Eric Clapton's Slowhand: Album Review

BY AMIRY FAHMI

‘Slowhand’ is Eric Clapton’s 5^th solo album, released on 25^th November 1977 by RSO Records. Originally, the album only consists of nine songs, including two hit singles ‘Wonderful Tonight’ and ‘Lay Down Sally’, which reached various international music charts and were honored with numerous awards and recording accolades.

The name of the album was derived from Eric Clapton’s nickname, which was given to him by Giorgio Gomelsky – owner of Crawdaddy Club in London where The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds regularly performed early on in their careers.

Later in 2012, the deluxe edition of this album was re-released and remastered that contained bonus tracks: a great version of ‘Alberta’, and previously unreleased tracks ‘Looking at the Rain’, ‘Greyhound Bus’, and ‘Stars, Strays, and Ashtrays’. These comprise Disc One of the set.  

Disc Two contained nine songs which were recorded live during Eric Clapton’s performance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on April 27, 1977. These include riveting versions of ‘Tell the Truth’, ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’, ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out’, ‘Stormy Monday’, ‘I Shot the Sheriff’, ‘Layla’ and many more.

All together this newer collection provides more than two hours of stellar music – a total of 22 tracks. Prior to the re-released of this album, the title of the album changed, ‘Slowhand 35^th Anniversary’, to commemorate the 35 years of this magical album.

While listening to this album, I was star struck at how eclectic Eric Clapton is. His range of music can vary from country, to blues, to pop and to even rock music. This album contained all elements of these genres.

As a guitar player myself, songs like ‘The Core’, ‘Cocaine’, ‘We’re All The Way’, ‘Lay Down Sally’, ‘Mean Old Frisco’, and ‘May You Never’ makes you understand how Eric arranges his musical concept and how he puts it into the final product. For instance, ‘May You Never’ is one of the peculiar method of song-writing that Eric Clapton contributed. The song starts off with the chorus in the beginning, instead, of the usual musical flow – that is the verse first, and then the chorus.

Other examples we can observe, is Eric’s blues rendition over a 12-bar blues (just three chords played over 12 bars), in which the guitar sings in correlation with the singer exquisitely – more or less like a call-and-response.

Overall, should you listen to this album? My answer depends on your taste of music. If you are interested and have been curious about Eric Clapton, and have not heard of him before, then you should give it a try. It is an album crafted by a master in song-writing, guitar playing, coupled with a husky singer in pop, blues, country and rock music.

Apart from that, this is one of Eric Clapton’s commercially and critically successful studio albums. Everything is interesting, from the familiar songs to the newer releases and live materials. Hits like ‘Wonderful Tonight’, and ‘Lay Down Sally’ will definitely get you moving one way or the other. At least I did. Just sayin’.