Customer Reviews

Me & Mr Johnson

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(39)
2 star:		(39)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

When Clapton recorded and released his 'Unplugged' few years ago, he made wonderful covers of both Robert Johnson's Malted Milk and Walking Blues. The result was absolutely brilliant. I had not heard a more inspired, passionate,soulful Clapton in years.
I would say that the opposite is true of 'Me and Mr. Johnson'. Leaving aside why Clapton decided to record the 14 songs he chose instead of Rambling on My Mind, I'm a steady Rollin'Man, and so on; the record has a major problem.
There's no energy, there's no strength, there's no passion. If you listen to Robert Johnson's original recording they're phenomenlly powerful. In Clapton's rendition, those very same song almost put you to sleep.
Love in Vain is a perfect case in point. It is a very powerful song, one of those songs that strikes some chords inside you. Robert Johnson created that magic, the Rolling Stones were able to preserve that magic in their cover, but all the magic is lost with Clapton. Love in Vain is almost boring. Clapton is a great guitar player and great bluesman, but the arrangements he chose for this record are terrible. They take all the energy away from these great great songs. What a disaster.

Eric Clapton has been introducing the "Blues" to new audiences for almost his entire life. Early in his career, he could take an obsure blues song like "Crossroads" and make it into a rock hit. A number of Robert Johnson's songs were recorded in the corner of a hotel room on ancient equipment. These harsh sounding, yet powerful performances can send chills up your spine. Sadly, "Me and Mr. Johnson" is just plain boring to listen to. The song arrangements stay mostly faithful to the original recordings, but there are too many instruments on them. The band contains some fine musicians, but they sound so polished and lifeless. Clapton's playing is competent as usual, but it lacks the enthusiam that used to set him apart from all his peers.

The power of Robert Johnson's music lies in his haunting lyrics, stark arrangements, and tortured delivery. Unfortunately, in reworking Johnson's songs for "Me and Mr Johnson", Eric Clapton has robbed them of their original power, substituting instead competent, but out-of-place, Chicago Blues-style arrangements and disappointingly hackneyed vocal delivery. Johnson's lyrics alone are left to carry the load and, alas, they cannot.

Clapton can do better, and, indeed, he has. Listen to "Malted Milk" from Unplugged and "Terraplane Blues" and "Ramblin' on My Mind" from
Sessions For Robert J. (CD + DVD) for proof that he can interpret Johnson's music in inspired fashion. Given the magnitude of Robert Johnson's influence on Eric Clapton, a Clapton album comprised entirely of Johnson's songs seemed a very promising undertaking. If only "Me and Mr Johnson" had lived up to that promise . . .

There is little doubt that Clapton is a living legend having made considerable contributions to blues-based popular music. Unfortunately, "Me and Mr. Johnson" is not that considerable. With an all star cast of musicians (Andy Fairweather-Low, Billy Preston, Nathan East, and Steve Gadd) this disc offers the listener tweaked and polished interpretations of almost half of the legendary blues man's existing repertoire. However, what the album offers in terms of production it certainly lacks in feeling. Some other reviews have used the term "elevator music" to describe the recording, but "karaoke" would be a better term. There is little to convince you that this is distinctly Clapton playing a heartfelt blues classic rather than an average Joe reading the lyrics off a television monitor in a smoky bar somewhere. Upbeat numbers such as "They're Red Hot" fare much better than tortured tracks such as "Hell Hound On My Trail," which comes across more like an angry weenie dog snapping at his heels.

While the album may serve as an introduction to early blues music for new listeners, Clapton's "From The Cradle," "Riding With The King," and even his "MTV Unplugged" are much more representative of his talent as an interpreter of the blues. Both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly gave this record a good review, but just because he is already a legend doesn't warrant the rubber stamp of approval from even the most die hard of fans in my opinion. I would suggest checking out the albums mentioned above if you are interested in Clapton and/or a bridge to the blues genre.

On a last note, beware that this CD is copy protected, which may cause some problems if you would like to convert the songs to a digital device such as an I-Pod or mp3 player. Just another way of making it more difficult for the honest consumer rather than serving as a true deterrent of piracy.

Man, after reading some of the vehemently negative reviews posted here, I feel like George Bush at a Howard Dean rally by expressing a somewhat different view.
I like this CD. To me, its the best thing EC has done since his Cream years. Think of Cream's music and EC's work with John Mayall, then think of years of commercial garbage like I Shot the Sheriff and worse and you'll see what I mean.
When I bought this, I wasn't expecting "authenticity", some of the media hype prior to its release notwithstanding. And I didn't expect a CD full of Cream-like power blues. Actually, I didn't really expect anything, but I hoped that the CD would redeem him in the eyes of old fans like myself who have endured nearly thirty lean years with hardly a bone thrown our direction.
It has done this. Yes, Me and Mr Johnson is a lot more polished than other Johnson tributes I have heard and no, its not "authentic". But to my ears, it is quite enjoyable. Clapton has his own way with the blues and here he and his capable sidemen give us his interpretation of Robert Johnson's music and nothing more.
Robert Johnson was no doubt a great songwriter and I like all the songs here no matter who covers them. On this CD, I like the interpretations of Me and the Devil Blues, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Stop Breakin' Down Blues, If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, and Love In Vain the best.
If you are a Clapton fan and make an honest attempt to listen to the album for what it is rather than constantly comparing the songs to the originals, you may find you really like this. Listen as though you are hearing these songs for the first time. Eric Clapton can't be Robert Johnson and he shouldn't try to be. He can only be himself and on Me and Mr Johnson he offers us his homage to the man he holds to be his chief musical influence. Check it out for yourself!

Clapton plays it safe here with some very laid back blues playing reminiscent of his late 70's early 80's recordings. The production is slick and commercial with no rough edges to the sound, almost "overproduced" (hardly a quality for anyone who is a blues "purist"). All the instruments are mixed equally with no particular musician upfront in the mix; consequently this is not a "Clapton guitar" album. If anything Clapton's vocals are the most prominent feature here. I give Eric credit, he has become an above average singer and it shows on this release. His vocals are very smooth and soulful. Billy Preston contributes some fine piano, too bad Billy couldn't have taken over the vocal chores on a song or two. If you've been a Clapton fan since his Yardbirds & Bluesbreakers days, chances are you'll be more than a little disappointed here (you gotta get John Mayall's 70th Birthday Concert with both Clapton & Mick Taylor). If "Unplugged" is your favorite (and first) Clapton album, chances are you'll really enjoy this recording.

Personally, I find it a bit too "commercial" for my blood. The music is better suited for an elevator ride rather than a Southside Chicago Blues Club. The blues is emotion & passion. This album comes off a little too "blues-by-numbers", lacking in the above to qualities. Clapton's vocals on "Ramblin' On My Mind" from the Bluesbreaker's album have 10 times the emotion shown here. I would not use the term "restraint" in reference to this release as much as the term "record sales". It reminds me of the story about a young British Blues Guitarist who left his band back in the mid-60's because he thought they were getting too commmercial.

With all the hoolpa this cd has received, one is atonsihed by the absolute nonsense of some of the rock critics who rave about this. Much of this collection of performances of songs that Robert Johnson recorded is on the level of a bar band doing Robert Johnson. None of Clapton's renditions of these songs match those by Robert Lockwood, Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Joe Williams, Junior Wells, Eddie Taylor, Boyd Gilmore, Muddy Waters and others who have taken Johnson's songs and produced recordings that are more passionately and personally performed. Clapton is too reverent to these songs and the lyrics which is strange for a homage to Johnson whose own work adapted and transformed his contemporaries music as Elijah Wald details in his recent book. Check out Leroy Carr's In the Evening before listening to Robert Johnson's Love in Vain and Clapton's rendition pales compared to the Stones' cover of it three decades ago. Both Junior Wells and Eddie Taylor had standout recordings of Stop Breakin' Down that makes Clapton's rendition here sound not very distinguished. Call Clapton a rock guitar god all you want and a great popularizer of the blues, but when you have assimilated not simply Johnson's music but also the great bluesmen of the past fifty years, than Clapton's achievement is clearly overstated. One other point was that I was not enamored by the studio band. There are some great players (and Mr. Portnoy is a great harp player), but the rhythm section does not swing and they sound second rate comapred to some of the classic Chicago bands of the sixties and seventies.

Hate to admit it but this just isn't very good. Been a fan since 'Slowhand' so i've been frequently disappointed and underwhelmed by Clapton, but this is just amazing. This has everything going for it but it just doesn't come together. The featured review by 'Woomer' mirrors my feelings that nothing since 'From the Cradle' has been worthwhile barring 'Riding with the King' and that was helped immensely by King himself.

Toss this onto the heap along with 'Reptile' and 'Pilgrim'.

I know that a lot of listeners are prepared to receive this CD as the Second Coming. It is Eric Clapton playing Robert Johnson, after all. And others will be equally prepared to hate it on the same grounds.
But to me "Me And Mr Johnson" is neither very bad nor very good. Eric Clapton has brought in Muddy Waters' former harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, and the Beatles' organ player Billy Preston, and he himself plays excellent slide guitar on a couple of tracks, including a very good rendition of "Traveling Riverside Blues". Still, the overall impression is quite bland.

Staying away from songs like "Sweet Home Chicago" and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", which have been covered about a million times, Clapton focuses on somewhat lesser-known songs instead.
The arrangements are mostly acoustic, with some electric numbers thrown in for good measure, but almost every song is recorded using a full band which includes drums, keyboards, and two or three guitars. Whether or not you consider that an improvement is a matter of taste, I suppose...a few of the arrangements are certainly too cluttered for my taste.

Highlights include the aforementioned "Traveling Riverside Blues", a great, acoustic "Come On In My Kitchen", played in traditional country blues fashion, and an excellent "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day", one of only a few songs which really manage to get that deep, swinging blues groove going.
And the rest is not excactly horrible, but considering how good Clapton's last pure blues album, "From The Cradle", was, "Me And Mr Johnson" is a disappointment. And the sound is surprisingly mediocre...it's flat and dull, certainly not what you would expect from a 2004 release. Or maybe mine is a Monday pressing.

All in all, "Me And Mr Johnson" doesn't excactly blow Johnson's originals out of the water, and it doesn't come close to matching Peter Green's two excellent Robert Johnson-tributes either.
A certain reviwer who shall remain nameless suggests that people who dislike this CD are merely myopic "blues purists", but that is neither here nor there, really...this is just not a particularly good record, that's all there is to it.
Hardcore Clapton fans will want to check it out, of course, and they will hate everybody who doesn't give it five stars, but most people would be better off listening to Robert Johnson playing Robert Johnson, rather than spend their money on these indisctinct performances.

2 3/4 stars. Proceed with caution.

Don't you wish that people would just review the album instead of making this about whether or not they like Eric Clapton (or, God help us, Bon Jovi)?

I know that a lot of listeners are prepared to receive this CD as the Second Coming. It is Eric Clapton playing Robert Johnson, after all. And others will be equally prepared to hate it on the same grounds.
But to me "Me And Mr Johnson" is neither very bad nor very good. Eric Clapton has brought in Muddy Waters' former harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, and the Beatles' organ player Billy Preston, and he himself plays excellent slide guitar on a couple of tracks, including a very good rendition of "Traveling Riverside Blues", but the overall impression is quite bland.

Staying away from songs like "Sweet Home Chicago" and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom", which have been covered about a million times, Clapton focuses on somewhat lesser-known songs instead.
The arrangements are mostly acoustic, with some electric numbers thrown in for good measure, but almost every song is recorded using a full band which includes drums, keyboards, and two or three guitars. Whether or not you consider that an improvment is a matter of taste, I suppose...a few of the arrangements are certainly too cluttered for my taste.

Highlights include the aforementioned "Traveling Riverside Blues", a great, acoustic "Come On In My Kitchen", played in traditional country blues fashion, and an excellent "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day", one of only a few songs which really manage to get that deep, swinging blues groove going.
The rest is not excactly horrible, but considering how good Clapton's last pure blues album, "From The Cradle", was, "Me And Mr Johnson" is a disappointment. And the sound is surprisingly mediocre...it's flat and dull, certainly not what you would expect from a 2004 release. Or maybe mine is a Monday pressing.

All in all, "Me And Mr Johnson" doesn't excactly blow Johnson's originals out of the water, and it doesn't come close to matching Peter Green's two excellent Robert Johnson-tributes either.
Hardcore Clapton fans will want to check it out, of course, and they will hate everybody who doesn't give it five stars, but most people would be better off listening to Robert Johnson playing Robert Johnson, rather than spend their money on these indisctinct performances.

2 3/4 stars. Proceed with caution.