Clapton has said of The Band's "Music from Big Pink" that it "changed my life." "No Reason to Cry" may not be Clapton at his best, but if you like The Band (as I do), then you'll probably enjoy this compact disc.
Many of the songs sound like they could be from The Band, except for Clapton's voice. Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel play backup for Clapton, and members of The Band wrote two of the tracks: "Beautiful Thing" and "All Our Past Times." Danko shares lead vocals with Clapton on "All Our Past Times."
There are two outstanding tracks on this cd: "Hello Old Friend" and "Black Summer Rain." "Black Summer Rain" evokes The Band's "It Makes No Difference" both in sound and lyrics ("...and the sun don't shine anymore, and the rain falls down on my door..."). Listen to the two songs one after another and you'll see what I mean.
This album ain't Clapton's greatest but, to me, it's still good and well worth experiencing.
December 18, 2005 |  | Hot a career CD, but solid |  |
Eric Clapton at this time in his career was hanging out with members of the Band, and of course Bob Dylan.
There are several songs of note on this CD.
Sign Language is a duet with Bob Dylan. Over the years Dylan has offered several songs to Clapton. This is the only one they have collaborated on. Sign Language is not a great song, but I find it very interesting to hear Dylan and Clapton sing together.
County Jail Blues is another strong effort and has slide guitar.
At this point in Clapton's career we had not heard much slide guitar. It has a Mississippi Delta blues flavor that I love.
All Our Past Times is another duet with Rick Danko.
Clapton at this time was listening to country music and it shows throughout the album.
Double Trouble is another strong piece that appears on this CD.
Clapton in my mind is at his best with slow blues and this is no exception.
This is not his best, but a solid effort.
If you have never heard Clapton before this would not be a good place to start. This is for people like me who are really into Clapton.
November 18, 2005 | | Some Reason To Cry (l'm Out 12 Bucks For This Album) | |
'No Reason To Cry' is, in my opinion, one of Claptons weakest albums next to 'Another Ticket'. The whole thing is a sloppy mess with weak,disjointed playing, no cohesion or direction, and much slurring from Eric on lead vocals. Where are the producers on this album?, I wonder, sounds like they were 'out to lunch' on most of it, or maybe flat on their backs on the floor! However, Marcy Levy wrote and performed well on the track, 'Innocent Times'. Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Bob Dylan, Georgie Fame, and Ron Wood make guest appearances that don't really add much of anything to the entire mess. To be fair, There are a couple of OK tracks such as 'Beautiful Thing', 'Carnival', 'Hello Old Friend', and the Bob Dylan penned, 'Sign Language'. His filler blues cover, 'Double Trouble',and Rick Danko song, 'All Our Past Times'(Both songs are covered much better in Clapton's live 1980 album, 'Just One Night'.) are very good. In 'All Our Past Times', there are the follwing lyrics "All our past times should be forgotten, All our past times should be erased." makes me think so should the master tapes of this 1976 half effort.
October 22, 2005| | | Some great flashes. Not totally uninspired | |
First, take this CD for what it's worth, not by the standards set before and after it. So it's not "461," or "Slowhand." That's not necessarily a bad thing. Like Neil Young. Clapton didn't always put out albums for their top 40 value. On the contrary. Particularly at this point in his career, Clapton had earned some license- for better or worse depending on who you ask- to do some things he wanted to do and let the Billboard charts be danged. Yet despite that he could still spit out songs that garnered radio play like "Carnival" and "Hello Old Friend," two of my favorite Clapton songs. Also like Young, as well as Dylan, Clapton was partial to using one of the several lush, sporadically used female background singers of the time. In this case that voice is Marcy Levy, who if her voice were absent from the song "Beautiful Thing," it wouldn't be as smooth or melodic. In fact Clapton was so comfortable with his stature at this point in his career that he allowed Levy to sing solo in the song "Innocent Times" as he played in the background to churn out what is in my opinion the best song on this CD. It's a real Levy tour de force, albeit a brief one. For that reason itself, this CD's worth buying. And while "Sign Language" is hardly the best collaboration between 2 star recording artists, it's actually a decent song, consistent with this CD's tone, and unmistakenly Clapton and Dylan. But also typical of albums/CDs of this time, they weren't chock full of hits from beginning to end. So what makes this CD, or even this era different from that of today? With rare exceptions many big name artists have CDs that contain some grizzle. Future Clapton CDs would have slicker production quality, particularly after Phil Collins produced CDs put Clapton's name back in the spotlight in the early 80s. After that Clapton became something of an video darling, but did that necessarily mean he produced better songs? Purely subjective. Try this CD. I challenge you to not find some appeal in it. I bet you find yourself humming at least a couple of the tunes. I dare you to admit you didn't find your toe tapping to a couple tunes. And I especially bet you find yourself wondering what else did Marcy Levy record worth listening to. I know I did.
July 24, 2005| | | THE MUSIC TRIES TO AROUSE, BUT GOES BLAH... TOO MANY DRINKS | |
I'm a git player over 35 years and love EC. This release on his comeback trail in '76 is not much to get happy about. Reports circulated at the time of these recording sessions had found EC drinking very hard and surrounded by the same type of musicans involved. Ex Herion addicts usually go to Alcohol to relieve the JUNK pain from Herion. It is no reason that this release fell on deaf ears when first issued. EC's playing is stiff and mediocre. Even the bonus track added on the CD "LAST NIGHT" does not leave you filled or do any justice. He is stiff on all his git work on this album. A shame. Maybe I'm just to critical, but others felt the same way. judging by the cover of EC in a bar with bottles of liquor in front of him answers these downer gaps.
December 7, 2003More reviews at Amazon.com ...
