ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 403 ERIC CLAPTON - JOURNEYMAN (1989)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

This week's Album of the Week continues this years 80's theme with Journeyman by Eric Clapton.  Journeyman was Clapton's eleventh solo studio album.  It reached the Top 20 in the US, topping out at number 16, while it reached number 2 on the UK chart.  It was Clapton's first solo album to go Double Platinum.  

Two singles reached number one on the US Mainstream Rock Chart.  Those were Bad Love and Pretending.  The former was co-written by Clapton and Mick Jones (Foreigner) and nominated for and won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1990.  It also holds the distinction of being my favorite Eric Clapton song.  The guitar solo is killer. No Alibis was also a single that didn't chart on the Hot 100, but it did reach number 4 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.  It also features harmony vocals by Daryl Hall as well as other backing vocals by Chaka Khan. In addition to Hall and Khan, other big names to appear on the album were Phil Collins, Robert Cray, Steve Ferrone, George Harrison, Alan Clark and David Sanborn.

As a side note, back in the late 80's and early 90's the eventual country artist John Berry was still playing locally in Athens with his local band and they often covered Bad Love.  They did an outstanding job, even the guitarist (who happened to be a local high school teacher, physics I believe, or maybe math).  My friend Warren Koehler was a student of his, which explains how I even know this.  

You can find this quite easily on Amazon.  The price is pretty nice as well ($6.99).  

Tracks:

1. Pretending

2. Anything For Your Love

3. Bad Love

4. Running On Faith

5. Hard Time

6. Hound Dog

7. No Alibis

8. Run So Far

9. Old Love

10. Breaking Point

11. Lead Me On

12. Before You Accuse Me

[Jon]

To be completely honest, I'm not the biggest EC fan out there, but I do have quite a few of his albums including this one. I do like it, he hasn't went completely mellow on this. That's what I really don't like, his REALLY MELLOW STUFF. Sure, there's some mellow stuff here, but it doesn't detract from the less mellow songs, so it's a good mix. It's not as good as 461 Ocean Boulevard or Slowhand, but it's a solid album.

I had the Backless album way back when, it was in a cutout bin so I bought it. The album cover was really cool because it was not smooth, if I remember correctly. Had small bumps in it, maybe? Not a misprint or anything like that, it was the way the album cover was made. Have no idea what that has to do with this post other than it's an EC album, just thought you would be interested to know so we'll leave it at that, ok?