ERIC CLAPTON

“I don’t want to fade away

Give me one more day please…”

 

 

 

 

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“C+”

 

Main Decade: 70's

Main Eras:

Rock & Roll II, Early Sixties (1960-1966)

Psychedelia (1966-1969)

The Great Transition (1970-1980+)

Key Members:

Eric Clapton

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Key Songs:

 

Layla, Tears in Heaven, Wonderful Tonight, Bell Bottom Blues, Let it Rain, Cocaine, After Midnight, All Your Love (w/Bluesbreakers), Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, In The Presence of the Lord (w/Blindfaith), Old Love, Double Crossin' Time (w/Bluesbreakers), Tell The Truth, I Shot The Sheriff, Rambling On My Mind, Let it Grow, Sign Language, Rollin' And Tumblin', Five Long Years, Groaning The Blue, Riding With The King, Travelin' Light, Blues Before Sunrise

 

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“Clapton is God,” read a piece of graffiti in London in 1966… When a list of the greatest guitarists of all time is compiled, there’s usually quite a bit of controversy about whether Page is better than Blackmore, or Townshend is better than Gilmour, or Harrison is better than Richards. Making these kinds of lists usually ends in bloodshed, but almost all agree on two things: First, that Jimi Hendrix is ​​an exceptional being from another planet who uses the guitar as if it were a third arm, and he invariably occupies the top spot. And second, that Eric Clapton is a god who trails him by a hair.

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The thing about Clapton is curious. He undoubtedly occupies a place in the pantheon of rock, but nowadays people rarely bother to listen to his solo work. I once thought that if Slowhand had died of a heroin overdose (as he almost did more than once during his dark period between 1970 and 1973), his legend would be even greater. The thing is, metaphorically speaking, Eric Clapton DID die during that time. And no, this isn't some McCartney-style conspiracy theory; rather, upon emerging from his heroin addiction, he voluntarily relinquished the Guitar Hero role he had forged with Cream. What he revolutionized in music and on the guitar, he mostly did until 1973, and afterward, he rejected that role, returning to the foundations of the Blues, without his wah pedal, without so much distortion, without those bombastic solos. He grew tired of being a god and became a kind of Blues purist, a genre he so deeply loved. And yes, he was accused of writing soft rock songs, tunes for housewives, but within that catalog from the mid-70s and later, he has some tremendous gems. He became more astute, and in some ways, much more emotive, although it's true he has some bad albums, especially those from the 80s, produced by Phil Collins. During his time with Cream, he had a brutal energy, but in his purist period, he could convey a much wider range of emotions, from the tremendous love and tenderness in "Old Love" to the most profound sadness in "Tears in Heaven," which just last week was voted the most moving song of all time by Classic Rock Magazine. He learned that in music, speed isn't as important as the quality of the notes. A quote from Jack Bruce that I really like is, "It's not how many notes you play that count, it's the silences between them," and in this respect, Eric seemed to have learned a great deal, becoming a master of timing.

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Another issue with Clapton is the multitude of myths surrounding him, from his supposed inability to maintain a band for long, the infamous love triangle with George Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd, his three-year self-imposed exile during which he succumbed to heroin, his well-known alcoholism, and the death of his son Connor. Many still believe that Connor was in Clapton's care when the accident occurred and that it was Eric's fault because he was under the influence of drugs, which is completely false. He is also the only person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: with the Yardbirds, with Cream, and as a solo artist.

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Eric Patrick Clapton was born in the village of Ripley, Surrey, England, on March 30, 1945. Born into a middle-class family, his mother Rose and father Jack did their best to ensure that he, his older brother Adrian, and his sister Patty, who were slightly older than him, lacked nothing. His house seemed to be full of secrets, and as he grew up, he realized that many of them were connected to him. On the second page of her autobiography, she bluntly states: “The truth I finally discovered was that my parents, Rose and Jack Clapp, were actually my grandparents, that Adrian was my uncle, that Patricia, a daughter of Rose's from a previous marriage, was my real mother, and that she had given me the surname Clapton.” The story sounds like something out of a novel: Her grandmother Rose married Reginald Cecil Clapton in 1927, and from this marriage she had Adrian and Patricia Clapton. However, Reginald died of tuberculosis in 1932, when Patricia was three years old. Ten years passed before Rose recovered and began dating Jack Clapp, whom she married in 1942. Around this time, like all the towns in England, Ripley was filled with American soldiers, and Patricia, about fifteen years old, had an affair with a Canadian soldier named Edward Fryer, who, to make matters worse, was married. The man, obviously, washed his hands of the matter, so Rose and Jack led him to believe he was his son and that his mother was his sister, and the similarity of their surnames did the rest. So we can imagine the impact this had on an 8-year-old boy, similar to Lennon's experience when he was forced to choose between his mother and father. He would become a withdrawn, and by his own admission, bad child. He had problems with any kind of authority figure and was rather lazy in school. His real mother, Patricia, no longer lived with them; she had remarried another Canadian and crossed the Atlantic to live with him. Another event that marked him was finding a pornographic magazine, which deeply affected him. He didn't really understand what he was seeing, but in class he asked a classmate about one of the phrases he read, "Do you want to have sex?", without even knowing what it meant. The girl didn't understand either, but she mentioned it to another classmate at recess, and a huge commotion ensued, ending with Eric's grandparents (who were also his parents) in the principal's office and an apology from him to the girl. That incident would make him associate sex with punishment, and it would mark him for a long time. Otherwise, he was a relatively normal boy who liked fishing with his friends, riding his bike, and getting into trouble. His musical heritage came from Rose's side of the family. His father, whom Eric called "Grandpa Mitchell," played the violin and was an important figure in the town. His grandfather's (actually, his great-grandfather's) violin was the first instrument Eric ever played, and his parents soon gave him one so he could learn to play it. At home, the radio was always on, and he listened to opera, classical music, rock and roll, jazz, and pop, but it was Chuck Berry who gave him goosebumps the first time he heard him.

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In 1954, his mother, Patricia, came to visit and stayed with them for a while. The day she arrived, when they were all gathered for dinner, he suddenly blurted out, “Can I call you Mom now?” The tension was unbearable for a moment, until she replied that, after everything Rose and Jack had done for him, he should continue calling his grandparents Mom and Dad. “At that moment, I felt absolute rejection,” Eric says. This made him an even more sullen and withdrawn child, and he began to have cruel reactions toward his family and classmates. In 1956, he started high school and discovered Elvis. He would go to a friend's house to listen to rock and roll records, and soon he bought his own record player and began collecting vinyl. At a Jerry Lee Lewis concert, he saw that the bassist was playing a Fender Precision Bass and fell in love with the instrument, vowing that one day he would own one like it. At 13, he changed schools, moving to one on the outskirts of London, so he could afford to wander around the city. There he found more record shops, and when skiffle became popular, instrument shops. It was 1959, and Buddy Holly, his hero, died. “Many say that was the day Rock & Roll died, but for me, that day was the day it was born, because I decided to dedicate myself to it.” So he pestered Jack and Rose until they bought him a £2 Hoyer guitar. It was an acoustic, but with steel strings, so it was difficult for him to master it, and he taught himself. Since it wasn't very good quality, and the strings were quite far from the neck, he persevered until he mastered it. Shortly after, he bought another guitar, of better quality, and realized that it was much easier for him to play and that he had developed considerable finger strength from trying to coax notes out of the other one.

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At 16, he entered Kingston School of Arts and already had a knack for the guitar, although he himself admits he lacked technique, but he was very good at copying other musicians' styles. So, he started frequenting pubs where folk musicians played, who in turn introduced him to the masters of the blues. Big Bill Broonzy became his role model, and he was blown away the first time he managed to string three strings together. By then, he had mastered clawhammer technique, and after several failed romances, he fell for a girl and thought the best way to win her over was by getting drunk. Needless to say, as a means of courtship, it was a failure, but it was his first foray into alcohol. With it, he felt more confident trying to win over girls, but also when playing. Soon he began to be invited to play in pubs, and he went from being a mere spectator to playing songs by Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Jimmy Reed, and later by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He began to discover the bluesmen's tricks for making his guitar sound like theirs. It got to the point where he started neglecting school for the guitar, and he ended up being expelled at the end of his first year. He returned to his grandparents' house and got a job as a bricklayer. When he wasn't working, he played guitar. His next obsession was with the electric blues of B.B. King and Muddy Waters and the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, but he became obsessed when he went to London to see Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated, the first British R&B band, perform. It coincided with the time his younger brother accidentally broke the neck of his Washburn guitar, so he became determined to buy a semi-acoustic guitar he'd seen in a shop, just like Alexis Korner's. He finally saved up and got his grandparents to lend him the 10 pounds it cost. It was a Kay, a copy of the Gibson ES-335, and therefore as difficult to play as the first Hoyer he owned. With this guitar, Eric discovered a certain obsession: as soon as he got it, he stopped wanting it. This would become a recurring theme for the rest of his life.

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Around that time, he discovered the master of masters, Robert Johnson, and racked his brains trying to figure out his intricate guitar riffs. His style was unattainable, but young Eric could spend 10 hours straight trying to play the songs the same way. “I knew I would never reach the levels of the originals, but I thought if I kept trying, something would come of it.” When he got tired of trying to sound like Johnson, he moved on to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Freddy King. Little by little, he began to understand their techniques, decipher them, and realize that sometimes they played with their thumb, lowered the pitch of a string, or hammered on the strings. Later, Clapton would incorporate all those sounds into his own style. The 17-year-old, without even having connected his guitar to an amplifier, had become the best guitarist in all of England.

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In January 1963, he joined his first blues band, The Roosters. Eric was replacing a guy named Brian Jones, who would go on to found the Rolling Stones the following month. There, he discovered that his guitar technique improved a thousandfold as soon as he plugged it into an amplifier, since the sounds were clearer, easier, and more fluid. He blew everyone away at his audition. Unfortunately for him, Beatlemania exploded in England, and the Mersey sound became the craze, leaving blues bands temporarily forgotten, so the Roosters rehearsed more than they actually played. The band lasted barely six months, and their last gig was at the Marquee on July 25th. However, it gave him the opportunity to meet John Mayall, saxophonist Graham Bond, who at the time was playing with a young bassist named Jack Bruce and a very tall drummer named Ginger Baker. Around this time, he also met a boy his own age named Jeff Beck. Later, he played with Casey Jones and the Engineers, with whom he had something akin to his first tour. This band played rock and roll, but mostly pop songs, which Eric didn't like, and he eventually left. By then, Alexis Korner had opened his own club, the Ealing, while Giorgio Gomelski had opened the Crawdaddy, where he first heard the Rolling Stones. He quickly became friends with Brian, Mick, and Keith. Clapton was there the night the Beatles came to see the Stones. Shortly afterward, the Rolling Stones left Gomelski's management and signed Andrew Loog Oldham, who worked with Brian Epstein, as their manager. Gomelski never recovered from this disappointment and immediately sought to sign his other star band, the Yardbirds, who played electrified R&B, covering songs by all of Eric's idols. The problem was that the lead guitarist, Anthony “Top” Topham, was only 16, and his parents wouldn't let him continue playing. One night, Eric went to a party where Keith Relf was playing with another guitarist, and they ended up becoming friends. When Top left the band, Clapton's entry into the Yardbirds was a natural fit.

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With the Yardbirds, he recorded only a handful of tracks, but enough to establish him as a star. Gomelski was determined to make them more famous than the Rolling Stones and soon secured them a contract with Columbia. Eric was finally earning money as a musician and quit his job as a bricklayer. His first studio recordings of singles left him disappointed, as they lacked the intensity of a live performance. This wasn't just with the Yardbirds, but with almost every band, and so Eric insisted that their first LP be a live album, making them, in a way, pioneers in this regard and ultimately more satisfied with the sound they wanted. While other bands played three-minute songs, the Yardbirds often stretched them out, doubling the length. Eric played with very thin strings to bend the notes, so he usually broke at least one string per concert. During this pause, the audience would begin to applaud slowly, gradually increasing the speed. This is where Gomelski got the idea to nickname him "Slowhand." In 1964, they played over 200 concerts and rode the wave of the British Invasion, opening for the Beatles on the European leg of their tour towards the end of the year. It was then that Eric realized that while his fans came to listen to them, the Beatles came to watch them, and weren't allowed to hear anything they played. His friendship with the Beatles began on this tour, especially with George and Ringo, as he found Paul and John a bit "stuck-up." He was finally earning enough to fulfill his dream of owning an original cherry-colored Gibson ES-335, which he could use for both rock and blues. Despite the Yardbirds' success and the fact that, relatively speaking, they were more famous than the Rolling Stones at the time, Giorgio was captivated by the Beatles and wanted something similar for his band. He became obsessed with appearing on TV and getting a number one hit. Clapton suggested Otis Redding's "Your One and Only Man," but Paul Samwell-Smith came up with Graham Gouldman's (future 10cc) "For Your Love," and everyone loved it, except Eric, who considered it too pop. This would be the main reason for Clapton's disillusionment with the Yardbirds, as he felt they were selling out. He reluctantly played on the single, and later Gomelski saw him in his office and told him that if he wanted to leave, no one would stand in his way. They didn't fire him, but they made it clear that the door was open. Disenchanted and bored with the Yardbirds, he packed his guitars and left, but not before recommending his friend Jeff Beck as his replacement.

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He briefly returned to live with Rose and Jack, but it didn't last long. Through connections, John Mayall called him not long after. Mayall was just starting out with the Bluesbreakers, who had released a blues album, and it was precisely the direction Clapton had envisioned for the Yardbirds. The other musicians were exceptional, the band wasn't seeking the limelight, and Eric loved it all. In the summer of '65, he joined a band of friends called The Glands, which had a European tour that proved invaluable. Upon returning to England in October 1965, he learned that his place in the Bluesbreakers had been taken by Peter Green, who would soon found Fleetwood Mac. However, John Mayall welcomed him back into the band. Clapton celebrated his 21st birthday in 1966 with a grand party. He smoked an entire pack of cigarettes that night (which would lead to him becoming a chain smoker), and he would say that when the party was over, he felt like a mature and experienced man, ready for whatever came next.

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With the Bluesbreakers, he released John Mayall & Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. The fact that his name appeared in capital letters was a testament to the stature he had achieved in England. The album was a smash hit, and it was around this time that the graffiti appeared on a wall of the Islington Underground: "Clapton is God," which he would accept, and it shook him to his core despite his efforts. However, like everything else in his life, he soon grew tired of the Bluesbreakers.

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Shortly after, Ginger Baker approached him to form a new band, and Clapton stipulated that Jack Bruce be the bassist. Bruce and Baker had had problems in a previous band, but they eventually gave in. With Cream, he released Fresh Cream, one of the best albums of '66, and with the who took the world by storm with their virtuosity and sizzling blues. In 1967, they released Disraeli Gears, a fantastic album. Unfortunately for them, Hendrix had just released Are You Experienced, and people didn't want to hear anything else, which greatly disappointed them: "We thought we had made the definitive album, and when we got home, we realized that nobody was interested." However, the album would eventually become one of the iconic records of their career, of the 60s, and of Blues-Rock in general. In 1968, they released the double album Wheels of Fire, with unreleased material on one disc and live versions on the other. Cream had become famous primarily for their colossal concerts, in which they extended songs with tremendous jams, and the album attempted to reflect that power. Unfortunately, the band collapsed on that tour: "The frenetic tour of the United States was the beginning of the end for Cream, since once we We started working with such intensity that it became impossible to keep the music afloat, and we began to sink. Everyone thinks that the end of Cream came from our clashing personalities. It was true that Jack and Ginger had always been like cats and dogs, but that only covered a small part of the whole picture.” When he heard The Band’s first album, his disillusionment with Cream grew.

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Around that time, George Harrison called him to invite him to one of the sessions for the Beatles' album. They had become good friends and often jammed at each other's houses. Eric thought he was just going as a spectator, but Harrison asked him to play on one of his tracks, which took him by surprise, since he hadn't even brought his guitar. He ended up playing an extraordinary guitar solo in a single take on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," credited as "L'angelo Misteriosso" to avoid problems with the various record labels.

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Cream played their final concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 1968. They recorded albums to fulfill their contract, but everyone was so eager to finish up that the two discs of Goodbye Cream fall far short of capturing the trio's true power. At the end of the second concert, there were no speeches, no farewells, no hugs; they simply went their separate ways. Around this time, Eric was not only using hashish, but also LSD, Mandrax, and cocaine, in addition to heavy alcohol consumption.

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Shortly afterward, he participated in the Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus as the guitarist for the makeshift band Dirty Mac. In early 1969, he bought Hurtwood Manor, a Victorian house on the outskirts of London that captivated him and was relatively close to Frair Park, Harrison's home. For the first time in his life, he had his own place, having previously drifted from friend's house to roommate or shared rentals. This meant so much to him that he wrote his first song entirely on his own (he had always had help before), the beautiful track "Presence of the Lord." Being practically George's neighbor, they saw each other almost daily (George would compose "Here Comes the Sun" in the Hurtwood garden), and he realized something terrible: he was falling foolishly in love with his wife, Pattie Boyd. This led to his breakup with his girlfriend Charlotte, with whom he'd been for almost 10 years.

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At that time, without a steady project, he began drinking more in the solitude of Hurtwood and invited Steve Winwood of Traffic to jam in his brand-new home studio. Ginger Baker arrived unexpectedly one day: “I know what you guys are doing!” he roared, and brought down his drum kit. Eric didn't want a new supergroup at all, but suddenly he found himself back in the thick of it, with Ric Grech of Family on bass completing the quartet. The band would only last about six months and release a single album. “The responsibility was entirely mine, and it was due to only one thing: as my disenchantment with what we were doing grew, I became more and more fascinated by our opening act, Delaney & Bonnie. They were a southern rock band with blues and jazz influences, where everyone improvised and seemed to be having a blast. Eric would ditch Blind Faith to join Delaney & Bonnie on tour for a while, where the idea for his first solo album began to take shape.

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In 1970, he released his first solo album, titled Eric Clapton, in which he finally heeded the fans' demands to become a frontman and sing the songs himself. On the album, he used the musicians from The Bramletts and a number of other artists (including Leon Russell and Stephen Stills). The album included two songs written by The Bramletts (“Bottle of Red Wine” and “Let It Rain”), as well as a cover of J.J. Cale's “After Midnight.” That year, Clapton also kept busy with numerous collaborations: he participated in George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass and worked with other artists such as Dr. John, Leon Russell, the Plastic Ono Band, Billy Preston, and Ringo Starr.

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After the album's release, he mustered the courage to confess his feelings to Pattie. He called her and told her that he wasn't in love with Paula (Pattie's sister, whom he had been dating) but with her. Pattie didn't have the hysterical reaction he'd expected. Instead, she invited him to talk in person, and although she told him it was impossible because of George, they kissed. That was more than enough to drive Clapton crazy, but he never gave up hope. In fact, he drove back so euphoric that he flipped his Ferrari Dino. Clapton had started buying luxury cars even before he learned to drive, in 1969, and he would have several accidents from which he narrowly escaped. Shortly afterward, he ran into her by chance, and they "collided in a way that was irreversible." Days later, he bumped into George at a party and confessed, "I'm in love with your wife." Thus began a semi-clandestine relationship, in which she refused to leave George even though the problems in his marriage were obvious.

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Later, wanting to repeat the pleasant experience he had touring with Delaney & Bonnie, he recruited several of the band's musicians: Bobby Whitlock (keyboards and vocals), Carl Radle (bass), and Jim Gordon (drums). The group was to be called Del (one of Eric's nicknames) and the Dominos, but at their first concert, the drunken announcer mispronounced it and introduced them as Derek and the Dominos, and the name stuck. Clapton didn't want his name associated with the band. They toured the UK, playing small venues where no one knew them, and then toured the USA in the same way. It was a very creative period for Clapton, during which he revealed himself as a songwriter. The songs "Layla," a Hindu tale that subtly alludes to his relationship with Pattie, and "Bell Bottom Blues," referring to a pair of low-rise jeans she wore that he found irresistible, emerged from this period. In Florida, at Criteria Studios, Derek and the Dominos began recording their first album, but Clapton felt something wasn't quite right. The album's producer, Tom Dowd, invited them to an Allman Brothers concert that night, and Eric was blown away by their performance. He became best friends with Duane almost immediately, and Duane agreed to collaborate on the album. "He was like the musical brother I never had. Unfortunately for me, he already had a family, but it was good while it lasted." The Dominos returned to Europe and continued performing, but when the album was released, despite good reviews, it sold poorly because Eric's name wasn't on it, and he had distanced himself from the press and promotion. Robert Stigwood eventually convinced him to launch a press campaign that read "Eric is Derek," but Eric lost interest in the Dominos during the band's second US tour. On that tour, Eric tried heroin for the first time. The band was so deeply mired in addiction and alcohol that even Ahmet Ertegun, president of Atlantic Records, went to speak with him to try and help him. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs would be the pinnacle of their career, even though it didn't begin selling well until 1972.

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On September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died, and Eric was deeply depressed, as they were good friends and often got together in New York to play impromptu gigs in small clubs. Six weeks later, while on tour with the Dominos in the USA, Stigwood called to tell him that his grandfather, Jack, had cancer. Eric felt somewhat guilty about it. And finally, Pattie completed the downward spiral. Clapton had thought that by presenting her with the collection of songs he had written for her on Layla, she would finally fall at his feet, but obviously, that wasn't the case. He blackmailed her, saying that if she didn't move in with him, he would become addicted to heroin, even though he had already been using it daily for weeks. She simply smiled and left. Years would pass before he saw her again.

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What followed was a self-destructive spiral that lasted three years. He slowly stopped seeing his friends and realized he “might be in trouble” when he promised to visit his mother but was too high to drive. He stopped touring and secluded himself in Hurtwood. The heroin he used was especially potent, as he was afraid of needles and it was the snorted kind. He completely abandoned his career, with only brief appearances like his performance at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, where he collapsed on stage, was revived, and continued playing. When worried friends went to Hurtwood to try to help him, he would lock himself upstairs and pretend he wasn't there. He spent those three years with his girlfriend Alice, whom he essentially used only to get him drugs. In January 1973, Pete Townshend and Alice's father hatched a plan to help him: a concert at the Rainbow Theatre to help him return to the music scene. The Rainbow Concert also featured collaborations with Ron Wood, Steve Winwood, and several friends. Although it would later be critically acclaimed, Eric said he was in terrible shape. The concert was recorded, and after Stigwood told him that the costs of his addiction were ruining him and that if he didn't have some income, he would soon have to start selling things, it was edited and released as Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert. Thanks to Townshend's help and pressure from his father-in-law, who saw no other option than to threaten to report him to the police if he didn't stop what was happening (to him and his daughter), Eric began electroacupuncture therapy and quit heroin at the end of 1973.

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The heroin detox was somewhat traumatic, as it also triggered a lot of feelings he had kept bottled up since childhood. He managed to get clean, but he was left alone and unsupervised. He was sent to work on a farm to get back in shape, so he replaced heroin with alcohol. In any case, the change was for the better, and everyone was happy about his recovery. Stigwood asked him one day, “What do you want to do? Because I have some ideas.” “Well, maybe record an album.” “Perfect, because I’ve already rented a studio in Miami.” So, he put together a new band and they went to the house they rented in Miami, at 461 Ocean Boulevard. In that house, the transformation of God A Slowhand took shape. Eric decided he was fed up with powerful, distorted rock and steered the album in the direction of a more subtle and classic blues, mostly covers. One of them in particular was surprising, being a track from Bob Marley’s album Burnin’, “I Shot the Sheriff.” At first, Clapton didn’t even want to include it, saying that “whatever they had done, it wasn’t reggae.” However, the song would become the album's spearhead, reviving Clapton's career and delivering the final blow to Marley's. After the recording, he saw Pattie again and once more asked her to move in with him. This time she didn't say yes, but she didn't say no either. His alcohol consumption increased to the point where he gave an entire concert lying on the floor, with the microphone beside him. "Nobody batted an eye, probably because the audience was as drunk as I was. By that time in the '70s, the least you expected from a musician was to go on stage completely wasted." During that Ocean Boulevard tour, he learned that Pattie had separated from George and was living in L.A. with her sister. He called her, and she agreed to come to the concert.

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They soon became a couple. Clapton called her "Nell" because he felt that calling her Pattie would still be referring to the wife of one of his best friends. She accompanied them on part of the 1974 tour and later moved to Hurtwood to be with Eric. Clapton says it was never the idyllic relationship everyone imagines. Eric became increasingly addicted to alcohol, to the point where he would "drink" three whiskeys before eating a thing. But they both enjoyed spending time with friends and partying, and together they were a lot of fun. They didn't get married until 1979. In the meantime, Eric released There's One In Every Crowd, which confirmed his more minimalist and purist style, but it didn't reach the Top Ten. From the tour, he released the live album E.C. Was Here. In 1976, he released No Reason To Cry, featuring the highly anticipated collaboration with Bob Dylan and The Band. The following year he released Slowhand, which received good reviews and sales, and included the song "Wonderful Tonight," also dedicated to Pattie. However, its origin is less romantic than it seems, having been written one night at a party when she apparently tried on her entire wardrobe. Eric, desperate, picked up his guitar and gave her time to compose a whole song while she decided on her outfit. It's a beautiful song, but deep down it revealed the rift that existed between them from the beginning. "In a way, Pattie ended up becoming like a mother to me. I was drowning my sorrows in alcohol, and she was just making sure I didn't do anything too stupid." Well, if you ask me, it all started with their names...

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Backless in '78 would mean another drop in sales. For his wedding to Pattie in 1979, the crème de la crème of rock gathered: Jeff Beck, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Jack Bruce, Denny Laine. Three of the four Beatles were also there, and no, the only one missing wasn't George, who didn't miss his ex's wedding, but John. Lennon called him afterward to say he would have gone if he'd been invited. Clapton never found out what happened to the invitation, but he missed his last chance to see the Fab Four together.

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In the 80s, he continued releasing albums. But his drinking problem worsened, until in 1982 one of his childhood friends died of cirrhosis. He decided to quit drinking, but when he quit abruptly, he suffered a kind of epileptic seizure and ended up in the hospital. Shortly after, he asked Roger Forrester, his manager, for help and finally checked himself into the Hazelden Clinic in Minneapolis. Reluctantly, but he learned the 12 steps, met more people, and for the first time in his life, was confined without a guitar. Stripped of all ego, he had to clean and do chores like everyone else. He emerged clean, and in 1983 he recorded the album Money and Cigarettes, which, according to him, was all he had left after detox. His problems with Pattie intensified because, while not having a serious drinking problem, she refused to give up occasional drinks. Furthermore, his sobriety had shattered the "mother, or caregiver" role they had shared, and they couldn't rebalance their relationship. Moreover, all his old friendships revolved around alcohol, making it a very difficult time for him, and he found solace in an unexpected hobby: fishing.

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A series of rather poor albums, produced by Phil Collins, followed. One of the recordings was even returned to him by his record label, who told him they wouldn't release it "because it didn't have the necessary strength." Then came the relapse. In an attempt to save his marriage, he believed that if he could have a drink or two socially, everything would be alright again. At the time, she was having an affair with an Italian photographer, and they separated. During this period, he had several affairs, and one with Yvonne Kelly resulted in the birth of his first daughter, Ruth, in January 1985, whom he saw very little in her early years. In October 1985, Clapton was on tour in Italy and became obsessed with a girl named Lori del Santo. Shortly after he returned to the US to continue the tour, Lori called him to tell him he was going to be a father. Around this time, Eric was desperately trying to reconcile with Pattie, who was infertile and desperately wanted a child, so he knew he had lost all hope. Conor was born on August 21, 1986. Clapton covered the expenses and traveled frequently to Italy to see them, but Lori refused even the possibility of living with him. Clapton had managed to control his drinking until then, but things had gotten the better of him again. Finally, he checked himself back into Hazelden in November 1987. This time it would be for good, and he remained a regular in AA meetings for 30 years. In March 1988, he finally divorced Pattie, breaking with his self-destructive and obsessive past.

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In 1990, Lori moved to New York with her new boyfriend, giving Eric the opportunity to develop a stronger relationship with his son. On March 19, he picked up Conor at an apartment on the 53rd floor. He was nervous because it was the first time he had picked him up alone. He took him to the circus on Long Island. Conor had a great time, they talked a lot, and Clapton felt for the first time what it was like to be a father. The next day, his phone rang. He was going to pick up Lori and Connor to take them to Central Park when she called him hysterically, screaming that Conor was dead, that he had fallen out of a window. Somehow, he managed to get to Lori's building. “The main room had floor-to-ceiling windows on one side, which could be cantilevered out for cleaning. The windows didn't have bars, since the building was a condominium and wasn't subject to normal regulations. That morning, the doorman cleaned the windows and left them open for a while. Conor was running around playing hide-and-seek with the nanny and went straight for the window. He fell 49 stories before landing on the roof of an adjacent 4-story building…” Eric didn't relapse. That afternoon he went to his AA meeting and recounted what had happened, weeping, saying that at that moment the compulsion and temptation had vanished. A woman approached him and told him that he had taken away his last excuse to drink: “I’ve always had this idea in my head that if something happens to my children, I’d have a justification for getting drunk. You’ve shown me that’s not true.” He discovered he could turn a tragedy into something positive. That’s when the Crossroads Foundation began, creating an institution in Antigua where he would help everyone from billionaires to the island’s impoverished inhabitants to detoxify, and for which he has auctioned off some of his most prized guitars, including his legendary “Blackie.” Not only that, but it would be an incredible resurgence.

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To distract him, his friend George Harrison invited him on a tour of Asia that would mark, so to speak, their comeback, captured on the superb Live in Japan album. Yvonne contacted him and gave him a second chance at fatherhood by reuniting him with his daughter Ruth, then six years old, which Eric accepted as a blessing. He began working on the soundtrack for the film Rush, and during those sessions, "Tears in Heaven" emerged, though for the time being he decided to keep it as something very personal due to its reference to Conor. He eventually included it on the soundtrack, but first premiered it when MTV invited him to record one of their first Unplugged sessions. There he played "Tears in Heaven," and the emotional impact of the song exploded worldwide, making it a number one hit and giving Clapton two albums simultaneously in the top spots. Three if we include Live in Japan.

In 1994, he released three albums: Beginnings, featuring outtakes from his early 1960s years; Live Fillmore, a spectacular live album; and From the Cradle, a tremendous collection of the blues that had most influenced him. From the Cradle won a Grammy and set a record as the best-selling blues album of all time, with 3 million copies sold. Unfortunately, his success didn't last long, and he began experimenting with electronic music, which sounds as awful as it sounds. He released Change the World in 1996 and the dreadful Pilgrim in 1998. He closed out the 1990s somewhat redeeming himself by fulfilling his dream of playing with the King of the Blues, B.B. King, recording the collaborative album Riding With the King, which earned him another Grammy. While recording it, he met Melia McEnery, with whom he fell in love and began a serious relationship.

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In 2001, he released Reptile, to good reviews. I saw him on the album tour in March of that year. It was my first concert by an international artist. I was expecting a big spectacle, but he came out quietly after Toto opened for him, sat in a chair, and played without any fanfare, no light shows, no screens, none of the ostentation that surrounds rock stars. Naively, I expected to hear those legendary songs from the '60s, but he limited himself to playing blues classics, some good tracks from Reptile, and three or four of his solo hits. I remember being ecstatic nonetheless, having seen this guy live.

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In December, George Harrison died, and he couldn't say goodbye to him, which left him very saddened. In 2002, Melia became pregnant and they married. They had three daughters: Julie Rose (June 13, 2001), Ella May (January 14, 2003), and Sophie Belle (February 1, 2005). After this, Eric said he would stop touring to dedicate himself to being a father. He couldn't keep his word because his guitar called to him from time to time, but he certainly reduced his activity considerably. In November of that year, he organized the Concert for George with Dhani Harrison, a kind of musical funeral and farewell to his great lifelong friend. In 2004, he released a tribute album featuring 14 of the 29 songs Robert Johnson left behind. "It took me more than 50 years, but I was finally able to decipher Robert Johnson," he said, although the album features freer, electric blues versions. In 2005 he finally reunited with Cream to give concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London and at Madison Square Garden in New York, showcasing the magic of yesteryear and causing a sensation, although it must be mentioned that the great absence was Clapton's Wha, giving a very different sound from that of the 60s.

Since then, although he's slowed down to dedicate more time to his family and because time waits for no one, he's released eight albums, some live and others studio recordings. He's collaborated, toured, played special concerts, and continues to make appearances in one way or another.

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In June 2016, Clapton gave an interview to the British magazine Classic Rock in which he revealed an illness he'd been suffering from for some time: peripheral neuropathy, which causes him to feel "electric shocks running down his leg. It's difficult to work playing guitar while dealing with the fact that it won't get better." The cancellation of a series of concerts was due to his health problems, and although there were rumors that he would be part of the lineup for the second Desert Trip, this issue may have finally forced him into retirement.

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So why, Corvan, did you take so long to review it? Well, Clapton was already in the Cavern, in more ways than one. It was a present absence, so to speak, given his work with the Yardbirds, and of course, with Cream, not to mention the Beatles and his collaborations with George. I won't dedicate separate space to the other bands he played with—John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Blind Faith, and Derek & The Dominoes—but will include them here. Incidentally, part of Eric's radical shift in the mid-70s was also due to his weariness with dealing with so much ego in these "supergroups." Clapton is inherently introverted and carried too many inner demons to also be babysitting others. He got bored easily, and that included bandmates, so it was perfectly natural for him to dismiss groups that seemed destined for immortality. However, with bands full of established names or with talented musicians unknown outside the blues scene, Clapton shone. Playing furious blues rock that even Hendrix covered, or performing reggae, ballads, or just his guitar solos, he has left an indelible mark on rock. The list of musicians who have played with him is simply incredible, and for all of them, it has been an honor to play with him. We are fortunate to have lived in the same era as him and to have heard him live. Clapton is not God. He is a man who saw hell up close on more than one occasion, and he knew how to get out of it. But he certainly makes music fit for the gods…​

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By Corvan

Aug/8/2017

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