Eric Clapton’s album 24
Nights is from concerts at the Royal Albert Hall performed in
1990 and 1991. It features four different band line-ups that back
him up, each have some great tracks.
The four bands in order of
sequence are:
Four Piece Band (four songs),
Blues Band, (four songs),
9 Piece Band (four songs), and
Orchestra (three songs).
The first band is tight and
powerful and they perform mostly Cream songs. The renditions are
very good, but are not replacements for the originals.
Their best song is “Sunshine of Your Love;” and they jam
briefly on the “Motherless Children” melody after the drum solo,
before the segue back into “Sunshine of Your Love.”
The second band is looser
and includes many guitarists as guests including, Buddy Guy, Robert
Cray, and Jimmie Vaughn . They
really tear it up on “Have You Ever Loved a Women,” outstanding!
The third line-up performs more pop-oriented Clapton compositions.
The rendition of “Wonderful Tonight” is truly great and the two
back up singers really shine. The other three remaining songs this
band performs, in my opinion, are all superior to the studio
versions.
The last featured band is
the Orchestra and they are only giving 15 minutes of disc space,
which is too bad, because they are great. Their version of “Bell
Bottom Blues” is incredible and the two closing songs “Hard
Times” and “Edge of Darkness” are very good.
Eric Clapton’s album 24
Night’s has some brilliant moments. Nonetheless, for 24 evenings
of concerts to choose from I am not convinced that this is as good
as they could have done in packaging this album. At the very least
they could have easily fit another five or six songs.
~
by Barry
Small
©
Grade
B +
