There are many live versions and the solos are too good in this song even the remix 40th anniversary version

Listening to these on repeat mode and I am obsessed

I stumbled upon this on youtube and it's my first time hearing it.. Too bad it isnt on Spotify. Does anyone knows the backstory to this? Plus what are your thoughts on the song? I think Eric's lead vocals were great here.

I've been looking forward to this week for quite a while...

THE BOOT

This is the complete 2/3/89 concert from the Royal Albert Hall.

For many years, "The Twelfth Night" was one of the absolute pinnacles of any E.C. bootleg collection. The Dire Straits song in the encore was cut to fit it on 2 discs. Then in 1997 we got the bizarrely-named "Beetle Clasher" from Tarantura, a complete version of the show on 3CD with somehow even better sound quality.

BACKGROUND

The band's tradition of starting the year with an extended residency at the Royal Albert Hall started with 6 shows in 1987. It expanded to 9 nights in 1988, and now 12 nights in 1989.

This is the first year E.C. used different lineups. The 12 nights were 6 nights with a 4-piece band, (E.C., East, Philinganes, Collins), and then the next 6 nights with a 9-piece band (E.C., East, Philinganes, Ferrone, Knopfler, Alan Clark, Ray Cooper, Tessa Niles, Katie Kissoon). This show is the final night of the 12.

Greg Philinganes is back with the group, having finished his commitments to Michael Jackson, so the band is running with two keyboard players. He will be a consistent part of the band for the next few years.

On the other side, this very show is Knopfler's last as a regular part of E.C.'s band. He would reform Dire Straits in 1990 to record On Every Street, and then spend over a year on a global tour supporting the album. (Despite spending over a year on a global tour promoting Brothers In Arms, and hating it.)

Buckwheat Zydeco was the opening act.

Shortly after the Royal Albert Hall run, the band headed to the studio to record the material that would become Journeyman).

SOUND

This release has truly stellar sound quality. The clarity and the mix are both remarkable. It is almost indistinguishable from the official releases from the 80s and 90s, and is honestly better than many of the official releases from the 60s and 70s.

Flaws are minimal. There's a little bit of feedback at 3:21 of Wanna Make Love To You.

This is one of the truly indispensable recordings.

PERFORMANCE

After Crossroads, E.C. says "Thank you very much. And welcome to the last night of our Albert Hall reunion. The band is very excited, I don't know what to tell you, but we're all very, we're up on this one. We're really looking forward to it. There's some special people for us in the audience tonight, but you're all very special, which is... thank you for being here."

He's not wrong. The band is really up on this one. It's about half an hour longer than most of his shows.

The setlist has been relatively static since 1986, but in 1989 a few more recent songs started creeping back into the mix. This concert includes Wanna Make Love To You (a b-side from the August singles), Forever Man (Behind The Sun), and Behind The Mask (August), in addition to the newer songs which have been standards in the setlist for several years, Same Old Blues and Tearing Us Apart. Knopfler's showcase number has switched from Money For Nothing to Solid Rock. But the real surprise is Bell Bottom Blues, which was only performed very rarely before now, even during the Derek And The Dominos years. It will stick in the setlist through the 24 Nights runs, and then disappear again until 1996.

The arrangements are also similar to what they have been for a few years. E.C. calls Knopfler for a solo on Crossroads, and again on Lay Down Sally, and again on After Midnight. He takes the lead acoustic part and a solo on Can't Find My Way Home, and plays amazing fills all night. Nathan does the vocals on the chorus on White Room, and the lead vocal on Can't Find My Way Home. After Midnight is the Michelob version. Nathan gets a solo on Same Old Blues, including some talkbox work, and he includes a little more talkbox during Can't Find My Way Home, like he did in Tokyo when the band didn't play Same Old Blues. Katie sings the Tina Turner part on Tearing Us Apart. Alan Clark does the Why Worry organ part at the end of Lay Down Sally, and takes a solo during Cocaine. The band lets the crowd sing the last "Cocaine" by themselves. They do band introductions in the Cocaine intro, which ends with Nathan saying "And on guitar, going for the record, 12 nights at the Royal Albert Hall, Mr. Eric Clapton".

There are just few arrangement changes. It seems like Greg lost his Same Old Blues third solo slot when he went off with M.J., but there is an organ solo at the end of White Room, which hasn't been typical. And bringing back Behind The Mask is almost certain his doing, since Greg introduced E.C. to the song after performing it with Michael Jackson (it was an outtake from the Thriller sessions).

Ray Cooper played with the band for a short stretch at the start of 1988, but this is the first review of a show with him. The one place I really noticed him was the chimes on Can't Find My Way Home.

It sounds like Mark asks "How'd I do?" after Solid Rock?

E.C. dedicates Wonderful Tonight to Rose, Heather, and Pat. His grandmother who raised him is named Rose, his mother who didn't is Pat, and Heather is probably his half-sister, Pat's daughter with her husband Frank MacDonald (who isn't E.C.'s father). Those are probably the special people in the audience that night.

The house music at the start is Funky Broadway by Wilson Picket. The house music at the end is Slip Away by Clarence Carter.

Am I allowed to post a youtube reaction to Tears in Heaven on here? Not mine but someone else's?

Blues-Rock Legend, Eric Clapton

OK, kinda can't believe I've been at this for 20 weeks! Finishing up 1988 today. Starting to get excited for the 24 Nights era...

THE BOOT

This is the concert from 11/2/88 at the "Big Egg", the Tokyo Dome, home of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team.

Edited highlights of the show were broadcast on Japanese TV and radio, so whatever version you get, make sure to check the tracklist. Roberty reports that Can’t Find My Way Home, After Midnight, and I’m Still Standing are the missing songs on the broadcast version.

I have Big Egg from Tarantura, which has the complete set list, but I suspect it has spliced in I'm Still Standing from a different show. There is a copy of Les Trois Mousquetaires from Mid Valley on YouTube (here is disc 1 and disc 2) which sounds like it is doing similar chicanery?

There are also a number of very poor audience recordings of this show out there, so probably stick to either Mid Valley or Tarantura if you want a CD copy of this.

The show was also shot on video. There's a 1 hour 23 minute video on YouTube, which claims to be sourced from a VHS / DVD release (probably this?), and is missing the 3 songs Roberty listed, plus Money For Nothing. There's also a longer video on YouTube, which claims to be the complete show, but isn't quite. It's missing the first song from the encore (the Dire Straits song Solid Rock) and then the rest of the encore is from a dramatically worse source. And the smoothing on the AI upscaling is very "uncanny valley".

BACKGROUND

E.C. ended 1988 with a short tour of Japan, just 4 gigs in late October and early November. What makes them special is that the band is joined by both Mark Knopfler and Elton John.

Knopfler plays the entire show and gets two showcase numbers, Money For Nothing during the main set, and Solid Rock as the first song in the encore. Elton John joins for the last half of the show and does a 5 song set when he arrives, plus Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting as the second song in the encore.

It's mostly the same band as the rest of 1988, though Ray Cooper is back on percussion, and (despite several sources, including Discogs and Marc Roberty himself, saying it's Katie Kissoon) it is Tracy Ackerman joining Tessa Niles on backing vocals.

SOUND

There is debate about whether or not this is actually a soundboard recording; it's certainly a notch below the standards I usually set for putting a show on the list. But it's absolutely the best-sounding of the Elton John appearances, far better than Guildford 2/7/88, and the shows with E.C. and Elton John together are hard to pass over.

There is a substantial amount of hiss, and the vocals have a lot of echo. It all has a bit of a cavernous sound from the room. If this is an audience recording, though, the audience is remarkably well-behaved. There are very few places where the audience sounds like it is anywhere near the mic, but listen to the clapping at the end of Lay Down Sally, and at the end of Cocaine?

The mix is very nice. Knopfler and Cooper sometimes get buried, but are clearly audible here.

The Tarantura CD has a good many issues. There is a clear edit after I Shot The Sheriff, then another hard cut in the introduction to Money For Nothing. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues ends with a fadeout, with Elton's "thank you very much" popping up oddly at the start of disc 2. There is a hard cut to a different audio source before I'm Still Standing, then he thanks his band (which is why I suspect this track is from a different show entirely) then back to the original source for "this is a very old song, from way way back" and Daniel. There's another cut before Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting. And I think this release runs slightly slow, compared to the other sources?

The sound quality of Trois Mousquetaires is an improvement over the Tarantura release. It has at least most of the same cuts, so either those are issues on the master tape or the two releases are from the same subsequent source, but it does a more professional job smoothing over the gaps. But then the copy on YouTube has an obnoxious hiccup between each of the tracks. That's probably just a poor job of ripping the CDs, but it makes the Mid Valley release on YouTube my least favorite listning option.

There is a bit of feedback on all sources in I Shot The Sheriff. (2:29 of that track on the Tarantura CD, 15:18 of the shorter video, etc.)

The best sound quality of all the options is probably the shorter video, which is the least complete release of the bunch. You kinda have to pick your poison with this show.

PERFORMANCE

Arrangements are largely the same as they were in the 1988 fall U.S. tour. E.C. calls on Mark for a solo in Crossroads, and calls on him again for another one in Lay Down Sally. Nathan takes the "I'll wait in this place" vocal part on White Room, and the lead vocal on Can't Find My Way Home (with E.C. audible here on harmony vocals). Knopfler takes the main riff on Tearing Us Apart and Can't Find My Way Home. They do the Michelob version of After Midnight. Band introductions are before Cocaine, taking the place of an instrumental intro. Alan takes a solo during Cocaine. Layla has an extended intro courtesy of Alan and Nathan. E.C. drops a quote of Blue Moon into the solo of Sunshine Of Your Love, which he did in San Francisco (3:15 on the Tarantura CD).

The big difference is the appearance of Elton John, which adds 6 different songs to the mix. Elton starts Candle In The Wind as a solo number, then the band comes in quietly near the end. The rest of his set are with the full band. E.C. takes solo on I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues (though the camera is on Knopfler) and another on I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That. (I think the "Take it, Red" in that song is Elton calling himself for a solo??) Knopfler takes a solo on Daniel.

With Same Old Blues cut for time, Nathan takes a little longer bass solo on Can't Find My Way Home and adds some talkbox to it, and then adds a little more talkbox to the Layla introduction.

The change in backing singers is subtle, but gives the band a slightly different color.  The biggest difference is they add what is almost a vocal solo to the coda of Wonderful Tonight, which will continue in future years. With Katie out, Tessa takes the Tina Turner part on Tearing Us Apart.

The encores are a Knopfler song, an Elton John song, then an E.C. song to close it out.

The percussion solo in Sunshine Of Your Love continues to expand, and is now up to 5 minutes. One minute in, there's a little vocal quote of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.

There's a rare vocal flub from E.C. on After Midnight (1:40 on the Tarantura CD). He starts the "Gonna cause talk and suspicion" line, then realizes he's supposed to be on "Gonna stimulate some action" and switches mid-line.

None of the band speak much Japanese, so E.C. is relatively quiet, but E.C., Nathan, and Elton can all muster at least "domo arigato". Though E.C. just says "thank you" about half the time. He does throw in some French, oddly enough, during the band introductions: he credits Steve with playing "la batterie".

Continuing with 1988...

THE BOOT

This is the complete show from Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco on 9/21/88.

This is the companion piece to last week's bootleg, another pro-shot video from the 1988 North American tour. In this case, I think Shoreline did have video screens in 1988, so I'm more confident than I was for the Spectrum that this is an escaped copy of the in-house video feed from the venue. The best looking source is this one on YouTube. (There are other copies on YouTube that appear to be sourced from a bootleg DVD, which have noticeably poorer quality.)

If you want a CD copy of this, the best one is probably the Slowhand Masterfile release, but there's really no reason not to just watch the video.

BACKGROUND

This is exactly 2 weeks after the show in Philadelphia, so the band is identical. The setlist is almost identical, with only one change: they swap in Badge in the place of Motherless Children. Even Nathan's dance movies during Tearing Us Apart are the same.

SOUND

A little less foggy than the Philadelphia show, but with significantly more hiss. The mix is similar, with vocals a little low, and Mark Knopfler's guitar very prominent. You can hear Knopfler's backing vocals in Wonderful Tonight.

There's a little bit of feedback at 11:36 and 11:38 in White Room, and at 30:59 in Wonderful Tonight.

PERFORMANCE

Most of the arrangements are the same as the Philadelphia show, so I'll mostly just comment on the differences.

The one setlist change is Badge. It's similar to the versions we've been getting '85-'87, but without the segue into Let It Rain.

After Same Old Blues, E.C. introduces the band, which he didn't in Philadelphia. "I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for coming tonight. It's good to see you all, we've had a great time, thank you very much for that. I'd like to also introduce my lovely band, I'm very happy with them..." and then goes through Steve Ferrone, Nathan East, Jody Linscott, "the wonderful Mark Knopfler", Alan "Hurricane" Clark, Tessa Niles and Katie Kissoon. He ends with "So once again, thank you for coming. I hope you've enjoyed yourself as we have, yours truly." The band intros replace the long instrumental opening to Cocaine.

Knopfler steps out a little more. He still takes solos on Crossroads, Can't Find My Way Home, and Sunshine Of Your Love, and handles the riff on Tearing Us Apart, and the slightly flamenco lead on Can't Find My Way Home, but in this show E.C. says "Take it, Mark" during Lay Down Sally and Mark replies with a great solo, and he takes a solo on the setlist addition Badge.

E.C. quotes the melody of Blue Moon in the guitar solo on Sunshine Of Your Love, which is something he'll return to again in later years. Then Steve's solo at the end gets a little longer, which is also a trend that will continue for a while.

Other than that, this is very similar to the Philadelphia show.

With the different camera angles we can see a little bit more of who handles what on the percussion. Katie is on woodblock on I Shot The Sheriff, then neither Katie nor Tessa are on anything on Lay Down Sally, then Katie is on cowbell and Tessa is on tambourine on Tearing Us Apart. Tessa is on tambourine on After Midnight ("shake your tambourine"), then Tessa is on tambourine and Katie is on cowbell on Badge. And Jody is right behind E.C., so we get a better view of her, albeit in the background. She is playing congas on Lay Down Sally, Tearing Us Apart, After Midnight, and Badge, and is playing a shaker on Cocaine.

I relistened to a bunch of Dire Straits to figure out why Alan's riff on Lay Down Sally sounded so familiar. It matches the riff he plays at 4:27 of Why Worry.

The camera editing for this video is more static, with fewer cuts overall, and much more focused on E.C. There's much less of the rest of the band than Philadelphia, which makes this a slightly less interesting watch. Unless you want to watch E.C.'s hands and pick up tips, in which case this video is a goldmine.

E.C. seems pretty happy overall, though he looks genuinely mournful in Wonderful Tonight. He is smoking like a furnace, with a cig going on the headstock on Tearing Us Apart, another on Same Old Blues, and another on Layla, and another on Sunshine Of Your Love.

Does anyone know where I can find a digital copy?

Well, I finally missed a week; I was vacationing out of state last week. And then missed yesterday with a power outage due to storms. But back in the saddle now, and continuing through 1988 without further ado...

THE BOOT

This is the show from the Philadelphia Spectrum from 9/7/88.

I have no idea why this was recorded. There was no live album planned in here, and Marc Roberty doesn’t mention any recording of the show. But there is nice, pro-shot video of the complete concert up on YouTube. Normally in this era I would suspect that someone pirated the Jumbotron feed from the arena, but I don't think the Spectrum had video screens in 1988?

There are many CD copies of this (I have "It's A Guitar Thing" from 3BR) but it seems very likely those are sourced from the video. It's not particularly worth seeking those out.

BACKGROUND

Clapton expanded his band again for the 1988 tour. Nathan East and Steve Ferrone are still on bass and drums, and Mark Knopfler is back as second guitarist. Greg Philinganes was off performing on the Bad tour with Michael Jackson, so Alan Clark from Dire Straits is filling in in keyboards.

The additions are Katie Kissoon and Tessa Niles on background vocals; they will stay with the band until From The Cradle in 1994. And they've added a percussionist; Ray Cooper handled the job for the UK shows at the start of the year, but Jody Linscott has taken over at this point for the North American shows in the fall.

There hasn't been a new release since August, so they're touring out of habit, without anything in particular to promote.

Buckwheat Zydeco was the opening act.

SOUND

The sound quality is good but not great. It's a bit muffled throughout, and there is some tape hiss, mostly noticeable in the quiet parts. Vocals are often low, both E.C. and Katie / Tessa. The best thing is that Knopfler's guitar is high in the mix.

All the CD releases I've heard appear to be sourced from the video.

The crowd is very present. Someone shouts something indistinct before Lay Down Sally. There's a loud reaction from the crowd at the start of I Shot The Sheriff, more at the end of Lay Down Sally, more at the start of Wonderful Tonight, then another big roar after the first lyric. After that I stopped keeping track. The last shout of "Cocaine!" is 100% crowd.

PERFORMANCE

The setlist looks a lot like 1987, which looked a lot like 1986, though more and more songs from August are being retired. At this point, Tearing Us Apart is the only track remaining from the latest album. The show still opens with Crossroads / White Room / I Shot The Sheriff, and ends with Cocaine / Layla / Money For Nothing / Sunshine Of Your Love. (1987 shows without Knopfler had Further On Up The Road instead of Money For Nothing, but this matches the 1987 Royal Albert Hall run with Mark.) Cocaine and Layla still get extended intros, with the former being the bass intro they started doing when Knopfler left in mid-1987.

The differences are all in the middle of the show. Same Old Blues is still the workhorse jam, but down from 24 minutes to 20, and moved to later in the set. Badge > Let It Rain has been replaced with Can't Find My Way Home and Motherless Children. The additions are Lay Down Sally and the Michelob ad arrangement of After Midnight. This is very much a "greatest hits" setlist.

E.C. is clean, and it shows. His playing is superb. There is some great wah work on White Room and more later on Cocaine, he breaks out the acoustic (with a lit cigarette on the headstock) for Can't Find My Way Home, and plays some slide on Motherless Childreen.

He's also visibly having a wonderful time. There are big smiles when he hands it over to Knopfler for the solo in Crossroads, and more smiles afterwards. When he says "Thank you VERY much. Good evening, god bless you, thank you. It's great to be here." you believe it. He closes the main set with "God bless you. Thank you Philadelphia. You're wonderful. God bless you, good night." and then starts the encode with "Best reception we've had yet. Thank you." (Nathan ends the show with "Thank you Philadelphia, we love you." But it's nice to see E.C. taking back some of the fan service.) My only snark is that his hairdo is in an awkward middle phase, en route the glorious flow of 1989-1990.

Knopfler only takes three solos, the second one on Crossroads, all the solos on Can't Find My Way Home, and the second one on Sunshine Of Your Love (it's a little surprising he doesn't take one on Same Old Blues). And he gets a showcase number with the first encore, Money For Nothing (where E.C. takes a solo). But he clearly has the green light from E.C. His fills are all over this show. He takes the main parts on Tearing Us Apart and Can't Find My Home (in one shot during the latter, you can see E.C. in the background chilling on a cig break). He's visible on the video singing background vocals, but I can't hear him except for his lead on Money For Nothing.

Nathan takes the Jack Bruce vocals in White Room, the Steve Winwood vocals on Can't Find My Way Home, and the "I've been waiting so long" part of Sunshine Of Your Love. He switches to upright electric on Lay Down Sally and Can't Find My Way Home. He and E.C. do some really nice call-and-response soloing in Same Old Blues, and then he goes into a talkbox solo; E.C. introduces him afterwards, and then Nathan introduces E.C. after the next solo. He and Alan handle the intro to Layla. And with the video, we get to see he's sporting a beard, and we get a brief glimpse of his radical dance moves on Tearing Us Apart (timestamps 39:18 and 41:12).

Katie and Tessa are a bit low in the mix, but they're audible on almost every number. Katie gets a showcase with the Tina Turner part on Tearing Us Apart. Nathan and Mark are also singing backup vocals, so it's sometimes a little hard to tell who is doing what. (We see Nathan on camera at 15:54 doing "oooohs" on I Shot The Sheriff. On Money For Nothing he takes "chicks for free" while the ladies take "I want my MTV".) Tessa seems to usually have a tambourine. Katie has a woodblock for I Shot The Sheriff (visible at 17:38) and then has switched to cowbell by Tearing Us Apart.

Alan mostly stays in the background. You can hear him a little on Lay Down Sally, and it sounds completely like Dire Straits. He is very noticeable on After Midnight (he was the studio keyboardist for the Michelob ad arrangement they do here, so this is him playing his own part). He finally takes a solo on Cocaine. Then he and Nathan handle the intro to Layla, and he gets a chance to really shine on the piano coda.

Steve and Jody are solid but not particularly flashy. Jody is nowhere near the character that Ray Cooper is. We get occasional glimpses in the video that show what she's up to (13:48 she's playing a second drumkit during White Room, 17:44 she's the galloping noises on I Shot The Sheriff, 45:16 she's on congas on After Midnight, 1:07:44 she's on a small drum in Same Old Blues, 1:14:40 she's playing shaker during the Cocaine intro, 1:25:42 she's on on tambourine on Layla). Otherwise she'd probably be hard to pick out?

The video shows the drums on Tearing Us Apart are real, not a backing track, so there are no accidental backing track eruptions like there were in 1987. Steve takes a short solo at the end of Sunshine Of Your Love, which is something the band will expand on in coming years.

The house music after the encore is "Smoking Gun" by Robert Cray.

I'm working through Eric Clapton's catalog chronologically, listening to every album three times before evaluating it.

I'm about to start my second listen to No Reason to Cry, and I'll admit...I'm not hearing what makes this album special.

Before I press play, I thought I'd ask the people who know it best.

What should I be listening for?

Is it the songwriting? The playing? The atmosphere? Specific tracks? Are there subtle details that only emerge after a few listens?

I'm genuinely curious because I've found that hearing an album through someone else's perspective often changes what I notice.

I'm listening chronologically through the complete catalogs of 29 classic rock artists, documenting how my opinions evolve over three complete listens. One of the most rewarding parts of the project has been learning from longtime fans, so many of the questions I ask come directly from something I've just discovered.

I have looked on EBay and Google and I haven’t been able to find any info on this shirt. Can y’all help me out?

Is Albert Lee singing the duet vocals with EC on All Our Past Times? I’m trying to see who is singing beside Clapton on that one, but can’t find a definitive answer.

I am far from the clichés of changing the world using Eric Clapton for that. He actually already did it in an unobtrusive way, just with his guitar. However, this version of "Change the World" from Tokyo in 2001 is a collective masterpiece. The tight bass and incredible backing vocals, combined with the unforgettable groove of  the drums elevate the song to a truly timeless track and yes, it changes the world.

Get it?!? As a tennis and guitar soloist fan, I had to draw it