Behind the Sun is the ninth solo studio album by
Eric Clapton, released on 11 March 1985 by
Duck Records /
Warner Bros. Records. It is Clapton's first collaborative project with
Phil Collins who co-produced the album and played on some of the tracks. While recording the album Clapton temporarily split with
his wife.
In his autobiography, Clapton remembers the 1984 session pleasantly: "The whole thing is going so great, I hope it never stops." However, his troubled marriage with
Pattie Boyd became the subject matter for most of his original material: "She's Waiting", "Same Old Blues" and "Just Like a Prisoner" all contain extended guitar solos from Clapton. It was during this period that Boyd left him and "it was eventually decided that we should have a trial separation". Clapton assuaged his pain by writing the song "Behind the Sun", featuring only his guitar and vocals along with Phil Collins' synthesizer, as the final song on the album.
This was Clapton's first collaboration with songwriter
Jerry Lynn Williams. Warner Brothers looked critically at this follow-up to the Money and Cigarettes album, Clapton's first for the label, which did not sell well. The Collins-produced Behind the Sun first submitted in the fall of 1984 was rejected by the label, insisting that he record several new songs written by Williams, backed by Los Angeles session players. The label put the project under the auspices of veteran company producers Lenny Waronker and Ted Templeman. Warner Brothers then emphasised the new tracks, releasing two of them, "Forever Man" (which reached the Top 40) and "See What Love Can Do," as singles. Clapton agreed to their terms, but asked them to provide some "hits" and record the songs with their own producer and musicians: "They sent me three songs by a Texas songwriter – "Forever Man", "Something's Happening" and "See What Love Can Do" – and they were good." The sessions featured
Toto guitarist
Steve Lukather and then-drummer
Jeff Porcaro, as well as Clapton's long-time collaborators, drummer
Jamie Oldaker, bassist
Nathan East and keyboardist
Greg Phillinganes.
Promotion
The Behind the Sun tour was featured at the first
Live Aid concert in 1985 where "She's Waiting" was performed along with "
White Room" and "
Layla". The video for "Forever Man" became an MTV favorite, featuring an accident where one of the cameras falls off the dolly. "Same Old Blues" was resurrected for the 25th Anniversary world tour and the
Montserrat charity show in 1988 and 1997, with
Mark Knopfler on rhythm guitar; Clapton resurrected "She's Waiting" for his
1992 world tour. Clapton came to sit in with
Paul Shaffer to promote the album on Late Night with David Letterman in 1985. Letterman was impressed by the songs on the album joking to Clapton if it would be alright for him if Letterman would sing "Forever Man".[3]
Reception
Deborah Frost, in a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, felt the album was "slick but inconsistent", and was concerned that Clapton's move into commercial ballads would eventually see him turn his back on his rock fans, instead playing his greatest hits on the Vegas circuit.[4]Robert Christgau in his
Village Voice Consumer Guide described the album as "[s]ad [a]nd also bad" because Clapton was simply following commercial market fashion.[5]
In a retrospective summary for
AllMusic, William Ruhlmann feels that the album is "somewhat schizophrenic" due to the tinkering of the record label, who were concerned that the original version of the album contained no hits and was too downbeat, so brought in new writers and producers. Ruhlman concludes that despite some effective guitar work the album is competent rather than exciting, and is not among Clapton's best.[6]
Cash Box said that the second single "See What Love Can Do" "plays off a
reggae/
gospel theme and provides an excellent showcase for some tasteful guitar playing."[7]Cash Box also praised its "tight background vocals and rhythm section."[7]Billboard said of that song that it has "moody groundwells of texture in a many-layered rock ballad."[8]
Templeman, Ted; Renoff, Greg (2020). Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life In Music. Toronto: ECW Press. pp. 374–84.
ISBN9781770414839.
OCLC1121143123.