Eric Clapton – Yoru-No-Mado (TCDEC-64-1-2)

Yoru-No-Mado (Tarantura TCDEC-64-1-2)

Kyoto Kaikan Daiichi Hall, Kyoto, Japan – September 29, 1977

Disc1. Opening – The Core – Bottle Of Red Wine – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Badge – We’re All The Way – Sign Language – Marcy Levy On Stage – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out – Key To The Highway.

Disc2. Tell The Truth (false start) – Tell The Truth – Double Trouble – Steady Rollin’ Man – Layla – Further On Up The Road – Announcement.

Tarantura do hit one more home-run in their career unearthing this new tape from EC’s Japan Tour of 1977.  Not only it is an uncirculated tape – which is quite a thing in itself –  but also it is complete, features no crowd interferences and is a huge improvement over what was previously in existence. “Yoru-No-Mado” has got to be the definitive audience recording of this show.

The Japan Tour of 1977 consists of 8 dates, Kyoto being the fourth one, and gives EC the opportunity to play live a couple of songs he’d recorded back in May for his “Slowhand” album. Unlike all previous solo tours, there’s no acoustic beginning on this one. A lengthy, very powerful The Core followed by a cheerful Bottle Of Red Wine see EC plugged in right from the start.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door would never sound again as charming and delightful as it did on 1977.  If, like me, you love extended solos – no matter whether EC is on autopilot or not – Badge has got to be your song! All leads by EC and George Terry are brilliant and make it one of the highlights of the night.

At this point EC switches to acoustic mode for three songs and says “This is a new song… we just recorded… called We’re All The Way“. Quite forgettable for some people, I find this Don Williams’ ballad beautiful, no matter how much EC’s guitar work is missing, as this is the case.

Bob Dylan’s puzzling Sign Language follows and EC screws the lyrics up when he sings something unintelligible when he sould have sung “for the words I was saying / so misunderstood“. EC introduces Marcy Levy to the audience and she says something in Japanese language much to their delight. She sings Nobody Knows You with George Terry playing the electric lead in the middle.

Key To The Highway is electric and, long at 10+ minutes, features many extended solos. EC starts to play the very first chords to Tell The Truth but, for some reason he suddenly stops before any other band member enters. It’s just a matter of five seconds before the song starts to be played again…. It’s the longest one of the night and another highlight, with a great 5-minute outro that sees EC play some excellent lead guitar. I would dare to say this is one of the best renditions of this song that I have ever listened to!

The fine Double Trouble is warmly welcomed by the audience. After that, it takes about a minute to hear the first chords to Steady Rollin’ Man. EC says “It seems we’ve run into a slight difficulty here…” which might explain that a bit.

I believe this is the only date that Robert Johnson’s Steady Rollin’ Man is performed replacing Cocaine, which would be played on the second half of the tour. I had a priori reason to think it was a bad deal, but I have to say I couldn’t have been more wrong and for me, Steady Rollin’ Man is another high spot. A great 6-minute codaless Layla closes the show. Four minutes of  hand clapping preceed the encore which consists of Further On Up The Road only but EC is featured heavily. The show ends with EC not saying even goodbye to the enthusiastic audience.

Featuring a tape without cuts of any kind… a show in its complete form, right from the beginning to the final announcements over the PA… a fantastic audience quality for the era, better than everything else that has surfaced before… an EC in great form… a very nice looking artwork with pictures of the ticket  stub and pictures of the actual gig too…Too many solid reasons for your collection not to be missing “Yoru-No-Mado”!!