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Crossroads

Eric Clapton - Crossroads Audio CD

A fair review of the Eric Clapton "Crossroads" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Eric Clapton reviews here, or go back to the Eric Clapton tabs.

Band: Eric Clapton
Title: Crossroads
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Boom Boom - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds 2: Honey in Your Hips - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds 3: Baby What's Wrong - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds 4: I Wish You Would - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 5: Certain Girl - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 6: Good Morning Little Schoolgirl - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 7: I Ain't Got You - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 8: For Your Love - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 9: Got to Hurry - Eric Clapton, The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds 10: Lonely Years - Eric Clapton, John Mayall 11: Bernard Jenkins - Eric Clapton, John Mayall 12: Hideaway - Eric Clapton, , John Mayall 13: All Your Love - Eric Clapton, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, 14: Rambling on My Mind - Eric Clapton, , John Mayall 15: Have You Ever Loved a Woman [Live] - Eric Clapton, , John Mayall 16: Wrapping Paper - Eric Clapton, Cream 17: I Feel Free - Eric Clapton, Cream 18: Spoonful - Eric Clapton, Cream 19: Lawdy Mama [#] - Eric Clapton, Cream 20: Strange Brew - Eric Clapton, Cream 21: Sunshine of Your Love - Eric Clapton, Cream 22: Tales of Brave Ulysses - Eric Clapton, Cream 23: Steppin' Out [#] - Eric Clapton, Cream 24: Anyone for Tennis - Eric Clapton, Cream 25: White Room - Eric Clapton, Cream 26: Crossroads [Live] - Eric Clapton, Cream 27: Badge - Eric Clapton, Cream 28: Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith, Eric Clapton 29: Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith, Eric Clapton 30: Sleeping in the Ground [#] - Blind Faith, Eric Clapton 31: Comin' Home - Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, 32: Blues Power - Eric Clapton 33: After Midnight [Alternate Mix][#] - Eric Clapton 34: Let It Rain - Eric Clapton 35: Tell the Truth - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 36: Roll It Over - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 37: Layla - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 38: Mean Old World - Duane Allman, Eric Clapton 39: Key to the Highway [Live][#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 40: Crossroads [Live][#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 41: Got to Get Better in a Little While [#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 42: Evil [#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 43: One More Chance [#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 44: Mean Old Frisco [#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 45: Snake Lake Blues [#] - Eric Clapton, Derek & the Dominos 46: Let It Grow - Eric Clapton 47: Ain't That Lovin' You [#] - Eric Clapton 48: Motherless Children - Eric Clapton 49: I Shot the Sheriff [Live][#] - Eric Clapton 50: Better Make It Through Today - Eric Clapton 51: Sky Is Crying - Eric Clapton 52: I Found a Love [#] - Eric Clapton 53: (When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too [#] - Eric Clapton 54: What'cha Gonna Do? [#] - Eric Clapton 55: Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Eric Clapton 56: Someone Like You - Eric Clapton 57: Hello Old Friend - Eric Clapton 58: Sign Language - Eric Clapton 59: Further on up the Road [Live][#] - Eric Clapton 60: Lay Down Sally - Eric Clapton 61: Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton 62: Cocaine - Eric Clapton 63: Promises - Eric Clapton 64: If I Don't Be There by Morning - Eric Clapton 65: Double Trouble [Live] - Eric Clapton 66: I Can't Stand It - Eric Clapton 67: Shape You're In - Eric Clapton 68: Heaven Is One Step Away - Eric Clapton 69: She's Waiting - Eric Clapton 70: Too Bad - Eric Clapton 71: Miss You - Eric Clapton 72: Wanna Make Love to You - Eric Clapton 73: After Midnight [Version] - Eric Clapton

E.C.'s the Greatest
It was a gift
from an old boyfriend. I've had this CD box set for a long time. My favorite track is DOUBLE TROUBLE.
Searing and Bluesy. The boyfriend is long gone, but the CD
gets a lot of use. .

Poor Sound Quality

This was your typical 1980's boxset, when CD technology was first emerging. TYPICAL 1980'S CD BOXSET. 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!
Pepper" album. It's a sad actuality that neither Eric Clapton, nor one of the many bands he was in, ever generated a "Sgt. 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
My boyfriend loved it as a birthday gift. Great album. Haha, he plays it all the time now. :).

Very good but not career spanning

However Clapton has done such a lot of good stuff since 1988, that it now represents only about half his career. This is an excellent boxed set to get, especially if you can find at a reasonable price. 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.
.

You can see a complete list of all Eric Clapton discography, or go back to the Eric Clapton tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.