Artist: Clapton, Eric
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Release: 1992
Some might find it odd, but the fact is that Eric Clapton, after practically three decades of making music, countless commercial hits, and playing in numerous supergroups and other similar “silliness”, probably never felt so at home and content as when he was calmly, intently putting together the unforgettable Unplugged document. The guitarist’s burning desire to create in an intimate, intensely emotional setting, rooted in the long tradition of a whole line of blues artists, from Waters, Guy, Rush and the other masters, all the way back to the indispensable figure of Robert Johnson, had seemed like a pipe dream for an eternity. Until the MTV Unplugged series came along. Clapton shone on them in his old glory once again. His guitar playing, among other things, forever redefined the meaning of acoustic music-making. Joy and optimism on one side, as well as despair, loneliness and indifferent melancholy on the other, are the strongly emphasized common denominators of this unrepeatable acoustic concert journey, which finally cements Eric on the throne of white blues interpreters.
Despite all the showcasing of his incredible guitar chops, Eric Clapton has always been seen first and foremost as a blues guitarist. So why did so much water have to flow under the bridge before this album could be born? After all, Clapton’s career constantly revolved around bluesy melodic frameworks, which, for the sake of the stylistic dictates of the popular music scene, always stayed subconsciously separated from the raw essence of blues music. To make sense of the situation, you have to look deeper into the embrace of the “Mississippi Delta”, where an unacceptably homogeneous coexistence of the seemingly heartless and the delicate awaits most ordinary music enthusiasts, and where a performer needs plenty of retrospection to grasp the latter in any useful way. Eric Clapton’s greatness is no exception here.
For his own “eco-friendly anti-electric” journey, Eric picked an astonishing combination of songs that seem totally incompatible in character, from obscure blues material and his much more famous classics to more listenable numbers in the vein of Tears In Heaven. Under the patronage of Clapton’s exceptional sense of interpretation, it all comes together into an extremely compact whole, and on its wings the legendary guitarist opens up a completely new view into the rural nature of acoustic guitar playing. The peaks of this utterly aggressive blues rhetoric come to the surface on gems like Nobody Knows You When Your Down And Out, a phenomenally performed beauty by Cox, where despair mixes with sadness. But watch out, the dejection of that one doesn’t come anywhere near the frightening willfulness created by Robert Johnson’s Walkin’ Blues and Malted Milk. Next to such a receptive, deeply felt interpretation of the legendary musician, Clapton’s early encounters with his work, back then with the famous Crossroads, feel more like a boastful apprentice posturing, one for whom the essence of blues music had long since slipped out of view. Before You accuse Me, Waters’ unforgettable Rollin’ and Tumblin’ and a brilliant Alberta, spiced with just the right pinch of biting sarcasm, only confirm Eric’s clear grasp of what these musical forms mean and how they express it, forms that over the decades of finding their own identity have become inseparably tied to the guitarist.
Lineup
Eric Clapton: guitar, vocals
Andy Fairweather: guitar
Ray Cooper: percussion
Nathan East: bass
Steve Ferrone: drums
Chuck Leavell: keyboards
Katie Kissoon: backing vocals
Tessa Niles: backing vocals
Production
Russ Titelman
Track list
1.Signe
2.Before You Accuse Me
3.Hey Hey
4.Tears in Heaven
5.Lonely Stranger
6.Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
7.Layla
8.Running on Faith
9.Walkin’ Blues
10.Alberta
11.San Francisco Bay Blues
12.Malted Milk
13.Old Love
14.Rollin’ and Tumblin’
Album length: 61.43
