Eric Clapton Finally Records His Version of Robert Johnson's 'Stones in My Passway'

Distinguished guitar great Eric Clapton has finally offered a recorded version of inscrutable blues legend Robert Johnson's poignant dejection, "Stones in My Passway." Listen below!

Frequently covered by the English musician and included in a live version on Clapton's 2004 Sessions for Robert J DVD, its appearance on his new LP, I Still Do, marks the debut of a studio take by ol' Slowhand of the venerable 1937 Delta blues platter.

Released last month, I Still Do is Clapton's 23rd album and features multiple covers of renowned blues and folk songs by pivotal artists. In addition to Johnson's "Stones," the 12-song set also features Leroy Carr's "Alabama Woman Blues," two tunes by "Tulsa Sound" pioneer and Clapton compatriot JJ Cale and even Bob Dylan's sparse ecclesiastical ballad, "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine." 

Instrumentally elusive and notoriously difficult to decipher, Robert Johnson's expert guitar playing while singing -- as evidenced on the original twelve 78 RPM discs issued by Vocalion Records in the late 1930s -- proves onerous for even the most accomplished of guitarist-vocalists to interpret. As Clapton told Guitar World, there are portions of the tune that even he still can't exactly put down:

"[T]here's a phrase he plays underneath his vocal that I can't do. I can't sing it and play that phrase, and I will never do it, I don't think. I think I've tried all my life to figure out how to do that -- because the time signature of the singing is one way and the playing is another."

Johnson is perhaps one of the most storied and influential singer-songwriters in American music history. With little information on the musician's life available, apocryphal aspects of the itinerant gutarist's short career continue to inspire six-stringers worldwide. The Faustian myth of his crossroads deal with the devil and the puzzling details of his 1938 death fortify his compact catalog of impassioned blues with a timeless persistence.

Eric Clapton has long been one of Johnson's most ardent advocates, calling him "the most important blues singer that ever lived." Including a Johnson cut or two in almost all of his performances and many of his records (starting with his early rock band Cream's cover of "Four Until Late" from their 1966 debut, Fresh Cream), Clapton's 2004 effort, Me and Mr. Johnson, was an album-length tribute of the legendary bluesman's songs.

I Still Do also contains Clapton's rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You," the 1930s pop standard made famous in 1944 by Billie Holiday. Asked by the Associated Press if the song's inclusion suggests the guitarist may be hanging up his hat, Clapton said the selection would make a fitting swan song:

"It's one of those things that's been haunting me," he said. "I love the song and I love the sentiment. Just in case I don't cut another record, this is how I feel. I kind of might be saying goodbye. But I've been doing that for a while."

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TagsEric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Stones in My Passway, Bob Dylan