I was recently surfing YouTube looking up specific performances by my favorite artists and I came across this one of Eric Clapton playing Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” from the Bobfest concert back in 1992 or early 1993. Being a huge Clapton fan, I’ve seen (or listened to) just about every bootleg / legitimate concert media there is in existence on him and in my opinion, this particular performance is EC at the top of his game. We all have our favorite eras with his career (and he’s had MANY), but to me.. it all came together for this single performance.

It’s perfect vocally, the band sounds amazing, his guitar playing is phenomenal, for whatever reason – that performance says it all. Keep in mind he had just recorded his Unplugged session just prior to this (and if I remember correctly when Ron Wood introduces him, he makes a comment about his short hair cut), so I think everyone was expecting him to come out and do an acoustic number. It’s also interesting that he doesn’t play rhythm in this, just plays on in the moments that he’s not singing (very much of a BB / Freddie King thing to do), and to be honest I can’t think of many other times he’s played this way, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have Steve Cropper and G.E. Smith backing you up. Anyway, I love coming across performances like these on YouTube that would be otherwise extremely hard to find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZphtG5koFlo