why it missed out but the album would have been better with it being included upon original release. Great song.

 

One of my favourites which is still part of my "Best of Clapton" playlist. Will see how much of the rest gets added after a re-listen. I've added quite a few from the previous albums when i've gone back and listened as part of this thread.

 

Ok - so finally get to see that Running On Faith is indeed Dobro (which I guess reads "Resonator"). Slow learner here but better later 'n never.
I remember seeing EC saying everything he'd learned about Dobro was from Duane. Prolly not 100% accurate - brownie points regardless.

 

I see that you use the word "prolly" in many of your posts.

I have looked everywhere, but can't find a definition. Is that a British word or something?

 

Really good record even though I prefer my Slowhand plugged in. Lonely Stranger is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I'm sort of tired of the remade Layla but it is very successful.

 

I think that is slang for "probably".

 

I really like Chuck Leavell's piano solo during "Old Love" and Eric and AF Low's reaction to it. Leavell must have extended it or gone in an unexpected direction. The smiles that are exchanged are the highlight of the video to me.

 

Really enjoyed watching this when it was broadcast. Thought it was a great setting to see/hear Clapton in. However most likely against popular opinion due to it's massive radio play I really am not a fan of the arrangement "Layla". I thought it was interesting the first time I heard it but for me it just sucks the life and emotion out the song which is really how I hear it. Doesn't help that it seems I hear this version these days more than the original. Anyways regardless I still overall like unplugged.
I'll also add that I probably gravitate more to the more acoustic blues numbers like "Hey Hey" than the pop songs (although many of those are good too!)

 

You'd have to read a lot of posts (here or elsewhere 'cause I'm not totally alone) but I'm semi-conscious of the slight overuse of the word prolly which means "probably" ... but sometimes there's actually reason(s) ...
For instance, sometime last week mentioned that I'd maybe prefer the studio take (to the 24 Nights) mainly beings I thought he "used Dobro" on "Running On Faith" there - and not on 24 Nights. Heck, I couldn't be sure.

But I'd had to do almost 1/2 hour reading to begin to wrap my brain aound; slide/Dobro/dobro/steel/bottleneck apparently means (sometimes) acutely different things at different times to different people - prolly (sorry) for good reason. One must assume that most everybody knows the look of the "classic" Dobro (brand name?) which I THINK is almost 100% stainless steel - or on at least a big disc area or atop a cone around the opening body-face of the guitar. But then "Resonator" (historically) has become (apparently) the (more) accepted term for these "sorts" of guitars --- anyhow (today) when I watched Unplugged for the first time - could clearly see EC using a dobro-style or Resonator (type) instrument while playing "Running On Faith"... and obviously has a distinctive "resonating" type sound to it as well. Still, I can't even be sure if Dobro is always played with a slide? Resonator and/or slide players are bound to say "not really" or "not quite" so I guess I resort to "prolly" more often than ... not.
I wouldn't even mention it [D/dobro] except - well - those that generally use it (professionally) seem to get a killer sound out of it.
So maybe I'm using "prolly" to refer to open question(s) I wish somebody had a better answer.
Anyhow,
"Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit drinking"...
That's a great signature!
However, I might just say, "I prolly picked the wrong day" Lol!