The 68 was a particular year for the music: how many groups
disbanded? Cream, Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group and The Byrds dissolved themselves,
while Eric Burdon (New Animals), Janis Joplin (Big Brother And The Holding Company),
Al Kooper (Blood, Sweat And Tears), John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful) and Graham
Nash (Hollies) left their groups. As Chris Welch noticed, on Melody Maker, there
was a tendency to underline the single artistic personalities, creating a musical
scene similar to the jazz's one, where musicians can improvise as they wanted;
but C. Welch observed that this would be possible only for the most talented
and the most "money-equipped" artists. This was the field in which Blind Faith
were born; in this situation the hungry wolves of the recording companies couldn't
remain motionless: "Let's take the cream of the cream and make a group to back
that star and make a lot of money thanks to his/her name! ". Only two examples:
until the '68 Big Brother And The Holding Company was a BAND, then we have only
Ms. Joplin with her backing band; do you ever wonder why latest Hendrix was
so... like pop crap? Hey, white-collared Mr. Bussinessman do you think we can't
notice the musical differences (oh guys, forgive my freak spirit)? If you have
some time to lose, try to find some papers of the epoch like Melody Maker, Rolling
Stones, Record Mirror, Beat Instrumental, New Musical Express and Disc And Music
Echo: you'll find a lot of appreciations for Blind Faith before anyone
hears a single note from the band; and the band did its unique tour (of twenty
dates, if I correctly remember) in the USA: to explain what it means, a phrase
of M. Mitchell (the drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience) is sufficient: "The
States is where you can easily make a lot of money". A massive use of commercial
advertisings and a mega-tour is one of the best ways to have fast and sure money.
And the artists? Let's be inventive! Why give a star a backing band, while we
can (thanks to the great numbers of disbanded groups) find a lot of free artists
and create an all-star band (or a supergroup, as well): so we can satisfy not
only the fans of one star but the fans of four stars (and in the economical
ground: 4 *fans* $ is much better than 1 *fan* $, don't you think so?)! And
so they did; the lineup of Blind Faith is: E. Clapton and G. Baker from Cream
(guitarist and drummer, in the case you don't know), S. Windwood (keyboard)
from Traffic and R. Grech (on bass and fiddle) from Family. A precisation: I
don't mean that those guys were cold bussinessmen, taking no care of musical
freedom, but they surely were very controlled by their managers and producers;
or how can you explain their short career, the unimpressive album, the mega-tour
and the tons of commercial advertisements? Okay, okay, I know what some people
is saying: you have to judge only the music and not all stuff around the musicians.
Yes, they are right, I have always believed that is the poem and not the poet
that counts; but in this case the contest heavily influenced the music. Hendrix's
music was very commercialized but never commercial (at least for his first three
albums); on the other hand here it's totally different. All the album, except
for "Can't Find My Way Home", sounds like Cream for some moments and like Traffic
for others.
Here we can find Steve's particular style (I can't really name his style in
any different way, just think the fact I still haven't managed to decide if
he is a good or a bad keyboard player), long solos by Clapton, a Cream-ish jam
("Do what you like"). All those elements are too underlined (for example I think
the Clapton's solos are often too long, and the same for Baker's drum solo)
with the clear purpose to say to the fans: here's what you expect; after this
considerations, it's clear that my main reproach to this album is the lack of
originality (even there are some good ideas). One of the main features of this
album is its fragmentariness (and songs's incosistence, too); a good example
of this is "Had To Cry Today": a song built on a quiet good riff, sure, but
it doesn't convince me to much. Windwood's voice sounds as he's standing a too
strong strain for him and song is made wore by the virtuosity of Clapton solos;
in fact they are too long and tend to overshadow the song structure. Hey Eric,
we know you are a good guitarist, don't bore us anymore! So the song appears
double-faced: in the beginning we have a pure Traffic song and then Creamish-jam
solo; not that it isn't good but I think that Blind Faith relied on virtuosity
(especially of keyboard and guitar) to hide the weakness of the whole song,
just think about the absurd lyrics, generally obscured by Clapton's guitar.
The second track, on the other song, is a very good song: Steve's voice sounds
more relaxed, Baker makes his drums softer and less intrusive (he doesn't use
the usual sticks but the brushes) and Clapton delivers a smooth rhythm guitar
(here the guitar reminds a bit to "Layla"); a delicate song with fascinating
lyrics: this guys can really create good music when they want! . Third track
is a cover of a Buddy Holly song: it sounds quite different from Holly's standard,
but is quite catchy, mainly for the "latin" drum work by Baker and the Vaudeville-piano
by Windwood (no, it's not a real Vaudeville piano, it's only a keyboard played
in this guy's particular style). The only Clapton's song in here, "Presence
Of The Lord", shows religious lyrics (the search for mysticism is a common place
for this period, just think to the Who's Tommy) and a quite original
music (different from that Cream-Traffic mix we are becoming used to); and so
a good song? NO! Here the usual solo that has nothing to do with! It seems that
Blind Faith, or their producer, said: "In this song we haven't still show the
full potential of the band". And so what do they do? They leave Clapton & Baker
rock hard as possible, totally ruining the atmosphere of the song. "Sea Of Joy"
suffers of the same problems of "Had To Cry Today", only that here the hero
is Windwood. When to a group are preposed the single personalities the result
is fragmentariness and in the most of cases that means to make more bad an album
or a song; the rivalities within a band can contribute to create very good music,
especially when each member try to shine more than the other without overshadow
them but cooperating with the others (this is why I consider Revolver
or Sgt. Pepper much better than The Beatles, the latter, according
to me, is the work of four distinct soloists). And Baker's "Do What You Like"
is really a song where each member does what he likes, everyone has his moment
to shine; this track is more similar to a jam and I know that in a jam the single
personalities result more predominant but, to be short, do you think Hendrix'
solos improvisations would be the same without the strong driving and cohesive
sound of Redding's bass and the Mitchell's continual shaking? For me not. Fragmentariness,
as I already said, is the main feature of this song, even if there are some
remarkable things in it, like Eric's guitar solo that reminds of the Santana
of "Waves Within" and "Look Up (To see what is coming down)" (the album is Caravanserai).
Someone, made curious by my review, could buy this album and receive to the
first listen a very good impression; the album is surely enjoyable and catchy,
thanks to the extremely professional playing, and if someone can have good times
with it, good for him! But I love when rock tries to be intelligent and art
(and when it manages, sure!) and from this point of view this album is miles
away from that and I hope to have explained why.
Send your comments and reviews of "Blind Faith"