Money and Cigarettes marked several important turning points in
Eric Clapton's recording career. It was his debut release on his own Duck imprint within Warner Bros.' Reprise Records subsidiary. It was also the first album he made after coming to terms with his drinking problem by giving up alcohol. Newly focused and having written a batch of new songs, he became dissatisfied with his longtime band and fired them, with the exception of second guitarist
Albert Lee. In their place, he hired session pros like Stax Records veteran bassist
Donald "Duck" Dunn and Muscle Shoals drummer
Roger Hawkins, also bringing in guest guitarist
Ry Cooder. His new songs reflected on his changed condition, with "Ain't Going Down," a thinly veiled musical rewrite of the
Jimi Hendrix arrangement of "All Along the Watchtower," serving as a statement of purpose that declared, "I've still got something left to say." "The Shape You're In" was a criticism of his wife for her alcoholism that concluded, "I'm just telling you baby 'cause I've been there myself," while the lengthy acoustic ballad "Pretty Girl" and "Man in Love" reaffirmed his feelings for her. The album's single was the relatively slight pop tune "I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart," but
Clapton's many blues fans must have been most pleased with the covers of
Sleepy John Estes' "Everybody Oughta Make a Change" (significantly placed as the album's leadoff track),
Albert King's "Crosscut Saw," and
Johnny Otis' "Crazy Country Hop." For all the changes and the high-powered sidemen, though,
Money and Cigarettes ended up being just an average effort from
Clapton, which his audience seems to have sensed since, despite the Top 20 placement for the single, it became his first album in more than six years to miss the Top Ten and fail to go gold. ~ William Ruhlmann