Eric Clapton: 40 Years Ago – Eric Clapton Rebounds on ‘Another Ticket,’ Then Falls Again (1981)

From ultimateclassicrock.com

Eric Clapton admitted he was off track. He came into sessions for Another Ticket without his most consistent ’70s-era backing band or any real direction. He left the project behind in even worse shape.

“I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I’m just grateful that I survived – but the music got very lost,” Clapton said, of the late ’70s, in a 1994 talk with Music Radar. “I didn’t know where I was going and I didn’t really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed.”

Just One Night, released the year before, had showcased his new collaborators – minus keyboardist Gary Brooker – in a live setting, but it necessarily felt more retrospective than forward looking. Another Ticket would arrive on Feb. 17, 1981, as their first clear statement of purpose.

The goal seemed to be to get more rustic, get more real. But it was taking forever, as sessions broke down in March and April 1980 at Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherneck.

“It took a long time to make that album because I was totally fed up with writing ditties and pleasant melodies,” Clapton told Musician in May 1982, “and I thought it was time for me to reconnect myself with what I know best.”

A different guitarist might have nudged Clapton in ways the departed George Terry often didn’t, setting up another run at the twin-guitar glories of his Layla sessions with Duane Allman. But Another Ticket – thanks to the more country-leaning Albert Lee – seemed to be heading toward a rootsier, turn-of-the-’70s Bob Dylan and the Band vibe, rather than the muscular blues rock of Derek and the Dominos.

Clapton’s label hated it. RSO Records’ rejection only added to Clapton’s sense of aimlessness and depression. He attempted to distract himself by attending soccer games or fly fishing. But the truth was, Clapton was getting lost in the bottom of a brown bottle, reportedly drinking multiple fifths of brandy a day. His previous studio album dated all the way back to 1978.

So, he fired Glyn Johns – Clapton took a swipe at his ex-producer in the Musician interview, saying Johns “was always very aware of what he was selling” – and simply started over. Clapton’s first call was to Tom Dowd, his collaborator on the Dominos sessions. Dowd suggested they change recording venues, so Clapton relocated to Nassau, completing Another Ticket at Compass Point Studios.

Together, they reenvisioned some of the earlier rejected material, transforming “Rita Mae” from a flagging shuffle into a riffy rocker that eventually became a platform of extended solo adventures in concert. Clapton and Lee thrillingly tangle in the closing moments, creating sparks not seen since “The Core” from 1977’s otherwise pretty mellow Slowhand.

In fact, he could have taken yet another page out of the songbook of J.J. Cale, a mentor and author of “After Midnight” and “Cocaine,” but instead created his own version: “I Can’t Stand It” went on to become Clapton’s only Top 10 hit of the ’80s – and the first No. 1 song on Billboard’s Top Tracks chart for rock songs, which debuted in March 1981.

The album got tougher, and that created its own momentum. A rejuvenated Clapton wrote five of the album’s nine tracks (including “Catch Me If You Can,” perhaps its best moment), and cowrote a sixth. He pointedly returned to old blues, covering Muddy Waters and Sleepy John Estes rather than his own contemporaries.

“I don’t get any reward for that – but that’s okay. See, he’s getting to a point where he can write that way,” Cale told Vintage Guitar in 2007. “It’s not in the song; it’s in the feel. And once you’ve figured that out – well, he’s figured that out, so he doesn’t need to use my words anymore.”

Not all of it caught fire, and the weakest songs were unfortunately stacked up front: “Something Special,” another of the reworked tracks that Clapton placed as the album opener, sounds like a leftover from George Harrison’s creatively lethargic late-’70s period. “Black Rose” is a country-inflected misfire.

Still, the change in venue, the changes in the lineup and the change in the producer’s chair seemed to have done some good. Another Ticket went gold, while avoiding the obstinately low-key potholes that always seemed to slow Clapton’s solo career.

Then disaster struck, and then it struck again.

His take on Estes’ “Floating Bridge” was more than a perfectly languid journey that followed and then built upon Elmore James’ lead. It’s part of what appears to be a weirdly prescient three-song meditation on death that begins with the dark gospel of “Hold Me Lord” (where Clapton cries, “I’m slipping through“) and ends with the closing line of “Catch Me If You Can”: “You’d better find a shovel, ’cause I’ve gone to ground.”

He got close. Clapton ended up collapsing a few dates into a U.S. tour promoting Another Ticket and was diagnosed with a potentially deadly bout of ulcers brought on by his alcoholism. That led to a lengthy hospitalization in Minnesota.

“There was one point there where they were flying me to hospital in St. Paul, and I was dying, apparently,” Clapton told Classic Rock in 2017. “I had three ulcers and one of them was bleeding. I was drinking three bottles of brandy and taking handfuls of codeine, and I was close to checking out – and I don’t even remember. It’s amazing that I’m still here, really.”

Then, after finally being discharged, Clapton promptly got into a Seattle-area car accident, suffering “bruised ribs and a lacerated chin.” At the same time, Another Ticket marked the end of Clapton’s 15-year association with Polydor, which absorbed RSO Records. They had no impetus to continue promoting the record.

Clapton returned to the U.K. beaten and battered, descending further into addiction. He finally surfaced again in September 1981, participating in Amnesty International benefit concerts in London.

But his next album wouldn’t follow until 1983, and by then Lee was the only member left of the all-British Another Ticket band. It took two tries, but Clapton finally sobered up. He didn’t release another Top 10 LP, however, for more than a decade.

“What saved me was music,” Clapton noted. “Before I was introduced to the 12-step philosophy, which is a community of people meeting to share their identities and their difficulties, before that I just thought: ‘Well, as long as I can play. … I’ll just stay alive long enough to play.'”

Eric Clapton Another Ticket (1981)

From thepressmusicreviews.wordpress.com

His work from 1963 to 1970 with the Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominoes was already enough to declare Eric Clapton a star by 1970, not to mention the well-publicised graffiti that deified him with the now famous slogan ‘Clapton is God’. An exhilarating ferocity and rhythmic intensity informed his playing in these outfits, and upon embarking on a solo career in 1970, encouraged by the likes of Delaney and Bonnie to become a singer, Clapton’s eponymous debut contained some strong materiel (Slunky, After Midnight, Let it Rain), pointing towards an auspicious solo career if ever there was one.

After a three year hiatus during which the guitarist was deeply troubled by romantic longings and gripped by heroin and alcohol addiction, 1974 saw the release of the very good ‘comeback’ album 461 Ocean Boulevard. A commercial and critical success on both sides of the Atlantic, the album would remain his best solo outing, and the albums that followed were comparatively inferior, all seemingly constructed to de-emphasise his status as a guitar deity. The forgettable There’s One in Every Crowd (1975), and patchy Dylan-and-the-Band-collaborative effort No Reason to Cry (1976) are both relatively nondescript outings, failing to make any arresting impact on this listener. Follow-ups Slowhand (1977) and Backless (1978) integrated a wide range of styles including: blues-rock, reggae, gospel, honky-tonk and country influences and display a substantial transformation from understated laid-back tediousness to understated laid-back virtuosity (and frequent brilliance) – both albums overseen by legendary British producer Glyn Johns (The Who, Eagles, Led Zeppelin).

Clapton’s next album Another Ticket (not a live album as the cover and title suggest) had a troubled beginning to say the least. Repeating essentially the same formula as the aforementioned two albums, he enlisted an all-British band (most notably Albert Lee on guitar) with Glynn Johns once again in the producer’s chair. He may have kicked drugs in the 70s however his life was affected by alcoholism, none more so than around 1979/80. Initial recordings were not up to scratch and the album was rejected by Polydor Records – his then record label of 15 years. Clapton was forced to re-record the album in its entirety this time with Tom Dowd as producer and was finally released in 1981, dedicating it to his recently deceased great bass sideman Carl Radle.

The album features the usual mix of originals and covers, however rather than the reworkings of contemporaries such as Dylan and J.J.Cale of recent times, Another Ticket contains versions of blues master’s works: particularly special the chilling blues of Sleepy John Estes’ Floating Bridge, Clapton treating the track with the dignity and humble respect it deserves. The easygoing, gruff vocals are steady throughout and the emphasis is on sharp guitar interplay with Albert Lee, who pushes Clapton, a fine example of this is tough album closer Rita Mae which is his best rocker since The Core.  Elsewhere standouts include the opener Something Special is a light hearted mid-tempo blues shuffle, Black Rose (the single b-side to the most well-known, but far from the best track off this set I Can’t Stand It), and the slam-down blues of Muddy Waters’ Blow Wind Blow. Most striking is the ethereal title track, the centerpiece of side one – a beautifully understated gem of a track, and wildly underrated in the Clapton canon.

Eric Clapton would go on to clean up his self-destructive lifestyle beginning with Money & Cigarettes two years later. The solemn undercurrents of Another Ticket may not be Derek or even Slowhand, however it is Clapton’s last really good record, and undeservedly overlooked for many decades despite being commercially successful upon its release.