Eric Clapton - Misty Roses - Non-Album Tracks (1975)

In 1974, Eric Clapton started his solo career for real, after a brief attempt in 1970. He played so many non-album songs that year, in the studio and on stage, that I had to make two albums to catch them all. By 1975, things settled down a bit. But there's still enough for a satisfying single album of stray tracks.

The first two songs here are the A- and B-side of a single, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." It didn't do very well (barely scraping into the bottom of the top 40 in Britain and not charting at all in the US), probably because Bob Dylan's version of his own song was very well known from just two years earlier. Three more songs here are studio outtakes that were later released on the "Crossroads" box set.

The other four songs are still officially unreleased. Two more of them are studio outtakes. The remaining two are from concert bootlegs.

Not surprisingly, most of the songs here are based in the blues. However, two of the studio outtakes are collaborations with reggae star Peter Tosh. That makes sense, considering Clapton had a number one hit with a reggae song ("I Shot the Sheriff") the year before. And one other song is a version of "Misty Roses," a folky song by Tim Hardin.

All in all, this is a solid collection of songs. It's not great, but I think it stands up fairly well with the studio album he released that year, "There's One in Every Crowd."

01 Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Eric Clapton)
02 Someone like You (Eric Clapton)
03 Milk Cow Blues - When You've Got a Good Friend (Eric Clapton)
04 I Found a Love (Eric Clapton)
05 What'cha Gonna Do (Eric Clapton with Peter Tosh)
06 As Years Go Passing By (Eric Clapton)
07 Burial (Eric Clapton with Peter Tosh)
08 Misty Roses (Eric Clapton)
09 It Hurts Me Too (Eric Clapton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15101528/EricC_1975_MistyRses_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I've used a photo of Clapton playing in the studio in 1975. It's a bit blurry, but I think it's worth using because it's very rare to find any good photos of Clapton in the studio in the 1970s.