Eric Clapton - Another Ticket
#56
By Jon Rosenberg
February 17 1981
Eric Clapton
Another Ticket
Genre: Rock
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Jon’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Highlights:
I Can’t Stand It
Rita Mae
Floating Bridge
Catch Me If You Can
Clapton is God! At least that’s what some people thought back in the 1960’s when he was in Cream. And I might have agreed with them then. His guitar playing was aggressive and innovative, with a tone like no other at the time. And he could jam his ass off! Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was supported by the likes of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. But then Cream broke up. EC’s next two bands - Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos - both delivered fantastic debut albums, but were short-lived excursions for various reasons. And by 1974, Clapton began his solo career in earnest.
One of the reasons Clapton gave for breaking up Cream was that after he heard The Band’s Music From Big Pink, he wanted to get into more “song-oriented” material. Fair enough. But if you’re going to do that, make sure you have some good songs! Another Ticket is EC’s seventh solo album, and it’s mediocre at best. Competently produced by Tom Dowd and accompanied by, among others, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum on keys, this album is almost instantly forgettable.
“I Can’t Stand It” was actually a Number 1 hit single and it is surely this album’s highlight, but hardly worthy of God. “Catch Me If You Can,” written with Brooker, has flashes of the old brilliance, and blues cover “Floating Bridge” has its moments too. It’s only the album’s closer, “Rita Mae” that has any of the energy and virtuosity that one might expect from a guitar hero, but by then it’s too late!
Perhaps I’m being too harsh here. I bought this on vinyl back in the mid-80’s and remember being disappointed then. In retrospect – and with lowered expectations – I didn’t hate it. It’s certainly better than most of the MOR crap that EC delivered later. Clapton is a bluesman at heart, so he’s at his best making blues albums (like 1994’s terrific From the Cradle) but here he really seems to want to be a pop star – and who am I to argue? I’d just rather listen to Layla or Wheels of Fire myself.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0RnwxYxvxulUrMDyszaTlt?si=KnMuURZeQhusJ1B0fzB6tQ
