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>Subject: The ICI article

NEW ERIC CLAPTON BOX, CROSSROADS 2, FOCUSES ON LIVE RECORDINGS

Back in 1988, Eric Clapton's four-disc Crossroads box set appeared on store
shelves, the first such package of the modern-day CD era. A few other box
sets containing CDs had preceded it, such as Bob Dylan's Biograph and
perhaps a few jazz sets. But Crossroads was the first high-profile,
major-label box set to be configured primarily for CD, with the LP and
cassette formats being an afterthought. "No one knew what to expect from a
box set," admits Bill Levenson, the PolyGram VP who produced the Clapton
reissue. All Crossroads did was eventually go triple platinum, win two
Grammy awards, and pave the way for the hundreds of CD box sets that have
followed.

Now, eight years later, PolyGram Chronicles is set to release the follow-up
set to Crossroads, another four-CD Clapton box titled Crossroads 2 - Live
In The Seventies. As the title implies, the box focuses on the guitar
great's live shows from the '70s, containing 31 concert performances
altogether, 26 of them previously unreleased. Four additional, unreleased
studio tracks start and finish the set, serving as bookends for the concert
material. In between are live renditions of nearly every famous Clapton
song up to and including that era, such as "Badge," "Crossroads," "Can't
Find My Way Home," "Cocaine," "Wonderful Tonight," and "Layla."

Once again, PolyGram VP Bill Levenson oversaw the entire project. We asked
him how he arrived at the decision to focus Crossroads 2 on live material
from just one decade, and found that his answer served as an education of
sorts as to how many of these big projects come together.

"We felt that Eric, like many artists, has sort of a two-pronged career,"
Levenson tells ICE. "A studio career and a live career. So we felt that it
was valid to consider a box set of live Eric Clapton. Crossroads [the first
box] evolved over time; it was not the record it started out to be. And
Crossroads 2 evolved, also.

"We started with the concept of, what would a live career retrospective
look like? What would happen if we took it from the Yardbirds through to
the current day? For a variety of reasons, pieces fell out. There was Five
Live Yardbirds and a few things, but... not essential material. Then we
walked our way through John Mayall, and found that there wasn't a whole
lot. Then we went to Cream. Although we have three concerts from the West
Coast, pretty much anything worth hearing has been heard. We didn't find
any gems that would add to the Clapton discography; it would have been a
stretch. Blind Faith? I had Hyde Park, but that was not essential. Then we
got to Derek & The Dominos, and we've already done a Derek & The Dominos
set. So all of a sudden we found ourselves in 1974." The live material on
Crossroads 2 spans July 1974 to November 1978.

"Looking at the '80s," Levenson continues, "we had the Warner Bros. issue:
it's another label, and that's a whole project in itself, because Eric
must've recorded a hundred shows for Warner Bros. There's so much
material--all the Royal Albert Hall shows every year--that we pulled back
and said, `Wait a minute; the Crossroads box set concept could be an
ongoing process. Let's define what's easy for us to get our hands around,
and see if it's valid.'

"So we went in and found that we had 15-20 shows to work with, plus
outtakes from his live albums. We did say, `this is not an outtakes
package, but if we find something that fits in, we'll consider it.' We
started mixing down shows and reviewing them, and after 30 days in the
studio, we came out with a lot of stuff. We started editing together and
sequencing, and lo and behold, it fell into this shape very neatly: a '74
tour, a '75 tour, the trimmed-down band in '78... and it made a good
record. So we opted to say, `This is a statement that works well on its
own.' Maybe someday there'll be an '80s package; maybe someday there'll be
a '90s package."

Earlier we stated that of the set's 31 live performances, 26 of them are
previously unreleased; but actually, the other five are unreleased in this
form. They come from the 1975 live album E.C. Was Here, but all have been
newly remixed and fully restored to their original length. Some of them
contained snippets of other songs that appeared elsewhere on E.C. Was
Here--Clapton was prone to playing long blues medleys in those days--and
the producers of that album didn't want any song to turn up twice. With a
four-CD box set, Levenson didn't have that concern. And, indeed, a few
songs on Crossroads 2 pop up more than once, such as the Clapton staples
"Rambling On My Mind" and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman," but they're
usually part of a medley. "Like a jazz musician, the interpretations are
different," Levenson says. "Some are acoustic performances, some are
electric. So I don't think there's any real redundancy."

We asked Levenson to single out his favorite moments on Crossroads 2. "For
me," he says, "one of the highlights is the track that Carlos Santana plays
on, `Eyesight To The Blind'/`Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad' from
Providence, which has Carlos dueling with Eric. Carlos is just splendid on
it; he was thrilled to be a part of this project.

"I also think that `Badge' and `I Shot The Sheriff' from Nassau Coliseum
are about as good as those tracks get. It's hard to pick the highlights,
though, because we went through everything and these were the highlights
from the tapes, so we feel that they're all highlights."

When we asked, it was tough for Levenson to identify what on Crossroads 2
has been bootlegged before, and what hasn't. "I don't think anything on
disc four has been bootlegged," he says, referring to the material
performed in November 1978. "The tapes were unmarked when we found them; we
didn't know what they were. That's an amazing tour, where it's only a
four-piece; Eric just carries it beautifully. That reel was quite a find. "

As mentioned earlier, the box set opens and closes with studio material. It
kicks off with "Walkin' Down The Road" from Criteria Studios in Miami, May
1974. "That was a 461 Ocean Blvd. recording," Levenson says. "They opted
not to use it on the record. It's a very fresh, unissued performance; it
was a wonderful way to step into [the box set]."

The box ends with three studio recordings from Olympic Sound Studios in
London, December 1978: "To Make Somebody Happy," "Cryin'" and "Water On The
Ground." "The last three were really just a find," Levenson explains. "They
were the first session with his new band, the English players; it was the
start of his next phase. We felt the [box set] would frame beautifully
between the two studio sessions." The final track, "Water On The Ground,"
was added at Clapton's request.

Is a Crossroads 3 box set really a viable concept? "Like Dylan, he's the
perfect artist to have categories for," Levenson says. "Like `The
Sessions'... Eric as session guitarist. That's a tough one, because it's
very hard to do [from a legal standpoint]. But the Crossroads concept can
carry on, if we want to and we're given the privilege to do so."

We brought up the possibility of a Cream box, which has been mentioned
before in these pages. "We're still working on the idea," he says. "I'm
still going through material. I've run out of official material, so now
we're going through live bootlegs and stuff. Like with the Velvet
Underground: what is out there that's usable, that is not terribly
deficient in sound? So we're reviewing.

"We have remastered the entire Cream and Clapton catalogs in 20-bit, but
we've only issued two compilations so far. After Crossroads 2, we're going
to start rolling out their remastered catalogs."

Eric Clapton: Crossroads 2 - Live In The Seventies

Disc One:

Walkin' Down The Road (Criteria Studios, Miami 5/74) * Have You Ever Loved
A Woman (Long Beach Arena 7/19/74) * Willie And The Hand Jive/Get Ready
(Long Beach Arena 7/20/74) * Can't Find My Way Home (same as previous
track) * Driftin' Blues/Rambling On My Mind (same) * Presence Of The Lord
(same) * Rambling On My Mind/Have You Ever Loved A Woman (Hammersmith
Odeon, London 12/4/74) * Little Wing (same) * The Sky Is Crying/Have You
Ever Loved A Woman/Rambling On My Mind (Hammersmith Odeon, London 12/5/74).

Disc Two:

Layla (Providence Civic Center 6/25/75) * Further On Up The Road (same) * I
Shot The Sheriff (Nassau Coliseum 6/28/75) * Badge (same) * Driftin' Blues
(Providence Civic Center 6/25/75) * Eyesight To The Blind/Why Does Love Got
To Be So Sad? (same).

Disc Three:

Tell The Truth (Hammersmith Odeon, London 4/27/77) * Knockin' On Heaven's
Door (same) * Stormy Monday (same) * Lay Down Sally (Santa Monica Civic
Auditorium 2/12/78) * The Core (Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 2/11/78) *
We're All The Way (Santa Monica Civic Auditorium 2/12/78) * Cocaine (same)
* Goin' Down Slow/Rambling On My Mind (Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
2/11/78) * Mean Old Frisco (Savannah Civic Center 3/21/78).

Disc Four:

Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever (Victoria Hall, Hanley 11/28/78) * Worried
Life Blues (same) * Tulsa Time (Apollo Theatre, Glasgow 11/24/78) * Early
In The Morning (Victoria Hall, Hanley 11/28/78) * Wonderful Tonight (Apollo
Theatre, Glasgow 11/24/78) * Kind Hearted Woman (same) * Double Trouble
(Victoria Hall, Hanley 11/28/78) * Crossroads (same) * To Make Somebody
Happy (Olympic Sound Studios, London 12/28/78) * Cryin' (same) * Water On
The Ground (same).


>From: LAWnek@aol.com
>Subject: C2 Review

The following is a review that appeared in the most recent issue of
*Entertainment Weekly*. Thought all of you might enjoy reading it.

*Roads* Scholar -- On *Crossroads 2*, Clapton is live and well in the '70s......

In the mid-70s, there were two Eric Claptons -- the generally flaccid studio
artist and the feisty, often electrifying live performer.  Avoiding the
career-retrospective overview of the best selling first volume, *Crossroads 2
(Live in the Seventies)* (Polydor/Chronicles) concentrates mainly on live
recordings from 1974 to '78, the postaddiction comeback years when Clapton
reestablished himself as the mature master of blues-rock guitar.

Compared with his previous virtuosic ensembles (Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and
the Dominos), Clapton surrounded himself with a more workmanlike crew, the
better to reinvent and spotlight himself as a first time solo performer and
burgeoning singer-songwriter.  Here, the hits are trotted out nicely (*I Shot
the Sheriff,* *Lay Down Sally,* *Layla*), but it's the blues where Clapton's
true heart is revealed.  On classic tunes like *Stormy Monday,* *Have You Ever
Loved A Woman,* and *Worried Life Blues,* Slowhand's solos are laden with
sculptured grit and raw finesse, the heart-quickening freneticism of his 60s
work now replaced by refined intensity.  Where Clapton's vocals are often
whiskey-rough, his playing is pure poetry.

The majority of these performances are previously unreleased (including a
tantalizing extended jam with Carlos Santana that doesn't quite take off), as
are a handful of studio tracks.  But focusing on such a brief creative period
and at such length - nearly 5 hours - *Crossroads 2* can't help but come off a
tad obsessive.  Then again, perhaps hero worship is only fitting for the
original guitar hero.  B+
                                                      --Steve Futterman