Eric Clapton's Summertime Blues
Blues songs from 1970-80 highlight upcoming Clapton compilation
If you bid high enough on one of Eric Clapton's 100 guitars on sale at the London branch of Christie's Auction House on June 24, you'll be able to play along with Eric Clapton: The Blues on one of the instruments that created the music. In fact, for a mere $100,000, you can be in the running for the 1956 Stratocaster that he used while recording his signature tune "Layla" with Derek and the Dominos..
The Blues, due out on July 27 on Universal/Polydor, will feature a Clapton duet with Duane Allman on a never-before-released version of Little Walter's "Mean Old World" from those very sessions, as well as two versions of Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me" -- one done as a shuffle, and the other as a Chicago Blues number. The Diddley covers open and close the two-CD set, which mimics the form of Cream's seminal Wheels of Fire, with one disc including only studio tracks and the other with only live tunes.
Compiled and arranged by Universal Records VP Bill Levenson (who also won a Grammy for the four-CD Crossroads set), this collection concentrates on Clapton's blues numbers, including such gems as Jimmy Reed's "Ain't That Loving You," performed with Traffic's Dave Mason on second guitar from the 461 Ocean Boulevard sessions, as well as a version of Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Further On Up the Road," performed with guitar great Freddie King, which appeared on a posthumous King album but was not included on a Clapton release.
"After listening to two and a half hours of blues we decided on some textural changes, so we put in 'Wonderful Tonight,'" Levenson says. "Someone might say that's really not a blues number, but I'd disagree."
JAAN UHELSZKI (June 2, 1999)
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