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Rating:
I don't like to be the contrarian, but I really can't share the enthusiasm of so many for this (at the time best-selling and much-awarded) album, which I find very pleasant to listen to, but otherwise negligible in absolute terms for the history of rock, and even in the limited context of Eric Clapton's (glorious) past.
For almost two decades, he had already given everything he could give of significance as a guitarist (as a singer, let's not even go there), and in 1992, the recording of a small acoustic concert for the MTV Unplugged series, and then its release on this album, turned out to be a sensational and unexpected success and an opportunity to relaunch his solo career in a soft-rock key.
It begins with a pleasant instrumental "warm-up" ("Signe") after which we find in the lineup a series of blues classics ("Walkin' Blues" and "Malted Milk" by Robert Johnson; "Hey Hey" by Big Bill Broonzy; "Rollin' and Tumblin’" by Muddy Waters and "San Francisco Bay Blues" by Jessy Fuller) along with a couple of standards like "Alberta" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" and a few other lesser-known covers: all performed with great technique (naturally!) but the truest blues – the soul evoked by the authors of the pieces – is missing.
His own rock past is sweetened in the acoustic rendition of his famous "Layla," where the original seventies electric edge of his alias Derek and the Dominos is tamed into the whispered slow pace that inspires the whole album. The true gem of this album remains "Tears In Heaven" – inspired by the tragic passing of his little son – and a timeless hit.
The graphic design of the album is twofold: very well-crafted is the iconography of good Eric, as for the cover photo, but unfortunately insufficient for the rest, so that, for example, the indication of the songwriters is missing (only present on the label), almost suggesting that the performer is also the author of all the pieces!
If it's not a masterpiece (at least as I see it), this MTV Unplugged is, however, not to be discarded: it's not rock and it's not blues, but despite the lack of bite and the relaxed sound, it's still an excellent album that's pleasant to listen to: even thirty years later, it's no small thing. Let's hold it dear.
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