CD: Eric Clapton - There's One in Every Crowd Originally Released March 1975 CD Edition Released 1988 ?? DTS Surround CD Edition Released November 25, 1997 Remastered CD Edition Released August 20, 1996 AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Having stayed out of the recording studio for four years prior to making his comeback album, 461 Ocean Boulevard, Eric Clapton returned to recording only a few months later to make its follow-up, There's One in Every Crowd. Perhaps he hadn't had time to write or gather sufficient material to make a similarly effective album, since the result is a scattershot mixture of styles, leading off with two gospel tunes, one a reggae version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Clapton and his second guitarist, George Terry, had written a sequel to "I Shot the Sheriff," "Don't Blame Me," which Clapton sang in his best impersonation of Bob Marley's voice. The album's best track, naturally, was the blues cover, Clapton's take on Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying." But There's One in Every Crowd was a disappointing follow-up to 461 Ocean Boulevard, and fans let Clapton know it: while the former album had topped the charts and gone gold, the latter didn't even make the Top Ten. -- William Ruhlmann AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW Sheer mediocrity, March 12, 2007 By finulanu "My beef's with the meat packing ind... (Hiding from the Pun Police) In the '60's, you could expect great things from anything Clapton released, and you'd usually get them. But his solo career was consistently inconsistent. On the high end of the specturm are discs like Unplugged and 461 Ocean Blvd. On the low, Back Home and Backless (any album with "back" in its title by Clapton is bound to suck). This occupies the space between the two - killer in places, filler in others. A bare minimum of blues (the only blues song is The Sky Is Crying, and naturally it's the best here). Instead, it's all either reggae, completely insincere soft-rock or slightly harder, but still completely insincere relatively hard rock. Of course, the soft rock's hard to listen to, but nothing's as bad as Wonderful Tonight (though Pretty Blue Eyes and High come close), and I like Better Make It Through Today. No, the best stuff here is the reggae (Swing Low, Sweet Chariot) and the rock (Little Rachel). If you're a Claptonophile, buy it if you wish, and I will insist you could do much worse. But don't expect Layla. AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW 461 Out takes, November 17, 2005 By Michael Wheeler "Stratocaster" (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) Eric Clapton came out in the Summer of 1974 with 461 Oceam Blud. What happened is that the band did so many songs for that session that all were not incuded on 461. What we have here is essentially an album of out takes that did not make the cut. Many should have also been out takes for this CD as well. Clapton is very laid back and does not resemble same man we heard with Cream or Derek and the Dominoes. Songs of note on this album are The Sky is Crying the classic Elmore James song. This is an outstanding effort by Clapton. Better Make It Through Today is a slow blues song that Clapton wrote himself. I has always been my favorite song on this album. Pretty Blue Eyes is a nice acoustic song with an added dobro. I like the combination on this song quite well. High is another song that Clapton wrote and another worthy effort. Opposites finishes the CD on a strong note. This is not one of his best CD's but does have some good songs. This is for collectors only. AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW Outstanding early Clapton, September 2, 1998 By mcl@iaw.on.ca (Niagara Falls ON) Amongst the early Clapton albums, this one has oddly kept my attention longest. Starting off with two talented interpretations of Gospel classics, this album is strangely personal for early Clapton material. The cover picture, of a forlorn dog, is the mood the album puts you in. Often forgotten, this album has tremendous diversity - the blues of 'The Sky is Crying' to the upbeat but melanchonic last four songs - Better make It..., Pretty Blue Eyes, high and Opposites. Wonderful playind, soft singing and a mood is created. Half.com Details Contributing artists: Marcy Levy, Yvonne Elliman Producer: Tom Dowd Album Notes Personnel: Eric Clapton (vocals, guitar, dobro); Carl Radle (guitar, bass); George Terry (guitar, background vocals); Dick Sims (piano, organ); Jamie Oldaker (drums, percussion); Marcy Levy (background vocals). Recorded at Dynamic Sounds Studio, Kingston, Jamaica and Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, Florida. All tracks have been digitally remastered. By 1975, Eric Clapton was coming off the smash success of 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD. If his last album was a cathartic release after coming out of a battle with drug addiction, then THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD was the first record where Clapton could catch his breath. Having become enamored with reggae after riding Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" to the top of the charts around the world, E.C. chose to record in Kingston, Jamaica. Although recordings of Clapton with Peter Tosh first surfaced over a decade later on the CROSSROADS box set, Slowhand successfully dipped his toe into the reggae pool by way of the loping beat of "Don't Blame Me," along with an infectious take on "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." (He even managed to add an impressive Jamaican patois to his vocal style). Elsewhere, Clapton returned to the roots of American music via straight-forward gospel ("We've Been Told [Jesus Is Coming Soon])"and blues (Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying" and Mary McCready's "Singin' The Blues.") Clapton's bypassing of electric guitar for some vastly underrated dobro playing turned his self-penned "Pretty Blue Eyes" and "High" into gems often overlooked in his enormous canon. ROLLING STONE REVIEW Eric Clapton's sense of well-being is reiterated on There's One in Every Crowd, but on this album it seems less a cause for joy than an occasion for musical indifference. As on 461 Ocean Boulevard, Clapton plays guitar with utilitarian economy but here it is also without the ring of purposeful authority. As on its predecessor, the lack of riveting or attention-drawing guitar work places the primary focus on Clapton's singing, which through experience, growing confidence and a touching candor has become as distinctive and as eloquent as his playing. But where Clapton sounded either quietly tormented or beatifically serene, on the last album, through most of the new one he sounds only languid or charming. The album's opening pair of spirituals generates little energy or feeling. The ensemble (the same as on 461) affects a Motel Shot sort of casualness but lacks spark. Compared with the stirring religious/ psychological songs of before, "We've Been Told (Jesus Coming Soon)" sounds redundant, while the reggae "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is clever but static. The next pair comes off slightly better. "Little Rachel" is a sequel to "Willie and the Hand Jive" but without the earlier work's smoldering innuendo. "Don't Blame Me" is the sequel to Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." The band, especially the exceptional timekeeping drummer, Jamie Oldaker, lends the right blend of the ominous and sprightly, but Clapton can only partially restate, let alone advance, the earlier song's mood. By now the record is at least up and moving. On the fifth track, a remake of Elmore James's "The Sky Is Crying," you'd expect Clapton to play some guitar. But he conceives of this classic slow blues as a vocally centered one. He establishes the mood through his slightly boozy, offhanded statement of the melody. And when he finally solos, it's in the same mellow mood. It's nice but safe and I expected more. The second side contains the album's justification, a quartet of Clapton originals, generally in the mode of 461's "Let It Grow." Taken in sequences, "Better Make It through Today" is the album's simplest and best song. It contains his most moving vocal and although it only recapitulates the struggle between resignation and faith that resonated out of "Give Me Strength," it does so with coherent and unquestionable intensity. "Pretty Blue Eyes" and "High" balance lilting Allmanesque instrumental passages off against slowed, moody sections. They seem to float by without ever really introducing themselves. They do lead airily into the related but more substantial "Opposites," the lyric of which describes the same dialectic as "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and the music of which grows in vertical layers to an instrumental resolution of elegance and near grandeur. Even here I get the feeling that Clapton is holding back more than necessary. Where there is conviction on There's One in Every Crowd, there's still no growth, no strain, no sense of challenge. Clapton also fails to challenge us; and it is the challenges he's issued to himself and to us, much more than his virtuosity, that have made him a pantheon artist. Those who have been moved by Clapton's work would be acting unfairly if they demanded a Layla every time he recorded. But it's also unfair not to expect some new challenge. On this album he doesn't offer any. (RS 187 -- May 22, 1975) -- BUD SCOPPA 01. We've Been Told (Jesus Coming Soon) [0:04:25.46] 02. Swing Low Sweet Chariot [0:03:32.33] 03. Little Rachel [0:04:07.46] 04. Don't Blame Me [0:03:34.00] 05. The Sky Is Crying [0:03:58.80] 06. Singin' The Blues [0:03:25.46] 07. Better Make It Through Today [0:04:05.82] 08. Pretty Blue Eyes [0:04:44.60] 09. High [0:03:31.00] 10. Opposites [0:04:45.04]