[1] Something Special (Clapton) - 2:36
[2] Black Rose (Seals/Setser) - 3:44
[3] Blow Wind Blow (Waters) - 2:58
[4] Another Ticket (Clapton) - 5:43
[5] I Can't Stand It (Clapton) - 4:07
[6] Hold Me Lord (Clapton) - 3:27
[7] Floating Bridge (Estes) - 6:32
[8] Catch Me If You Can (Brooker/Clapton) - 4:24
[9] Rita Mae (Clapton) - 5:03
HENRY SPINETTI - Percussion, Drums
CHRIS STAINTON - Keyboards
ALBERT LEE - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
GARY BROOKER - Keyboards, Vocals
DAVE MARKEE - Bass Guitar
TOM DOWD - Engineer
MICHAEL CARNEVale - Ass. Engineer
KENDAL STUBBS - Ass. Engineer
JOSEPH M. PALMACCIO - Digitally Remastering
ROB O'CONNOR - Design, Art Dircetion
ALAN DEMPSEY - Handlettering
STEVE SANDON - Photograohy
1981 CD Polydor 827 579
1981 LP RSO 5008
1990 LP Polydor 827579
1990 CD Polydor 827579
1990 CS Polydor 827579-4
1996 CD Polygram 531830
1996 CS Polygram 531830
Now, here's a star-crossed album. Polydor rejected the first version of
it, produced by Glyn Johns, and Eric Clapton was forced to cut it all
over again with Tom Dowd. Then, a few dates into a US promotional tour
coinciding with its release, Clapton collapsed and was found to be near
death from ulcers due to his alcoholism. Finally, it turned out to be
the final record of his 15-year association with Polydor, which
therefore had no reason to promote it. Nevertheless, the album made the
Top Ten, went gold, and spawned a Top Ten single in "I Can't Stand It."
And the rest of it wasn't too shabby, either. The first and last
Clapton studio album to feature his all-British band of the early '80s,
it gave considerable prominence to second guitarist Albert Lee and
especially to keyboard player/singer Gary Brooker (formerly leader of
Procol Harum), and they gave it more of a blues-rock feel than the
country-funk brewed up by the Tulsa shuffle crew Clapton had used
throughout the 1970s. Best of all, Clapton had taken the time to write
some songs — he's credited on six of the nine selections —
and tunes such as the title track and "I Can't Stand It" held up well.
This wasn't great Clapton, but it was good, and it deserved more
recognition that conditions allowed it at the time.
It seems as if Eric Clapton's entire solo career has been an exercise
in humility – as if he can't forgive himself for all those
overindulgent psychedelic jams of the past, the Clapton is god
superstardom, the self-destructive lifestyle. But despite the
near-ascetic modesty and earnest commercial meticulousness of his solo
LPs, the same huge spirit that powered his most tumultuous performances
with Cream or Derek and the Dominos continues to inform his playing. As
last year's live album or any of his concerts affirm, he can still let
go with riveting ferocity when he wants to. And, on many of his later
records, there's at least one cut that seethes with enough rhythmic
intensity to prod – and frustrate – fans who can't forget
the Sixties.
The decision to create expert, accessible, marketable music often
results in a "nothing special" reception from listeners. Though the
younger Clapton was earthshaking as a guitarist, he was nothing
special, even rather shy, as a singer and writer. Unfortunately, great
solos don't make for much of a career outside a group context.
Beginning with his excellent 1974 "comeback" LP, 461 Ocean Boulevard,
Eric Clapton began to grow increasingly confident and conscientious as
a vocalist and song stylist. His blues were more traditionally
rendered, with guitar riffs functioning as sharp, precise
accompaniment. Tunes weren't merely frames for extended soloing.
Clapton also began to acquire reggae, gospel, honky-tonk and country
influences, treating them with all the humble respect he paid the
blues. His production values reflected this sobriety, moving from
density to clarity, from deliriousness to restraint.
While Another Ticket continues in the same vein and is quite similar to
Clapton's last studio album, Backless (1978), there are significant
differences. The band that Clapton worked with through most of the
Seventies (which included the late Carl Dean Radle, to whose memory
Another Ticket is dedicated) has been replaced. Second guitarist Albert
Lee, who's performed with Clapton onstage, plays rough and pushes the
star harder than his predecessor, George Terry, though both share
Clapton's aggressive, rhythmic style. Restrained as it is, the
two-guitar interplay with Lee is the finest that Eric Clapton has
engaged in since his and Duane Allman's virtuosity on Layla. The other
changes are the absence of a female backup singer and the presence of
two keyboardists. These changes allow for arrangements that recall Bob
Dylan and the Band.
There are differences in content, too. While "I Can't Stand It" is an
apt sequel to "Lay Down Sally" and "Promises," it's tougher in tone and
attitude. Another Ticket's cover versions, instead of drawing upon such
contemporaries as Dylan, J.J. Cale or John Martyn, revisit master
bluesmen. The Muddy Waters number, "Blow Wind Blow," is true to the
Waters manner of slam-down guitar rhythms and gravelly vocalizing,
though there's a hint of tongue-in-cheek in Clapton's easygoing
gruffness. The uptempo fillers (e.g., "Something Special") sound like
"Tulsa Time" and other variations on that upbeat, syncopated shuffle
style.
One of the best things about Clapton's new group – guitarist Lee,
keyboard players Gary Brooker and Chris Stainton, bassist Dave Markee,
drummer Henry Spinetti–is the way the musicians maintain interest
during a ballad or slow blues. The Band-type backup singing (by Brooker
and Lee) and concise guitar fills keep a lengthy composition like the
title track afloat. Orchestral synthesizers and piano glissandos lend
an ethereal quality to the thematic inertia of "Another Ticket." This
becalmed resignation, like the more energetic downers on side two, is
possessed of an eerie apprehension of death that lends such a seemingly
light-spirited record its somber undertone.
Another Ticket's longest cut, a beautiful restoration of Sleepy John
Estes' "Floating Bridge," might be the most subtle, refined slow blues
that Clapton has ever done, its surreal lyric unfolding between quietly
emotive solos. Preceded by a country gospel tune in which the singer
prays, "Hold me Lord.../I'm slipping through," and followed by the
deceptively bouncy "Catch Me if You Can" (which concludes, "You'd
better find a shovel/'Cause I've gone to ground"), Estes' chilling tale
of drowning in "muddy water" is the centerpiece of the second side's
premonition suite. The LP's closing number, "Rita Mae," which finds
Clapton and Lee in a dueling guitar tag that's the hottest studio jam
he's recorded since Slowhand's "The Core" (1977), is the only song on
side two that's not about dying. It's about murder. As an artist often
criticized for mellowing out, Eric Clapton has succeeded in making very
popular music from an authentic and deeply tragic blues sensibility. He
addresses both the heart and the charts in the same way: with a bullet.
(RS 346)
Ähnliches gilt für das 81er Opus "Another Ticket": feine
Musiker in differenzierten Songs, aber der Funke sprang - außer
bei "I Can't Stand It" - nicht so recht über. ** Klang: 03-04
She's something special, I can't explain it,
But when she's near me, I can't contain it.
And just one look at her face is good enough for me.
No way of knowing which way I'm going,
But I can't stop it, it keeps on growing.
And just one look at her face is good enough for me.
She ain't too pretty, she ain't too tall,
In fact she ain't too much of anything at all.
I don't care what the people say,
They're going to find out some sweet day.
She is precious, she is charming,
She is so innocent it's really disarming.
And just one look at her face is good enough for me.
Chorus
Third Verse
Is good enough for me,
Is good enough for me.
BLACK ROSE
The dogs are howling at the midnight moon.
I'm on my way to where the black rose blooms.
The mountain's high, the night is cold.
I feel the sunshine; a black rose grows.
Together again, we're as common as sin, they say,
We just walk around the stones they throw.
Night after night, we steal away to where
Love don't see no colors in the shadows,
Love don't see no colors in the shadows.
Wind in the willows, wild and warm,
Just like the woman lying here in my arms.
The water's deep, cold and still.
I love the feeling that black rose gives.
Chorus
Chorus
Love don't see no colors in the shadows.
BLOW WIND BLOW
When the sun rose this morning, I didn't have my baby by my side.
When the sun rose this morning, I didn't have my baby by my side.
I don't know where she was, I know she's out with some another guy.
Don't the sun look lonesome shading down behind the trees?
Don't the sun look lonesome shading down behind the trees?
But don't your house look lonesome when your baby's packed to leave.
Blow wind, blow wind, blow my baby back to me.
Blow wind, blow wind, blow my baby back to me.
Well you know if I don't soon find them, I will be in misery.
Goodbye baby, that is all I have left to say.
Goodbye baby, that is all I have left to say.
But you have lost your good thing, go ahead and have your own way.
ANOTHER TICKET
Why can't it stay like this forever?
Why does it always have to change?
Everytime you think you've paid the price,
Seems you've always got to pay it twice.
Everytime you think you're near the end,
You turn around and find another ticket.
Oh my love, time is running out.
Oh my love, time is running out.
Why must we wait until tomorrow,
When we already know the score?
Everytime you think you've paid the price,
Seems you've always got to pay it twice.
Everytime you think you've got it made,
Seems you're only lying in the shade.
Everytime you think you've run the course,
Seems you've got to ride another horse.
Everytime you think you're near the end,
You turn around and find another ticket.
Chorus
Fourth Verse
Fifth Verse
Chorus
I CAN'T STAND IT
You've been told, so maybe it's time that you learned.
You've been sold, maybe it's time that you earned.
I can't stand it.
You're fooling around, I can't stand it.
You're running around, I can't stand it.
You're fooling around with my heart.
I'll explain; I feel like I'm being used.
Make it plain, so you don't get confused.
Chorus
Chorus
It's time, time for me to let you know.
Ain't no crime, no crime to let your feelings show.
Chorus
HOLD ME LORD
Sixteen days in Bethlehem, peddling dope and drinking wine.
Pulling women, making gigs, steering clear and doing fine.
I moved on down to Galilee, trying to find a few new friends.
I'm throwing aces everywhere, trying to forget the end.
Hold me Lord, hold me Lord,
Hold me tight, I'm slipping through.
Hold me Lord, hold me Lord,
Hold me tight, I beg of you.
I'm cruising through Jerusalem, dust is flying everywhere.
I'm dodging bullets, making time, on the level, in the square.
They say you kissed your best friend's hand, they say you did it for his love.
They say you got in agony, the hand fits well into the glove.
Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
FLOATING BRIDGE
Well I never will forget that floating bridge.
Lord I never will forget that floating bridge.
Lord I never will forget that floating bridge.
They tell me five minutes time underwater I was hid.
I was going down and I throwed up my hands.
As I was going down I throwed up my hands.
As I was going down I throwed up my hands,
Saying, "Please Lord, take me on dry land."
Well they carried me in the house and they laid me 'cross the bed.
Well they carried me in the house, they laid me 'cross the bed.
Well they carried me in the house, they laid me 'cross the bed.
I couldn't hear nothing but muddy water running 'round my head.
Oh my mother often told me, "Quit playing a bum."
My mother always told me, "Quit playing a bum."
Lord, my mother always told me, "Son, quit playing a bum.
Go out somewhere and make a crumb."
All the people on the bridge was screaming and crying.
Well all the people on the bridge was screaming and crying.
All the people on the bridge stood screaming and crying,
Saying, "Lord have mercy, wher's we g'wine?"
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Catch me if you can; I won't be easy to find.
I got a woman at home that's driving me out of my mind.
Catch me if you can; it won't be easy to do.
And I'm warning you brother I won't be leaving no clues.
Catch me if you can; I won't be leaving no scent.
I've been running the wrong way, I think it's time that I went.
Believe me, I'm a man; I ain't easy to tend.
And I'm moving on out, so catch me if you can.
There's no use bothering with the lost and found.
You'd better find a shovel, 'cause I've gone to ground.
Little girl never did pay me no mind.
I guess I'll have to go and leave her behind. So . . .
First Verse
Chorus
First Verse
RITA MAE
Rita Mae, Rita Mae, come and visit me today.
Rita Mae, Rita Mae, come and visit me today.
I'll do anything you want, give you anything you say.
I saw you out walking with your other man today.
I saw you out walking with your other man today.
If I catch you one more time, I'm gonna blow you both away.
Rita Mae, Rita Mae, I'll see you one more time today.
Rita Mae, Rita Mae, I'll see you one more time today.
When I've finished what I've done, gonna come and drive you away.