Me and Mr. Johnson :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

R. Johnson must have come back as Eric Claton.

2008-09-14
To most people Robert Johnson's legacy will live on forever. But with Eric Clapton taking ahold of these songs he has pushed Johnsons's legacy even further. I had goose bumbs from the first song to the last.

me and mr. johnson, by eric clapton

2008-06-24
eric proves again why he has been at the top of his game for over 40 years. he just is simply the best guitar player and interperter of the blues of robert johnson. he has the gift despite lifes difficulties.

Out the window at 70 mph.....

2008-03-13
I played it 1-1/2 times...then it became litter.

The cover showing Clapton in a stark setting, acoustic guitar in hand, led me to believe this would be an " solo acoustic blues" album, befitting a "tribute" to RJ.

WRONG.

Slick, over produced, over-blown, and most especially, over-instrumented, this disc sounds like a "Chicago Blues" session...

Yes, I disliked this take on Robert Johnson very much.

To Eric Clapton:

Listen to Rory Block doing Johnson....

The Lady and Mr. Johnson

That's how to show tribute...Smokin'!!

Great Concept - Poor Execution

2008-02-11
The power of Robert Johnson's music lies in his haunting lyrics, stark arrangements, and tortured delivery. Unfortunately, in reworking Johnson's songs for "Me and Mr Johnson", Eric Clapton has robbed them of their original power, substituting instead competent, but out-of-place, Chicago Blues-style arrangements and disappointingly hackneyed vocal delivery. Johnson's lyrics alone are left to carry the load and, alas, they cannot.

Clapton can do better, and, indeed, he has. Listen to "Malted Milk" from Unplugged and "Terraplane Blues" and "Ramblin' on My Mind" from
Sessions For Robert J. (CD + DVD) for proof that he can interpret Johnson's music in inspired fashion. Given the magnitude of Robert Johnson's influence on Eric Clapton, a Clapton album comprised entirely of Johnson's songs seemed a very promising undertaking. If only "Me and Mr Johnson" had lived up to that promise . . .

Simply excellent...

2008-01-23
From the first note to the last, Clapton oozes out gold with this album. It's great to listen to if you love blues music. I'm a little shocked to see that so many reviewers didn't like it.

Favorite tracks:
Come On In My Kitchen
They're Red Hot
When You've Got A Good Friend

If you're driving in your car or relaxing at home, this is the perfect album for the contemporary fan of blues music. I think Mr. Johnson would be very proud of this work.

Listen Again...

2008-01-01
On Me And Mr.Johnson, Eric Clapton covers 14 of the 29 songs Robert Johnson, the most mythic figure of the blues, wrote and recorded in his lifetime. For fans of deep blues,it doesn ’t get any better than this. After the success of Clapton ’s first two traditional blues albums —1994 ’s Gram- my-winning triple-platinum, #1 pop From The Cradle, and 2000 ’s Grammy-winning, double-platinum,#3-charting Riding With The King collaboration with B.B.King —Me And Mr.Johnson finds Clapton once more at the crossroads of blues and rock.

The cover illustration by Peter Blake includes both published photographs of Robert Johnson: a rendering of the Robert Johnson Studio Portrait / Hooks Bros., Memphis c. 1935 / © 1989 Delta Haze Corporation / the Robert Johnson photo booth self-portrait, early 1930s / © 1986 Delta Haze Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.

Awful in so many ways... 2007-10-16
Right off the bat, it's pretty presumptuous for Eric Clapton to list himself first in the title. Maybe I am nit-picking, but I think "Mr. Johnson and Me" sounds better and shows props by putting the real bluesman's name first.
That said, the music on this CD is self-indulgent, pasteurized, homogenized, smoothed-over white-boy blues without a scintilla of character, emotion, soul or meaning. It is criminally bland. Clapton is arguably one of the great guitar geniuses of the last 50 years, but if he is, he doesn't show it here. Blues is supposed to sweat, moan, scream, and even mumble sometimes; Clapton just plays and sings by the numbers. This music wouldn't unsettle a postage stamp.
That whirring noise you hear is Mr. Johnson spinning in his grave.

flat 2007-07-26
This CD sucks. The songs are flat. The blue has no soul in this CD.

batcall 2007-06-27
He finally gets to do what he loved best, the "blues". A great musician for the modern age.

Karaoke Blues 2007-05-24
There is little doubt that Clapton is a living legend having made considerable contributions to blues-based popular music. Unfortunately, "Me and Mr. Johnson" is not that considerable. With an all star cast of musicians (Andy Fairweather-Low, Billy Preston, Nathan East, and Steve Gadd) this disc offers the listener tweaked and polished interpretations of almost half of the legendary blues man's existing repertoire. However, what the album offers in terms of production it certainly lacks in feeling. Some other reviews have used the term "elevator music" to describe the recording, but "karaoke" would be a better term. There is little to convince you that this is distinctly Clapton playing a heartfelt blues classic rather than an average Joe reading the lyrics off a television monitor in a smoky bar somewhere. Upbeat numbers such as "They're Red Hot" fare much better than tortured tracks such as "Hell Hound On My Trail," which comes across more like an angry weenie dog snapping at his heels.

While the album may serve as an introduction to early blues music for new listeners, Clapton's "From The Cradle," "Riding With The King," and even his "MTV Unplugged" are much more representative of his talent as an interpreter of the blues. Both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly gave this record a good review, but just because he is already a legend doesn't warrant the rubber stamp of approval from even the most die hard of fans in my opinion. I would suggest checking out the albums mentioned above if you are interested in Clapton and/or a bridge to the blues genre.

On a last note, beware that this CD is copy protected, which may cause some problems if you would like to convert the songs to a digital device such as an I-Pod or mp3 player. Just another way of making it more difficult for the honest consumer rather than serving as a true deterrent of piracy.