Customer Reviews

From The Cradle

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I almost laughed reading what a previous reviewer said about this album "lacking soul". Man, this is what Eric Clapton is all about. He loves the blues, he lived the blues, he is a blues man. When you hear him growl in "Groaning the Blues", that's Eric practically ripping out his larynx singing the blues to its low-down-and-dirtiest. Eric keeps the blues's integrity alive by recording the songs straight-forward without any overdubs (sans Motherless Child), and yet the sound of the songs are uniquely his own even though they are covers.

And his guitarwork in this album is unparalleled. FIVE LONG YEARS will blow you away. I listened to that song over and over and over and I couldn't get enough of it. If this won't get you to play air guitar, nothing will.

This, in my opinion, is Eric Clapton's best work, period. Eric should have never gone astray to record hoary pop standards; his home is the blues. Don't listen to what the purists say; they don't know anything. Listen to this CD instead.

"All along this path I tread, my heart betrays my weary head; with nothing but my love to save, from the cradle to the grave ..."

Summing up his thoughts on a recently failed relationship, Eric Clapton jotted down these words one night in early 1994, and they eventually made their way into the cover booklet of the album he released later that same year, the last line also providing the album's title. And "there's anger and love and fear on this record," Clapton told Billboard Magazine about the self-evaluation he was undergoing at the time, explaining that in recording this album, he had sought to once and for all break the - partially self-imposed - barriers and trappings of fame and fortune, girls and glamour, drugs and booze, in order to just "get out and ... say what I want to say, be what I want to be [and] love what I want to love."

What he had loved from his earliest years on, of course, was the blues; and a real blues album was thus what he had always wanted to record - ever since his days with the Yardbirds (which he left when they strayed towards more mainstream, commercial sounds) and with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the training ground for much of Britain's blues elite of the 1960s and 1970s. So in a major way, this album constitutes a return to Eric Clapton's roots.

At the same time, however, it is a marvelous tribute to the artists on whose influence Clapton builds to this day, and who first made the songs recorded here famous. Like any good blues album, "From the Cradle" was recorded live in the studio: with the exception of some dobro and drum overdub on "How Long Blues" and "Motherless Child" respectively, all vocals and instrumental parts are the pure, unadulterated product of the recording sessions involved. With or without extended solos, Clapton's guitar work is stellar as always, and his vocals are as raw and rough as hardly ever before. He may not actually outgrowl the great Chess and Delta Blues men - listen to his 2001 album "Riding With the King" with B.B. King or to Muddy Waters's 1977 version of "Hoochie Coochie Man" if you have any doubts - but this truly becomes apparent only in direct comparison with them, and it really says more about those other musicians than it does about Clapton himself. If it were not for the fact that many of the recordings on this album have long become classics in their own right and that Clapton's voice is not easily confused with that of any other artist in the first place, I'm almost certain that you could fool a fair number of people into believing that they were listening to an album recorded 40 years or even longer ago in Chicago or Memphis. This is the real thing, folks, no question about it; and it is performed with as much skill as soul by Eric Clapton and a tremendous group of musicians consisting of Dave Bronze (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), Andy Fairweather Low (guitar), Jerry Portnoy (harmonica), Chris Stainton (keyboards), Roddy Lorimer (trumpet) and Simon Clarke and Tim Sanders (saxophone) - many of the well-known to Clapton's live audiences the world over as well.

In selecting the songs for this album, Eric Clapton purposely chose the most intense blues songs he could think of, not even shying away from classics that he had heretofore considered "untouchable," like Muddy Waters's (or actually, Willie Dixon's) aforementioned "Hoochie Coochie Man." And in a not entirely surprising turn, they - and "Hoochie Coochie Man" in particular - soon became fixtures in his own live appearances as much as they had been fixtures in the appearances of the artists who had first made them famous, from Leroy Carr's "Blues Before Sunrise" and "How Long Blues" to Lowell Fulson's "Reconsider Baby" and "Sinner's Prayer," Eddie Boyd's "Five Long Years," James Lane's "Goin' Away Baby" and "Blues Leave Me Alone," Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too," Freddie King's "Someday After a While," another famous Muddy Waters tune, "Standin' Round Crying," and the concluding, aptly titled "Groaning the Blues." And all colors of this blues kaleidoscope also represent shades and aspects of Eric Clapton's own life, because, as he told Billboard, all of them have had a certain meaning to him at some point or another. In that sense, the album is a very personal one - maybe not quite as much as the 1970 Derek and the Dominos recording "Layla and Other Assorted Lovesongs," one of the earliest and biggest highlights of Clapton's career, but certainly close; in expressing "the thing I've loved from day one, the most exciting and satisfying thing I've known."

Coming on the heels of 1989's "Journeyman" and 1992's hugely successful "Unplugged," which had redefined the standards by which acoustic recordings were measured and, in the process, had also given an unexpectedly new meaning to the title track of "Layla," "From the Cradle" was one of a trilogy of albums which injected new life into Clapton's career and ensured that his fans would be able to enjoy his immeasurable contributions to the world of music for - at least - another decade. In 1991, Clapton had also recorded the soundtrack for the movie "Rush," arguably yet another very personal project, and released a CD documenting his marathon 24 live appearances at Royal Albert Hall, appropriately named "24 Nights." And while any Eric Clapton album will to a certain extent be an expression of the point where he sees himself and his career at the time of the recording, it's all about the music again now, and about the joy of playing. Nothing shows this clearer than his dual 2001 releases "Reptile" and "Riding With the King." "From the Cradle" was an important stepping stone in getting to this point, and I am glad we have been allowed, yet again, to share in that experience. Thank you, Eric!

Also recommended:
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert
Crossroads
Unplugged
One More Car: One More Rider (CD & DVD Set)
Riding with the King

I think a lot of you guys are missing the point about this album. One guy said "he is far from being one of the greatest traditional electric bluesman". That should be plainly obvious. Eric Clapton is not a traditional bluesman. He's a rock and roll musician all the way, who was deeply influenced by the blues. He's great at playing the blues, but Muddy Waters he ain't. Remember that Clapton is NOT a Mississippi-born country boy who grew up playing guitar in the cotton fields. He's British. He grew up a world away from blues culture. From The Cradle, in my opinion, is not bad at all for an Englishman. Heck, it would be pretty good for a Mississippi/Chicago native. With From The Cradle, Clapton is not trying to pronounce himself as the second coming of the blues. He's just paying homage to the music and the musicians which deeply inspired his playing. Even B.B. King himself said that Clapton is one of the best blues players in the world. And if B.B. King doesn't know soul when he hears it, then no one does.

I agree that the music of B.B., Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, etc is much better blues than this. But this album should not be compared to "real blues", the same way that a tribute album should not be compared to the music of the original artist who is recieving the tribute.

Great album. If listening to this CD doesn't make you get down on your knees and worship Clapton, then you'd be better off listening to Britney Spears.

I expected great things from this album as I am a Clapton fan, but the result to me is rather dull. The tracks are too perfect copies and sterile. Not a single solo he plays stands out, apart from 'I'm torn down' and that is so similar to the original Freddie King version. I found the whole thing to be rather soporific. There is just no comparison with his incandescent playing with the Bluesbreakers back in 1966, or for that matter from 1975 (EC was here) or even 1980 (Just one Night). I would much rather have the originals. If he wanted to do these tracks again, why not put a bit of himself into it? At the moment it sounds just like "Clapton plays blues greats" and sounds all the worse for it.

I enjoyed his live versions of these songs when he was incredible, but on CD they just sound overproduced and dull. What a hyped recording!

I have been a Clapton fan for about 30 years. I own around 15 albums from different periods of his career, including the box set Crossroads. This has become one of my favorite albums of his to listen to. He got back to the blues, and played the Hell out his guitar. It is a shame that he has retired from touring, but I hope he still continues to make music like this.

Actually play the blues, I mean.
Eric Clapton is taking on the classics here, you see. "Blues Before Sunrise" (a la Elmore James), "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Five Long Years", "It Hurts Me Too". Classics one and all. And virtually every one sounds great, much, much better than Clapton's tepid album of Robert Johnson-covers.

If you're relatively unfamiliar with the kind of electric blues that Muddy Waters and his contemporaries played in the 50s, this is certainly a great way to become accquainted with it...the arrangements are excellent, the production is, too, and the sound quality is of course much better than on some 1950s single. And if you're not, well, you should enjoy this fine album anyway. I have a few hundred "real" blues records, and this one is perfectly genuine and quite gritty, much more so than your average EC-album.

It's obvious that some people will insist on hating this album simply because it's Eric Clapton playing classic blues tunes...he must have as many detractors now as he had fans in the 60s, and not without reason. "Me And Mr Johnson" was a thoroughly mediocre affair, and "Pilgrim" was worse than mediocre. But Eric Clapton's playing on "From The Cradle" is actually some of his best on record for a very long time, and his vocals are (almost) up to the task, although he is obviously straining at times. He is no Elmore James, but he doesn't make a fool of himself, either. And "From The Cradle" is recorded "live" in the studio, giving it a more "authentic" and less over-produced feel than some of Clapton's efforts, which can sometimes seem a little too polished for their own good.

As good as he is, Jim Keltner doesn't quite have the swing of legendary blues drummers like Fred Below and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, but he does a pretty good job. Chris Stainton plays fine blues-n'-boogie piano, Jerry Portnoy's harmonica wails, and the songs are well-structured and tight, with only two tracks running longer than five minutes, and most of them clocking in at less than four.
Among the stand-out tracks are "I'm Tore Down", "Motherless Child", a scorching "It Hurts Me Too", the acoustic "Driftin' Blues", and the best cut on the entire album, a beautiful "How Long Blues", worthy of the great Leroy Carr himself. Top-notch piano playing and an acoustic slide dobro playing exquisite fills.
And Clapton does his best-ever Muddy Waters-impression on "Hoochie Coochie Man", succesfully reinterprets Eddie Boyd's "Five Long Years", and shows off his rarely heard slide guitar prowess.

Four-and-a-half stars easy. If you like Eric Clapton at his bluesy best, you should get this supremely well-arranged and beautifully executed album right away. It's really good.
And once you've listened to it, go get the originals (if you haven't already). Most of them are even better.

Look, I'm not versed enough in blues to be able to give you a comparative analysis, but this is just my personal opinion. This IS the very best of Eric Clapton. Eric names influences such as Robert Johnson, yet his typical guitar work, the work that has earned him the title "Slowhand", just doesn't do his talent justice. Sometimes I think Eric is too humble. He doesn't really showcase what he can do- especially in his more popular albums. This release however, Eric just cuts loose.. especially the last track "Groaning the Blues"- he just lets you have it! Eric's guitar groans and moans and gives you some of the most raw emotion ever heard from him. The album IS the reason why Clapton is such a stellar guitarist. To me, nothing in Clapton's past, from Cream to John Mayalls Bluesbreakers to any of his other solo releases, can touch the guitar mastery of this album. It's an unequivocal testiment to this man's gift.

I rank this CD above all else, including his newest "Me and Mr. Johnson". Compared to the newer blues release, this is grittier and seems more real.. you really feel it in Clapton's voice when he sings these songs.. it doesn't sound contrived like I think "Me and Mr Johnson" has a tendency of doing. Hope this helps.

Eric Clapton returns to his roots on this album, dropping the seven-minute solos for a more traditional blues standards. Instead, he covers sixteen great blues tunes from the likes of Willie Dixon, Elmore James, Eddie Boyd, Sonny Thompson, and Freddy King. Clapton's voice is ragged and bluesy, something he could not have done early in his career. His guitar playing in dripping with stereotypical blues phrasing and turnarounds. There's nothing but the blues here.

Every song on this album is a great song, and each has appeared on many different albums throughout the years. These are classic blues tunes that should be in any guitar blues enthusiast's collection. Clapton starts the album off with the great Leroy Carr's "Blues Before Sunrise". Slide guitar blues ensue, and Clapton's newly discovered gravely voice is fitting. "Third Degree" is beautifully done slow blues full of pain, and one of the best songs of the album. Other greats are "Reconsider Baby", "Five Long Years", and "It Hurts Me Too".

This is like the greatest hits of blues as performed by Clapton. He shows class and respect by playing these tunes the way they were written. There are no extended solos here, or a studio quality sounds. These songs were recorded live with a full blues feeling of the musicians. It's different from what mainstream Clapton fans might expect, but for those that are fans of the blues, this is a stellar hit.

In response to all of the recent negative reviews that have surfaced about this recording,let me say that I am not a blues musician but I will put my collection of classic blues albums up against that of any reviewer here who claims to be steeped in the "real blues" and I wouldn't have these wonderful recordings if it weren't for artists like Eric Clapton or The Rolling Stones who have done so much to expose us to all of the great post-war masters of the form. This album is an outstanding tribute to those great artists and Clapton has put 30 years of playing the blues into it. Granted he cannot sing "Hoochie Coochie Man" like Muddy Waters, nobody can and Eric himself would be the first to agree. But on the other hand, I haven't heard anybody yet who could replicate the sound of Muddy's slide on "Standin' Round Cryin'" the way Eric does on this record and he takes Freddie King's "Someday, After Awhile" to new heights. Buy this album for the blues guitar playing, it's stellar. And for those musicians out there who think Eric can't play the blues or just doesn't have any soul in his playing, let me quote Riley B. King: "Eric Clapton plays the blues as good as anyone, better than most."

If you like the type of thing Clapton does on a CD like Pilgrim then this is not the Clapton for you. However if you love the blues roots that Clapton draws his soul from then you'll love this. This is the Clapton that blues fans waited years for. He takes these old blues numbers and puts his own distinctive style on them.
For my money this is a better CD even than Me and Mr. Johnson. Although I too am a big Robert Johnson fan I would rather hear an artist put their own spin on a tune than to just try to sound like the original.