461 Ocean Boulevard

The album features Yvonne Elliman (best known for her Saturday night fever hit, If I can't have you) on backing vocals. She provides great support for Eric on this album, especially on Let it grow, my favorite song here after I shot the sheriff (on which Yvonne also sings). Eric and Yvonne co-wrote Get ready and sing it as a duet.

The album opens with a traditional song, Motherless children, and closes with a song that Eric wrote about himself, Give me strength. Both of them are great songs, as are all the songs in between.

The musicians are in top form throughout on this classic blues-rock album. If you are a fan of classic rock music and haven't already got this album, what are you waiting for?


Laid Back and Beautiful   July 24, 2000
Joe (Portsmouth)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

This is a perfect sunny Sunday morning record. It's also Eric's most underrated work. He'd spent years ... turning his guitar up to 11 blowing us away with his playing, but here (his 'comeback' album) he shows us what a great singer and songwriter he can also be when he puts his mind to it. I Shot the Sherrif is a well-thumbed back page, but his originals like Let It Grow and Motherless Children deserve just as much attention. The album has the laid back easy acoustic blues feel similar to Unplugged, and if you liked that, you'll love this. The touching songs such as Give Me Strength and Please Be With Me show Eric was still finding his feet as an individual, but as a musician with this album he was on very solid ground. Do yourself a very low-key but lovely favour and check it out.


Bought the original on vinyl   July 31, 2009
T. Long (Wrexham, North Wales)
Bought the original on vinyl had to have a new copy.
Sounds best in the car, especially Motherless Children & Let it Grow.


Unpredictable, laid back and fine   June 16, 2008
Three Heads Are Better Than One (NYC)
This is a wonderful album. It marked Clapton's sobriety following his heroin usage, and has a theme of redemption and rebirth running through it. Also, there's a strong taste of someone who has turned himself inside and out.

In places, this is passionate, elsewhere playful, and in many places you can hear a man asking himself what he has left. Fantastic stuff, strongly recommended.


One of EC's best solo efforts   June 7, 2003
Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

"461 Ocean Boulevard", Eric Clapton's second solo album from 1974, is an appealing amalgam of several different styles (rock, pop, R&B, country, blues and even reggae).

It may not have the flashy guitar work of his earlier recordings, nor is it as gritty as fans of Eric Clapton the blues player (rather than Eric Clapton the pop singer) might have preferred. But it is a pleasant, low-key affair with several excellent songs, including a charming, laid-back rendition of Johnny Otis' "Willie And The Hand Jive" and the lovely, folkish ballad "Please Be With Me", originally recorded by Southern rockers Cowboy.

Clapton should stay away from covering Elmore James, though. He obviously knows that he can't match the intensity of James' vocals, so he delivers "I Can't Hold Out" in a very subdued style which doesn't suit the song.

His version of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff", although somewhat watered-down, works really well, though, as does the mournful, almost spiritual blues "Give Me Strength" and the melodious "Let It Grow", both of them Eric Clapton originals.
Lovely slide dobro playing on "Let It Grow".
Another bluesy spiritual, Blind Willie Johnson's "Motherless Children (have a hard time)", is quite good as well in this electric, up-tempo recording, in spite of the clippety-clop rhythm played by drummer Jamie Oldaker (kind of a strange choice for a blues number).

But all in all, "461 Ocean Boulevard" is a really fine album, and one that Eric Clapton tried again and again to replicate over the next ten years. It's not perfect, but it is as good as the man from Surrey ever got during his solo years.