.jpg)
Amazon UK Purchase Link
------------------------------------------------------
This Review Along With 375 Others Is Available In My
SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites
WHOLE LOTTA LOVE - 1969
Rock, Pop and Genres Thereabouts
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Rock, Pop and Genres Thereabouts
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Just Click Below To Purchase for £5.95 (2026 Update)
Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs
(No Cut and Paste Crap)
"...Can't Find My Way Home..."
Some bands and albums have a 'what if' legend about them and Blind Faith's lone debut entry in the history of Rock is about as iconic as it can get – right down to its truly dreadful British sleeve (changed into a band shot on the American Atco issues - photos above). Exploitive artwork aside - it possesses some incredible tunes that still stand up 55+ years later – and even retain a certain 'cool'. Here are the farmer's daughters...
UK released April 1986 (reissued September 1995) – "Blind Faith" by BLIND FAITH is a straightforward CD transfer of their lone album onto Polydor 825 094-2 (Barcode 042282509420) and plays as follows (41:59 minutes):
1. Had To Cry Today [Steve Winwood song]
2. Can't Find My Way Home [Steve Winwood song]
3. Well All Right [Buddy Holly cover]
4. Presence Of The Lord [Eric Clapton song]
5. Sea Of Joy [Steve Winwood song] [Side 12]
6. Do What You Like [Ginger Baker cover]
The album "Blind Faith" was released July 1969 in the USA on Atco SD 33-304 and September 1969 in the UK on Polydor 583 059. The UK gatefold sleeve famously portrayed a naked prepubescent farm girl holding a model plane on the front stood out in the middle of a field somewhere in the British countryside – this dodgy artwork was quickly withdrawn in the US and replaced with a photo of the band instead. This single CD reissue however uses the controversial UK artwork with the American cover pictured on the inside of the gatefold inlay.
The supergroup consisted of ERIC CLAPTON on Guitar (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream and The Yardbirds), Steve Winwood on Lead Vocals, Keyboards and Harmonica (Spencer Davis Group and Traffic), RICK GRECH on Bass (Family and Traffic) and GINGER BAKER on Drums (Cream). JIMMY MILLER produced the album (famous for his work with The Rolling Stones) but they disbanded as a group only months after its release.
DENNIS M. DRAKE mastered the album for CD at the Polygram Studios when first released on the then 'new' format in 1986. There is no 'remaster' per say on the single disc version and as it has remained on catalogue ever since (that master is still in use). To confuse matters even further - there is another CD with exactly the same Catalogue Number and Barcode - 825 094-2 CD (42282509420) - but it has two extra tracks "Exchange And Mart" and "Spending All My Days". Because they have the same barcode - it's hit and miss as to what issue you'll be sent by a seller (the extras version seems to be hard to find too).
There is of course a 2CD Deluxe Edition Remaster from 2001 by Suha Gur with extra Jam Sessions on Polydor 549 529-2 (Barcode 73145 4952927) – but it has been deleted years now and has acquired a nasty price tag in most quarters. There are also Japanese remasters on SHM-CD in 5” Mini LP Repro packaging and a Mobile Fidelity ULTRADISC II Audiophile CD – but this straightforward album issue with its bog-standard gatefold slip of an inlay is one of the few ways to get the music relatively cheap on CD (and the mastering is quite good too).
It opens with Steve Winwood's eight-and-half-minute rocker "Had To Cry Today" – a very cool riff that turns up in concert to this day. It even manages to sound like Post-Cream – what they might have morphed into. But that good start is thrashed into its simpering corner by the album’s languid masterpiece – the 3:16 minutes of "Can't Find My Way Home" – an acoustic Rock gem. Quite why Polydor or Atco never saw fit to release Steve Winwood's beautiful (and dare we say it Soulful) song at the time as a 45 in any territory is a total mystery. Fans of the album had to wait until 1977 to see it officially issued as a 7" single on RSO 873 – and then only in the States as a B-side to "Presence Of The Lord". Their upbeat Pop version of Buddy Holly's "Well All Right" shouldn't work – and yet it does – and again another potential 7" hit single.
Side 1 finishes on the album's other winner – Eric Clapton's superbly tuneful "Presence Of The Lord". It's never been the best recording in the world with Winwood's vocals somehow getting lost in the back of the mix – but this mastering does a half-decent job. Things pick up when it goes into that brilliant pace change half way through - Clapton's guitar roaring out of the speakers. It then goes back to the first part melody – sweet (hardly surprising that Clapton plays "Presence Of The Lord" to this day).
Side 2 opens with a pretty Winwood tune called "Sea Of Joy" – sweet Acoustic guitar work from Clapton and Rick Grech coming into his own on some eerie Violin. But the side is dominated by the Jazz trippy "Do What You Like". Organ and Drums do solo battles – the Guitar sounding like Clapton is going to some place unfamiliar – the chanting vocals - it comes on almost like Prog Rock. Even at 15:20 minutes and with a Drum Solo - "Do What You Like" doesn’t feel like it's overstaying its welcome. It's also the best sounding track on here...the Bass and Drums beautifully clear...
Cool, iconic and flawed for sure - but still fab after all these decades. "Blind Faith" went to Number 1 in the USA and the UK on release and it's a pleasure to say that in 2026 - this simple CD makes you hear why...
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.JPG)
