Artist: Clapton, Eric
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 1974
461 Ocean Boulevard marks Clapton’s first serious maturity test, catching the legendary guitarist at a crucial crossroads on his turbulent, unpredictable musical path. After a long stretch of drug abuse, Eric rides the enthusiasm of his old buddy and producer Tom Dowd back to Miami in 1974, where, with the help of his faithful Derek And The Dominos comrade Carl Radle and a crew of American musicians, he cuts one of the strongest albums of his career.
461 Ocean Boulevard shows that Clapton is definitely more than just a great blues interpreter. Bluesy motifs in all shades and colors are still plentiful here, but what grabs the most attention on this big “comeback” document is the famous take on Marley’s I Shot The Sheriff, whose original would probably have stayed hidden from our ears for a long time without Eric’s phenomenal tribute to Jamaican rhythms. Just as astonishing is the freshness of those long-dusty blues tunes mentioned earlier, which the guitarist’s loving care turns from skeletal musical frameworks back into honest kicking, life-filled emotional whirlpools. Any Clapton connoisseur will quickly spot plenty of the artist’s autobiographical messages in there, soaked in doubt and insecurity, as well as an often optimistic look toward the future.
Fittingly for the guitarist’s unsettled nature, the album opens with Motherless Children, a traditional tune full of the stormy swell of Eric’s trademark slide playing, with which Clapton settles scores with the still-fresh memories of his past “mistakes”. The energetic track strongly recalls some Derek And The Dominos creation, which seasons the atmosphere with a dash of nostalgia right from the start. A completely different picture is painted by the dreamy serenity of Give Me Strength, where Eric, dobro in hand and playing the part of a spiritual shepherd, tends to the wounds left by the opiate excursions mentioned above. In tackling these and other weightier themes, Clapton increasingly reaches for genre templates of various origins that let him comfortably express his own views. One of them is, of course, the blues, or in this case a noticeably upgraded version of Johnny Otis’s Willie And The Hand Jive. Its simplified and extremely mellow musical form, more than the original, recalls one of those laid-back Caribbean sways. Get Ready greets us in a similarly carefree mood, fronted by Yvonne Elliman’s seductive vocals. The fact that the girl has such a wide room to maneuver speaks to Clapton’s devotion to spontaneous creative processes, with which Eric manages to lift the burden of fame off his shoulders, at least for a moment.
In yet another of his many displays of interpretive skill, Eric takes us to previously unimaginable limits with covers of Elmore James’s I Can’t Hold Out and the lively Steady Rollin’ Man by Robert Johnson. These two tracks are another couple of gems in a long line of the authors’ unforgettable works, next to which the otherwise brilliant I Shot The Sheriff comes off as a thoroughly expendable bouncer. Still, its importance certainly shouldn’t be underestimated, since across the pond Clapton’s image as a commercially successful musician kept being built around its Jamaican flavor for a long time afterward. The touching Let It Grow had plenty to add to shaping that image too, presenting an artist determined to finally turn his back on his famous but deeply troubled past. In its place, Eric this time chooses love, life and other related values, whose true meaning he understands better than anyone after all the hell he’s lived through. In a similarly uncertain yet optimism-filled anticipation of better times, the easygoing rocker Mainline Florida carries us to the end of the album, finishing off Clapton’s personal as well as obvious musical transformation in grand style.
Lineup
Eric Clapton: vocals/guitar/dobro
George Terry: guitar
Carl Radle: bass
Albhy Galuten: piano
Dick Sims: organ
Yvonne Elliman: vocals
Jamie Oldaker: drums
Production: Tom Dowd
Production
Tom Dowd
Tracklist
1.Motherless Children
2.Give Me Strength
3.Willie And The Hand Jive
4.Get Ready
5.I Shot The Sheriff
6.I Can’t Hold On
7.Please Be With Me
8.Let It Grow
9.Steady Rollin’ Man
10.Mainline Florida
Album length: 39.32
