Reviewed by Dave Osler Blues is a direct reflection of black experience in America. While lyrics mostly centre on personal relationships, a significant Asly are bower in firstly as rurafi labourers in the deep south and, after the mass migration to northern cities in the forties, as industrial proletarians.
Explicitly political subject matter, while not unknown ('Eisenhower Blues', When The Welfare Turns It Back On You') is comparitively rare. Telling it like it is is usually enough.
Musically, the rudiments are far simpler to master then jazz, yet the scope for instrumental subtlety is paradoxically considerable. It can even have mass pop apblues, pandering to elements who want their tales of lost love and hard times smoothed over with sixties soul and then retailed to them at grossly inflated CD prices.
This is all verv unfair. His best work, like Bad Influence' and 'Strong Persuader', testifies to major talent. Cray is not just a fabulous guitarist, but a convincing singer blessed with songwriting ability somehow transcending the normal limitations of the genre.
His abilities in any one of these areas would have guaranteed him commercial success. For one person to be so talented in all three areas is almost unnatural.
Yet Cray is a victim of the rock 'n' roll success syndrome. The big time has blunted his edge. As Springsteen once remarked, you gotta stay hungry, and the adage is doubly true for bluesmen. Road Down', was co-written soul legend whose minimalist efforts graced most of the classic Stax dance singles of the sixties.
No socialist is ever going to forgive Clapton his astonishing 'Enoch was right' outburst at an August 1976 gig in Birmingham, all the more reprehensible from someone who built a career on black music. The comments, incidentally, were a major factor behind the formation of Rock Against Racism.
Yet on the electric guitar, Clapton has few equals. Yes, hundreds of plavers are heavier, or jazzier, or faster. But Clapton's music often has the rare power to move the listener emotionally where guitarists with too much technique would leave them cold.
Unplugged', however, features EC and his band entirely on acoustic instruments. On the acoustic guitar - effectively a different instrument altogether - the man is altogether more average.
This is not to say 'unplugged' is a bad album. It's ideal mellow late night listening. It's just that you expect it to start burning, and it simply doesn't. The new version of Layla', for example, is positively plodding The best tracks are the cover versions of blues classics by Robert Johnson, Bc Diddley, Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy and Leadbelly, and 'Old Love', co-written with close friend Cray.
Two solid and entertaining if not outstanding efforts. Clapped out? Eric Clapton form, following the senatorial