Before You Accuse Me - Bo Diddley/Eric Clapton Cover

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Words and Music by Bo Diddley (1958)
Arr. by Eric Clapton (1992)

This is the second track of Eric Clapton's tremendously succesful MTV UNPLUGGED Album. I was so taken away and inspired and suddenly into the Blues when I heard it for the first time! If you listen to Bo Diddley's 1952 version, you get quite awed at Eric Clapton's qualities as an arranger. He took the song down to its essentials so that it actually sounds as if his version was the original and Diddley's the cover.

Eric Clapton and Andy Fairweather Low share guitar duties on this one, with Clapton playing lead and Fairweather Low comping. I combined their parts into one, which is quite hard to play, let alone sing at the same time. Moreover, my singing skills do not allow me to perform that piece in the original key. So I tuned the guitar down one step to D standard. This is why you hear it in D major instead of E major.

The guitar is a 1983 Ovation Custom Legend with a deep bowl which I bought used around 2007. My guitar teacher Manfred Plehn had a similar one back in the day when he taught me (1979 - 1982). I wanted this guitar so bad! It plays amazingly.

What you hear is a combination of the guitar's pickup and a microphone recording (you can see the mic front-right). As usual, there is delay, reverb and a little compression and equalizing on both the guitar and the vocals.