Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Choosing between this album and Clapton's previous studio masterwork, LAYLA, makes for an interesting debate. 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD lacks Layla's smoldering extended jamming, striking a more upbeat, restrained, and radio-friendly tone instead. The rockers "Motherless Children" and "Mainline Florida" open and close the album. In between we have tender ballads such as "Please Be with Me" and the achingly beautiful "Let It Grow," which shows what an underappreciated songwriter EC is. As always, there are great covers that he imbues with his own distinct flavor -- "Willie and the Hand Jive," Elmore James's "I Can't Hold Out" and Robert Johnson's "Steady Rollin' Man." Years before the Police came along, Eric brought reggae to the mainstream with the #1 hit "I Shot the Sheriff." Each one is a standout.
That said, this CD release has one serious deficiency. When first released on vinyl in 1974, the album's second song was a Clapton original called "Better Make It through Today." When remastered for CD, it was replaced by "Give Me Strength." I always believed that "Better Make It through Today" was integral to this album's success, and its absence is awfully conspicuous. The back cover of the vinyl version of 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD contains a notation saying that "Better Make It through Today" was recorded at Dynamic Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, whereas the rest of the album was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. Clapton's 1975 follow-up, THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD, was also recorded at that studio in Jamaica, and sure enough "Better Make It through Today" now appears on the CD version of that album. Perhaps it was never supposed to appear on 461 OCEAN BOULEVARD, but people are right to complain about the change. So this album gets two ratings. The old vinyl release gets 5 stars while this CD release is downgraded slightly to 4.5 stars, which is still pretty damn good.
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