Eric Clapton - Sessions for Robert J

I myself have only heard a few of the tracks from the album, and the band sounds good. Clapton seldom plays with hacks, and his album output is, by and large, professional and well-polished. The problem that I have with a lot of Clapton's blues playing is just that...its just too perfect...too studied. I'm not saying that everyone has to be a Hubert Sumlin or an Albert Collins and just play wacky, off the wall crazy blues shit, but we all know Clapton has the "I'm on the edge of losing control" sound in him, whether its contrived or not. Listen to "Bell Bottom Blues" on the Layla album. That song hurts, and the solo is one of his finest moments as an emotive guitar player.

That being said, Clapton remains a bad motherfuyer on the six string, and the more he plays blues albums and the less he plays "Change the World" or "My Father's Eyes," the better. I could have stabbed my own eyes when that song came out.

I also wish I were going to a Cream show tonight. Alas, its more studying for me.

I've never liked his Robert Johnson covers - they completely miss the weird power of the originals. The odd thing is that Clapton is such a huge fan of Johnson and obviously a sensitive and gifted musician - I can't understand why he can't see how much he is diluting the emotional force of this music.

I have to revisit this dude, after having read his autobiography:

So, I had just read Keef's autobiography, which I enjoyed - I think he is a very good story teller, his exploits are pretty jaw-dropping in the "I'm a rock star. Of course I'm getting away with it." sort of way. He is also helped by a ghost writer.

And, while it is his own telling of his own story, and therefore to be taken with at least a grain or two of salt, he seems to have a much healthier and enjoyable outlook on life and relationships with other people than Clapton.

Clapton, for all his musical skills, seems like a complete asshole. Smug, egotistical, spoiled from day one, and completely someone I would punch in the face instead of arguing with.

HOWEVER - there is a complete shift in tone from the part of the book that is BEFORE his first stint in rehab, and the rest of the book. The man clearly has an addiction problem - I won't hypothesize any more than that - and he spends a good deal of pretty thoughtful, albeit somewhat hamhanded, writing discussing his journey into sobriety. For THAT part, I actually took a good bit from this book. And, for the amount of work he has done to set up and maintain the Crossroads treatment center in Antigua, I have to give him some credit. He has sold off a huge number of his prized instruments (although who knows how many this multi-millionaire packrat actually has) in order to raise funds for the center, and that, if nothing else, indicates to me that he is both serious and committed about running this place.

His description of purchasing a yacht is absolutely nauseating, despite his attempt to make it seem like something purely for his family.

Ugh. Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes, and selected tracks since then. The over-synthed eighties can go hang.