Eric Clapton – To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert Review

Reinvention for veteran artists comes not through continuing in the studio, but from working out new emotional lines on stage. Eric Clapton, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, has found fresh charms in some of his biggest hits. Unlike Dylan, but exactly as Young does, Clapton is keen to record and share the process with listeners who cannot make it to these live performances. To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert is just that, a chance to hear the adaptations and differences made by Clapton on stage. He is decades removed from his best work, and yet he finds fresh routes into those instrumental delights. For those who enjoyed his Unplugged session, a listen of this track, which features heavy hitters like Tears in Heaven and a Dhani Harrison accompaniment for Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), it’s a delightful listen. The George Harrison cover feels like a sweet touch, an adaptation which, like opening track Voice of a Child, is based fully on seeing where a song can go next. 

What more can an artist do with their best works? Clapton looks to find out. He’s as impressive a vocalist as he is a guitarist, though the latter work wins out more often than not. It’s a fact for Tears in Heaven, a delicate masterclass from Clapton. This is the Unplugged style at play, the softer instrumental touches but backed by a weighty percussion giving the songs that little bit heavier of a punch. To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert is not about getting those hits dealt with early, but it does so. Tears in Heaven and Layla back-to-back is a staggering on-stage moment, both songs sounding as brilliant as they do on other live releases. But it also means the message takes centre stage, the charitable momentum carries this performance rather than the promise of hearing a Derek and the Dominos track. True enough, those big hitters are overshadowed by subtle, charming details heard elsewhere.  

Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out may be another big track, but the changes made, the conviction it’s brought to life with, are staggering. Quality blues rock live material is what this album is. Key to the Highway has a brilliant heart to it, and pairing it with a traditional classic like Hoochie Coochie Man is an endearing look at Clapton’s long-standing influences. A sprinkling of Dylan can be heard on this version, with the backing vocalists and keyboard work reminiscent of his 1980s shows. Beautiful instrumental style and a swaggering tone which cement Clapton as one of the best to ever do it. His studio work may be dreadful, but his instrumental flourishes remain, albeit just on stage. There is little better than great music performed for a greater cause, and that’s what To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert offers.  

Quality rhythms and an improvised sound which make those riffs and unruly guitar moments feel honest. It’s what keeps To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert together, that staggering and continuous emotional depth to guitar-led work. There is room for lesser moments, though those breaks from incredible form are a necessary palette cleanser, a chance to slow yourself along with the music. It makes all the difference with To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert, which depends on the steady flow of any moment overshadowing the other. It’s why those hits are played out early, why riffs and improvised lines for The Sky is Crying land so well. Phenomenal work at times, the piano on Crossroads is staggering, and hearing Clapton and Harrison collaborate once more is a tear-jerking moment with another layer given the context of the performance. A brilliant live release. Clapton is not in short supply of those.