Unplugged

If you have it on cd, get the video/dvd, also. Clapton at his best with a great lineup backing him during this emotional journey back to the basics and blues. One of the best sit down, on the spot, versatile jams. You can hear and feel the emotion during this set and if you can hold down the lump in your throat during "Tears in Heaven", all the power to you.

No pyrotechnics here; Clapton plays with confidence and sings with feeling on this acoustic set. Focussing on blues numbers with the occasional Clapton original (Like a mature "Layla" that lacks the soaring energy of the original but maintains its passion)UNPLUGGED is an example of one of rock's finest performers just having a good time. A soothing mellowness is the pervading mood here; I do wish that he would rip into a few of these numbers with a little more ferocity, but that's just not the vibe he's going for on this one.

I've had this album since it came out in the early 90s, and it has lost none of its appeal. Sometimes you'll listen an album to death within six months, but I still go back to Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" now and then, and it's as fresh as it was fourteen years ago. And that's rare praise.

This is Eric Clapton's most succesful album, a multiple grammy winner, and one of his three or four best records (alongside "From The Cradle", "Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs", and "Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert"). Containing some of the finest music Clapton had recorded for many years, the straighforward "Unplugged" session was freed from the slick pop-production of his 80s albums, alternating between electric songs recast in acoustic arrangements, and classic blues songs by the likes of Robert Johnson and Jesse Fuller.

Acoustic music really leaves no place for a mediocre musician to hide, and there were no mediocre musicians accompanying Eric Clapton for his "Unplugged" session...second guitarist Andy Fairweather-Low and former Allman Brothers pianist Chuck Leavell are particularly superb, and then there's Clapton himself, of course. If anyone doubted that this guy is actually a pretty decent guitar player, this album should set them straight...he plays acoustic slide guitar like he'd never done anything else, and the concert goes from highlight to highlight:

"Tears In Heaven" is here, and a jazzy, acoustic "Layla", but most of these tracks are pure blues. Slow, mournful blues like "Malted Milk", swinging, up-tempo numbers, including an irresistable "San Francisco Bay Blues", and tough, mid-tempo grooves like Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me", and a superb "Alberta" (with a magnificent solo by Chuck Leavell).
Clapton's slide playing is particularly good on "Rollin' And Tumblin'", and on a wonderful rendition of "Running On Faith", and I would kill (or at least maim) in order to be able to play the piano like Chuck Leavell does on the classic "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out".

The sound is excellent, very clear and realistic, and the separation is great. Sure, some will prefer to hear Robert Johnson playing Robert Johnson, but don't hold that against Eric Clapton. He does very well by Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Jimmy Cox, and the rest, and "Unplugged" is a superb hour of real music played on real instruments, and arranged by a great professional.
There is nothing bad to say about this album at all, actually.
How about that?

Clapton is fantastically versatile. From the Yardbirds through Cream and The Dominos, everyone who grew up in the 60s knew Eric as the best modern guitar player ever (forget it, Jimi) but even more than that, he speaks directly to every member of his audience through his music in a riveting way.

Here, on acoustic guitar, accompanied by one of the greatest pianos you'll ever hear, Eric Clapton sings the blues. Alone onstage to the world.

I don't understand why Eric Clapton and Doc Watson have never gotten together. THAT would be something for the ages. But in the mean time, you'll have to buy separate CDs.

Fans call this one "Bodge on the Highway" because they listen to it in teh car on the way to a Bodge concert!

Now you know...