By: Eric Clapton Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Box set Label: Polydor / Umgd Number of Discs: 4 Publication Date: 1988 Release Date: October 25, 1990
Amazon.com essential recording: Including both his band work (with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie, and Derek and the Dominos) and his long, varied solo career, this four-CD set does a spectacular job in gathering several decades' worth of Clapton's best. There are the requisite classics--"Layla," "Blues Power," "After Midnight," "Further On Up the Road," "Crossroads," and "I Shot the Sheriff," among many others--some of them in previously unreleased live or alternate studio recordings. Released in 1988, when only superstars were granted the box set, Crossroads became the blueprint for what such a retrospective should be. For its scope, this box skims the cream of Clapton's large output. --Daniel Durchholz
Disc 1:
Boom Boom - The Yardbirds
Honey In Your Hips - The Yardbirds
Baby What's Wrong - The Yardbirds
I Wish You Would - The Yardbirds
A Certain Girl - The Yardbirds
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - The Yardbirds
I Ain't Got You - The Yardbirds
For Your Love - The Yardbirds
Got To Hurry - The Yardbirds
Lonely Years - John Mayall/Eric Clapton
Bernard Jenkins - John Mayall/Eric Clapton
Hideaway - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
All Your Love - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Ramblin' On My Mind - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Have You Ever Loved A Woman - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Wrapping Paper - Cream
I Feel Free - Cream
Spoonful - Cream
Lawdy Mama - Cream
Strange Brew - Cream
Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
Tales Of Brave Ulysses - Cream
Steppin' Out - Cream
Disc 2:
Anyone For Tennis - Cream
White Room - Cream
Crossroads - Cream
Badge - Cream
Prescence Of The Lord - Blind Faith
Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
Sleeping In The Ground - Blind Faith
Comin' Home - Delaney And Bonnie
Blues Power - Eric Clapton
After Midnight - Eric Clapton
Let It Rain - Eric Clapton
Tell The Truth - Derek And The Dominos
Roll It Over - Derek And The Dominos
Layla - Derek And The Dominos
Mean Old World - Eric Clapton/Duanne Allman
Key To The Highway - Derek And The Dominos
Crossroads - Derek And The Dominos
Disc 3:
Got To Get Better In A Little While - Derek And The Dominos
Evil - Derek And The Dominos
One More Chance - Derek And The Dominos
Mean Old Frisco - Derek And The Dominos
Snake Lake Blues - Derek And The Dominos
Let It Grow - Eric Clapton
Ain't That Lovin' You - Eric Clapton
Motherless Children - Eric Clapton
I Shot The Sheriff - Eric Clapton
Better Make It Through Today - Eric Clapton
The Sky Is Crying - Eric Clapton
I Found A Love - Eric Clapton
(When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too - Eric Clapton
This was your typical 1980's boxset, when CD technology was first emerging. It contains about 60% previously released material, and 40% unreleased material (many of which should have never been released). Personally, I was not a fan of these releases, but I bought them anyway because the CD selections at the time were very limited.
Since this is an 1980's boxset, the sound quality is poor. Well, it isn't horrible, but it isn't very good. The sound is a little flat and muffled. It certainly, is not very good by today's CD standards.
The sound quality on most CD's 1980's CD's was not very good. Sure they sounded better than cassette tapes (which were the most popular media of the time), but they did not come close to the sound of a good quality LP. It is why there were so many vinyl snobs at the time. But then, the CD's didn't have the pops and noise that even brand new LP's could have.
It should be noted that many of the CD's from the 1980's, into the early 1990's are now being remastered for better sound. This boxset could really use it, but I doubt it will happen. Again, the sound quality is not horrible. If you were going to just load this into iTunes and play it on your iPod, it is probably acceptable. However, it you want a true retrospect of an artist's career, it deserves better sound quality.
Since this CD was released in the 1980's the time of each disc is close to 74 minutes, without going over 74 minutes. (At this time, the maximum length of a CD was 74 minutes...I'll explain below).
As you can see from reading the song titles, this set contains a sampling of Claptons work from the 1960's to the mid 1980's when the boxset was released. Most things are covered here, except Clapton's adventures as a guest musician on many other people's albums.
Of note is about 3/4 of an album that would have been the second Derek and the Dominoes studio album. And that probably almost makes buying this boxset worthwhile.
In the 1980's this boxset was an interesting buy. But, now, you can get the whole Clapton catalog on remastered CD's with much better sound. You can buy the things you like and forgo the other stuff. If you want a Clapton boxset, I would suggest getting Crossroads 2 instead.
Why were CD's only 74 minutes and they are now 80 minutes long? The real time of a CD is 74 minutes. But, there is a manufacturing tolerance to the bit size and sampling speed. So, to get 80 minutes out of a CD, manufacturers just use the upper end of the spec limit.
As close to Sgt. Pepper as Clapton gets, Patty Boyd excepted! It's a sad actuality that neither Eric Clapton, nor one of the many bands he was in, ever generated a "Sgt. Pepper" album. Why is this? Probably due to the fact that Clapton moved from one band, on to the next, and on to the next, etc. I think his best shot for a big album would have been with CREAM but, egos being what they were, this super-band unfortunately didn't last all that long.
So here's what we're left with, "Crossroads" is a superb Eric Clapton compendium album, a body of work completed in this great guitarist's lifetime... with a little help from his friends. This album is the one you want if you plan to own only a single Clapton CD -- it pretty much contains every ACTUAL hit he ever had. Yes, some will say that this one or that one was a big hit (mostly guitarists will say this), but I'm talking about what was popular and played a lot on the radio during The Great Days, and some since that time.
Here's MY list, all of which are on this CD set: For Your Love, (Yardbirds); I Feel Free, Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, (Cream); Layla (Derek and the Dominoes); After Midnight, Let it Rain, I Shot the Sheriff, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight, Cocaine (Eric Clapton). These were SUPER-hits. Yes, I'm aware that the very name of this album is "Crossroads" -- but that song simply never caught on. When it came out, it fell into quick obscurity with the D.J.s across the country.
Sadly, Blind Faith held incredible potential but pretty much only produced really impressive studio jams -- they were a bit aimless. And Clapton's period with John Mayall produced nothing notable. There were some other brief bands but I've covered the important ones.
As far as I can tell, the NEW "Complete Clapton" CD release (being heavily marketed now) apparently bypasses Clapton's time with The Yardbirds -- if that's the case, they should have called it "INcomplete Clapton" because if it's missing "For Your Love," then it's a beautifully packaged ripoff!!!
Complete Clapton
So, what I'm telling you is that there are a ZILLION Eric Clapton compendium CDs on the market, under his name and sometimes under various band names. For some reason (probably copyright limitations), most of these omnibus albums each contain a few hits and are otherwise glutted with Clapton boogie-jam leftovers. These (often bootlegged CDs) typically proclaim 'The Best of Clapton'... not so. Honestly, they could have scaled the "Crossroads" CD down to the Big 12 and it would have been fine with me.
I've given you the BIG hits and they're all on this CD. I've been a guitar player since Clapton first got rolling so I've been heavily influenced by his brilliant artistry -- I'm just a little sad that The Big One never happened for him, given the large number of hits he's generated, with one band or another.
Crossroads Great album. My boyfriend loved it as a birthday gift. Haha, he plays it all the time now. :)
Very good but not career spanning This is an excellent boxed set to get, especially if you can find at a reasonable price.
However Clapton has done such a lot of good stuff since 1988, that it now represents only about half his career. So theres nothing from Unplugged, From The Cradle, 24 Nights, Me and Mr Johnson, Riding With The King etc etc. Its also worth baring in mind that Claptons 80's stuff was frequently over-produced and his choice of material was veto'd (the album August being a good example) by the record company. If in doubt have a listen to the samples on disc 4.
That said its still a great collection: The Yardbirds, John Mayalls Blues Breakers, Cream, unreleased Cream at the BBC, unreleased Derek and the Dominos, previously unreleased live solo recordings. This gives you 73 tracks on 4 cd's. The unreleased Derek and the Dominos stuff is superb. Apparently not only is it unreleased its also unfinished. Well I'll tell you if thats how unfinished sounds, there are a lot of record companies out there who have no idea how to produce records, because these tracks sound fantastic.
The box is LP size (thats 30cm square for the younger generation) and the booklet that comes with the box is informative and well written. The artwork for the cover is by Ronnie Wood.
Terrific overview up to 1988 of Slowhand's career Although this set doesn't go past 1988 (the year it was released),"Crossroads" includes some of Clapton's best material with the various bands he was a member of (The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos) and solo. While some of these previously unreleased and rare tracks have since shown up on some other reissues, this is the only place (to date) to find early versions of "Tell the Truth", "Roll It Over" (both produced by Phil Spector and one track featuring George Harrison & Dave Mason on guitar. These were produced during the "All Things Must Pass" sessions)and the tracks from the unfinished second Dominos album.
The sound quality on this set is quite good. The masters aren't as compressed (if at all) compared to the reissues of Clapton's back catalog. As a result the CD doesn't sound quite as "loud" (much of that volume on the remasters is due to the dynamic range being squashed and the masters EQ'd taking much of the musical "punch" out of the music) as the Clapton remasters. Detail is very good on most of these tracks and although with some restoration on the Yardbirds tracks at the beginning because of the fragile nature of the masters they were pulled from. Overall, Bill Levenson and his team did a terrific job here.
This is a terrific set with a nice mix of live material, songs that Clapton performed on ("Comin' Home") and recorded as a solo artist. While his guitar didn't blaze quite as hard on the studio recordings for many ofhis solo recordings, this was a phase in Clapton's development where he was developing and focusing on his singing as much (if not more)than focusing on his guitar playing. That's not to say that he doesn't play well, it just sounds different than his hot, crazed playing for Cream and the tortured blues solos as a member of Derek and the Dominos.
The booklet has notes by Rolling Stone writer Anthony DeCurtis (interesting note--Clapton was so devasted by a critical Rolling Stone article about Cream that it helped convince him to break up the band. The article was completely out of line but managed to push Clapton into something that would have happened eventually given the volatile nature of the egos in Cream). Although this remaster is nearly 20 years old, it still sounds extremely good. Unlike many remasters, this was remastered pretty flat without all the compression and goosing that many remasters feature that make things louder but worsen the sound quality.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
