jdl22
04-27-2004, 05:37 AM
Last week I bought the cd Me and Mr. Johnson by Eric Clapton. Having listened to virtually nothing else I thought I would do a review.
For those not familiar, Robert Johnson is one of the classic country blues guitar players from the 1930's. He's famous for his story and his music which has been covered numerous times by many artists. He has strongly influenced every blues player and many rock groups like the rolling stones. His song Sweet Home Chicago was the final song played by Stevie Ray Vaughan before he died. The famous story of Robert Johnson is that he was a bad player according to local musicians and in a short time developed amazing skill due to a deal with the devil in which he traded his soul in exchange for guitar skill. As legend has it he was poisoned by a bartender that caught him fooling around with his wife.
To the CD:
Interestingly enough this album does not cover the most famous and well known Johnson songs like Dust my broom, Sweet Home Chicago, Terraplane Blues, and of course Crossroads which EC already covered. For those that have heard the original Johnson recordings this album as expected sounds radically different from the originals. While Johnson was playing by himself (although he was skilled enough to make it seem as though there are two people playing) on an acoustic guitar, Clapton plays with the usual backup at times with someone on harp and piano. This made me cringe a few times especially on tracks where RJ was playing slide guitar. The most clear example of this is 32-20 blues. That is one of my favorite RJ songs because of the smooth, simple slide work while the Clapton version sounds like more of a piano boogie. Clapton does play slide on some songs. These include "Me and the devil blues" "last fair deal gone down" "Milkcow's calf blues" and "Come on in my kitchen." These songs are all excellent.
An impressive thing about the album is that Clapton covers some of the more nontraditional songs "They're red hot" and "Hell hound on my trail." I don't think I've ever heard these covered before and it was amazing to hear them. While Clapton has a very different voice from Robert Johnson it works well on both of these songs (and all the others, but especially these). If anybody knows of other covers of these songs please let me know.
For all the gamblers out there (yes that means you, and you too) he covers the song "Little queen of spades" which I feel is a fantastic gambling song:
[ QUOTE ]
Now she is a little queen of spades, and the men will not let her be
Hoo, she's the little queen of spades, and the men will not let her be
Ev'ry time she makes a spread, hoo, fair brown, cold chills just run all over me
I'm gon' get me a gamblin' woman, if it's the last thing that I do
Hoo, gon' get me a gamblin' woman, if it's the last thing that I do
Well, a man don't need a woman, hoo fair brown, that he got to give all his money to
Everybody say she got a mojo, now she's been using that stuff
Mmmm, everybody say she got a mojo, cause she's been using that stuff
But she got a way of trimmin' down, hoo fair brown, and I mean it's most too tough
Now, little girl, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Whoo hoo, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Let’s us put our heads together, hoo fair brown, then we make our money green
[/ QUOTE ]
One word of warning. Clapton has a voice that is understandable to all. Robert Johnson does not. As such if you would be offended by lyrics written in the thirties that are obviously sexist and involve a husband "controlling" his wife with physical abuse and even very open death threats then you will want to skip a couple of tracks. Again, these lyrics were written in the 1930's when saying these things was not only acceptable but normal. Just like the original recordings if you are able to get beyond the lyrics and just listen to the music it is fantastic. That's just slightly more difficult when it doesn't take work to understand the words which is why I wrote the warning.
Like many of my posts that was much longer than expected. My final grade for the album is 9.5 out of ten. I would give it a 10 but my purist side took the last half point. I highly reccomend it for traditional blues fans as well as fans of Clapton and other similar artists and also for those wishing to gain insight on an American legend.
For those not familiar, Robert Johnson is one of the classic country blues guitar players from the 1930's. He's famous for his story and his music which has been covered numerous times by many artists. He has strongly influenced every blues player and many rock groups like the rolling stones. His song Sweet Home Chicago was the final song played by Stevie Ray Vaughan before he died. The famous story of Robert Johnson is that he was a bad player according to local musicians and in a short time developed amazing skill due to a deal with the devil in which he traded his soul in exchange for guitar skill. As legend has it he was poisoned by a bartender that caught him fooling around with his wife.
To the CD:
Interestingly enough this album does not cover the most famous and well known Johnson songs like Dust my broom, Sweet Home Chicago, Terraplane Blues, and of course Crossroads which EC already covered. For those that have heard the original Johnson recordings this album as expected sounds radically different from the originals. While Johnson was playing by himself (although he was skilled enough to make it seem as though there are two people playing) on an acoustic guitar, Clapton plays with the usual backup at times with someone on harp and piano. This made me cringe a few times especially on tracks where RJ was playing slide guitar. The most clear example of this is 32-20 blues. That is one of my favorite RJ songs because of the smooth, simple slide work while the Clapton version sounds like more of a piano boogie. Clapton does play slide on some songs. These include "Me and the devil blues" "last fair deal gone down" "Milkcow's calf blues" and "Come on in my kitchen." These songs are all excellent.
An impressive thing about the album is that Clapton covers some of the more nontraditional songs "They're red hot" and "Hell hound on my trail." I don't think I've ever heard these covered before and it was amazing to hear them. While Clapton has a very different voice from Robert Johnson it works well on both of these songs (and all the others, but especially these). If anybody knows of other covers of these songs please let me know.
For all the gamblers out there (yes that means you, and you too) he covers the song "Little queen of spades" which I feel is a fantastic gambling song:
[ QUOTE ]
Now she is a little queen of spades, and the men will not let her be
Hoo, she's the little queen of spades, and the men will not let her be
Ev'ry time she makes a spread, hoo, fair brown, cold chills just run all over me
I'm gon' get me a gamblin' woman, if it's the last thing that I do
Hoo, gon' get me a gamblin' woman, if it's the last thing that I do
Well, a man don't need a woman, hoo fair brown, that he got to give all his money to
Everybody say she got a mojo, now she's been using that stuff
Mmmm, everybody say she got a mojo, cause she's been using that stuff
But she got a way of trimmin' down, hoo fair brown, and I mean it's most too tough
Now, little girl, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Whoo hoo, since I am the king, baby, and you is a queen
Let’s us put our heads together, hoo fair brown, then we make our money green
[/ QUOTE ]
One word of warning. Clapton has a voice that is understandable to all. Robert Johnson does not. As such if you would be offended by lyrics written in the thirties that are obviously sexist and involve a husband "controlling" his wife with physical abuse and even very open death threats then you will want to skip a couple of tracks. Again, these lyrics were written in the 1930's when saying these things was not only acceptable but normal. Just like the original recordings if you are able to get beyond the lyrics and just listen to the music it is fantastic. That's just slightly more difficult when it doesn't take work to understand the words which is why I wrote the warning.
Like many of my posts that was much longer than expected. My final grade for the album is 9.5 out of ten. I would give it a 10 but my purist side took the last half point. I highly reccomend it for traditional blues fans as well as fans of Clapton and other similar artists and also for those wishing to gain insight on an American legend.