Underappreciated Albums: 'From The Cradle'

It isn't that '80s Clapton couldn't be good. It's just that his edge had dulled, certainly due to his infamous descent into drugs and alcohol abuse. But if '80s Clapton never reached the highpoints on '70s albums like "461 Ocean Boulevard" or "Slowhand," he also never reached the lows of Elton John's 1986 "Leather Jackets" (the album was so bad, Elton's label didn't bother releasing any singles) or the WTF awfulness of that Paul McCartney monstrosity, "Temporary Secretary."

Clapton's '80s nadir might have been the cloying appeal to Boomer nostalgia of "I've Got A Rock 'N' Roll Heart" from 1983's "Money And Cigarettes."

"I get off on '57 Chevies/I get off on a screamin' guitar."

Bold stand there, Mr. Clapton. Are you also in favor of rainbows and puppy dogs?

But I'm being too harsh. Even on a throw-away song like that one, Clapton's musicianship remained top-notch. He rarely went in for any of the '80s trends that didn't age very well, and he didn't perform at all on "We Are the World."

Still, nobody would mistake Clapton's '80s material for his best — not even Eric Clapton. He wrapped up the decade in 1989 with an album that was almost an apology for the previous nine years. Even the title, "Journeyman," was an admission that Clapton might still have a lot to learn. It was so good that all a listener could do was smile and say, "Apology accepted."

"Journeyman" was released in November of '89, barely in time to redeem a decade Clapton had lost to drugs and booze. But I'm not here to talk about "Journeyman." I'm here to talk about his 1994 studio follow-up, "From The Cradle."

If "Journeyman" was Clapton's apology for getting lost in the '80s, "From The Cradle" was the make-up sex.

(Clapton had released a few albums in between, but they were either concert recordings or a soundtrack.)

This was Clapton's first pure blues album, a collection of cover tunes originally written and/or recorded by Eddie Boyd, Sonny Thompson, Robert Hicks, and more.

 Critics were all over the place on "From The Cradle." One called Clapton's takes faithful but boring. Another called the record "perfunctory." A third enjoyed the music but didn't like Clapton's vocals.

Look, nitpicking over Clapton's vocals is like getting into a big argument over which one of the Pussycat Dolls was the best singer — it's entirely beside the point. Clapton's vocals have always been serviceable, but it's his guitar that makes you thrill and weep. 

 My favorite bad take was the critic — I wish I could find the link — who wrote that it seemed unlikely that Clapton, born and raised in 1945 in Surrey, England, was listening to the blues while still in the cradle.

Face, meet palm.

The album is Clapton playing Delta blues — music from the cradle of rock 'n' roll. That's even though the title comes from a four-line poem Clapton wrote (but never set to music) and included in the liner notes: "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."

Professional critics should know these things that I merely dabble in. 

Of course, the album isn't just Clapton. Check out the piano — Chris Stainton, I believe — on "Sinner's Prayer."

 "From The Cradle" was a step down from "Journeyman" in terms of production and personnel. The '89 album was recorded at the Power Station in New York and featured everybody from George Harrison to Chaka Khan to Phil Collins to Robert Cray — dozens of performers, in total. It must have taken weeks or months.

But "From The Cradle" was a stripped-down affair with just 11 performers, including Clapton, performing live with only two overdubs on its 16 tracks. It sounds, in the very best way, like songs a small group of pros could have knocked out in a few joyous days.

If "Journeyman" was Clapton's oversized announcement that he was back, "From The Cradle" was his statement of maybe where he'd wanted to be all along.

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