BLIND FAITH

Original released on LP Polydor 583059

(UK 1969, June 22)

«I have finally found a place to live just like I never could before», segundo verso de “Presence of the Lord”, refere-se a Hurtwood, casa que Eric Clapton comprou após a dissolução dos Cream em Novembro de 1968 e onde passou a residir. Steve Winwood era uma visita assídua e foi para ele que Clapton mostrou pela primeira vez a canção que tinha acabado de compor. Uma noite em que Clapton e Winwood se encontravam juntos, a fumar charros e a dar uns toques nas guitarras, foram surpreendidos por Ginger Baker a bater-lhes à porta. Foi nessa noite que a ideia da formação de um novo grupo teve lugar, apesar da resistência inicial de Clapton, que tinha a intuição de que a coisa não iria dar certo. Mas acedeu à vontade dos outros dois e lembrando-se de Rick Grech para o baixo, o qual pertencia na altura ao grupo Family. Todos os primeiros ensaios da banda tiveram lugar em Hurtwood. Começavam a trabalhar ao fim da tarde e tocavam até de madrugada. A intenção inconsciente de Clapton era recriar uma espécie de The Band em Inglaterra, grupo que admirava. Mas por pensar que iria ser um autêntico tiro no escuro, resolveu baptizar de BLIND FAITH o que viria a ser considerado o primeiro “supergrupo” da história do rock. 

A 7 de Junho de 1969 a nova formação deu um concerto gratuito em Hyde Park, para uma assistência de mais de cem mil pessoas. Seguiu-se uma digressão pela Escandinávia a fim de cimentar a banda e tocando em recintos mais ou menos pequenos. No regresso a casa foram para o estúdio gravar o que seria o único álbum, o homónimo "BLIND FAITH". A produção esteve a cargo de Jimmy Miller. Um dia Clapton recebeu uma chamada de Bob Seidemann, fotógrafo que tinha conhecido em São Francisco, dizendo-lhe que tinha uma ideia para a capa do álbum, mas que ia executá-la e só a mostraria quando estivesse pronta. Quando Clapton viu a composição final achou-a deliciosa: era uma fotografia de uma rapariga nova e pubescente de cabelos ruivos encaracolados, fotografada da cintura para cima, nua, segurando um avião prateado e bastante modernista que tinha sido desenhado pelo joalheiro Micko Milligan. Atrás dela via-se uma paisagem com uma colina verde, fazendo lembrar os Berkshire Downs, e um céu azul com nuvens brancas a passar. Clapton achou que o quadro captava muito bem a definição do nome do novo grupo – a justaposição da inocência, sob a forma de uma rapariga, e da experiência, da ciência e do futuro representados pelo avião. Mas após o lançamento do álbum a capa causou um grande tumulto. As pessoas diziam que a representação da jovem era pornográfica e que o próprio avião era um símbolo fálico. Nos Estados Unidos os moralistas do costume ameaçaram boicotar o disco. Como de seguida iria haver uma grande digressão pela América, não tiveram outro remédio senão substituí-la por uma fotografia do grupo numa sala de Hurtwood. A digressão dos BLIND FAITH facturou imenso, empurrando o álbum directamente para o topo das tabelas americanas, mas acabou com o desmembramento da banda. O principal responsável foi o próprio Clapton que aos poucos se foi desencantando com o que andavam a tocar, começando a ficar seduzido pelo som dos Delaney & Bonnie, banda que lhes servia de apoio. Mas isso seria já a nova etapa na incrível carreira do mago da guitarra.

ERIC CLAPTON ~ "MEANWHILE"

Edição original em 4 de Outubro de 2024
Vinyl LP Bushbranch / 88304-1
CD Digipak Surfdog / 88292-6

Como que a abrir o apetite para os próximos concertos no Royal Albert Hall de Londres, aqui fica o novíssimo álbum de Eric Clapton, que se ouve de fio a pavio com imenso agrado. Alguns clássicos de todo inesperados ("Moon River" ou "Always On My Mind"), mas que acrescentam aquelas pequenas estrelas no universo intemporal em que se tornou a música de Clapton. O clássico de Chaplin - "Smile" - é o único tema que parece deslocado em "Meanwhile". Temos direito a mais duas excelentes canções com o carimbo Clapton bem notório ("Heart of a Child" e sobretudo "The Call"), mas todo o LP é bastante apelativo. Atrevo-me mesmo a dizer: um dos mais melhores e mais homogéneos álbums de Mr. Clapton! Participações especiais, entre outros,  de Jeff Beck e Van Morrison.

DEREK & The DOMINOS: "Live At The Fillmore"

Original released on Double CD Polydor 521 682-2

(EU 1994 - recorded 1970/10)

In his liner notes, Anthony DeCurtis calls "Live at the Fillmore" «a digitally remixed and remastered version of the 1973 Derek and the Dominos double album "In Concert", with five previously unreleased performances and two tracks that have only appeared on the four-CD Clapton retrospective, "Crossroads".» But this does not adequately describe the album. "Live at the Fillmore" is not exactly an expanded version of "In Concert"; it is a different album culled from the same concerts that were used to compile the earlier album. "Live at the Fillmore" contains six of the nine recordings originally released on "In Concert", and three of its five previously unreleased performances are different recordings of songs also featured on "In Concert" - "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?," "Tell the Truth," and "Let It Rain." The other two, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Little Wing," have not been heard before in any concert version. Even when the same recordings are used on "Live at the Fillmore" as on "In Concert", they have, as noted, been remixed and, as not noted, re-edited. In either form, Derek and the Dominos' October 1970 stand at the Fillmore East, a part of the group's only U.S. tour, finds them a looser aggregation than they seemed to be in the studio making their only album, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs". A trio backing Eric Clapton, the Dominos leave the guitarist considerable room to solo on extended numbers, five of which run over ten minutes each. Clapton doesn't show consistent invention, but his playing is always directed, and he plays more blues than you can hear on any other Clapton live recording. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

ERIC CLAPTON: "From the Cradle"

Original released on CD Reprise 9362-45735-2

(EU 1994, September 13)

For years, fans craved an all-blues album from Eric Clapton; he waited until 1994 to deliver "From the Cradle". The album manages to re-create the ambience of postwar electric blues, right down to the bottomless thump of the rhythm section. If it wasn't for Clapton's labored vocals, everything would be perfect. As long as he plays his guitar, he can't fail - his solos are white-hot and evocative, original and captivating. When he sings, Clapton loses that sense of originality, choosing to mimic the vocals of the original recordings. At times, his overemotive singing is painful; he doesn't have the strength to pull off Howlin' Wolf's growl or the confidence to replicate Muddy Waters' assured phrasing. Yet, whenever he plays, it's easier to forget his vocal shortcomings. Even with its faults, "From the Cradle" is one of Clapton's finest moments. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

ERIC CLAPTON's "Rainbow Concert"

 

Original released on LP RSO SO 877

(US 1973, September 10)

By January 1973, Eric Clapton's career was going great guns as the result of compilations like "History of Eric Clapton"; the only problem was that Clapton himself was nursing a heroin addiction and hadn't been heard from since his August 1971 appearance at the concert for Bangladesh. The Who's Pete Townshend enticed Clapton out for another one-off concert appearance (in fact, there were two shows) at the Rainbow Theatre in London on January 13, 1973, and organized an all-star band to back him. It was an ensemble effort, as much a showcase for Steve Winwood - who sang lead vocals on "Presence of the Lord" and Traffic's "Pearly Queen" - as for the nominal star. But it demonstrated that the reclusive Clapton could still play, and that was welcome news. Today, the album is an adequate live document, though one can find better performances of the songs on other records. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD!

"The Last Waltz" was a concert by the Canadian rock group, the Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. "The Last Waltz" was advertised as the end of the Band's illustrious touring career, and the concert saw the Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood and Neil Young. The event was filmed by director Martin Scorsese and made into a documentary of the same name, released in 1978. The film features concert performances, scenes shot on a studio soundstage and interviews by Scorsese with members of the Band.

Beginning with a title card saying "This film should be played loud!" the concert documentary is an essay on the Band's influences and their career. The group – Rick Danko (died 1999, December 10) on bass, violin and vocals, Levon Helm on drums, mandolin and vocals, Garth Hudson on keyboards and saxophone, Richard Manuel (died 1986, March 4) on keyboards, percussion and vocals, and guitarist-songwriter Robbie Robertson – started out in the late 1950s as a rock and roll band led by Ronnie Hawkins, and Hawkins himself appears as the first guest. The group backed Bob Dylan in the 1960s, and Dylan performs with the Band towards the end of the concert.

The idea for a farewell concert came about early in 1976 after Richard Manuel was seriously injured in a boating accident. Robbie Robertson then began giving thought to leaving the road, envisioning the Band becoming a studio-only band, similar to the Beatles' decision to stop playing live shows in 1966. Though the other band members did not agree with Robertson's decision, the concert was set at Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom, where the Band had made its debut as a group in 1969. Originally, the Band was to perform on its own, but then the notion of inviting Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan was hatched and the guest list grew to include other performers.

Promoted and organized by Bill Graham, who had a long association with the Band, the concert was an elaborate affair. Starting at 5:00 p.m., the audience of 5,000 was served turkey dinners. There was ballroom dancing with music by the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra. Poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure gave readings. The concert began with the Band performing its more popular songs an lasted more than 9 hours with all those special guests playing with the group. At around 2:15 a.m. the Band came to perform an encore, "Don't Do It". It was the last time the group performed with its classic lineup.

The original soundtrack album was a three-LP album released on April 16, 1978 (later as a two-disc CD). It has many songs not in the film, including "Down South in New Orleans" with Bobby Charles and Dr. John on guitar, "Tura Lura Lural (That's an Irish Lullaby)" by Van Morrison, "Life is a Carnival" by the Band, and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" by Bob Dylan. In 2002, this four-CD box set was released, as was a DVD-Audio edition. Robbie Robertson produced the album, remastering all the songs. The set includes 16 previously unreleased songs from the concert, as well as takes from rehearsals.

ERIC CLAPTON: "Journeyman"

Original released on LP Reprise DUCK WX322

(UK 1989, November 7)

For most of the '80s, Eric Clapton seemed rather lost, uncertain of whether he should return to his blues roots or pander to AOR radio. By the mid-'80s, he appeared to have made the decision to revamp himself as a glossy mainstream rocker, working with synthesizers and drum machines. Instead of expanding his audience, it only reduced it. Then came the career retrospective "Crossroads", which helped revitalize his career, not only commercially, but also creatively, as "Journeyman" - the first album he recorded after the success of "Crossroads" - proved. Although "Journeyman" still suffers from an overly slick production, Clapton sounds more convincing than he has since the early '70s. Not only is his guitar playing muscular and forceful, his singing is soulful and gritty. Furthermore, the songwriting is consistently strong, alternating between fine mainstream rock originals ("Pretending") and covers ("Before You Accuse Me," "Hound Dog"). Like any of Clapton's best albums, there is no grandstanding to be found on "Journeyman" - it's simply a laid-back and thoroughly engaging display of Clapton's virtuosity. On the whole, it's the best studio album he's released since "Slowhand". (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

CLAPTON & WINWOOD Together Alive

Original released on CD Reprise 9362.49798.8

(US 2009, May 19)

50 Years Of "LAYLA"

Original released on Double LP ATCO SD 2-704

(US 1970, November 1)

"Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" is the only studio album by the Anglo-American blues rock band Derek and the Dominos. Derek was, as everyone knows today (but not when the album was out), a pseudonym for Eric Clapton. In fact, Clapton chose "Derek and the Dominos" because he did not want his name and celebrity to get in the way of maintaining a "band" image. Concerned that the press and the public were unaware of Clapton's involvement, Atco and Polydor distributed badges reading "Derek is Eric".  The other band members were Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals, Jim Gordon on drums, Carl Radle on bass, and special guest performer Duane Allman on lead and slide guitar on 11 of the 14 songs. In the United States, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It returned to the US albums chart again in 1972, 1974 and 1977, and has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA. Having failed to chart in Britain originally, it finally debuted on the UK Albums Chart in 2011, peaking at number 68. In 2000, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2003, television network VH1 named "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" the 89th-greatest album of all time, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 117 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Critic Robert Christgau ranked "Layla" the third greatest album of the 1970s In 2012, the Super Deluxe Edition of the record won a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album.

Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs". From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights. Then again, Clapton may have gotten there without him, considering the emotional turmoil he was in during the recording. He was in hopeless, unrequited love with Patti Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and that pain surges throughout "Layla", especially on its epic title track. But what really makes "Layla" such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion. He makes standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" into his own, while his collaborations with Bobby Whitlock - including "Any Day" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" - teem with passion. And, considering what a personal album "Layla" is, it's somewhat ironic that the lovely coda "Thorn Tree in the Garden" is a solo performance by Whitlock, and that the song sums up the entire album as well as "Layla" itself. 

Clapton and Whitlock co-wrote six songs that appear on the album: "I Looked Away", "Keep on Growing", "Anyday", "Bell Bottom Blues", "Tell the Truth" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?". Whitlock also contributed "Thorn Tree in the Garden". Clapton brought "I Am Yours" (from a poem by Nizami), and "Layla" (with a coda credited to Jim Gordon). “Tell the Truth" had been initially recorded in June 1970 as an upbeat song, with Harrison's producer, Phil Spector. It was issued as a single, with "Roll It Over" on the B-side. However, as Whitlock recalls, Spector's Wall of Sound production did not fit the band's style, and they had the single withdrawn. On 28 August, the band, together with Allman, recorded "Tell the Truth" as a long and slow instrumental jam. The version released on "Layla" combines the original lyrics with the jam's slower pace. Both vocal versions were later included on the 1972 compilation "The History of Eric Clapton". The last track on the album, "Thorn Tree in the Garden", was "the perfect stereo recording", according to Dowd. Whitlock, Clapton, Allman, Radle and Gordon sat in a circle in the studio, with the microphone placed in the centre as they played live. The covered songs consisted of the blues standards "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Jimmy Cox), "Key to the Highway" (Charles Segar, Willie Broonzy), and "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" (Billy Myles); Jimi Hendrix's ethereal "Little Wing"; and an up-tempo version of Chuck Willis's doo-wop ballad "It's Too Late". According to Dowd, the recording of "Key to the Highway" was unplanned. The band heard Sam Samudio in another room at the studio doing the song for his album "Hard and Heavy". They liked it and spontaneously started playing it. Dowd told the engineers to start running the tape, which is why the Dominos' version begins with a fade-in.

The album's front cover is a reproduction of a painting by Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg, titled "La Fille au Bouquet". Clapton first saw the painting at the house of Giorgio Gomelsky in the South of France, when the Dominos stayed there briefly in August 1970, and he immediately spotted a likeness between the blonde-haired woman it depicted and Boyd. Clapton insisted that Frandsen de Schomberg's image be unadorned on the "Layla" sleeve, with no text added to give either the band's name or the title of the album. Derek and the Dominos went on tour to support "Layla" and performances from the November–December 1970 US tour were released in January 1973 on "In Concert" album. Allman never toured with Derek and the Dominos, but he did make three appearances with them. Clapton continued to play the song "Layla" live, such as in 1985, at Live Aid (in Philadelphia). In 2006, Clapton and J.J. Cale recorded "The Road to Escondido", on which Allman Brothers guitarist Derek Trucks played guitar; following that album, Clapton went on tour with Trucks as part of his band. Clapton explained later that the presence of Trucks made him feel like he was playing as Derek and the Dominos again, and as the tour progressed, the set changed to where the first half of the show consisted entirely of songs from "Layla", the show ending up with the song "Layla" itself.