| Blind Faith | review #2 | 1969 |
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(Casey Brennan's review)
This is known as the first supergroup in a rock band because it consisted of players from three popular late 1960's bands: Steve Winwood from Traffic, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream, and Rick Grech from Family. Their combined styles make this interesting; there is some Traffic jazzy guitar, overtones of Cream riffs, a bit of art rock, and some acoustic stuff. Half of the songs were written by Steve Winwood so it mostly sounds closer to his style like the acoustic "Can't Find My Way Home", the long opener "Had To Cry Today", and the majestic art rock edge song "Sea Of Joy".
Some of the songs on here though seem a bit haphazardly performed and a little rushed -- it doesn't really live up to being classic Clapton or Winwood. Some songs are a little overlong on here like the tedious 15 minute, "Do What You Like" which starts off real well with a nice shuffling melody and good background vocals, but then turns into a long-winded drum solo which is for the most part boring. On the bright side though, that's the last track on the whole album.
The other songs "Well All Right" is a bouncy organ-guitar song that is good for singing along too, and "Presence Of The Lord" is the lone Clapton song on here and also one of the best. The chemistry didn't work out for the band as they never truly found a style for themselves, so they broke up very shortly after recording this. Of course Clapton and Winwood went on to much better things.
I've been trying for almost two weeks to write a review for this. It's almost a mystification. Blind Faith has some of the most meteoric high points of Clapton and Winwood's careers, but so much of it is less than wonderful. Nor is it a double album or an extraordinarily long work; just 6 songs. Blind Faith is honestly a totally unique listening experience. Out of necessity, I bought the Deluxe Edition 30th Anniversary set, which contains nearly everything Blind Faith laid down on tape. My advice---don't blow your $34 bucks on it, though the electric version of Can't Find My Way Home is pretty good.
Oh, where to start? This album is almost painful to listen to because I can imagine how great they would have been if stupid Ginger Baker hadn't first forced his way into the band and then forced them to record too quickly. Had To Cry Today is a good opener with a lovely riff and some decent solos, but it could stand some judicious trimming in all honesty. The same cannot be said for Can't Find My Way Home, my favorite on the album. It's a beautiful acoustic piece, very sad, very melancholy, but also very good. Winwood's delivery is perfect, and I think it's Clapton's best acoustic moment ever.
Following is, of all things, a Buddy Holly cover with some gritty guitar alongside a singalong melody and some jazzy piano. Presence Of The Lord is a cool gospel-ish number with a breathtaking solo, Sea Of Joy is pretty good (love that fiddle!), and Do What You Like.....if I did what I liked, I'd dump this track for something better. It's very dull, though it has it's moments. This is such a hard critique. I was simultaneously amazed and disappointed in this one. I'll give it a 7, but it's a sorrowful 7. I'd love to give it better for the awesome couple of songs, but the opener and closer are both drags.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (Wiener, Glenn)
A seven is a reasonable score for this somwhat incomplete album. However, my rating is a six as in six album tracks.
There is no doubt about it that Presence Of The Lord is the highlight of this collection. One of Eric Clapton's best written songs and one of Stevie Windwood's best vocal performances. Stevie's voice mixes in perfectly with the church like organ touches. But all of that does not compare to the heavenly and I mean HEAVENLY GUITAR SOLO contributed by Mr. Clapton here. The wah wah effects, the fluid speedy notes and the overall tone is just stupendous. Ginger Baker compliments this solo with some intense drumming. Eric contributes some nice fills behind Stevie's vocals and organ in the last verse. Anyway, this song makes you almost forget about the rest of the album.
Now there are some other worthwhile moments to this record. Can't Find My Way Home is a beautiful ballad with Eric's haunting guitar pattern complimenting Stevie's eerie vocals. Well Allright and Sea Of Joy are nice songs. Not great or spectacular but each have interesting instrumental embellishments and rhythms. That leaves us to the "other two tracks". Both of these run out of steam after a few minutes. Had To Cry Today has a great opening riff and good vocals. However, the song structure is mostly the aforementioned riff repeated over and over. The secondary melody is well.....very much an afterthought....I guess I mean secondary. Gee, there was the word I was looking for. This would be OK if the song was merely four or even five minutes long. However at nine plus minutes, this is just plain excessive. As for Ginger Baker's song, Do What You Like, the formula varies but the end result is similar. The basic song structure is quite interesting for three and a half minutes. Even Clapton's solo is quite interesting for a while. However, Ginger Baker's drum solo is somewhat understated and overplayed. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the song returns merely repeating the lyrics said almost 20 minutes ago. This number should have been limited in length to about 4-5 minutes and then maybe another Song or two could have been added to this collection. But the guys must've been too stoned or fighting or whatever to realize that something much more productive could have come out of this session.
None the less as a whole, there is one excellent song, one very good song, and some good moments on this record that somewhat offset the excessive noodling on this record to make it worthy purchase if you can find it cheap at a used CD store. Eric Clapton and Stevie Windwood would each go on to produce better recordings but you can see flashes of brilliance in each of them on this recording.