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Blind Faith
Blind Faith
Polydor Records, 1969
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/12/1998
Almost 30 years after their one and only album came out, I
seriously wonder why anyone considered Blind Faith a
supergroup.
Sure, it took two of the best-known non-Beatle names in British
music, Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton, and threw them together in
an unlikely marriage with bassist Ric Grech and drummer Ginger
Baker. It is surprising to hear Clapton working with Baker, two of
the three members of the then recently-deceased Cream. This was a
marriage that was, in fact, doomed from the start - the band lasted
less than a year together - and their self-titled release is an
album I'd be hard-pressed to call a classic in any fashion.
Of the six songs on this release, the only one that shines to my
ears is "Can't Find My Way Home," a piece that highlights Winwood's
voice and Clapton's acoustic (or is that dobro?) guitar work. It
doesn't go for the bombast that makes up most of the rest of the
album, and remains one song that is rightfully revered to this
day.
But you know the rest of the album is in trouble from the start
of "Had To Cry Today," the album's opener. I will admit that some
of Clapton's guitar work is pretty fanciful on this one, and it is
interesting to hear him layer guitar solos together near the end of
the song. However, the song engages in far too much repetition of
musical ideas, and damned if Winwood's voice doesn't go south twice
(once hardly noticeable, once painfully obvious).
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