Album:
461 Ocean Boulevard entered the Australian albums chart* on 26 August 1974 and peaked at #2.
Songwriter:
Traditional (arranged by Eric Clapton, Carl Radle)
Producer:
Tom Down
Record label of Australian release:
RSO
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
BONUS CLIP BELOW – original 1927 recording of Motherless Children by Blind Willie Johnson
Wikipedia – 461 Ocean Boulevard:
461 Ocean Boulevard is the second studio album by English musician Eric Clapton. The album was Clapton’s return to the recording studio after a three-year hiatus due to his heroin addiction. The title refers to the address on Ocean Boulevard in Golden Beach, Florida, where Clapton lived while recording the album.
The album opens with a cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s Motherless Children.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/461_Ocean_Boulevard
Wikipedia – Motherless Children:
Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time, also known as Motherless Children, is a gospel blues song recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. It is a solo performance, with Johnson singing and playing an acoustic slide guitar.
The record was incorrectly titled “Mother’s Children” Have a Hard Time, as Blind Willie was actually singing about “Motherless Children”, the children of a deceased mother.
“Motherless children have a hard time when their mother’s dead.
See them wander from door to door, Lord, they don’t got no place to go.”
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Children_Have_a_Hard_Time
Lyrics:
Motherless children have a hard time when mother is dead, lord.
Motherless children have a hard time when mother is dead, lord.
They don′t have anywhere to go;
Wandering around from door to door.
Nobody treats you like a mother will when your mother is dead, lord
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Also on Bang a Gong from 461 Ocean Boulevard: I Shot the Sherrif
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
BONUS CLIP
Original recording of the song in 1927 by Blind Willie Johnson.
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