Customer Reviews

One More Car: One More Rider (CD & DVD Set)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This latest release from rock legend Eric Clapton is a long overdo 2-cd "live" recording. Actually his last live recording was his "Unplugged" cd released in 1992. This 2-cd set was recorded during his 2001 tour and Clapton is in fine form here. Disc One starts with Clapton playing acoustic guitar on the first six songs. His acoustic guitar playing on songs such as "Key To The Highway" (a Derek & The Dominos song) , "Tears In Heaven", "Bell Bottom Blues" (another Derek & The Dominos song) ,"Change The World", etc. shows the diversity this talented guitarist has. He's as good on acoustic as he is playing electric guitar. It's not until "My Father's Eyes" that he switches to electric guitar. Every song sounds polished and Clapton's band is excellent with veteran keyboardist Billy Preston playing better than ever. Disc Two starts out with the bluesy "I Want A Little Girl". And very few guitarists can play the blues like Clapton. The following song "Badge" (from his late 60's days with the rock supergroup Cream) sounds terrific with the addition of keyboards. And Clapton's voice sounds better than ever. Clapton's 70's hit "Cocaine" is full of energy and the backup singers also add a special touch to this version. My favorite Clapton song (from his Derek & The Dominos days) "Layla" is outstanding with Clapton doing a nice guitar solo before the song kicks in. This version also includes the 4 min. extended piano ending which is played perfectly by Billy Preston. Another favorite (from his Cream days) "Sunshine Of Your Love" also starts with a nice guitar solo before going into the song. This is a nice updated version of the song again with the use of keyboards. Clapton's rendition of "Over The Rainbow" is a nice version which only he could pull off and make it sound good. This is an excellent "live" double cd that no Clapton fan should be without. Highly recommended!

Most of my favorite music artists are pushing retirement age, and furthermore, are looking it. It makes me feel a bit old, it's true, but it's great that these folks are still out there, giving us some wonderful music.

The advent of the DVD has made some really nice things possible. Those of us who unfortunately did not see Mr. Clapton on his last tour have the unprecedented opportunity to have both an audio and video record of the show, in one compact, tidy package. What a nice gift from Clapton to his fans, and what a great price. If you are considering purchasing this new live album, you should definitely buy this package, as for just a few more dollars, you get all the tracks from the audio package, PLUS Billy Preston's Will It Go Round in Circles on a very well-filmed and recorded DVD.

Just a few observations: The band is great; they're all consumate pros, and certainly do not disappoint. Guitarist Andy Fairweather/Low, keyboardist Greg Phillingames and and bassist Nathan East have been with Clapton a long time, while reletive newcomers (to Clapton's band) Billy Preston, David Sancious and Steve Gadd certainly need no introduction. These guys are the Cream (pardon me) of session men, and provide Clapton a wonderful bed over which to lay his distictive guitar and vocals. Clapton's dressed like your dad in his his Miami Beach best, and the band follows suit. These guys may dress like old men, but they play like angels.

There are really no surprises or revelations. Clapton rarely even speaks, preferring, I guess, to let his music do the speaking. And it certainly does. All the songs, but particularly the selections from Pilgrim, convey a warm, intimate feel. The songs all sound well lived-in, and wash over you like a clear mountain stream. The sound is very good, but sometimes the detail on the keyboards and 2nd guitar are lost. That said, the sound is warm and inviting, making you truly feel like you are sitting in the audience.

This man clearly has nothing to prove. This is about the music, plain and simple. One can't help notice that Clapton seems a bit detached. He rarely smiles, rarely looks at the audience, and rarely speaks. But I guess he doesn't need to.

Without a doubt, Eric Clapton is one of the world's greatest and respected guitarists as well as being an extraordinary vocalist. With his latest live release, "One More Car, One More Rider", Clapton and his band of well-known accomplished musicians take the listener on a wonderful journey through his amazing 40 year career.
Besides his solo classics such as "Cocaine" "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight", Eric goes back even further with outstanding renditions of the Cream classics "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "Badge" as well as a remarkable nine-minute take on the Clapton standard "Layla" from Derek and The Dominos.
Of course, no Clapton set would be complete without a little bit of blues. Here, Eric tackles a solo acoustic rendition of "Keys To The Highway" and later on when fully plugged-in, he tears into smoking takes of "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman?" showcasing some brilliant and flawless lead guitar and gritty vocals.
To make this live set complete, Clapton also performs some of his most recent hits including the Grammy award winning "Tears In Heaven" as well as "Change The World" and "River Of Tears".
A slight departure from the norm is the beautiful instrumental title track to Clapton's "Reptile" album and his cheerful uplifting version of the standard "Over The Rainbow" from the 1939 classic film "The Wizard of Oz".
Overall, this is the most solid live album ever to be released by Eric Clapton during his long career. It seems as if many of today's aging musicians get better as they get older. Eric Clapton is no exception. In my opinion, he sounds better now at 57 than he did at 27 or 37.
This live CD set also comes with a DVD which includes all of the music heard on the CDs plus a great performance of Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles?" in which Mr. Preston himself steps up to the microphone and gets the crowd going. He also displays some fancy footwork as well.
What else can I say? "One More Car, One More Rider" shows that Eric Clapton has definitely not run out of gasoline. He and his wonderful band of seasoned pros (Nathan East, Andy Fairweather-Low, Steve Gadd, David Sancious, Billy Preston and Greg Phillinganes-who appears on the CDs but not the DVD) display an acceptional talent. This is one that you'll definitely not want to miss. Great performance. Great musicianship. Great songs.

First of all I am a HUGE Clapton fan and have followed his career for a long time. I had been waiting for this CD set ever since I found out about it 2 months ago. That said I have to say that while this is a good set it's not great. The set starts with Eric playing acoustic on the first 4-5 cuts. The songs are excellent but let's face it we all expect Clapton to wail!! The electric tunes are OK and Claptons playing seems methodical rather than inspired, especially on cuts like "Have you ever loved a woman" and "Layla". It's though they taped this set late in the tour and he is going through the motions rather then displaying the passion that has lead to some incredible music. The back up band is excellent with Billy Preston, David Sancious and Steve Gadd but there are time when Clapton relinquishes the lead of the song to keyboards (yawn). This is supposed to be his last tour as he has said that he is tired of touring. With this album and Pilgrim I hope that he will take some time to record an album that truly shows his passion and master of the guitar rather than laid back music. The sound on the CD is excellent and there are even 2 video clips on the Cd's that can be played in your PC. Overall it's good but not great...

I have been a fan of Eric Clapton for ages. The fist time I saw him perform was with Cream at the Camden County Music Fair (I snuck under the tent, and I was in awe). The last time was in Paris, and it was an "all blues" show- too much of a good thing, for me.

This CD/DVD set offers a wonderful career retrospective. The band is awesome-lots of superstars here. Nathan East, on guitar, has recorded, performed and co-written songs with artists like Quincy Jones, Anita Baker, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Babyface, Al Jarreau, and David Benoit. Nathan East co-wrote " Easy Lover" with Phil Collins & Philip Bailey.

The DVD contains a track not listed here- Billy Preston's 1973 # 1 hit, "Will It Go `Round In Circles." What a pleasant surprise! It is an awesome version of the song, and Billy plays the organ, sings, and dances with great style (he is 55, but you'd never guess it from the way he moves!). Billy Preston has performed with the Beatles; he was on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album; he co-wrote Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful." His keyboard work on in this CD/DVD is superb.

"Layla" is performed in its original version, not the mellow, funked-up version of recent years- another pleasant surprise.

Buy this CD/DVD to appreciate outstanding musicians; they look like they are having a blast, and the music is superb.

I won't deny it. I'm a Clapton fanatic and have been for 4 decades. I've seen more Clapton shows than I can remember. This collection, however, is not even indicitive of what the man can do. Sure, he sings great, but he also yields the reigns over to the keybords too much in addition to rendering stiff versions of old favorites. But it's not Clapton so much as it's the band that undermines this title. Layla is leaden, Sunshine of Your Love doesn't swing at all and Cocaine is plodding. The main reason for these really stiff and lazily rendered "Vegas Clapton" tunes is, I feel, Steve Gadd. A great musician, one of the best ever. But he's just not a rock drummer in the same vein as, say, Phil Collins or even Ringo. 'Reptile' on disc 1 illustrates what Gadd does best. Laid back and just right. And it works here just fine. But the rest of it? NOT! Back in the early 80's, Clapton fired his band of English studio players citing that they were 'too perfect' and 'lacked a feel for the music'. This is also the case here. Too competent, too clean, too straight and very boring. Get 'Live at the Fillmore" or 'Crossroads II' or 'George Harrison Live in Japan' to hear the real deal. Too bad you can't just buy disc 1 of 'One More Car...' by itself. At least the master isn't being led by the band on most of these tunes. Otherwise this collection is EC on auto pilot.

With "Unplugged" a decade gone by, the time for another live Eric Clapton offering is most welcome. So out comes "One More Car, One More Rider", a more expansive (career-wise) concert that provides a refreshing twist on his classics, and a taste of his newer material in a live format.

Clapton is in fine form here. He is still at the peak of his guitar prowess, and his vocals seem to get better with age, as he knows his limits while also infusing that gravelly "growl" in the right places, as any good bluesman would. His set seems a bit more laid-back or mellow than in previous years, but he still fires off plenty of driving rock to appease his most hard-core fans.

Disc one of this two-CD package could almost be classifed as the "new" segment of the concert in that the majority of songs are from the past decade. Also, the first half of this disc is drawn from a mostly acoustic format, which is a outstanding display of Clapton's talents. Few performers these days would take a chance at dropping an instrumental into their live set, but Clapton does here with a catchy version of "Reptile". One of the hidden gems on this disc is the scaled-down, acoustic-driven "Bell Bottom Blues", which comes off beautifully.

Having seen Clapton in Seattle during his "Pilgrim" tour, I knew that the tracks from that CD sounded so much better live than they did with the awful, overproduced R&B presentation on the studio cuts. The same holds for this live disc; he performs several songs from "Pilgrim" here, with the same pleasing results.

Disc two of "One More Car, One More Rider" hits the throttle a little harder, as Clapton rolls through more of his classic hits. A slightly re-tooled version of "Badge" is another gem on this package. However, he seems to roll too quickly through "Hoochie Coochie Man", which nearly rips the blues out of this classic blues staple. He also performs an uninspired version of "Cocaine" in which he also adds the lyric "that dirty cocaine". Quite obviously cocaine is - like any drug - horrible, but he almost seems to give a more politically-correct bent on this song. "Sunshine Of Your Love" is overdone, and not helped by the unintelligible, over-dramatic singing from one of his bandmates. The other hits are good, if not unspectacular, and the closing number - "Over The Rainbow" - is a surprisingly pleasing track.

The one handicap with this CD set is the sound. Overall, the sound isn't bad, but there are places where it's not all that great. In a few places, most notable when he's talking between songs, the "echo" from the speakers in the arena are picked up. Also, there are a few points where the instruments drown out Clapton's vocals, or vice versa. I will concede that it's tough to finesse an audio track recorded in an arena setting, but there have been higher-quality recordings from similar settings and venues.

All in all, "One More Car, One More Rider" captures Eric Clapton in strong form, and the tracks recorded provide a nice broad brush of his career. The sound quality is a bit of a drawback, and a couple of songs not quite up to par, which keeps me from giving a full five-star rating. However, there is plenty about this release for all to enjoy, and it will be a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.

When buying music, there are a few rules of thumb. One example is don't buy a comedy album with a white guy talking about white people. Another is that if a pop song says "baby" or "girl" or others expressions like that more than two times in the opening line, chances are the music is unbearable.

Likewise, usually you should steer clear from white guys trying to play the blues. However, one exception can be found in Eric Clapton's new album.

On this two disc CD, there are both electric blues and acoustic blues. Both of these styles are mastered and presented by Eric Clapton. Clapton takes it a step further by adding the rock and roll drive into the mixture. The product is one of the best live albums on the market to date.

In short, if you like Eric Clapton, blues, live albums, or rock and roll in general then this is a must have.
-trigundude

If you even like one Clapton song, get this DVD. The CD is great too, but the DVD is fantastic. If you have ever picked up a guitar and found out what it is to play even the simple cords, this DVD will blow your mind. Clapton, must have a gift direct from God to be able to make the sounds he does with the guitar.

But wait, that isn't all Nathan East, Billy Preston and Dave Sancious are all out there, every one of the musicians are front cabin and will thrill you. Billy Preston was "Seargeant Pepper" with the Beatles and he does a fantastic version of "Will it Go Round in Circles" and it does.

You will love it.

This CD and DVD is just amazing. After listining to it for the first time and watching the DVD over and over and over again, the only thing that can come to mind is that this is amazing. The first disk of the CD is mainly Clapton doing some acoustic work. Key to the Highway is great with just Clapton and his Martin. The versions of Tears in Heaven and Bell Bottom Blues are great as well. After some of the acoustic work, he gets to the meat and potatoes of what makes Clapton great. Badge and I want a little girl are just amazing. And then there is Layla. It is an awesome song, and it is even better live. And to top it off there is Sunshine of your love and a suprisingly good rendition of somewhere over the rainbow. All in all, this is a very good disk. I personally liked this better than Unplugged and 24 Nights. If you are a Clapton fan, pick it up. If you aren't, pick it up anyway because this is a good place to start to learn about the greatest guitar player of our time.