[Slowhand] Clapton & Journeyman

[Kevin Wilson]

I am encouraged to see that Clapton, Eric's 19th album (Eisch!! Who decided
to count like this?) has attracted enough attention over the last month to
pump some life back into the Digest again. I don't remember this happening
with Back Home or even The Road to Escondido. Many divergent opinions and a
few attempts at the middle ground.

 

Here's are some interesting comments on the songs mainly from Journeyman
that Clapton had started touring back in 1990 - you'll see many a favourite
not being well received:

 

Concert date: 1 May 1990

Steven P. Wheeler - Music Connection - May 1990 

Opening with a trio of new songs - "Pretending", "No Alibis" and "Running On
Faith" - E.C. shifted gears for his first mini-set of Clapton classics that,
judging by the enthusiastic response, is exactly what this crowd wanted to
hear.

And there were some nice new twists to the standards, such as a
mellow-rendering of the first verse of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff"
that gave birth to a full-throttled assault on the senses, and then a segue
into the Cream classic "White Room". Quickly turning to his Blind Faith
period, Clapton switched to acoustic guitar and relinquished the vocal
duties to his long-time bassist Nathan East for a spine-tingling version of
"Can't Find My Way Home". Unfortunately, this brief blast from the past was
short-lived as Clapton went back to another string of Journeyman songs -
"Bad Love", "Before You Accuse Me" and "Old Love". Unfortunately, the latter
two suffered greatly from the absence of Robert Cray, whose guitar battles
with Clapton on the album set those songs apart.

Picking up the lagging pace by firing off a sizzling version of his
mid-Eighties duet with Tina Turner ("Tearing Us Apart"), Clapton proceeded
to close the regular set with two immortal tunes from the Slowhand album -
the blues-ballad "Wonderful Tonight" set the tone for a roof-raising
rendition of that evil song "Cocaine" (in which the rehabilitated guitarist
threw in a new "that dirty cocaine" chorus to properly reflect his current
lifestyle) - and his epic masterpiece "Layla". 

Kevin