[Slowhand] EC Masterpieces

[Jeff Elliott]

Due to my prolific purchasing of DVDs from Amazon, I received an email a few
weeks ago announcing a new EC 2 DVD set, Collectors Special Edition Eric
Clapton Masterpieces.  I'm a sucker for most things Clapton so I added the
DVD set to my shopping cart and waited for it to arrive.

 

I got it last week and spend a couple evening reviewing it.  First, a little
disclaimer (which, btw, wasn't listed on Amazon), the DVD is unauthorized
and wasn't approved by our beloved axologist.  The listing leads one to
believe that there is much archival footage offered here and hits on many of
Eric's key moments in history.  

 

The first DVD did indeed cover most of his career starting with his tenure
with The Yardbirds, The Bluesbreakers, and The Cream, before going into the
Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos stints.  Not much mentioned about
Delaney and Bonnie.  That archival footage?  Snippets of footage we've all
seen before, The Yardbirds playing "I Wish You Would" and several moments
from the Blind Faith show in Hyde Park but mostly just showing Winwood and
Baker, no sign of Eric.

 

Most of the footage was from the 25th anniversary concert Eric played with
Mark Knopfler and Elton John which shows him playing Crossroads, Cocaine,
Lay Down Sally, Layla, I Shot The Sheriff and White Room.  The Cream
Farewell concert from '68 is prominently shown throughout.  Two interesting
snippets I had yet to see, however, was a 94 Saturday Night Live session of
Wonderful Tonight and It's Too Late from the Johnny Cash Show.

 

Being that this is an unauthorized project, it's little wonder that most of
the interviews are obviously taken from other archival footage.  The most
prominent interviewee is Pete Brown who offers his own insight as to the
Cream era and the inspiration for some of his lyrics.  Another prominent
face is British music journalist Chris Welch.  They even tracked down Rueben
Archer who claims to be a college friend of Eric's.

 

The second DVD is about an hour of Eric's time with Cream.  Again, more
talking heads and no new footage.  

 

Nothing new here folks, save yourself an Andrew Jacskon.

 

Jeff