From the Cradle |  | Artist: Eric Clapton
Label: Warner
Category: Music
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £0.77
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New (42) Used (54) Collectible (5) from £0.77
Seller: zoverstocks
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 5424
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 45735
UPC: 093624573524
EAN: 0093624573524
ASIN: B000002MTU
Release Date: September 12, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Blues Before Sunrise | | • | Third Degree | | • | Reconsider Baby | | • | Hoochie Coochie Man | | • | Five Long Years | | • | I'm Tore Down | | • | How Long Blues | | • | Goin' Away Baby | | • | Blues Leave Me Alone | | • | Sinner's Prayer | | • | Motherless Child | | • | It Hurts Me Too | | • | Someday After A While | | • | Standin' Round Crying | | • | Driftin' | | • | Groaning The Blues |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
The full-tilt blues album that Clapton had been promising for years, iFrom the Cradle/i proves the guitarist's enduring devotion to a form he had long relegated to merely a flavour in his music rather than the main ingredient. Clapton's singing on the album is somewhat mannered; he tries to compete with original versions of these songs by Muddy Waters, Charles Brown, and others, and there's no way he's going to win that battle. Still, you can feel the emotional connection Clapton has with these songs, and guitar aficionados will swoon over his fretwork on songs such as "Third Degree", "Someday After a While", and the incendiary "Groanin' the Blues". i--Daniel Durchholz/i
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
 About retracing one's steps, one blue note at a time. August 19, 2003
Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
"All along this path I tread, my heart betrays my weary head; with nothing but my love to save, from the cradle to the grave ..."pSumming up his thoughts on a recently failed relationship, Eric Clapton jotted down these words one night in early 1994, and they eventually made their way into the cover booklet of the album he released later that same year, the last line also providing the album's title. And "there's anger and love and fear on this record," Clapton told Billboard Magazine about the self-evaluation he was undergoing at the time, explaining that in recording this album, he had sought to once and for all break the - partially self-imposed - barriers and trappings of fame and fortune, girls and glamour, drugs and booze, in order to just "get out and ... say what I want to say, be what I want to be [and] love what I want to love."pWhat he had loved from his earliest years on, of course, was the blues; and a real blues album was thus what he had always wanted to record - ever since his days with the Yardbirds (which he left when they strayed towards more mainstream, commercial sounds) and with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, the training ground for much of Britain's blues elite of the 1960s and 1970s. So in a major way, this album constitutes a return to Eric Clapton's roots.pAt the same time, however, it is a marvelous tribute to the artists on whose influence Clapton builds to this day, and who first made the songs recorded here famous. Like any good blues album, "From the Cradle" was recorded live in the studio: with the exception of some dobro and drum overdub on "How Long Blues" and "Motherless Child" respectively, all vocals and instrumental parts are the pure, unadulterated product of the recording sessions involved. With or without extended solos, Clapton's guitar work is stellar as always, and his vocals are as raw and rough as hardly ever before. He may not actually outgrowl the great Chess and Delta Blues men - listen to his 2001 album "Riding With the King" with B.B. King or to Muddy Waters's 1977 version of "Hoochie Coochie Man" if you have any doubts - but this truly becomes apparent only in direct comparison with them, and it really says more about those other musicians than it does about Clapton himself. If it were not for the fact that many of the recordings on this album have long become classics in their own right and that Clapton's voice is not easily confused with that of any other artist in the first place, I'm almost certain that you could fool a fair number of people into believing that they were listening to an album recorded 40 years or even longer ago in Chicago or Memphis. This is the real thing, folks, no question about it; and it is performed with as much skill as soul by Eric Clapton and a tremendous group of musicians consisting of Dave Bronze (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), Andy Fairweather Low (guitar), Jerry Portnoy (harmonica), Chris Stainton (keyboards), Roddy Lorimer (trumpet) and Simon Clarke and Tim Sanders (saxophone) - many of the well-known to Clapton's live audiences the world over as well.pIn selecting the songs for this album, Eric Clapton purposely chose the most intense blues songs he could think of, not even shying away from classics that he had heretofore considered "untouchable," like Muddy Waters's (or actually, Willie Dixon's) aforementioned "Hoochie Coochie Man." And in a not entirely surprising turn, they - and "Hoochie Coochie Man" in particular - soon became fixtures in his own live appearances as much as they had been fixtures in the appearances of the artists who had first made them famous, from Leroy Carr's "Blues Before Sunrise" and "How Long Blues" to Lowell Fulson's "Reconsider Baby" and "Sinner's Prayer," Eddie Boyd's "Five Long Years," James Lane's "Goin' Away Baby" and "Blues Leave Me Alone," Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too," Freddie King's "Someday After a While," another famous Muddy Waters tune, "Standin' Round Crying," and the concluding, aptly titled "Groaning the Blues." And all colors of this blues kaleidoscope also represent shades and aspects of Eric Clapton's own life, because, as he told Billboard, all of them have had a certain meaning to him at some point or another. In that sense, the album is a very personal one - maybe not quite as much as the 1970 Derek and the Dominos recording "Layla and Other Assorted Lovesongs," one of the earliest and biggest highlights of Clapton's career, but certainly close; in expressing "the thing I've loved from day one, the most exciting and satisfying thing I've known."pComing on the heels of 1989's "Journeyman" and 1992's hugely successful "Unplugged," which had redefined the standards by which acoustic recordings were measured and, in the process, had also given an unexpectedly new meaning to the title track of "Layla," "From the Cradle" was one of a trilogy of albums which injected new life into Clapton's career and ensured that his fans would be able to enjoy his immeasurable contributions to the world of music for - at least - another decade. In 1991, Clapton had also recorded the soundtrack for the movie "Rush," arguably yet another very personal project, and released a CD documenting his marathon 24 live appearances at Royal Albert Hall, appropriately named "24 Nights." And while any Eric Clapton album will to a certain extent be an expression of the point where he sees himself and his career at the time of the recording, it's all about the music again now, and about the joy of playing. Nothing shows this clearer than his dual 2001 releases "Reptile" and "Riding With the King." "From the Cradle" was an important stepping stone in getting to this point, and I am glad we have been allowed, yet again, to share in that experience. Thank you, Eric!
Probably EC's best blues album. June 1, 2006
Spider Monkey (UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you want to hear EC playing his best blues, then this is the album to buy. He sounds raw and plays with style and feeling throughout. I love this album for virtually any time. I love EC and all of his work, but this album stands out.
A Brilliant Masterpiece! January 30, 2004
NoMoReviews
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Are you lookin' for the blues? Then, this is is the album for you!! Gotta' lotta' flava', y'all!! This review is based upon Warner/Reprise catalogue number WPCR-10120 (Japanese import). This particular reissue is unique for 2 reasons: First, this is the only remastered version of the album currently available. Secondly, the outside packaging is made mini-LP style, with a gatefold layout that has all of the original liner notes and photos. I love the way they list the tracks on the back as "Side A" and "Side B". The cd, itself, comes housed in a protective, padded, platic sleeve, which slides into the side of the packaging, much as the old LPs did. O.K., on to the actual album review... This is absolutely, without a doubt, Eric Clapton's best album to date. Yes, indeed, this is a no-holds-barred, ..., down-home, bare-bones, blues-infused masterpiece of the highest caliber!! My favorite track is "Sinner's Prayer". ("If I done somebody wrong, have mercy, if you please" - Yeah, baby!, Yeah!.) Oh, yes, this album is chalk full of great tunes from beginning to end. You'll note that EC wastes no time in getting to the good stuff... The opening track is a jammin' number, entitled "Blues Before Sunrise". Crank this one up, LOUD!! The studio version of "Five Long Years" presented here, is good, but the live one, from his "Hyde Park" dvd, is outta-sight! There is one really unique track on here, and that is "Standin' Around Cryin'". On this one, EC tries his hand at a completely diffrent style of singing and succeeds!! (I can't explain it. You've got to hear this one for yourself.) The radio hits are here too, "Motherless Child", "I'm Tore Down" and "It Hurts Me Too". Of course, this album wouldn't be complete without "Hoochie Coochie Man"; yet, another one, EC loves to play in concert. Lastly, I would like to quote a brief statement in the liner notes, I think audiophiles, like myself, will find of particular interest: "THIS IS A LIVE RECORDING WITH NO OVERDUBS OR EDITS EXCEPT FOR DOBRO OVERDUB ON 'HOW LONG BLUES' AND DRUM OVERDUB ON 'MOTHERLESS CHILD'" - What this means is, you're not going to get an album produced by Phil Spector, who patented the now infamous, "Wall-of-Sound".
Fantastic blues playing July 16, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm inclined to agree with the other reviewer who stated that the solo on 'Five long years' is the best guitar solo ever; it simply is amazing. The only problem is, i get to track 5 and then just keep playing it over and over again... I've never been the greatest blues fan but i really enjoyed this album; the guitar work is excellent and the band plays very coherently- there wasn't much dubbing according to the cover. The only problem is the singing. Whilst its ok in most places eric sounds like he's gargling with gravel on the first track and that kinda put me off it a bit, but once you get past that its rather cool. Its also really good for jamming along with and practicing blues solos etc. I'd recommend it for anyone interested in eric clapton, blues playing, or just elec guitar.
What We'd Been Waiting for September 9, 2003
David Cranson (Hereford, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Wonderful stuff. Really wonderful, ecellant, amazing, outstanding etc etc etc . . . I like it!pThe playing, the emotion, the voice, the band, it just all gells perfectly. The whole album oozes blues. You can almost see it seeping from the speakers every time you put it on. You can close your eyes and let a broad grin creep over your face. Lie back and let yourself be soaked up, immersed and covered in the music songs.pStandouts for me include, 'Blues Before Sunrise' - man, even thinking about it makes me grin for ear to ear(!); 'Reconsider Baby'; 'Motherless Child'; 'It Hurts Me Too'; 'Someday After A While'; but really these are the highlights in a package of near perfection. Don't think the rest are sub-standard becuase I don't mention them, there just my personal faves.pDo yourself a big favour and buy this. It's a master at work, a fine band in great form. It's a close as any white man will ever get to really 'Groanin' The Blues'.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 20
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