[Slowhand] Sessions for Robert J. - First impressions

[Robert Laude]

Hi,

I have just finished  watching the "Sessions for Robert J."-DVD for
the first time and would like to share some of my thoughts about it
with you.

I think the second session is the best of them all. Here Clapton
sounds as rough and dirty as he possibly can. There are strange, not
straith-forward ryhthms, the guitar sounds distorted and EC plays some
very good solos here.

The first session sounds somewhat lukewarm to me. It's not bad of
course, but it is so very much, well, unexciting. Like professionally
played bar-blues. Like a very good Eric Clapton plays the
blues-Coverband. There are some songs played here that allready could
be heard in Japan 2003. Ah, and they sounded much fresher, more
powerful, better then. I think a part of this is because of good old
Andy Fairweather-Low.

I was surprised by how uninteresting the third and forth session were
for me. I always wanted to hear him play that kind of music in such an
intimate setting.  But what is lacking here for my taste is a certain
aura of mystcism, of old ragged characters and their storys, world
weariness, wisdom, heartache and all that romantic stuff. What the
Stones had on their version of Love in vain, and EC doesn't even comes
close to. To me those songs sound exactly like what they are -
performed in front and just for a camera. How different was "From four
until late" or "Terraplane Blues" at the RAH in 1993. That was great.
I love those shows. So I probably will forget the last two sessions.
If I want to hear a guy with an old acoustic guitar singing old songs
about love and life I will listen to Dylan's "World gone wrong" again
next time. That one gives me chills, EC in 2004 doesn't.


Not to be misunderstood: this is an excellent release, but it's just
not really my cup of tea. I prefer strong black coffee :-)

Well, I am very eager to hear about your impressions.

All the best

Robert