Sunday Cinema: Watch Eric Clapton Covers Robert Johnson Compilation

It’s no secret that Eric Clapton is a disciple of the blues, especially the work of the legendary, and indeed mythical Robert Johnson. The most famous of those myths is the Faustian tale of Johnson selling his soul to the devil in exchange for musical success at a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta where he hailed from. The anecdote has its origins in one of Johnson’s most well-known songs, “Cross Road Blues.”

It’s also no secret that Clapton covered “Cross Road Blues” as “Crossroads” with Cream in the late 1960s and also named his famed guitar festival after the legendary song. But what you may not know is that EC has covered 24 of Johnson’s 29 known songs and thanks to the YouTube account jbr17, you can check out all of those nods in one place.

The covers are mostly culled from live recordings of concerts after 1990 from Yokohama to Oklahoma City but also from Clapton’s two Robert Johnson tribute albums: Me And Mr. Johnson and Sessions For Robert J. The covers include “Terraplane Blues,” “Stones In My Passway,” “Come On In My Kitchen” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Traveling Riverside Blues,” “Walking Blues,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues” and more. Jbr17 also lists the songs Clapton has yet to get to which are as follows: “Dead Shrimp Blues,” “Drunken Hearted Man,” “Honeymoon Blues,” “Phonograph Blues” and “Preachin’ Blues.”

Last Friday (May 8) marked what would have been Johnson’s 109th birthday. Check out this stellar compilation of 24 Robert Johnson covers from Eric Clapton below for this edition of Sunday Cinema:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmwISZw2P0