Unplugged By Eric Clapton
180-gram deluxe edition pressing of Eric Clapton’s 1989 album. Reprise.Released immediately following the elaborate Crossroads box set, Journeyman is EC’s way of feigning humility while cranking out the blues for his attentive audience. Featuring the help of famous sidemen George Harrison, Phil Collins, Robert Cray, Chaka Khan, and David Sanborn, Journeyman is less a superstar romp than a moderate collection of songs tastefully produced and economically performed. Flashes of Clapton’s lead work burst through while his singing remains modest. The cover of “Before You Accuse Me” is heartfelt and while Clapton may at this point be incapable of delivering the down and dirty power of jukejoint blues, he still manages to find a little bit o’ soul among the pickings. –Rob O’Connor
Featured Journeyman by Eric Clapton (1989) – Import
- Eric Clapton – Journeyman Brazil Import
Overall Rating:  (Full Reviews Product) List Price: This Product is available at AMAZON for the best Price |
  |
Clapton’s most solid solo work since ‘Another Ticket’,
Having contributed to a lot of bands’ albums and concerts over the years, Eric Clapton has amassed a group of friends who also happen to be first-rate musicians. Never being one to assume that he alone makes his albums great, Clapton routinely gives them a lot of room to write and perform. True since Clapton gave up the solo on “Layla” to Duane Allman, it works for him in spades on this album.
Jerry Jeff Williams, a Texas songwriter with whom Clapton has had many fruitful collaborations since the Eighties, wrote several of the originals, standouts being “Pretending” and “Breaking Point.” The first song has the most confident, tension-free vocals Clapton has committed to a studio album since _461 Ocean Boulevard_ more than a decade earlier; its low, bluesy verses and suddenly louder choruses seem written specifically to Clapton’s strengths as a vocalist. As was true throughout the entire album, Clapton taps the midrange boost on that custom Stratocaster and burns through the solos and fills. If this record did nothing else for his fan base, it proved that Clapton had overcome his early-Seventies fear of overplaying or repetition; not until _24 Nights_ would anyone hear Clapton having as much fun as a lead guitarist again.
As the Amazon reviewer pointed out, he remained rooted in a bluesy context throughout, juxtaposing the faithful treatment of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” with the sophisticated Robert Cray minor blues of “Old Love.” While the production remains extremely clean, no one could accuse Clapton or any member of his supporting bands of not bringing enough soul to this particular session. Aside from “Run So Far,” which indulges Clapton’s taste for cheerful and insubstantial country, there’s not a weak song on this album. If you had to purchase five essential records by him not including box sets or anthologies, this would rank among them, below _Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs_ and _461 Ocean Boulevard_.
Well worth owning for fans and enthusiasts, and an excellent place to start for people who really liked _Unplugged_ but don’t know where in his thirty-five years in music to start.
Was this review helpful to you?
|one of my favorites from Clapton,
Eric Clapton is a true legend. An amazing guitarist, songwriter, singer, historian, and crucial member of several Hall of Fame worthy bands. I saw the Journeyman tour twice in 1989/90 and those were great concerts, and that may influence my opinion, he was on fire that year. Journeyman is a great Clapton album and I’d put it up there with Layla, the Cream albums, his self-titled “solo” album, and Slowhand. If you are a Claptonhead and don’t have Journeyman, you should get it ASAP. Stinging blues, soaring pop, and the riff of bad Love is just awesome.
Standout tracks: Pretending, Bad Love, Anything For Love, Running on Faith, Before You Accuse Me
Was this review helpful to you?
|