Crossroads 2 (Live In the Seventies)

A companion piece to the 1988 retrospective box set Crossroads, Crossroads 2 focuses exclusively on live recordings Eric Clapton made with his band between 1974 and 1978. In a career full of golden stages, this might have been the most golden. Clapton traveled the world with the band with which he made 461 Ocean Boulevard and Slowhand, a group composed of Oklahomans and Floridians who were able to reinvigorate Clapton’s oldest hits, generate a sequence of new classics, and even cross-pollinate different styles (as in the case of their reinvention of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”). This four-part set contains pieces of concerts in California, London, New York, Georgia, and Scotland. It makes the case that this was the rare studio band that was as good onstage as it was in session. The versions of “Badge,” “Cocaine," and “I Shot the Sheriff” rival the studio counterparts, but the quality of the overlooked gems is extraordinary. While this version of “We’re All the Way” is delivered with unmatched poignancy, the performances of “Presence of the Lord” and “Little Wing” hurl waves of narcotic sorcery over a sea of rapt audience members.