onurblues: Eric Clapton - 1992 Unplugged (Deluxe Edition Remastered, 2013)

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Clapton's block-buster

Since he started in the mid-1960s with the Yardbirds, then with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton had never released a full acoustic album before “Unplugged”. He had of course inserted acoustic moments of his concerts on his previous live albums (Rainbow Concert in 1973, E.C. Was Here in 1975, Just One Night in 1979 and 24 Nights in 1991), but never an entire record.

In 1992, for MTV's Unplugged Series, Slow Hand left his Stratocaster at home and brought his acoustic guitars and his musicians for this unusual experience for him. So unusual that he confessed later in a radio interview that he thought an album of it wouldn't have a chance to sell. Actually “Unplugged” was rewarded by an impressive number of Grammies and became the best-selling live album of all time, a real block-buster !

There's every chance you possess or have heard it before, at least in its original version. This 2013 re-issue, augmented with six outtakes and alternate versions, remastered, and superbly ripped in super-Flac by BDV for the blue dragon, is the occasion to re-discover this gem thirty years later.

Some of the songs are more famous than the others, like Clapton's red banner “Layla”, or the sorrowful “Tears In Heaven” written after the accidental death of his four year old son in 1991. Some are less familiar to the mainstream audience, like the two Robert Johnson covers, “Walkin' Blues” and “Malted Milk”, that announce his future albums exclusively dedicated to Johnson's work, “Me And Mr Johnson” and “Sessions For Robert J”, both released in 2004. Some, like the deeply emotional “Circus” and “My Father's Eyes”, which were part of the original show but were left off the original CD and video release, found back their rightful place in this extended version (CD 2). These two songs will be released only in 1998 on the album “Pilgrim”, which goes to show that Clapton had a good supply of new material in stock and tested it well in advance in his concerts.

Blues is creeping even in his more “pop” songs : the samba-like instrumental “Signe”, “Layla”, “Tears In Heaven”, “Lonely Stranger”, “Old Love”, “Circus” and “My Father's Eyes”. “Old Love”, a piece very much in the style of “Layla”, and one of the highlights of the album, particularly shines in the acoustic setting with one of the best solos Clapton has ever given.

Slow Hand was already known as a legendary electric guitar flat-picker but rarely played dobro in concert. On “Unplugged” he reveals how versatile a guitarist he is, equally skilled in acoustic finger-picking, like on Big Bill Broonzy's ragtime “Hey, Hey”, as on dobro and slide styles. The dobro in particular gives a new identity to “Running On Faith” and Robert Johnson's “Walking Blues” and “Malted Milk”.

Among the other blues tracks are a great version of Bo Diddley's “Before You Accuse Me” with Clapton and his long-time friend Andy Fairweather-Low alone on guitars; the retro style of “Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out”; a countrified cover of Leadbelly's “Alberta”; the rejoicing “San Francisco Bay blues” with the members of the band all playing kazoos; and the exciting version of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'", an impromptu jam that was never intended to be on the album, even less rehearsed !

The huge success of this album comes from showing the true nature of the artist without any sugar coating or sound effects, revealing true emotion with dignified and elegant simplicity. But simple doesn't mean easy, and this recording highlights Clapton's best abilities as a guitarist and as a vocalist.

Independently of its commercial success, Clapton certainly kept good memories of the human dimension of his Unplugged experience (in front of a reduced audience of some 300 privileged people), so that in 2021, during the Covid lockdown that kept him away from stage and compelled him to cancel his planned concerts (in particular at the Royal Albert Hall), he renewed the concept with his “Lady on the Balcony : Lockdown Sessions”, a “live” album without any public except the technicians and his wife Melia, who inspired the title, an acoustic intimate session recorded (and filmed) in a Sussex mansion with a reduced band : Chris Stainton (keyboards), Nathan East (bass & vocals) and Steve Gadd (drums).

To go back to Unplugged, Clapton's was certainly one of the best of the series ever, together with Bob Dylan's (1994) and Neil Young's (1993). ♦

Unplugged

■ Audio : Eric Clapton talks about the making of “Clapton Unplugged” in a 2012 radio broadcast (with contribution from Andy Fairweather-Low, Steve Ferrone, Chuck Leavell, Nathan East, and MTV show producer Alex Coletti) : https://youtu.be/eYB5lpHneQ4

■ The MTV Unplugged videos, Bray Studios, Windsor, England, 1992

→ “Old Love” : https://youtu.be/qv63M6XXgGE

→ “Layla” : https://youtu.be/IEcUc0NdM1A

→ “Running On Faith” : https://youtu.be/uwTwkwTZQ4I

→ “Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out” (Spanish subtitles) : https://youtu.be/2kKg24F8G44

→ “Tears in Heaven” : https://youtu.be/3gWw8QSBYmI

→ “My Father's Eyes” : https://youtu.be/5pXEg6YKmiE

→ “Rollin' and Tumblin'” : https://youtu.be/K9EIbmUqGXI

→ “Worried Life Blues” : https://youtu.be/zz3UC-PQhlY

■ Unplugged, the rehearsal videos 

→ “Walkin’ Blues” : https://youtu.be/NPtcWJrvYj0

→ “Lonely Stranger” : https://youtu.be/jB7hssw3B-U

→ “Alberta” : https://youtu.be/maSyksglaVc

→ “Before You Accuse Me” : https://youtu.be/niVjrDsh4AQ

→ “Hey Hey” : https://youtu.be/dRFhgKwV1wI

→ “Malted Milk” : https://youtu.be/idSOhbK_7MU

→ “San Francisco Bay Blues”, false start #1 & 2 : https://youtu.be/dVd9lSV3EnM

→ “Tears In Heaven” : https://youtu.be/-nAsy8XVqkg

→ “Circus” : https://youtu.be/sjee1PMgHoo

→ “My Father's Eyes” : https://youtu.be/eUg2xO_SECo

Acoustic Clapton

→ “Alberta“, BBC, 1977 : https://youtu.be/0X67kd7MHS4

→ “Bell Bottom Blues”, 1991 : https://youtu.be/l4hv_8TXFWg

→ “Over the Rainbow”, 1991 : https://youtu.be/iwlFTYT2Fdw

→ “Tears In Heaven”, first public perf. for TV , 1992 : https://youtu.be/3U4yDkvRjvs

→ “Layla”, live In Hyde Park, London, 1996 : https://youtu.be/FrtfZVDWC5k

→ “Change the world”, Madison Square Garden, NYC, 1999 : https://youtu.be/fGDIxcuPT7s

→ “Layla”, Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 2001 : https://youtu.be/lZNyrLeKYRo

→ “Key to the Highway”, Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 2001 : https://youtu.be/oHPP2o6C8k4

→ “Reptile” , 2007 : https://youtu.be/ZVageb9ZFLQ / https://youtu.be/Cl45v957kJg

→ “Layla” with Mark Knopfler, 2008 : https://youtu.be/5iFbf-hoBWs

→ “Rambling on My Mind”, Madison Square Garden, NYC, 2008 : https://youtu.be/bO5IlGh1oWA

→ “Drifting Blues”, 2008 : https://youtu.be/-ez32JzHVyo

→ “Love In Vain”, 2008 (?) : https://youtu.be/OZCREueK6OI

→ “Layla”, Manchester, England, 2009 : https://youtu.be/O5rFCX1DBk4

→ “Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, Hurricane Sandy relief concert, Madison Square Garden, NYC, 2012 : https://youtu.be/0b-OHZI1Q5w

→ “Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out”, Switzerland, 2014 : https://youtu.be/lO0AUyCyleU

→ “Drifting blues”, Japan, 2014 : https://youtu.be/vklvvfoypok

→ Royal Albert Hall, 2015 :

- “Driftin' Blues” : https://youtu.be/CyKLcQq7WeY

- “Tears in Heaven” : https://youtu.be/fvVqPi92CcY

→ With Andy Fairweather-Low, Live Guitar Festival, 2019 :

- “Wonderful Tonight” : https://youtu.be/g4KvBHIYg3k

- “Lay Down Sally” : https://youtu.be/jmMb5fSYKTQ

“The Lady In The Balcony : Lockdown Sessions”
Cowdray House, West Sussex, England (with Chris Stainton : keyboard, Nathan East : bass & vocals, and Steve Gadd : drums), 2021 :