I believe Clapton and Winwood had worked together in two previous even shorter-lived groups one of which was Clapton's Powerhouse. I believe Powerhouse recorded 3-6 songs. Not enough for release. I think the other joint venture only produced one song. In his earliest days with Spencer Davis Group he tried to sound more like Ray Charles, which he did well, but it was ruining his voice and vocal cords. So he went back to his natural voice.
And don’t forget, Winwood was 19 when he joined Blind Faith. 19!!! and was already a music veteran by that point. He was a prodigy and had an amazing voice, unmatched in rock. Absolute legend!!
Drums were perfect Doug. Bought this album the day it came out. In the context of the time, those drums played with his hands according to info available , were the perfect foil to the acoustic guitars of Clapton and Winwood.
The perfomance of this song of Steve and Eric at the Madison Square Garden published 2009 is one of the most beautiful moments in music history. Period. Gives me shivers every time.
@@allisonrich5061 nope. Crossroads was 2007. That Madison Square Garden Shows where their finishing of the 2009 tour they did together because the Crossroads-Show went so good that they decided for a whole tour together.
Listen to the solo acoustic version Steve did within the last 10 years in front of a fireplace in the rain. Rain at his home in England using drop de tuning. With the crackling fireplace in the back. It’s absolute perfection.
The brilliance of STEVIEWINWOOD -made me want to play keyboards, singing a blues style like him -I tried to mimic him in my teens until I later learned to develop ‘my own voice’, in singing, keyboard playing and orig. songwriting -but till this day Steve remains my hero and number 1 musical influence [and I listen to allofhisprolific body of astonishing work to this day!!!!!!
Love this acoustic version over their electric version. The cover master, Joe Cocker, did a version of this I quite liked on his early 90's album Night Calls. Others worth a listen on that album, his covers of: Gary Wright's Our Love is Alive, & Elton John's Don't let the sun go down on me.
Great song, multitalented musician! One of my all time favorite vocalist. When you get a chance, check out SW playing an acoustic version of this song by a crackling fire, it was posted about 12 years ago, beautiful! Also, check out “Keep On Running” by the Spencer Davis Group (65), and “Empty Pages” by Traffic (70). ✌️
was about to write that it's time for Traffic and see others mention them. Dear Mr. Fantasy and John Barleycorn (what a great album, thanks for reminding me as I'm listening to it again now).
Agree that the drums mix may have tilted in a bit of a different direction for such a subtle studio masterpiece. Ginger Baker is spot on in the live version (Hyde Park 1969). Windwood is straining a bit, probably from partying nonstop LOL. Props to the foursome's ripping it live in such a brand new, raw and timeless manner! I find it hilarious that Clapton complains that Led Zeppelin was just too loud. When he went into the studio to record Cream songs, the studio team raised hell because he kept cranking it up all the way!
BRILLIANT ALBUM. One of the first albums that I bought. Note that you have the censored US cover. The original UK cover was a little risque to say the least. The first of the Supergroups if I remember correctly, certainly the first British Supergroup.
The nude girl cover got a brief US release before it was withdrawn and replaced. Actually, Cream was the first supergroup, as Clapton, Baker and Bruce were already well known when they got together.
Super good. I would recommend listening to David Bowie’s sweet thing/candidate/sweet thing live LA 74 cracked actor… THANK YOU!!! You’re awesome. Love your stuff
One of my absolute favorite albums. I learned to play every one of these songs. Listen to DO What You Like. It's a real trip in 5/4 time and everyone takes a solo.
This is the only Reel to Reel tape that my dad kept when he sold his TEAC deck and tapes in the late ‘80s. I inherited it, and still have it (along with my own TEAC).
Steve and Eric did a kind of semi reunion tour together some years ago - around 2008-2010 And obviously they did many songs of this album. Interesting to see and compare them 40 years older I got to see one of those shows They did a lengthy Hendrix blues (Steve happens to be on the original Hendrix recording of Voodoo Chile (the blues, not the smash hit)), and an amazing interpretation of Little Wing too. Only thing I had difficulty getting used to was Steves tone on the organ, he tends to go for quite straight thin sounding long notes...
This particular piece, for me, is my most melancholic and meaningful, remembering a weekend lost in the fog of time and space, cosmically adrift and not caring if I ever found my way home. Sometimes, when it rolls around in my playlist, I must skip it as it brings me to tears every time I hear it, almost remembering a past life. Too beautiful.
I saw the band in Milwaukee, WI at the Midwest Rock Festival late July 1969, along with Led Zep, Joe Cocker, John Mayall, and MANY more. There is a bootleg recording of the set Blind Faith played on UA-cam and on my UA-cam channel as well. I'd always enjoyed Cream and Traffic prior to their demise, and this was one of my favorite songs the band played. FYI Doug, the Ginger Baker "Do What You Like" is a (mostly) drum solo by one of the premier rock drummers of all time. I vote for your reaction to the entire album, and later to the bonus jams as well. This was a short lived SUPER GROUP with 4 absolutely skilled musicians working together. Play all of them you possibly can! My best to all, Brew Brwmeistr9 on UA-cam
Try "Low Spark of high heeled boys" Then watch tne Spencer Davis Group with Steve singing "NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT" you would think it was Ray Charles
There is a double album from 2009 'Live from Madison Square Garden' where they play this song too. Some other great songs on there are Forever man, Presence of the Lord, Well all right and Pearly Queen. Oh, and also After midnight and Georgia on my mind. So much good stuff!
Yes do the whole orig. album and a few extras...'Do what you Like'' is my pick, Steve W. soaring vocals & his roaring Hammond. Solos by all all on what i consider Ginger's best song there is also an electric version of "Can't find your Way Home'' on the Deluxe 2001 version, with even more jams and lovely unfinished song called Trade Winds Clapton & Winwood also did ''Live from Madison Square Garden'' a double CD and DVD live album in 2009. There are some live videos of their 1969 Hyde park concert on UA-cam as well
Beautiful, beautiful song, from the great Steve Winwood. I often sing this at my own gigs, and can only hope I do it some kind of justice. Another of Steve's song with a similar feel is the lovely "No face, no name, no number" by Traffic. Reputedly written about Eric Clapton's growing drug addiction. "Do what you like" is pretty much a jam... I'd go for "Presence of the Lord" next, but "Sea of Joy" is also excellent.
What's crazy to me is how many records you have now! So stoked I got to see the genesis of all that! (Also please tell me someone made a GIF of Doug saying "no f**kin way." 😂😂)
There are many live versions of this song to be found on UA-cam; some that I particularly like are: an instrumental Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar version by Justin Johnson an acoustic guitar version by Steve Winwood in his fireplace from 12 years ago a slow-starting, stretched-out jazz piano trio version by Christian Sands at the Kahilu Theatre, 2019 on the Backstage Pass channel
I have always felt this way about the drums! I'm glad someone else said it finally. The actual drum part is great and well played, but the engineering is way off. It's a very typical hard rock 60s engineering sound. Should have been close mic'd with warmer tones. Anyhow, Presence of the Lord is also an absolutely awesome song. Great gibe of reverence, sober introspection, and absolute groove.
It's quite a common 'folk' acoustic guitar trope to play a chromatic descending bass line against a D major chord, often with the bottom string tuned down to D too. This is a classic example of the sweetly melancholic feel that creates.
A full album listen of Pink Floyd's The Final Cut would be really interesting, IMO. If I remember, although it didn't have Richard Wright on it 😳, it features a generous amount of keys. It also features a more serious subject matter, for Floyd. Anyhow, Happy Independence Day to you, Doug, Meg, and all the crew! 🇺🇸
Winwood was 19 when played keys on Electric Ladyland for Hendrix. That was 1968. The album cover for Blind Faith is out there, especially now days. Things were different then. Crash out of place is because Ginger Baker was a weirdo revolutionist.
Steve Winwood plays the other guitar on this one. This song, together with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, is my favourite use of a line cliché. And mr Clapton plays on both! I’ve always hated the splash cymbals. Mr Winwood and mr Clapton had long wanted to work together and when they both were free they started this project in mr Winwoods cottage. Ginger Baker forced his way into the project and was responsible for it’s demise. He insisted on touring even though the others just wanted to hang out and jam. But, as mr Clapton put it, “You just don’t say no to Ginger” This version of the song was something like take 73! Clapton and Winwood made an excellent live album “Live from Madison Square Garden” featuring this song and interpretations of a lot of other great modern classics. Highly recommended. ✌✌
I love how the riff starts on the dominant 7th and walks down chromatically under a D chord and finally goes to the F and G chord. Dear Prudence is also in D and the riff starts on a D and skips to a C and walks down just like this song.
Love this album so much. Sad that they made just that single album. I would have loved to hear more of their music. But at least I had the chance to hear Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood together roughly 15 years ago, and yes, they played a few songs of the Blind Faith album.
Hey Doug maybe on your own time check out the version of this song by Hailey Reinhart with her father! Great rendition! I think you will really enjoy it!
Steve Winwood, what a musician and what a super group overall... great reaction Doug!
I believe Clapton and Winwood had worked together in two previous even shorter-lived groups one of which was Clapton's Powerhouse. I believe Powerhouse recorded 3-6 songs. Not enough for release. I think the other joint venture only produced one song. In his earliest days with Spencer Davis Group he tried to sound more like Ray Charles, which he did well, but it was ruining his voice and vocal cords. So he went back to his natural voice.
Doug needs to listen to Low Spark Of High Heeled boys. And Dear Mr Fantasy.
Steve was about 20 or so when he wrote and performed Can't Find My Way Home. He's 76 now (2024) and still sounds the same!
I would do Presence of the Lord next.
And don’t forget, Winwood was 19 when he joined Blind Faith. 19!!! and was already a music veteran by that point. He was a prodigy and had an amazing voice, unmatched in rock. Absolute legend!!
I agree and take your point but -do your math! He was a ripe old age 21 in Blind Faith. Clapton was 24!
This ranks right up there with the acoustic sings of the 60s and 70s - right there with Dylan
The drums are placed perfectly to me. They do sound like they're being played in the next room, it's the style of the song.
Agree completely. Don't know what Doug is complaining about. This recording has always seemed perfect to me, since I first heard it in 1969.
Drums were perfect Doug. Bought this album the day it came out. In the context of the time, those drums played with his hands according to info available , were the perfect foil to the acoustic guitars of Clapton and Winwood.
ditto
Winwood plays sax, flute, keyboards, and , yup, an excellent guitar!
The vocal of Steve Winwood in "Sea of Joy" from this album is amazing! 🎼🙏
Sea of Joy- , [for meI] iz like a modern religious experience!!!!]
If I could sing at all, I'd want to sing like Steve Winwood. Such an amazingly talented man!
Amen brother. I can't count how many times I've watched the "John Barleycorn Must Die" video. He's just an incredible talent.
What a gorgeous voice Steve Winwood has and had since he was 15 years old.
The perfomance of this song of Steve and Eric at the Madison Square Garden published 2009 is one of the most beautiful moments in music history. Period. Gives me shivers every time.
Is this the Crossroads Festival version. If so that one really washes over me into reverie.
@@allisonrich5061 nope. Crossroads was 2007. That Madison Square Garden Shows where their finishing of the 2009 tour they did together because the Crossroads-Show went so good that they decided for a whole tour together.
this song was recorded right at or before Steve Winwood's 21st birthday,... He was 18 yo when he recorded Gimme Some Lovin' with Spencer Davis Group
And Ginger Baker was the drummer: there’s never a crash out of place when Ginger was behind the kit.
Let's go for the gold, Clapton, Baker and Windwood... Yup let's go for it!
Listen to the solo acoustic version Steve did within the last 10 years in front of a fireplace in the rain. Rain at his home in England using drop de tuning. With the crackling fireplace in the back. It’s absolute perfection.
The brilliance of STEVIEWINWOOD -made me want to play keyboards, singing a blues style like him -I tried to mimic him in my teens until I later learned to develop ‘my own voice’, in singing, keyboard playing and orig. songwriting -but till this day Steve remains my hero and number 1 musical influence [and I listen to allofhisprolific body of astonishing work to this day!!!!!!
ditto
Love this acoustic version over their electric version. The cover master, Joe Cocker, did a version of this I quite liked on his early 90's album Night Calls. Others worth a listen on that album, his covers of: Gary Wright's Our Love is Alive, & Elton John's Don't let the sun go down on me.
Try Prescence of the Lord.....Clapton's guitar playing at its best
Great song, multitalented musician! One of my all time favorite vocalist. When you get a chance, check out SW playing an acoustic version of this song by a crackling fire, it was posted about 12 years ago, beautiful! Also, check out “Keep On Running” by the Spencer Davis Group (65), and “Empty Pages” by Traffic (70). ✌️
ua-cam.com/video/eoSn2Y-b6wI/v-deo.htmlsi=fsPi_Hbl2VzuFzbx
Had front row seats when "shootout" tour was out and about....
I love the drums, especially the cymbal crashes.
Something so beautiful here.
I just love love this song. It's such a perfect Moment of time.
was about to write that it's time for Traffic and see others mention them. Dear Mr. Fantasy and John Barleycorn (what a great album, thanks for reminding me as I'm listening to it again now).
Don’t forget Low Spark. Another great album.
Most of the album is excellent. Saw these guys in concert back in '69.
Winwood is a true artist. Check him out with Spencer Davis Group, and solo.
What an absolutely beautiful piece of work, perfect for a long weekend 😊
In 2009 Clapton and Windwood released a double live album from concerts they did at Madison Square Garden. It’s a masterpiece.
To me the crash gives voice to underlying angst of the song. Yes, it is a slow lament but there is also some real fear and regret going on.
Well put!
Agree that the drums mix may have tilted in a bit of a different direction for such a subtle studio masterpiece.
Ginger Baker is spot on in the live version (Hyde Park 1969). Windwood is straining a bit, probably from partying nonstop LOL. Props to the foursome's ripping it live in such a brand new, raw and timeless manner!
I find it hilarious that Clapton complains that Led Zeppelin was just too loud. When he went into the studio to record Cream songs, the studio team raised hell because he kept cranking it up all the way!
BRILLIANT ALBUM. One of the first albums that I bought. Note that you have the censored US cover. The original UK cover was a little risque to say the least. The first of the Supergroups if I remember correctly, certainly the first British Supergroup.
The nude girl cover got a brief US release before it was withdrawn and replaced. Actually, Cream was the first supergroup, as Clapton, Baker and Bruce were already well known when they got together.
Any or all. A real gem that's at the top of my listening choices. I also appreciate your letting the song play on as you identify key moments.
Great stuff! Hope you'll do some of their other, longer, songs as well. Had to Cry Today and Do What You Like are highly recommended.
Blind Faith Live at Hyde Park
Agree !
Steve Winwood is a musical hero of mine and i love this song. Don't show youtube the album cover Doug!
Thanks, Doug!
So much talent in that group. This song is a favourite of mine. In the Presence of the Lord is my other favourite from this album.
If you like Stevie, check out Go (Stevie, Klaus Schulze, Stomu Yamashta. Michael Shrieve, Al DiMeola and more.)
Great video Doug.
Super good. I would recommend listening to David Bowie’s sweet thing/candidate/sweet thing live LA 74 cracked actor… THANK YOU!!! You’re awesome. Love your stuff
One of my absolute favorite albums. I learned to play every one of these songs. Listen to DO What You Like. It's a real trip in 5/4 time and everyone takes a solo.
This is the only Reel to Reel tape that my dad kept when he sold his TEAC deck and tapes in the late ‘80s. I inherited it, and still have it (along with my own TEAC).
Wonderful song & reaction. Thank you.
Whole album Doug.
"Can't Find My Way Home"' bares a striking similarity to "John Barleycorn Must Die".by Traffic.
But shall we Low Spark the High Heeled Boys?
Always great when Dr. Doug does a CLASSIC ROCK song!
PRESENCE OF THE LORD should be next.
Some of Clapton's tastiest playing on this song... the man can emote
John Barleycorn Must Die by them is also worth a listen
great song. I also love Bonnie Raitt's cover.
Oh, yesssss.
Steve and Eric did a kind of semi reunion tour together some years ago - around 2008-2010
And obviously they did many songs of this album. Interesting to see and compare them 40 years older
I got to see one of those shows
They did a lengthy Hendrix blues (Steve happens to be on the original Hendrix recording of Voodoo Chile (the blues, not the smash hit)), and an amazing interpretation of Little Wing too.
Only thing I had difficulty getting used to was Steves tone on the organ, he tends to go for quite straight thin sounding long notes...
This particular piece, for me, is my most melancholic and meaningful, remembering a weekend lost in the fog of time and space, cosmically adrift and not caring if I ever found my way home. Sometimes, when it rolls around in my playlist, I must skip it as it brings me to tears every time I hear it, almost remembering a past life. Too beautiful.
Should have done “Sea of Joy” - all are good, but this encompasses the entire album.
I saw the band in Milwaukee, WI at the Midwest Rock Festival late July 1969, along with Led Zep, Joe Cocker, John Mayall, and MANY more. There is a bootleg recording of the set Blind Faith played on UA-cam and on my UA-cam channel as well. I'd always enjoyed Cream and Traffic prior to their demise, and this was one of my favorite songs the band played. FYI Doug, the Ginger Baker "Do What You Like" is a (mostly) drum solo by one of the premier rock drummers of all time.
I vote for your reaction to the entire album, and later to the bonus jams as well. This was a short lived SUPER GROUP with 4 absolutely skilled musicians working together. Play all of them you possibly can!
My best to all,
Brew
Brwmeistr9 on UA-cam
Great video Doug for a beautiful song. It was used perfectly in the 1985 film Fandango with a young Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson. Worth a look.
Try "Low Spark of high heeled boys" Then watch tne Spencer Davis Group with Steve singing "NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT" you would think it was Ray Charles
Great reaction, Doug! One of my favorite songs ever.
Traffic's "Empty Pages" is the shit! Winwood kills on that track
One of my favorites!!
In addition to the acoustic version of Can't Find My Way Home, they also recorded and electric version which is also great.
There is a double album from 2009 'Live from Madison Square Garden' where they play this song too. Some other great songs on there are Forever man, Presence of the Lord, Well all right and Pearly Queen. Oh, and also After midnight and Georgia on my mind. So much good stuff!
"Well Alright" was also covered by Santana on the album Inner Secrets. Excellent version with great, soulful vocals by Greg Walker.
Nice man there is a cool version on UA-cam of them playing in London 1969 I believe with Eric and Steve looking like kids.
You have a nice T-Shirt. HAKEN 💪🎶🎵🎶🎶❤️
Great reaction Doug! I think you should get to all the tracks including the Jams at some point. A rare combo of great musicians.
Yes do the whole orig. album and a few extras...'Do what you Like'' is my pick, Steve W. soaring vocals & his roaring Hammond. Solos by all all on what i consider Ginger's best song there is also an electric version of "Can't find your Way Home'' on the Deluxe 2001 version, with even more jams and lovely unfinished song called Trade Winds Clapton & Winwood also did ''Live from Madison Square Garden'' a double CD and DVD live album in 2009. There are some live videos of their 1969 Hyde park concert on UA-cam as well
Beautiful, beautiful song, from the great Steve Winwood. I often sing this at my own gigs, and can only hope I do it some kind of justice. Another of Steve's song with a similar feel is the lovely "No face, no name, no number" by Traffic. Reputedly written about Eric Clapton's growing drug addiction. "Do what you like" is pretty much a jam... I'd go for "Presence of the Lord" next, but "Sea of Joy" is also excellent.
There's an album and live video of Clapton and Winwood live at Madison square garden from about 15 years ago which is excellent
I love that song mean it, thanks Doug
Great song! Wish BF had done more together! What talent in one group!😊
Can't find my way out of this channel...😆
🤓🎧🎸
The whole album is brilliant. Especially the track Presence of the Lord.
Steve recorded a video of an acoustic version at least 10 years ago, solo. Also great versions from Ellen McIlwain and Bonnie Raitt.
I love the Bonnie Raitt version.
What's crazy to me is how many records you have now! So stoked I got to see the genesis of all that!
(Also please tell me someone made a GIF of Doug saying "no f**kin way." 😂😂)
There are many live versions of this song to be found on UA-cam; some that I particularly like are:
an instrumental Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar version by Justin Johnson
an acoustic guitar version by Steve Winwood in his fireplace from 12 years ago
a slow-starting, stretched-out jazz piano trio version by Christian Sands at the Kahilu Theatre, 2019 on the Backstage Pass channel
I doubt Winwood was "in" his fireplace, at least I hope not.
@@MichaelSheffield-ox8yd it's a v big old fireplace with a small fire, he sits v close
I have always felt this way about the drums! I'm glad someone else said it finally. The actual drum part is great and well played, but the engineering is way off. It's a very typical hard rock 60s engineering sound. Should have been close mic'd with warmer tones.
Anyhow, Presence of the Lord is also an absolutely awesome song. Great gibe of reverence, sober introspection, and absolute groove.
It's quite a common 'folk' acoustic guitar trope to play a chromatic descending bass line against a D major chord, often with the bottom string tuned down to D too. This is a classic example of the sweetly melancholic feel that creates.
Clapton included this song in his setlist into the seventies with Marcy Levy and Yvonne Ellison covering Winwood’s parts.
It's a short album, and they are all good. Do them all!
Since you love Winwood do the whole of Traffic's incredible 1968 2nd album "TRAFFIC" varid and a complete masterpiece
A full album listen of Pink Floyd's The Final Cut would be really interesting, IMO. If I remember, although it didn't have Richard Wright on it 😳, it features a generous amount of keys.
It also features a more serious subject matter, for Floyd.
Anyhow, Happy Independence Day to you, Doug, Meg, and all the crew!
🇺🇸
Now I want to make a list of top LPs, coz I know this would be up there.
Live version with claptn and trucks; ua-cam.com/video/8L82II1lNjo/v-deo.html
Winwood was 19 when played keys on Electric Ladyland for Hendrix. That was 1968. The album cover for Blind Faith is out there, especially now days. Things were different then. Crash out of place is because Ginger Baker was a weirdo revolutionist.
You started this superb album Doug, now you need to finish it ;)
Steve Winwood plays the other guitar on this one.
This song, together with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”,
is my favourite use of a line cliché.
And mr Clapton plays on both!
I’ve always hated the splash cymbals.
Mr Winwood and mr Clapton had long wanted to work together
and when they both were free they started this project in mr Winwoods cottage.
Ginger Baker forced his way into the project
and was responsible for it’s demise.
He insisted on touring even though the others
just wanted to hang out and jam.
But, as mr Clapton put it, “You just don’t say no to Ginger”
This version of the song was something like take 73!
Clapton and Winwood made an excellent live album
“Live from Madison Square Garden” featuring this song
and interpretations of a lot of other great modern classics.
Highly recommended.
✌✌
I saw Winwood and Clapton together.
Do the whole album! If you want to do the extended release, that's ok too!
There is a great cover of this by a British band called Electronic. Worth checking out.
I love how the riff starts on the dominant 7th and walks down chromatically under a D chord and finally goes to the F and G chord. Dear Prudence is also in D and the riff starts on a D and skips to a C and walks down just like this song.
How have you not done the album Hazards of Love by The Decemberists? Would be right up your alley.
Actually did 4 albums in their short stint. This and Disraeli Gears were their two studios. Other two were live.
This is Blind Faith’s only album. Disraeli Gears was Cream.
Maybe the cymbal crash is the dashing of a cocktail glass onto the floor?
Love this album so much. Sad that they made just that single album. I would have loved to hear more of their music. But at least I had the chance to hear Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood together roughly 15 years ago, and yes, they played a few songs of the Blind Faith album.
Sea of joy
If anyone is interested, Don Ross (a Canadian Fingerstyle Guitarist) did a cover of this and it's really good. Search it up!
Presence of the Lord
Had to cry today or Presence of the Lord next, or the whole album.
Try Winwood and Clapton live at Madison square Garden with this tune live :)
Reminds me a lot of Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Such a meditation.
Winwood and Clapton were friends before BF and have been friends ever since. Have played together many times over the years.
Welcome to the world of Ginger Baker drumming! Hands on the cymbals... :):)
Hey Doug maybe on your own time check out the version of this song by Hailey Reinhart with her father! Great rendition! I think you will really enjoy it!