Old Enough to Forget

Money and Cigarettes , Eric Clapton's 1983 album is one of those neither fish nor fowl releases. As a kid Eric Clapton was one of those has beens who was a big deal in the late '60s and early '70s but his output through the rest of the decade to me was spotty. I actively disliked "I Shot the Sheriff" and thought "Cocaine" was stupid. I couldn't see the appeal to "Wonderful Tonight" although my buddy Gord loved it and it was his wedding song. I'm probably just strengthening the argument that I'm just an unwashed Luddite who has no idea which end of a telephone pole goes in the ground. I suppose I should have just said I wasn't really a fan of a lot of Eric's solo work and left it at that.  So why buy this at all? I found it for a buck, and I may not have been much of a fan, but come on - it's Eric Clapton and whether I'm a fan or not the guy is a legend. Besides I'll admit to really liking his late career resurgen...

I first heard of T-Bone Burnett when he was with the Alpha Band with Steven Soles, and David Mansfield. I had a friend who had one of their albums, I can't remember which one as I only heard it once, but it was quirky and caught my interest. Then I bought a copy of his 1982 E.P. Trap Door and pretty much played it to death. I loved the fact that he was self effacing enough to make a joke about his passing resemblance to Eric Idle. The office where I worked used to have copies of People magazine I like to read - for the record reviews, and in one issue there was an article where Mariel Hemingway said her favourite album was T-Bone Burnett's Proof Through the Night . Well, I wasn't sold because of her endorsement, I was sold because I'd just realized there was a new T-Bone Burnett album. I remember talking about this with my girlfriend at the time who absolutely loved The Who, and The Monkees (she had great taste in music) and she casually mentions that she saw T-Bone ope...