Clapton, Eric

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Eric Clapton

Guitarist, singer, songwriter

“I think I’m probably the 50th [best guitarist] if anything,” Eric Clapton told Rolling Stone. If he’s not the best, he certainly is the most modest. It would be hard to come up with five, much less forty-nine, better guitar players than Clapton, especially when dealing with the blues. “Yes, that’s what I do best. That is really my personal style,” he said in The Guitar Player Book. From the Yardbirds to Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos, and various backup bands, Clapton has played styles as diverse as heavy metal, pop, sweet love songs, and even reggae. But, throughout a career that has spanned nearly 25 years, he has always remained true to his blues roots. “If I’m put into any other kind of situation, I’d have to fly blind,” he told Dan Forte in The Guitar.”In the blues format I can just almost lose consciousness; it’s like seeing in the dark.”

Clapton was born illegitimately in Ripley, England, on March 30, 1945. His mother left him to be raised by his grandparents, Rose and John Clapp, when he was a small child. He was brought up thinking they were his parents until his real mother returned home when he was nine years old. The family pretended that his mother was his sister, but he soon found out the truth from outside sources. “I went into a kind of… shock, which lasted through my teens, really,” he said in Musician, “and started to turn me into the kind of person I am now … fairly secretive, and insecure, and madly driven by the ability to impress people or be the best in certain areas.”

Around this time Clapton began hearing American blues musicians like Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters, and Big Bill Broonzy. He was knocked out by the sound and took up the guitar trying to emulate them. Soon he discovered a few friends that were also into this mysterious music from the States and they formed their own clique. “For me, it was very serious, what I heard. And I began to realize that I could only listen to this music with people who were equally serious about it,” he told Rolling Stone’s Robert Palmer. “And, of course, then we had to be purists and seriously dislike other things.”

The seventeen-year-old was soon playing folk blues in coffee houses, and in 1963 he joined his first band, the Roosters. They stayed together for only a few months before Clapton moved on to Casey Jones and the Engineers, which lasted an even shorter period. By then Clapton had begun to hear some of the electric blues that were coming into England, and he switched over from acoustic. “Hearing that Freddie King single (’I Love The Woman’) was what started me on my path,” he said in Rolling Stone.

Word began to spread around town about the hot new guitarist, and in late 1963 the Yardbirds asked Clapton

For the Record…

Name originally Eric Patrick Clapp; born March 30, 1945, in Ripley, Surrey, England; illegitimate son of Patricia Clapp; raised by grandparents, John and Rose Clapp; married Patti Boyd Harrison March 27, 1979 (divorced, 1988); children: (by Lory Del Santo) one. education: Expelled from Kingston College of Art, 1962.

Professional musician, 1963—. Guitarist with The Roosters, 1963, Casey Jones and the Engineers, 1963, The Yardbirds, 1963-65, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, 1965-66, Cream 1966-68, Blind Faith, 1969-70, Delaney and Bonnie & Friends, 1970, and Derek and the Dominos, 1970-71; solo artist, 1974—. Has also appeared in motion pictures, including “Tommy” and “Water.”

Awards: Recipient of Melody Maker magazine’s World’s Top Musician award, 1969; winner of Guitar Player magazine’s Readers’ Poll in rock category, 1971-74, in overall category, 1973, and in electric blues category, 1975, and 1980-82; co-winner of Grammy Award for album of the year, 1972, for The Concert for Bangla Desh; co-recipient (with Michael Kamen) of British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for original television music, 1985, for “Edge of Darkness.”

Addresses: Office –67 Brook St., London Wl, England. Record company —Warner Bros., 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.

to join their band, replacing Tony “Top” Topham. With the Rolling Stones’ popularity verging on worldwide, the Yardbirds took over as houseband at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. The group specialized in rave-ups: driving music that starts low and steady, building to a frentic climax before dying down and then repeating again. Clapton was developing his chops on the bluesier numbers and was also gaining a loyal following.

Band manager Giorgio Gomelsky nicknamed him “Slowhand” at this time in reference to his fluid and speedy playing and also as a pun to the slow hand clapping Clapton received whenever he broke a string on stage. The band was becoming anxious to cash in on the success of other British bands like the Beatles and decided to record more commercial material, which Clapton was totally against. “Single sessions are terrible. I can’t take them at all,” he told Rolling Stone’s Jann Wenner. “No matter what the music is like, it’s got to be commercial, it’s got to have a hook line, you’ve got to have this and that and you just fall into a very dark hole.” Clapton’s disgust during the “For Your Love” recording coupled with an embarrassing session with Sonny Boy Williamson (the bluesman said that Englishmen didn’t know how to play authentic blues) prompted him to leave the Yardbirds in 1965. “For Your Love” became a hit for the band, as Clapton figured it would, and he was replaced by Jeff Beck, and later by Jimmy Page, whose style was more compatible with the band’s.

Clapton worked with his grandfather for a time, doing construction work. A popular myth has Clapton locking himself in his room with nothing but his guitar for a year, but actually he went and stayed with his friend from the Roosters, Ben Palmer, for a month. “I was all screwed up about my playing,” he said in Rock 100. “I realized that I wanted to be doing it for the rest of my life, so I’d better start doing it right.” Clapton devoted his playing to pure blues, and by the end of 1965 John Mayall recognized the talent and asked him to join the Bluesbreakers. By then Clapton had formed his own style, which borrowed from the traditional masters, yet was easily recognized as something special.

Gene Santoro commented in The Guitar: “The boy had it all. The characteristic hesitations and syncopations, the punching buildups toward chord changes, the lilting phrases punctuated by bent blues notes tumbling into abrupt finishes that accent the power and beauty of the line, the sure-fingered variety of attack, the breathtaking reaches up to the twelfth fret and beyond, the heavy sustain, the flawless timing—it must have been difficult to be a guitarist listening in the audience without being overwhelmed completely.”

Clapton was becoming much more than an underground hero. The blues revival of the 1960s was in full swing and the group’s album debuting the 21 -year-old sensation, Bluesbreakers, went all the way to number 6 on the English pop charts. The now-famous slogan, “Clapton is God,” began appearing on subway walls in England and guitarists everywhere were searching for the key to his magical sound. By 1966 Clapton was growing weary of the strict diet of Chicago-style blues the band was playing and decided to form a new band with former Bluesbreaker bass player Jack Bruce (Clapton was replaced by Peter Green and Mick Taylor, who went on to join Fleetwood Mac and the Stones respectively).

Cream, the new band, also included virtuoso drummer Ginger Baker, whom Clapton originally thought “was just too good for me to play with, too jazzy,” he said in Rock 100. Although the three improvised a la jazz, the sound was pure rock and blues, played in a manner which has become synonymous with today’s heavy metal. As Charley Walters wrote, “The formula was easy and deceptively limiting: start off simply, explode into a lengthy free-for-all, and end as begun. The brilliant moment occasionally surfaced, but self-indulgence was the general rule.” The group released four albums, which contained some live cuts in addition to the studio tracks. Clapton’s guitar set-up established the sound for future rock and rollers: “Two 100-watt Marshalls. I set them full on everything, full treble, full bass and full presence, same with the controls on the guitar,” he said in Rolling Stone.

With psychedelia and the Vietnam War happening, Cream epitomized the times and rode a crest of success. While the fans just couldn’t get enough guitar licks, critics like Jon Landau had had more than enough. Landau cited Clapton as the master of the blues cliche in one of his Rolling Stone reviews, and it struck home. “The ring of truth just knocked me backward; I was in a restaurant and I fainted,” Clapton told Palmer. “And after I woke up, I immediately decided that that was the end of the band.” Cream played their final performance at London’s Albert Hall in November 1968.

A few months later, Clapton and Baker joined forces with Steve Winwood and Rick Grech to form the first super-group, Blind Faith. Amidst media hype and little rehearsal time, the group played their first gig; a free concert in front of 36, 000 fans at Hyde Park in London. Their planned 24-hour tour of the United States proved to be too much too soon and they broke up in January of 1970 with only one album under their belt.

During the tour Clapton converted to Christianity, which was an unusual move at a time when most of his contemporaries were exploring Eastern religions. He was unhappy with the adulation Blind Faith received, feeling that it was unwarranted. He felt the opening act, Delaney and Bonnie & Friends, were playing the type of music he could relate to, so he joined them. Delaney pushed Clapton to develop his singing and writing skills during his stint as a sideman with them. In 1970 he released his first solo album, Eric Clapton, with the help of Delaney and Bonnie and their band. Afterwards, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock asked Delaney for a raise and he fired them.

Clapton seized the opportunity and picked them up for his own band, Derek and the Dominos, adding Jim Gordon on drums. Clapton befriended Duane Allman while recording in Florida and the guitarist was asked to play with them. The collaboration had an enormous impact on Clapton’s style, and the twin guitars produced some of the finest music in rock and roll. “I think what really got me interested in it (slide guitar) as an electric approach was seeing Duane take it to another place,” he told Forte. “No one was opening it up until Duane showed up and played it a completely different way. That sort of made me think about taking it up.” Clapton formed the Dominos and wrote the songs as a way of reaching a certain woman he yearned for: ex-Beatle George Harrison’s wife Patti. The song he wrote for her, “Layla,” is “perhaps the most powerful and beautiful song of the Seventies,” according to Rolling Stone’s Dave Marsh. Patti stuck by her husband though, causing Clapton to lose his faith and to start on a path of self-destruction. The Dominos were already heavily into drugs, which eventually caused their breakup, but Clapton was now using heroin as a means of easing his emotional pains. “Not Patti herself, as a person, but as an image, she was my excuse. That was the catalyst, a very big part of it,” he told Ray Coleman in Clapton! “It was a symbol, my perfect reason for embarking on this road which would lead me to the bottom.”

The addiction forced Clapton to take a three-year hiatus after the Dominos, performing only at the 1971 Bangladesh concert and at the 1973 Rainbow Concert (arranged by Pete Townshend of the Who as a means to get Clapton back into circulation). He eventually underwent electroacupuncture treatment successfully and spent some time on a farm in Wales relaxing and working. After his recovery, Clapton stated in Rolling Stone that “the thing about being a musician is that it’s a hard life and I know that the minute I get on the road I’m going to be doing all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s just that kind of life.” Manager Robert Stigwood booked Clapton into a Miami studio for the recording of his comeback LP, 461 Ocean Blvd. One of his finest to date, it includes “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Mainline Florida,” two tunes that Clapton still performs in concert.

Clapton eventually won Patti and the two were married in 1979. He wrote one of his most requested and popular songs, “Wonderful Tonight,” for her and it appeared on his Slowhand album. Clapton has continued releasing solo albums (14 to date) and playing on other artists’ records. His fans still cry out “Clapton is God” at his concerts and they’re still waiting for him to cut loose on his guitar like he did with Cream, but he refuses to revert back to that style. Another reason Clapton plays less guitar is fear. “I lost confidence because I thought I’d done it all…. That’s why I didn’t play as much lead guitar on those albums in the Seventies. I was very, very nervous that I’d said it all,” he told Rolling Stone. Even though he had kicked heroin, Clapton’s obsessive behavior led him to another vice, alcohol. Oddly enough, he kicked that too, at the same time his Michelob beer ads began to appear on television.

He has also done work in films, appearing in Ken Russell’s “Tommy” and the movie “Water.” He also scored “Lethal Weapon” and the British television series “Edge of Darkness.” In 1983 the three former guitarists from the Yardbirds, Clapton, Beck, and Page, were reunited at the ARMS benefit concert for musician Ronnie Lane. And while Clapton’s 1980s albums seem to be heading back to his older style of playing of committment and passion, there is talk of a Cream reunion (Clapton and Bruce jammed at a New York club in 1988). His 1986 tour to promote August featured Phil Collins on drums and a four-piece band, his smallest since the 1960s.

His personal life is still unsteady, as he and Patti were divorced in 1988 after Clapton fathered a child by Italian actress Lory Del Santo. But to fans, critics, and fellow musicians his music remains the primary focus. An excellent summary of his career thus far can be found on the 6-LP package Crossroads, which was released in 1987 and reached number 1 on Billboard’s compact disc chart.

Compositions

Composer of numerous songs, including “Badge,” “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Hello Old Friend,” “Lay Down Sally,” “Layla,” “Strange Brew,” “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Watch Out for Lucy,” “Wonderful Tonight.” Co-wrote (with Michael Kamen) musical score for British television series “Edge of Darkness”; wrote musical score for motion picture “Lethal Weapon.”

Selected discography

With the Yardbirds

Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds, Fontana, 1964.

For Your Love, Epic, 1965.

With John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers

Bluesbreakers, Decca, 1966.

With Cream

Fresh Cream, Atco, 1966.

Disraeli Gears, Atco, 1967.

Wheels of Fire, Atco, 1968.

Goodbye, Atco, 1969.

Cream Live, Atco, 1970.

Cream Live 2, Atco, 1971.

With Blind Faith

Blind Faith, Atco, 1969.

With Derek and the Dominos

Layla, And Other Assorted Love Songs, Atco, 1971.

Derek and the Dominos—Live In Concert, RSO, 1973.

Solo albums

Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert, RSO, 1973.

461 Ocean Boulevard, RSO, 1974.

There’s One In Every Crowd, RSO, 1975.

E.C. Was Here, RSO, 1975.

No Reason to Cry, RSO, 1976.

Slowhand, RSO, 1977.

Backless, RSO, 1978.

Just One Night, RSO, 1980.

Another Ticket, RSO, 1981.

Money and Cigarettes, Warner Bros., 1983.

Behind the Sun, Warner Bros., 1985.

August, Warner Bros., 1986.

Crossroads, Polygram, 1987.

Has also appeared as a sideman on numerous albums, including The Beatles [The White Album] (on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), The Concert For Bangla Desh, The Last Waltz, and Stephen Stills.