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6406 - ERIC CLAPTON - Give Me Strenght: The '74/'75 Recordings, Disc One (2013)

ERIC CLAPTON
''GIVE ME STRENGHT: THE '74/'75 RECORDINGS, DISC ONE''
NOVEMBER 25 2013
326:26

DISC ONE
1 /Motherless Children
Traditional/4:53
2 /Give Me Strength
Eric Clapton/2:54
3 /Willie and the Hand Jive
Johnny Otis/3:32
4 /Get Ready
Eric Clapton / Yvonne Elliman/3:48
5 /I Shot the Sheriff
Bob Marley/4:27
6 /I Can't Hold Out
Elmore James/4:14
7 /Please Be with Me
Charles Scott Boyer/3:26
8 /Let It Grow
Eric Clapton/5:01
9 /Steady Rollin' Man
Robert Johnson/3:15
10 /Mainline Florida
George Terry/4:08
11 /Ain't That Lovin You
Jimmy Reed/5:33
12 /Meet Me [Down at the Bottom]
Willie Dixon/6:58
13 /Lonesone Road Blues [Studio Outtake]
Big Bill Broonzy/5:16
14 /Getting Acquainted
Eric Clapton/6:28
15 /Getting Acquainted 2 [Too Late]
Eric Clapton/4:20
16 /Eric After Hours Blues
Eric Clapton/4:24
17 /Please Be with Me [Acoustic]
Charles Scott Boyer/3:26
18 /Give Me Strength [Dobro 1]
Eric Clapton/3:30

DISC TWO
1 /We've Been Told [Jesus Is Coming Soon]
Traditional/4:29
2 /Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Traditional/3:34
3 /Little Rachel
Jim Byfield/4:07
4 /Don't Blame Me
Eric Clapton / George Terry/3:36
5 /The Sky Is Crying
Elmore James / Morris Levy / Clarence L. Lewis/4:00
6 /Singin' the Blues
Mary McCreary/3:25
7 /Better Make It Through Today (Vinyl LP Version)
Eric Clapton/4:24
8 /Pretty Blue Eyes
Eric Clapton/4:48
9 /High
Eric Clapton/3:32
10 /Opposites
Eric Clapton/4:50
11 /Burial
Peter Tosh/4:02
12 /Whatcha Gonna Do (Original Quadrophonic Mix)
Peter Tosh/2:45
13 /I Found a Love
Mary Bridges/3:41
14 /(When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too
Melvin R. London/5:48
15 /Fools Like Me
Jack Clement / Murphy Maddux/5:10
16 /Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Bob Dylan/4:24
17 /Someone Like You
Arthur Louis/4:30

DISC THREE
1 /Smile (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Charlie Chaplin / Geoffrey Parsons/3:36
2 /Have You Ever Loved a Woman (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Billy Myles/7:41
3 /Presence of the Lord (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Eric Clapton/8:47
4 /Crossroads (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Robert Johnson/4:39
5 /I Shot the Sheriff (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Bob Marley/7:35
6 /Layla (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Eric Clapton / Jim Gordon/6:00
7 /Little Wing (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Jimi Hendrix/8:57
8 /Can't Find My Way Home (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Steve Winwood/5:18
9 /Driftin' Blues / Ramblin' on My Mind (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Charles Brown / Robert Johnson / Johnny Moore/11:38

DISC FOUR
1 /Ramblin' on My Mind / Have You Ever Loved a Woman? (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1974)
Robert Johnson / Billy Myles/8:15
2 /Willie and the Hand Jive / Get Ready (Live at Long Beach Arena, California 1974)
Eric Clapton / Yvonne Elliman / Johnny Otis/11:27
3 /The Sky Is Crying / Have You Ever Loved a Woman / Rambling on My Mind (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 1974)
Elmore James / Robert Johnson / Morris Levy / Clarence L. Lewis / Billy Myles/7:26
4 /Badge (Live at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York 1975)
Eric Clapton / George Harrison/10:44
5 /Driftin' Blues [Live at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 1975)
Charles Brown / Johnny Moore/6:55
6 /Eyesight to the Blind / Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? (Live at Providence Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island 1975)
Eric Clapton / Sonny Boy Williamson II/23:50
7 /Further on Up the Road (Live at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York 1975)
Joe Medwick / Don Robey/7:35

DISC FIVE
1 /Sugar Sweet feat. Eric Clapton Band, Freddie King
Melvin London / Melvin R. London/4:06
2 /TV Mama feat. Freddie King
Frederick W. King/4:07
3 /Boogie Funk feat: Freddie King
Freddie King/5:32
4 /Gambling Woman Blues feat. Freddie King
Frederick W. King/21:44

REVIEW
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
461 Ocean Boulevard was Eric Clapton's comeback, the record that saw him returning from a struggle with heroin addiction to reclaim his position as one of the world's biggest rock stars. The 1974 album forms the core of Give Me Strength: The 1974/1975 Recordings, a massive five-CD/one-BluRay box set documenting Clapton's mid-'70s recordings. The first CD is dedicated to an expanded version of 461 Ocean Boulevard -- an expansion that is different than the 2004 double-disc Deluxe Edition -- while the second CD is an expanded version of 1975's There's One in Every Crowd. Discs three and four are handed over to an expanded version of the 1975 live album E.C. Was Here, turning the single-LP into a double, while the fifth disc is devoted to a jam session at Criteria Studios with Freddie King. Finally, the BluRay contains a previously unreleased 5.1 mix of 461 Ocean Boulevard, along with its original quadraphonic mix, plus the quad mix of There's One in Every Crowd. It's a rather exhaustive overhaul of an era of E.C.'s career that isn't particularly storied, and all the extra material doesn't add mystique but it does re-create context, capturing how the mid-'70s could often feel like a long series of languid, meandering blues and reggae jams. Neither There's One in Every Crowd nor E.C. Was Here were particularly focused, and the additional material accentuates their laziness while having the side effect of having 461 Ocean Boulevard sound bolder (even though it already was a decidedly relaxed affair). All this drifting blues doesn't mean Give Me Strength isn't worthwhile. Quite the contrary: this is precisely the kind of archival release that does deepen the historical record, revealing the extent of the guitarist's reggae fixation while emphasizing how quickly Clapton settled into a relaxed groove after his comeback. Sometimes the jams do wind up cooking -- this is particularly true of the jam with King -- but usually they're improvisation as mood music, smoke-filled superstar sessions where the intention is to play on and on until the night is gone.

BIOGRAPHY
By William Ruhlmann
By the time Eric Clapton launched his solo career with the release of his self-titled debut album in mid-1970, he was long established as one of the world's major rock stars due to his group affiliations -- the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith -- which had demonstrated his claim to being the best rock guitarist of his generation. That it took Clapton so long to go out on his own, however, was evidence of a degree of reticence unusual for one of his stature. And his debut album, though it spawned the Top 40 hit "After Midnight," was typical of his self-effacing approach: it was, in effect, an album by the group he had lately been featured in, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.

Not surprisingly, before his solo debut had even been released, Clapton had retreated from his solo stance, assembling from the D&B&F ranks the personnel for a group, Derek & the Dominos, with whom he played for most of 1970 and recorded the landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton was largely inactive in 1971 and 1972, due to heroin addiction, but he performed a comeback concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on January 13, 1973, resulting in the album Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert (September 1973). But Clapton did not launch a sustained solo career until July 1974, when he released 461 Ocean Boulevard, which topped the charts and spawned the number one single "I Shot the Sheriff."

The persona Clapton established over the next decade was less that of guitar hero than arena rock star with a weakness for ballads. The follow-ups to 461 Ocean Boulevard, There's One in Every Crowd (March 1975), the live E.C. Was Here (August 1975), and No Reason to Cry (August 1976), were less successful. But Slowhand (November 1977), which featured both the powerful "Cocaine" (written by J.J. Cale, who had also written "After Midnight") and the hit singles "Lay Down Sally" and "Wonderful Tonight," was a million-seller. Its follow-ups, Backless (November 1978), featuring the Top Ten hit "Promises," the live Just One Night (April 1980), and Another Ticket (February 1981), featuring the Top Ten hit "I Can't Stand It," were all big sellers.

Clapton's popularity waned somewhat in the first half of the '80s, as the albums Money and Cigarettes (February 1983), Behind the Sun (March 1985), and August (November 1986) indicated a certain career stasis. But he was buoyed up by the release of the box set retrospective Crossroads (April 1988), which seemed to remind his fans of how great he was. Journeyman (November 1989) was a return to form. It would be his last new studio album for nearly five years, though in the interim he would suffer greatly and enjoy surprising triumph. On March 20, 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son was killed in a fall. While he mourned, he released a live album, 24 Nights (October 1991), culled from his annual concert series at Royal Albert Hall in London, and prepared a movie soundtrack, Rush (January 1992). The soundtrack featured a song written for his son, "Tears in Heaven," that became a massive hit single.

In March 1992, Clapton recorded a concert for MTV Unplugged which, when released on an album in August, became his biggest-selling record ever. Two years later, Clapton returned with a blues album, From the Cradle, which became one of his most successful albums, both commercially and critically. Crossroads, Vol. 2: Live in the Seventies, a box set chronicling his live work from the '70s, was released to mixed reviews. In early 1997, Clapton, billing himself by the pseudonym "X-Sample," collaborated with keyboardist/producer Simon Climie as the ambient new age and trip-hop duo T.D.F. The duo released Retail Therapy to mixed reviews in early 1997.

Clapton retained Climie as his collaborator for Pilgrim, his first album of new material since 1989's Journeyman. Pilgrim was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its spring 1998 release, but the album debuted at number four and stayed in the Top Ten for several weeks on the success of the single "My Father's Eyes." In 2000, Clapton teamed up with old friend B.B. King on Riding with the King, a set of blues standards and material from contemporary singer/songwriters. Another solo outing, entitled Reptile, followed in early 2001. Three years later, Clapton issued Me and Mr. Johnson, a collection of tunes honoring the Mississippi-born bluesman Robert Johnson. Released in 2005, Back Home, Clapton's 14th album of original material, reflected his ease with fatherhood. Also in 2005, Clapton unexpectedly teamed with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker for a Cream reunion that included May concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall and shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden in October, with the former being compiled for a live release that fall.

This turned out to be the first of many reunions and looks back for Clapton. In 2006, he elevated the profile of his latter-day idol J.J. Cale by recording an album-long duet, The Road to Escondido. The following year he released his autobiography -- accompanied by a new career compilation called The Complete Clapton -- which focused more on his trials with addiction and subsequent recovery than his musical career. In 2008, Clapton began playing regular shows with his old Blind Faith partner Steve Winwood, gigs that were captured on the 2009 double-live set Live from Madison Square Garden. Winwood also appeared on Clapton’s next studio album, 2010’s Clapton, which was a collaboration-heavy affair also featuring Cale, Sheryl Crow, Allen Toussaint, and Wynton Marsalis. In 2011, Clapton returned the favor to Marsalis by collaborating on the live concert album Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Clapton parted ways with Warner after Clapton, and he chose to set up his own Bushbranch imprint on Gary Hoey's independent label Surfdog. His first album for the label was Old Sock, largely a collection of old songs the guitarist loved.