Happy 30th Anniversary to Eric Clapton’s eleventh studio album Journeyman, originally released November 7, 1989.
As a younger person, I always found Eric Clapton a bit frustrating.
For all of his guitar-playing talent, there's often been an unwillingness to go for the throat instrumentally. His time in Cream saw a lot of bold experimentation and showmanship but he never really topped that after the band imploded.
As an adult, I've come to appreciate Clapton's playing, and how what he's lacked in speed and pyrotechnics he's more than made up for with taste and emotion. But as a teen, it just confused me to no end. Every interview talked about how good Clapton was. One of the 20th century's first memes was "Clapton is God" spray painted in London. It made me feel like Daniel in The Karate Kid, wanting Mr. Miyagi to bust out all of his sick moves, but instead being fed a survey course on the janitorial arts.
Like Daniel, though, I wanted to believe, and so I wound up purchasing Journeyman on cassette. And to my 13-year-old mind, there wasn't enough guitar or guitar solos, and all of the songs just felt too slow. Plus, the album had a very ‘80s production sensibility, with lots of keyboards and echo-y drums.
Of course, 30 years later, I realize how idiotic I was. Journeyman stands up incredibly well and while it's not the instrumental showcase my teenage self wished for everything he heard, the songs and performances are stunning. The production is a bit dated, but other than that, the album could be released today and resonate with an audience, as long as the audience isn't teenage guitar-obsessed knuckleheads.
To be fair, my disappointment with Clapton wasn't entirely misplaced. His 1980s work, while often commercially successful, often felt like the product of someone either trying to get an album finished, or deferring to the wishes of someone trying to sell albums.
Journeyman was different. While Clapton the guitarist is occasionally lost in the production, and in the extensive guest list, Clapton the artist is recognizable within every song. This is especially impressive given Clapton co-wrote just two of the album's dozen tunes. The success of the album is due to its structure, which is a mix of Clapton looking back to his influences, as well as acknowledging where he was at the time. But rather than making the old stuff sound old and the new stuff sound new, producer Russ Titelman gave every track a similar tone, making Journeyman feel cohesive and helping Clapton to own the songs.
This method is best observed on the Journeyman cover of Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me." Clapton and Titelman don't deviate too much from Diddley's version, mostly saturating the track with additional instruments, like ‘80s drums and ‘60s harmonica. Clapton's vocals are prominent in the mix, soulful and weary, sounding much like the blues heroes of his youth.
Age, up to now, had always been a challenge for Clapton. Clapton told Billboard magazine that Titelman was the first producer he had worked with that was also his age, which increased Clapton's comfort level with him. A blues guitar prodigy, Clapton started working at 18, often the youngest person in the band. And as he pointed out to Billboard, even if he was the same age as his bandmates, the producer was always an older authority figure. His beloved blues figures—the Robert Johnsons, Muddy Waters, and Bo Diddleys—were also older than Clapton.
Clapton always saw himself as the kid in the room, even as he became a full-blown adult. On Journeyman, Clapton finally sees himself as, if not yet a blues master, at least someone on the road toward it. And that's what allowed a then-44-year-old to find a new, different depth in a blues song written by a 30-year-old Diddley.
Clapton similarly takes on Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's rock & roll classic "Hound Dog" and Ray Charles' "Hard Times." Neither cover is as strong as "Before You Accuse Me," but both do a very good job of letting Clapton establish himself within the iconic song of another artist.
Journeyman also features some beautiful ballads that allow Clapton to fold in his blues influences. I suspect the pressure of not being responsible for every aspect of the song freed Clapton to think about how he might best fit himself within someone else’s songs. For instance, "Running on Faith," written by songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams, features a beautiful Dobro part, that while common in the blues, was relatively uncommon in Clapton's catalog. It was a smart and interesting choice for Clapton to include it. As with "Before You Accuse Me," Clapton's vocal performance is heartbreakingly honest. "Old Love," co-written with bluesman Robert Cray and also featuring Cray's guitar on the track, flirts with jazz, but is mostly just an expansive, compelling slow burn of a song.
Many of these songs would reappear on Clapton's 1992 MTV Unplugged session, which would lead to his Unplugged album (also produced by Titelman). While the Unplugged sessions featured lots of blues covers, many long-associated with Clapton, there were three Journeyman tracks: "Before You Accuse Me," "Old Love," and "Running on Faith." The only other Clapton-penned tune from his extensive catalog is his cover of the iconic "Layla." The other Clapton-written Unplugged songs were previously unrecorded ("Tears in Heaven" wound up on the Clapton-scored Rush soundtrack, and "Circus Left Town" and "My Father's Eyes," which would eventually be recorded on 1998's Pilgrim. "Lonely Stranger" has yet to be recorded).
In many ways, the Journeyman-heavy Unplugged set makes sense. While three years elapsed between the two recordings, Journeyman was Clapton's most recent studio album at the time. However, it's notable, given the sheer volume of Clapton songs, that he leaned so heavily upon that one album, rather than providing more of a greatest hits. My hypothesis is that the Journeyman songs meant more to Clapton, spoke more to his personality, and that connection caused him to want to showcase those songs on Unplugged. Acoustic performances are an act of exposure, since there's much less instrumentally to hide behind. So because Clapton was putting it all out there, I think he wanted to use songs that had personal resonance, rather than just going with the songs that had paid for his Armani suits.
Youth is about looking ahead. You're rarely content with where or what you are. Instead, you focus on the possibilities. Journeyman is a true act of maturity, though, with Clapton present in the present, while acknowledging his past and thinking about his future, mostly through the huge Journeyman singles "Pretending" and "Bad Love," as well as the successful tour behind the album. The album's sound is stereotypical adult contemporary, but the term, although a bit pejorative, holds up because the album really is an adult growing comfortable with that status.
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