Classic Rock Cornucopia

By: Randall Larson
Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2005

You know it's just got to be a good month when brand new CD's from McCartney, Clapton, Neil Young, Dylan, and Cream all show up in your local Tower Records.

Eric Clapton's Back Home (Reprise 49395-2) is a pleasant bit of chilled out Clapton nothing quite as hard rocking as Journeyman with its hard edged beats and aggressive, extended solos, but still a great example of mellow Clapton, with cool vocals, a terrific backing women's chorus (beautifully displayed in "Revolution" and in the neat R&B rocker, "I'm Going Left"), and a reasonable amount of guitarwork to keep Clapton fans satisfied.

Paul McCartney's latest, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol CDP 0946 3 38299 2 3) is likewise a fairly mellow album after its cool rocking opener, "Fine Line." McCartney remains a consummate composer, and the titles here are compelling and

provocative even if fairly subdued. It's not quite as wonderful as Flaming Pie, but McCartney's remarkable gift for melody and arrangement shines through each of the tracks ("At The Mercy" is a beautiful example of a strikingly composed and orchestrated mellow song; the Sgt, Pepperesque "Too Much Rain" opens with an exquisite string ensemble), and listening to the album, which was produced by Radiohead's Nigel Godrich, reportedly at the suggestion of George Martin, remains clear evidence that we're listening to a master. The CD is also available as a special edition that includes a DVD disc with a documentary about the making of the album as well as performance video.

Neil Young's Prairie Wind (Reprise 49494-2) is a remarkable visitation back to the era of Harvest in a remarkably introspective work full of homespun melodies and gentle rhythms, aided by a wealth of astounding session players that include Ben Keith (pedal steel), Spooner Oldham (piano), percussionist Karl Himmel, Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, guest vocalist Emmylou Harris, and a full gospel choir on "When

God Made Me." In the midst of Young's constantly shifting styles, Prairie Wind is a welcome return to the temperate climate and personal habitat of Harvest and Harvest Moon, a region Young can definitely call his own. Stimulating rhythms in tracks like "No Wonder" and "Far From Home" (the latter featuring some terrific harmonica) are among Young's best work; the title track contains an amazing interplay between harmonica and horns in the backing track. The album as a whole is a welcome breeze in the soft rock genre; Young's lyrics remain passionate and provoking, the music gentle but striking. Like McCartney's Chaos and Creation, Young's Prairie Wind is also available in a special edition that includes a DVD featuring concertlike videos of the recording sessions for each of the songs on the CD and the entire album in 5.1 surround sound.

Bob Dylan's No Direction Home (Columbia Legacy C2K 93937) is not, technically, a new album, but a soundtrack companion to the Martin Scorsese documentary film about Dylan of the same name, covering Dylan's rise from Greenwich Village folkie to

electrified and scorned rock idol. Released as Volume 7 in Dylan's Bootleg Series, the 2-CD set is sequenced chronologically and features more than two dozen previously unreleased versions of Dylan classics, plus a few obscure titles. As a soundtrack, the tracks on the CD set are not necessarily the same tracks used in the film in order to avoid duplication with previously released tracks, the compilers of the No Direction Home CD located alternate takes and rare live performances of songs featured in the film to ensure the CD contained 10% unreleased material. The result is a stunning voyage through Dylan's musical history and a gathering place for some amazing alternate performances of timeless music.

Finally, we have the milestone reunion of the best power trio in all of classic rock and roll Cream's Royal Albert Hall London May 2-3-5-6 2005 (Reprise 49416-2), which preserves the best tracks from Cream's historic reunion concert. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker prove that nearly 40 years later they're just as tight and just as phenomenal a band as they were in the 60's. The music is drawn from their four studio albums, while allowing plenty of time for the improvisation that always marked the band's live performances. The CD includes a bonus track containing an alternate version of "Sleepy Time Time" which shows how different some of these songs can sound from performance to performance. For more evidence of that, don't miss the DVD version of this concert, which includes 3 extra tracks, including a stunning alternate take on the encore, "Sunshine Of Your Love" with a completely different Clapton solo.

All of these new releases prove that the innovative music of the 60's isn't dead, and continues to provide examples of how the creators of that era's music have shaped so much of what we are hearing today.