Clapton goes solo

Eric Clapton (1970.) Eric Clapton's first solo album.



In the sixties, Eric Clapton did a good job making a name for himself as a musician. He'd played with some of the most popular musicians of the day, including Jimmy Page, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker - all of whom only added to his credibility. Following the disbanding of Cream at the end of the sixties, Clapton started his solo career. For his first solo album, he brought together an all-star cast of musicians, including Stephen Stills and Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett - two fairly popular country rockers of the day. In fact, Delaney produced the album and Bonnie co-wrote most of the songs present! Read on for my review of this - Eric Clapton's 1970 solo debut.



Just by looking at the tracklist, you probably would have noticed that three of these songs went on to become pretty popular, and have remained popular to this day. The first of these is Clapton's cover of J.J. Cale's After Midnight. Of all the songs on this album, this cover tune probably became the most popular. And then, of course, we have Let It Rain - my favorite song that Eric Clapton EVER recorded with ANY band. Admittingly, I was only going to give this album a three and a half, but this song boosts it up to a solid four. The last of the popular tunes is Blues Power, which (as the title implies) is a blues-based rocker. While those three songs are the only really popular ones present, they aren't the only good ones. Slunky, the opening track, is a rock instrumental that incorporates the usage of horns - and does a pretty good job of it. Bad Boy and Lonesome And A Long Way From Home are severely underrated tunes that should have gone on to become more popular. All in all, this is a good album, but it's far from perfect. Although I like Delaney and Bonnie, I think their presence here detracts from the overall unity of the album somewhat. Bonnie co-wrote most of the songs here and Delaney was the producer, so in many ways this comes off sounding more like a Delaney and Bonnie album than an Eric Clapton album. That's not to say it's a bad album, though - it's solid through and through. Give it a chance, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.



Overall, this was a good first solo attempt for Eric Clapton. Following the release of this album, he'd form a new band, Derek and the Dominoes, but they would only release a single studio album, and before long, Clapton would resume his solo career. Usually a debut album by an artist is either an underrated masterpiece of an album that never got the credit it deserved, or it's a desperate cry for help that its artist needs to find a sound. Clapton's solo debut isn't either; it's the happy medium between these two scenarios. Give this album a chance, and I'm sure you'll grow to love it.