Clapton and the King: "Riding With The King" gets 20th anniversary reissue

I like the album where as I should have loved it. It's tough to mess up a heavyweight combo of BB King and Eric Clapton. However, it lacked grit. It's a little too sanitized and clean where it should have sounded down and dirty. Simon Climie was the wrong choice to produce this album.

 

Due to the reissue, I revisited this album for the first time in well over a decade. It doesn't completely grate on me the way it used to, but I still think it is a very underwhelming musical statement by two giants. It has a few moments of inspiration (e.g. Ten Long Years, Three O' Clock Blues, and When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer), but way too much commercialized fluff to ever elevate this album beyond mediocrity.

 

I like it too. Not sure why but I can just sit back an enjoy.
I stopped toiling about the details of music years ago.

 

Agree. It’s not a bad album at all. It can’t match the concept of EC & BB KING!!!!!

But, there’s only one way for that to happen a and thousands of ways for that not to happen. That it didn’t live up to “what could have been” doesn’t make it bad. There is still plenty on there that is thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.

 

If you remove the Rock tracks and just listen to the Blues numbers, it's a much better album. The ability to make and save your own albums easily is one of the things I like about streaming.

 

Wrong producer and the use of drum tracks was absurd, IMO. But, I also don’t listen to the album with an inability to get over the drums....just feels like a really odd choice. Bit of square peg and round hole, stylistically.

 

Recorded twenty years too late and with the wrong producer.

 

Didn't know there was an SACD but definitely feel the DVD-A 5.1 mix is worthwhile over the stereo. As for the album, I don't get the criticism, this is the greatest musical work ever to come out of the human mind from all of history! Well, OK, maybe not. But it's still nice, and nicer in surround.

 

Now that I have a proper surround setup, I decided to order thd DVD-A also.

 

Mine's sitting right here. Pulled it when this thread started. Haven't decided on either the Blues vinyl box, or a black 2020 reissue, or maybe not buy the vinyl at all. We'll see.

 

I got the 2lp 20th anniversary blue vinyl of this the other day it sounds fantastic, very big sound, extremely quiet pressing and wide sound stage.

 

Maybe not a super grat album, but the version of Come rain or come shine is great and worth it all.