Clapton The Chameleon

Right now, I’m sitting here listening to Derek And The Dominos for probably the 10000th time still just amazed at the music that is coming out of my speakers. Today before Layla, I listened to Journeyman and then Disraeli Gears. Why the Clapton kick?

Next week Eric Clapton is coming to Columbus to play a special show with Stevie Winwood but that isn’t it. I just finished Eric’s autobiography which was an interesting book for me, not a great book to read per se, but interesting. Reading the book, It was obvious the book was therapy for Eric. To put out there for everyone to read the ghosts of his past. The good, the bad and at times the very ugly. It was sad for me at times to read it as such a huge fan of Clapton and his music, Reading it, I realized that there were so many wasted years right at the peak of his career from his demons. Wasted years that who knows what music could have been created.

So why the sadness for me? Because I feel Eric Clapton is one of a dying breed, the great guitarist that actually creates. To me there are good, some even great guitarist still out there, Van Halen, Gilmour, Santana, Satriani, Hammett and others but unlike Clapton theirs is a singular style. Clapton it seems, at least to me transcends one style, when he creates a style depending on his mood at the time and this style is usually copied immediately by others guitarists trying to find “their style”.

Why did I call this story “Clapton The Chameleon”? Have you ever listened to Clapton? If you have you wouldn’t have to ask that question. Eric Clapton has changed his music stylings so many times over his career that it can make your head spin. He has tried so many incarnations of bands over his career, many just on a whim to try something new either out of boredom or out of ego. Now when I use the word “ego” I am not using this in a derogatory meaning. When you are an artist of Clapton’s stature you have to have some ego just to push yourself beyond your own limitations. To see what is beyond the wall.

Eric has been in some of the greatest bands we have ever heard, most of them created and flourishing for far too short a time. He has been inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame three times, the only artist to do so. First with the Yardbirds, then Cream and then his solo works but what might have happened if he stuck with Derek And The Dominos for a few more years or Blind Faith or The Bluesbreakers or even Delany And Bonnie (with Eric, Stephen Stills and Leon Russell in the background of this band, c’mon!). What could have been?

He went from band to band to band to band to band in a need to fulfill, to create something new or at times especially in the 60’s and early 70’s to seemingly evade the stardom that came with creating this music. I remember reading and seeing the pictures in magazines “Clapton Is God” scrawled on walls in London in the 60’s. I have read several times and I love the story of how when Eric first heard The Band’s “Music From Big Pink” album he just had to leave Cream and actually went to Woodstock where they were living to see about playing in the group, not as a lead but as a backing musician just because they were creating the music that he wanted to create. He wanted to just be a part of it. Now whether this story is 100% accurate is debatable but there are elements of the truth in his autobiography about it and it shows how his direction would change on a moment’s notice. Too try and go from the hard, loud, balls out rock of Cream to the Americanized country rock, story telling of The Bands sound shows the restlessness of the artist. I have always been amazed at how easy it seemed for him to go from one style to another. From the Yardbirds to The Bluesbreakers to Cream to Blind Faith to Delany And Bonnie to Derek And The Dominos to even the Plastic Ono Band. All different styles, all great music.

Eric as an artist for me has always been at or near the top of the list. I still marvel at how effortlessly he is able to take a guitar and make the notes so fluid, like water slowly being poured from a pitcher. For me, he is one of the last truly great guitarists of that time. There is nothing that sounds so sweet as notes that just seem to float and flow one to another and that’s not easy to do. If you don’t believe me I beseech you to put on your favorite bands album or CD, close your eyes and concentrate and just listen to the guitar being played then go put on a Clapton album, any of them, and make the comparison. There are very few that can really do this, Stevie Ray definitely could, Gilmour can if ever plays again, but Clapton has done this since the very beginning. It’s like God reached down and touched this man on the shoulder and said “be special”.

I went to see Clapton at Blossom last year and (immediately remembered why I hated going to Blossom) Clapton was at the top of his game at 63 years old, again let me repeat that again. He was on top of his game at 63 years old! Anyone who thinks they can play guitar (like I do) should have been at that show. One of highlights for me was that the cameramen focused on the hands of Eric most of the time on the big screens in the pavilion while he was playing. Playing that night with Eric was Doyle Bramhall II who Eric has kind of tapped to be “the next one” but for me it was a lesson in contrasts watching the two of them play. Doyle was producing all the right notes but it seemed that it was painful as he tried to keep up with Eric. Eric on the other hand stood there calmly and again at 63 years old, his hands moved fluidly up and down the frets and as I said earlier the notes “flowed like water”.

When I saw the set list for the 2008 tour I was surprised and thrilled. Eric was going back to his roots and playing what he has always loved, the blues. The set list included Key To The Highway, Outside Woman Blues, Motherless Children, Little Queen Of Spades and I guess to try and appease some of his fans songs like Wonderful Tonight and Cocaine were also included but kind of felt out of place with the rest of the list. To me I would rather of had him play “Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad” or “Riding With The King” but who am I to tell him what to play, unlike the drunk who was sitting a couple of rows in front of me and kept yelling out Cocaine after each song. When an artist gets to a point in his career when he is finally comfortable in his or her skin, shouldn’t they play what they like or want to hear? I don’t think Eric or any real artist sits down, writes the song, goes into the studio and records it with the idea, “What will Bear in Cleveland think”. They write, they record and they perform songs that mean something to them at that time and because it did mean something so strong to them that is why we connect without even knowing it.

I regret that I am not going to see Clapton and Winwood next week in Columbus, just waited too long to get tickets. These opportunities won’t keep coming along. It’s going to be a special time to hear a man embracing finally another part of his career and finding the happiness in his music we always have. Maybe the restlessness of his youth has finally passed and he can enjoy the music like we do.

Congratulations Eric, stay clean, stay sober, stay happy

Nuff said, least till next week
Peace Out
Bear