Track Listing

1. When You Got A Good Friend
2. Little Queen Of Spades
3. They�re Red Hot
4. Me And The Devil Blues
5. Traveling Riverside Blues
6. Last Fair Deal Gone
7. Stop Breakin� Down Blues
8. Milkcow�s Calf Blues
9. Kind Hearted Woman Blues
10. Come On In My Kitchen
11. If I Had Possession Of Judgement Day
12. Love In Vain
13. 32-30 Blues
14. Hellhound On My Tail

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9465 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-22
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Amazingly, given his weighty reputation as a blues guitarist, Eric Clapton has previously released only one all-blues collection in a solo career spanning 30 years. That album, 1994's From the Cradle, may have topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, but Clapton certainly betters it with this interpretation of 14 Robert Johnson classics. The reason for this is primarily in the vocals. Clapton's voice has always been too soft, too undamaged to convincingly tell such tales of woe. Now though, veteran of various personal catastrophes, he can give a fair impression of a man who has seen too much. Surrounded by an impressive musical team including Andy Fairweather Low and Billy Preston, with Jerry Portnoy playing a blinder on blues harp, Clapton delivers a deep, pulsing "When You Got a Friend", a searing "Little Queen of Spades", a boogilicious "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and a bucking "They're Red Hot". "Come on in My Kitchen" and "Me and the Devil Blues", meanwhile, are tough acoustic efforts, more in keeping with the legend of Johnson at the crossroads at midnight. Clapton fans will love this--it's his best in ages. --Dominic Wills

CD Description
Blues-rock guitar legend follows his 2002 live album 'One More Car One More Rider' with this tribute to the seminal bluesman Robert Johnson, who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil and whose music, Clapton says, has influenced his entire life and career. Produced by Clapton and Simon Climie of Climie Fisher fame, the album features fourteen all-time Johnson classics.

Customer Reviews

A disappointing set of "chug a lug" Blues
That Robert Johnson (RJ) through his lyrics and early recordings and EC through his playing are each in their own ways critical to the wide love and appreciation of the blues that now exists is beyond doubt. The release of an EC CD of RJ songs thus seems a perfect and long overdue pairing esp. after the renewed enthusiasm and hunger EC showed on his recent "Reptile" CD, after too many years of indifferent recordings. Sadly any hope for a set of inspired and memorable renditions of songs that reflect EC's love of RJ's music (evidenced by the sleevenotes and the cover painting by Peter Blake) are missing in the grooves of these recordings.

Backed by his core "houseband" of Steve Gadd, Nathan East and Andy Fairweather-Low, with additions of Billy Preston on keyboards and Jerry Portnoy on harmonica especially, EC delivers a set of perfunctory performances none of which really gets under the skin of RJ's lyrics or provides renditions that leave you wanting to listen again. After several listenings, the main issue seems to be EC with vocals that sound ragged in parts and guitar playing (either electric or acoustic) that is overall professional but not memorable, plus a drum mix that at times seems incongruous.

By the end I felt I was simply listening to a very good blues band "having a blow" session and found my mind wandering to better versions of individual RJ songs (such as the Stone's "Love in Vain"; Flaming Groovies "32-20 Blues" and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac's "Hellhound on my trail").

In summary a listenable but not memorable recording.

Mr. Johnson's Rollin' & Tumblin' In His Grave
This could have been such a great record...Eric Clapton doing Robert Johnson...One master interpreting another...It could have been one of those records that comes along and just knocks everybody out...just like his "Unplugged" record did. Alas, it was and is, a major let-down. While the vocals shine in most of the songs, the music and interpretations of Mr. Johnson get bogged down in trite old blues clichés. The band sounds as tired as the guys who play cover songs six nights a week at your local bar and Clapton's playing is as uninspired as the prose in the obituary section of a small town newspaper. The record sounds like it was cut in an afternoon in that it feels like no time was spent figuring out where the arrangements were to go. Song after song, the album is an endless regurgitation of the standard twelve bar blues idiom. Eric knows full well that it's pointless to do straight covers and that for a record like this to work, it is essential that he leave his fingerprint on the songs. To this point, there aren't any straight covers here...but there aren't any fingerprints to speak of either. Remember "Crossroads"? Without doubt one of Rock's finest moments. He took that song to an astonishing place. Unfortunately, on "Me & Mr. Johnson", he takes the songs to their most predictable place. Robert Johnson's genius and his knack for turning cliché on it's head is whittled down to mediocre "Blues For Dummies" rock. In fact, there's little chance that this album will actually turn anybody on to Robert Johnson simply because there's so little here that's interesting. There's none of the audacity that is usually abundant in Clapton's blues work (i.e. like the kazoos in "San Francisco Bay Blues" on "Unplugged"). There are no surprises here - just twelve bars, turn around and start again. Stock licks, stock phrasing, and uninspired interpretations. The one exception to this is "Hell Hound On My Trail." In this song we hear "what could have been" if E.C. and his boys would have
applied themselves. This is the one spot on the record where it feels like they all really just cut loose and went for it.
It is without question that Eric Clapton is still God. He can play the blues better than 99% of the people out there who either call themselves or are referred to as bluesmen. It's just too bad that he got lazy and turned what should have been one of the best records of the year into one of the biggest let downs.

EC does RJ but doesn't necessarily do him justice.
By self admission Robert Johnson is a hero to Eric Clapton. Johnson's original recordings are without doubt, in my opinion and perhaps in Eric's too, some of, if not the most, deep, haunting and powerful blues ever made - the yardstick by which others in the genre are judged. Both his playing and singing are the essence of delta blues.

With this in mind it is clear that attempting to make an adequate job of covering these songs is a frighteningly difficult task and sadly I don't think Eric pulled it off. His voice just doesn't carry that same haunted sound Robert had on, for example, Hellhound On My Trail or the excitable edge of his performance on They're Red Hot opting instead for his usual brand of nasal, phlegmy delivery. Perhaps, as Eric is certainly not predominantly known as a singer of great power or range, this can be forgiven.

What can't is it's combination with the awful homogonised, easy listening guitar playing. I say awful because over recent years, if you listen closely, you can hear Eric just going through the motions in his blues - playing the same handful of runs in the same places and that's exactly what he does here. This is unforgivable for someone with enough talent on the instrument to put up a decent attempt to compete with his idol.

I give this two stars because Eric does deserve credit for taking Johnson's songs and augmenting them with the addition of other musicians and for attempting to bring him to the attention of a wider audience.

For the listener who is curios about this entry in the Clapton catalogue this is worth a listen but for anyone looking for a real journey into the blues the Robert Johnson originals are a much better investment.