Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton (born March 30, 1945) is a British guitarist, nicknamed slowhand or, in the 1960s, God. Having learned to play as a boy, and growing up listening to blues recording by the likes of Robert Johnson, Clapton first made his name as a member of the Yardbirds, a pop influnced rock and roll band whose biggest hit "For Your Love" came whilst Eric was a member. Feeling the need to return to his blues roots he joined the Bluesbreakers, with John Mayall. His emotional playing on their first album (which features Eric reading a copy of the Beano on the cover) made his name as a blues player, and inspired a short lived craze of graffiti deifying him ("Clapton is God", it read).
Limited by Mayall's traditional blues format, and destroyed by Jimi Hendrix's newly formed Experience playing a double-timed version of 'Killing Floor' at the Central Polytechnic in London, he left in 1966 to form Cream, one of the earliest examples of the supergroup, with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Cream's repertoire varied from pop soul ("I Feel Free") to lengthy instrumental jams ("Toad"). Splitting in 1968, the posthumous Goodbye album featured the single "Badge," co-written by Clapton and Beatle George Harrison. The friendship between the two, which had resulted in Clapton playing on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from The Beatles' White Album, a tactic by Harrison to make the other band members take his song seriously, was sorely tested when Harrison's wife, Patti Boyd-Harrison, left him for Clapton.
Following a second spell in a supergroup, the far less successful Blind Faith, Clapton first played as one of Delaney and Bonnie and Friends before releasing a disappointingly restrained solo album. The next record, however, was better received. Taking the sidemen from his solo record, and adding slide guitar virtuoso Duane Allman he recorded Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs as "Derek and the Dominos". The title track, a statement of unrequited love for Boyd-Harrison with an immediately recognisable guitar riff, remains one of the most widely played rock songs of the 1970s. The remainder of the album, which was heavily blues influenced, featured a winning combination of the two guitars of Allman and Clapton.
Despite his success, Clapton's personal life was a mess. In addition to the romantic entanglements, he had become addicted to heroin, which resulted in a career hiatus interrupted only by The Concert for Bangladesh and the "Rainbow Concert" in 1973, organised by The Who's Pete Townshend to help Clapton kick the drug. Relatively clean again, he released 461 Ocean Boulevard(1974), an album with the emphasis on songs rather than musicianship. Its cover of "I Shot The Sheriff" was important in bringing the music of Bob Marley to a wider audience. The 1975 album There's One In Every Crowd continued this trend. (Its original intended title The World's Greatest Guitar Player (Theres One In Every Crowd) was altered as it was felt the ironic intention would be missed.)
The late 1970s saw Clapton struggle to come to terms with the changes in popular music, and a relapse into alcoholism, that eventually saw him hospitalised and spend a period of convalescence in Antigua, where he would later support the creation of a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation centre. His albums continued in the 1980s, with only 1989's Journeyman achieving much critical acclaim, featuring a strong return to his blues roots.
The early 1990s saw tragedy enter Clapton's life on two occasions. On August 27, 1990 guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn, who was touring with Clapton, and two members of their road crew were killed in a helicopter crash between concerts. Then, on March 20 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son Conor died following an accidental fall from an apartment window. A fraction of Clapton's grief was heard on the song "Tears In Heaven" (on the soundtrack to the movie Rush), co-written with Will Jennings, which, like the MTV Unplugged album that followed it, won a Grammy award.
Like Unplugged, his 1994 album From The Cradle, featured a number of versions of old blues standards, and highlighted his economical acoustic guitar style. In 1997 he recorded Retail Therapy, an album of electronic music under the pseudonym TDF, and he finished the twentieth century with critically occlaimed collaborations with Carlos Santana and B. B. King.
Although he never got back his 60's stature of guitar god, he made his money churning out radio-friendly pop songs.
Discography
- 1970 After Midnight
- 1974 I Shot The Sheriff
- 1974 Willie And The Hand Jive
- 1976 Hello Old Friend
- 1978 Lay Down Sally
- 1978 Wonderful Tonight
- 1978 Promises
- 1979 Watch Out For Lucy
- 1980 Tulsa Time
- 1980 Cocaine
- 1981 I Can't Stand It
- 1983 I've Got A Rock N' Roll Heart
- 1985 Forever Man
- 1992 Tears In Heaven
- 1995 Love Can Build A Bridge
- 1996 Change The World