Eric Clapton – Just One Night On 3rd (Tarantura TCDEC-68)

Just One Night On 3rd (Tarantura TCDEC-68)

Just One Night On 3rd (Tarantura TCDEC-68 – 1, 2) &
Just One Night On 3rd (Tarantura TCDEC-68 – 1, 2 ms)

Budokan, Tokyo, Japan – December 3rd, 1979

Disc 1 (56:26):  Appear on stage, Tulsa Time, Early In The Morning, Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight, If I Don’t Be There By Morning, Worried Life Blues, Country Boy, Double Trouble, All Our Past Times

Disc 2 (62:47):  Blues Power, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Setting Me Up, Rambling On My Mind, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, After Midnight, Cocaine, Layla, band introductions, Further On Up The Road, SE

Two years ago Tarantura released Just Two Nights (Tarantura TCDEC-40) featuring new audience tapes for the complete December 3rd, 1979 Budokan show and an incomplete fragment of the following night.  It is good but very distant mono recording of the show that makes up the bulk of the officially released live album Just One Night.

Just One Night On 3rd is the new Eric Clapton release by Tarantura utilizing a new tape source for the December 3rd concert.  Unlike the older source, this is a superlative stereo audience Mr. Peach recording.  The tape is presented in its raw form and in a remastered, which has higher gain.  Each of the two is housed in it’s own cardboard gatefold sleeve, and each is housed in a box and is limited to two hundred numbered copies.   

The performance is mixed with some stellar performances mixed in with mediocrity beginning with the first song “Tulsa Time.”  Keyboardist Chris Stainton distinguishes himself with a great piano but Clapton seems sluggish in the tune.  The traditional blues “Early In The Morning,” taken in a very slow and deliberate tempo, is much better with inventive soloing. 

“Wonderful Tonight” is played in its stage arrangement where Clapton never reproduces the haunting guitar melody of the studio version but plays one much fatter and slower and is followed by “If I Don’t Be There By Morning” where everybody takes a solo except Clapton.

Clapton introduces Albert Lee to sing “a nice country tune.”  “Country Boy” provides a fast honky tonk diversion from the main set. 

“Double Trouble” is the first number that distinguishes this show.  It is taking at a slow, dirge pace with his guitar gently weeping in morose after morose riffs in what is a true masterpiece of atmosphere and can be counted as the definitive live version.  “All Our Times Past,” which follows, sounds banal afterwards.

The second disc begins with the second masterpiece of the evening.  A tight, fast version of “Blues Power,” it is driven by Stainton on boogie piano bringing out a completely new aspect of the piece.  At eight minutes long, it is another definitive version of one of Clapton’s classic songs.  “Rambling On My Mind” contains the midsection to “Have You Ever Loved A Woman.”  Unlike on the past release, the label tracks this song separately.   

The show hits the finale with “After Midnight,” “Cocaine,” which by this time became Clapton’s arena rock showcase, and a tired, feedback laden version “Layla” to close the show.  They play only the first half with extended guitar solos and Clapton thanking the audience in Japanese. 

This particular recording has never been included in any version of Just One Night or any compilation since and it’s easy to hear why.  It sounds as if the band tires greatly after playing a long tour.  He introduces the band before the encore “Further On Up The Road.”

Like most of his tapes, Mr. Peach records the ambient noise in the venue after the show.  Overall Just One Night On 3rd is another phenomenal Clapton release by Tarantura with a superior recording of such an important concert.  The artwork has appropriate use of the cover photo from the official album, and beautiful artwork on the inserts.