Customer Reviews

Journeyman

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having contributed to a lot of bands' albums and concerts over the years, Eric Clapton has amassed a group of friends who also happen to be first-rate musicians. Never being one to assume that he alone makes his albums great, Clapton routinely gives them a lot of room to write and perform. True since Clapton gave up the solo on "Layla" to Duane Allman, it works for him in spades on this album.

Jerry Jeff Williams, a Texas songwriter with whom Clapton has had many fruitful collaborations since the Eighties, wrote several of the originals, standouts being "Pretending" and "Breaking Point." The first song has the most confident, tension-free vocals Clapton has committed to a studio album since _461 Ocean Boulevard_ more than a decade earlier; its low, bluesy verses and suddenly louder choruses seem written specifically to Clapton's strengths as a vocalist. As was true throughout the entire album, Clapton taps the midrange boost on that custom Stratocaster and burns through the solos and fills. If this record did nothing else for his fan base, it proved that Clapton had overcome his early-Seventies fear of overplaying or repetition; not until _24 Nights_ would anyone hear Clapton having as much fun as a lead guitarist again.

As the Amazon reviewer pointed out, he remained rooted in a bluesy context throughout, juxtaposing the faithful treatment of Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me" with the sophisticated Robert Cray minor blues of "Old Love." While the production remains extremely clean, no one could accuse Clapton or any member of his supporting bands of not bringing enough soul to this particular session. Aside from "Run So Far," which indulges Clapton's taste for cheerful and insubstantial country, there's not a weak song on this album. If you had to purchase five essential records by him not including box sets or anthologies, this would rank among them, below _Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs_ and _461 Ocean Boulevard_.

Well worth owning for fans and enthusiasts, and an excellent place to start for people who really liked _Unplugged_ but don't know where in his thirty-five years in music to start.

This one of Clapton's better albums, picking up where August left off. His guitar playing on this shows why he's one of rock's best. The vocals are strong and inspired. He has a great band backing him including Nathan East, Steve Ferrone, and Phil Collins. Most of the songs are hard rock with a few blues rock songs and mellow song or 2. Bad Love, Pretending, Anything For Your Love, and No Alibis are the best songs on this CD. No laid back country-rock here like there was on his late 70's albums.

Eric Clapton is a true legend. An amazing guitarist, songwriter, singer, historian, and crucial member of several Hall of Fame worthy bands. I saw the Journeyman tour twice in 1989/90 and those were great concerts, and that may influence my opinion, he was on fire that year. Journeyman is a great Clapton album and I'd put it up there with Layla, the Cream albums, his self-titled "solo" album, and Slowhand. If you are a Claptonhead and don't have Journeyman, you should get it ASAP. Stinging blues, soaring pop, and the riff of bad Love is just awesome.

Standout tracks: Pretending, Bad Love, Anything For Love, Running on Faith, Before You Accuse Me

I have given this album "only" three stars, partly because of the slick, glossy 80s production by Russ Titelman which has completely removed any hint of real grit from these songs. They might as well have been played using synthesizers (actually most of the drums aren't drums at all but a digital drum machine).

The songs themselves are generally pretty good, though. They are not as lean, nor as muscular, as they could have been, but "Pretending" is a fine, mid-tempo rocker with some really great vocals by Eric Clapton. "Bad Love" suffers from terrible, overblown production and weird synthesizers, but it's not a bad song in itself, and "Running On Faith" is a slow, bluesy ballad with relative lean instrumentation and some nice slide dobro playing.
"Hard Times" is another slow blues, augumented by a horn ensemble, and Clapton actually does a pretty good, funky rendition of "Hound Dog".
"Run So Far" is a little masterpiece, written by George Harrison, who lends a hand playing guitar and singing harmony vocals. Nice, sparse arrangement there.

Clapton wrote "Old Love" with Robert Cray, and it works pretty well, too, without too much of the wall-of-sound treatment which has partly ruined "No Alibis", "Breaking Point" and "Anything For Your Love". And the album ends on a high note with some real, three-dimentional drumming from Steve Ferrone and Jim Keltner on the fine ballad "Lead Me On" and Bo Diddley's fiery blues classic "Before You Accuse Me" (albeit in a slick, less fiery version).

All in all, "Journeyman" is a good album. It could've been great, if a few more songs had been good instead of merely adequate, and if the production had been less 80s-like, but it is not one to be avoided by any means.

The 1980s were a strange decade for Clapton. Like a lot of veterans of the 1960s and '70s, his transition to the MTV era was difficult. There were even a couple of unfortunate instances in which he submitted a completed album to his record company only to see it rejected with instructions to return to the drawing board. He finally showed signs of renewal in 1989 when he released this fine album, which paved the way for his career's revival in the 1990s.

A couple of tracks rank among Clapton's best from any decade. "Pretending" is a firm mid-tempo rocker with one of his most assured vocal performances ever. "Running on Faith" is a gorgeous gospel-like tune that rings utterly true, very inspiring. On "Bad Love" he cuts loose like he hadn't done in years. "Hound Dog" was a risky song to cover because it might have invited unflattering comparisons to Elvis, but Eric pulls it off effectively. "Run So Far" is a sweet and carefree ditty written by George Harrison and featuring Harrison on guitar and backing vocals. The classic blues number "Before You Accuse Me" closes the album with a bang. But there are weaknesses that must be acknowledged. "Anything for Your Love" is an overproduced monstrosity that sounds suspiciously like a leftover from BEHIND THE SUN or AUGUST. There are hints of overproduction elsewhere as well. But for the most part, JOURNEYMAN has Clapton back where he belonged.

Clapton returns in 1989 with another huge followup to his huge phil collins produced behind the sun (1985) & August (1986). This album was even bigger than those 2. The refreshed clapton of the 80s continued his modesty & invited a plethora of musicians including collins, cray, daryl hall, david sanborn, chaka kahn, ray cooper, george harrison, pino palladino, nathan east, phillinganes & many more to complement his playing. This album was made a little inconsistent by the fact that there were so many guest muscicians (typical of 80s clapton). Clapton loves playing with a diverse list of musicians. His buddy phil collins played drums on "bad love" & the same year clapton played on "wish it would rain down" on phil's #1 album but seriously. They maintained their muscial relationship throughout the 80s. Great tunes here are pretending, bad love, no alibis, & running on faith. The album touches on a few musical styles including rock, pop, blues, & adult contemporary. His vocal performances are probably some of his best ever here especially on no alibis & pretending. On "no alibis" daryl hall helps on backing vocals & the result is incredible. Hall is a very underated musician & vocalist largely due to his poppy hall & oats stuff. Journeyman, along with collins's "but seriously" & "we can't dance" (1991 final genesis studio album) are 3 of the last great sophisticated albums in rock history. In the 90s grunge, rap, & heavy metal really triggered the decline of musicianship which has held on to present day (2008) - too bad. The late 80s & early 90s was really the swan song for intelligent rock. Buy this piece of rock history.

But that's not saying too much. I liked this alot when it first came out, but it has not aged terribly well. Most of this is just a little too slick and ready made for FM radio (e.g., "Pretending", "Bad Love"). It's still a heckuva lot better than "Behind The Sun" and the execrable "August".

The biggest problem is that it suffers from cd-itis (the tendancy to pack way too many mediocre tracks onto an album just because they fit onto the cd). Several of the these songs should have been left on the cutting room floor or tacked onto the end and marked as bonus tracks.

Still, there are enough good tracks to recommend this one, particularly "Before You Accuse Me", "Running On Faith" and "Lead Me On". It just doesn't make its way into my player very often, unlike, say, "461 Ocean Boulevard". . .

`Journeyman' is one of the albums that started my love affair with all things Clapton and it still has a special place in my heart. It has a great mix of rock and blues on it and shows Clapton when he is playing on all cylinders. The album opener `Pretending' still manages to raise a smile on my face even though I played this album to death on cassette and later on CD and `Bad Love' still sounds as powerful now as when I first heard it. Apparently when Clapton played the original mix of this album to record execs they said it was good but could he go off and write another `Layla', Clapton went away and `Bad Love' was his answer. And what a powerful answer it is, with a strong riff and great lyrics. There is also a duet with Robert Cray called `Old Love' and in my opinion this is one of the best blues tracks Clapton has ever written and I still get goosebumps when the chorus plays. This is the album where Clapton moved away from his synth heavy eighties sound and back towards the blues he is revered for and this album is the perfect blend of the two styles and if you are a fan of either styles of music you will be well catered for here. There isn't a bad track on this album and I can still happily listen to this from start to finish despite having heard it hundreds of times and if you enjoy this then I can only recommend `Unplugged' which was the natural progression from this album and features many of the songs here in an acoustic format. This is required listening and essential for your Clapton collection.

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If for no other reason but the debut of the classic "Running On Faith" this Clapton venture deserves a space on any music lover's shelf. At the end of the 1980's what was left to say? Many classic artists put in two cents in 1989; Dylan, Joel, the Stones, Ronstadt, Henley, each with different views and widely different results. Clapton combined the blues with some old fashioned rock and roll to create a worthy farewell to the excess of the 80's.

" Pretending", the first track and single from the album, is a rocker with some electric influence. Typical " you've done me wrong" song. " Bad Love" was the second single, again, nothing profound but easy on the ears. " Running on Faith" is one of Clapton's best songs. Period. The Gospel choir at the end is an affirmation of faith in action. " Old Love" is another song that lilts along with a haunting message. Everyone has one of these painful ghosts.

" Journeyman" is a far cry from " Slowhand", but it does offer a tale of a rocker aging gracefully.

Released in 1988, this album contains the blend & growth of Eric's past music. In "Bad Love" , Eric plays one of the best solo riffs ever! You would be hard pressed to find another as a equal. This should be in every Eric Clapton fan's collection.