Eric Clapton and his music

2Gene:
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Eric Clapton, guitar god, knows the talismanic power of instruments. "If you can pick up the guitar and tell that someone great has played it - you can actually tell it - then you want to take it and endow yourself with what the guitar's got", he told Dan fort in 1968. Since most mere mortals can't actually hold Clapton's instruments, they have tried to feel a bit the thunder by learning every link in his signal chain. For more than 20 years, Guitar Player has documented Slowhand's gear, Disreali and otherwise.

By Bob Kenney, Fred Stuckey & Dan Forte.
Photo : Steve Granitz.

In 1968, an interviewer named Bob Kenney in the San Francisco Bay area talked with a nearly 23-year-old Clapton. Fresh Cream and Disraeli Gears were the albums to own.

What was your first guitar, and what do you have now?

The first one I had was a Kay electric guitar [a Jazz 11]. My grandparents bought it for me because I told them I wanted to play guitar. Then I changed to a Telecaster. 1 did pretty well with the Telecaster.

What kind of amp did you use?

Vox-but it was a good Vox. It was an old Vox. Then I had a Gibson ES-335. Then I had a Fender jazzmaster. Then I had a Fender Jaguar Then I got another Telecasten Then I got, I think, my first Les Paul. That was when I was with John Mayall. And then I just started collecting rapidly, and I've got one or two Les Pauls now.

Pictures in Eye magazine show you playing a double cutaway Gibson. Do you still use that?

Yeah, I use that one all the time now. It's a very reliable guitar.

How do you get feed back?

Well, I don't use it much these days, but when I do use it, when I have used it, it's been very accidental most of the time. I could never get it so I could technically control feedback

Do you use a fuzz box?

Nope. See, what the whole thing about the sound is, it's just the old blues sound, but heavily amplified-a lot louder. Because the sound I've always wanted, and have always liked, is the sound that all those people used. On the early records of Muddy Waters you get it. It's just that sound only so much louder.

A lot of people have misconceptions as to how you do it.

Yeah, I think they do. They're getting too hung up about it mechanically. They're trying to kind of invent technical ways of doing it to hide the fact that they can't do it with their fingers.

How many Marshall amps do you normally use?

On stage I use two separate 100-watt amps going through four 4x12 cabinets. See, each cabinet has four 12" speakers. There's two of those for each amp, so there's four cabinets in all.

In 1970, with Cream and Blind Faith behind him, Clapton was about to enter the studio with Derek and the Dominos to record Layla (& Other Assorted Love Songs), which contains some of his greatest work. Fred Stuckey talked with Clapton about his gear and his work as a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie.

With Delaney & Bonnie, you aren't using the Les Paul you used with Cream.

I still play a Les Paul. But with Delaney & Bonnie I use an old Stratocaster I've acquired which is really, really good-a great sound. It's just right for the kind of bag I was playing with them.

Have you done anything to the Stratocaster like modify the pickups or have the frets shaved?

No. I just set the switch between the first and middle pickups. There is a little place where you can catch it so that you get a special sound somehow. I get a much more rhythm-and-blues or rock kind of sound that way.
With Cream you used big Marshall amps. Lately you've been using smaller fender amps.

With Delaney & Bonnie I used a Dual Showman, a big Fender amp. But I hardly ever jack it right up, you know. It was always sort of half volume. I'm not getting the sustain or hold-over sound I used to get. It's still there a bit, but that's the Stratocaster.

When you played through those big Marshall amps with Cream, would you turn them up to get that distorted sound?

Yeah. I'd turn the amp and the guitar up all the way. It seems I'm known as a guitar player for that sustain sound-you know, holding notes for a long time.

What kind of strings do you use on the Stratocaster?

Emie Ball Super Slinky.

How about the strings you used on the Les Paul on the live side of Wheels of Fire?

Fender Rock and Roll strings.

Normally with Cream did you use more than one Marshall?

I had the option. I always had two Marshalls set up to play through, but I think it was just so I could have one as a spare. I usually used only one 100-watt amp. I tried to use them in parallel several times, connected with a split lead, but it didn't work out too well. I would have one end of the cord going into the guitar and separating into the two amps. It was very hard to control and too loud, really.

What kind of wah-wah pedal did you use for "White Room" on Wheels of Fire?

Vox.

How do you usually set the volume and tone controls on your guitar and amp?

That depends on the guitar and amp. When I use a Stratocaster and Dual Showman, I have the pickup switch set between the first and middle pickups, which is a very bright sound, but not completely trebly. I take a little of the treble off and put on all of the bass and the middle. And I set the volume at about half.

Do you have a pick preference?

Yeah. Fender, the heavy ones. When I pick, I rest the butt or palm of my hand on the bridge of the guitar and use it as a hinge or lever. When I stretch strings hook my thumb around the neck of the guitar. A lot of guitarists stretch strings with just their hand free. The only way I can do it is if I have my whole hand around the neck, actually gripping onto it with my thumb; that somehow gives me more of a rocking action with my hand and wrist.

On Cream's Goodbye album, three of the tracks-"Doing that Scrapyard Thing,"What A Bringdown,"and "Badge"-have a distinctive sound. Did you do anything different for those cuts?

I discovered a Leslie speaker that had been adapted for the guitar. You've got the Leslie speaker and a little preamp that looks like a footpedal you plug the guitar into that. It's got two speeds on it. The sound is kind of like an organ.

In 1974, Clapton ended nearly half a decade of seclusion to record 461 Ocean Boulevard. Two years later Dan Forte talked with the guitarist in Los Angeles while he was finishing up No Reason To Cry.

Do you have a special guitar that's set up for slide?

Yes, a Gibson ES-335. But it hasn't got a high nut. I just raise it at the bridge. I don't play it down at the bottom much. I usually keep it up near the top frets. I use the same strings as I do normally on the other guitars: Emie Ball Super Slinky-.009,.011,.016,.024,.032,.042. [Ed. Note.. Eric's road manager Willy Spears, says that normally, Claptor's strings are changed only when they break, except for the high three, which Spears sometimes changes when he feels they're going dead. Spears says, "He won't even let me buff them."]

Do you play slide in standard tuning or open chords?

I use open G [D, G, D, G, B, D] most of the time, for acoustic and electric. I prefer G, because you get more of a country sound; it's more melodic.

Do you ever use open tunings when not playing slide?

Yes, on "Tell the Truth" [Layla and Derek And The Dominos In Concert]. But I wasn't playing slide; I was just making chords in open tuning. If you tried to transpose them onto a straight guitar, it would be very difficult. It's like a barre A on the 5th fret. I'm holding down the fifth and third strings in a sort of E7 shape, holding it on and taking it off. That comes directly from Keith Richards. Some of the Stones' things-like "Street Fighting Mad" [Beggar's Banquet], where he's got all these great guitar sounds-he just tunes it to an open chord and invents fingerings.

Do you always use a flatpick?

Yes, I use a heavy pick made by Ernie Ball. I think it's the exact same thickness and gauge as a Fender heavy. I've never kept the fingerpicking up long enough. I do play around like that for my own pleasure at home sometimes, but I wouldn't be able to cut it professionally. [ Ed. Note: EC obviously did a little practicing before Unplugged.]

What about your changes in amplifiers over the years?

Music Man is my favorite now [HD 130 Reverb], because they have dual volume controls. You can use them in the studio at low volume and still get a fair amount of distortion, just as if it were a really big amp. I also like their sound; they're just like Fenders-in fact, I think Leo [Fender] had a big part in designing them. [Ed. Note.. Tom Walker, who worked for the Fender company from 1948 until 1969, was Music Man's main designer, although many of the ideas were passed on from Leo Fender during their association in Fender's pre-CBS days.]

Were the amps you used previously more suited to your sound at that time?

[Music Mans] could have been used with Cream. You can get exactly the same sound as you would with a Marshall, but then you can take it down to the same sound as a Champ. It's really got a wide range. [Ed. Note.. Spears reports that Erick amps are beefed up, with the bias up all the way, by Walker at Music Man. This HD 130 Reverb has special open-back cabinets, as opposed to the folded-horn type, with JBL D120 speakers. Eric also uses a Leslie cabinet, with JBL components for which he has had a special footswitch devised by Keyboard Products and modified by Fred Meyers, soundman for Santana. This switch has fast/slow and on/off positions, so that the guitar can go either straight through the amp, through both the amp and the Leslie (fast or slow), or through just the Leslie at either fast or slow speeds-as on "Badge" (History of Eric Clapton and Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert). The only other effects pedal Clapton uses is a Cry Baby wah- wah.]

Why do you record at such low volumes?

There's less interference, less noise. I like to record a lot of tracks as live as possible, including voice. So if you've got a really loud amp, you're going to leak onto everyone else's track, and you won't be able to sing either. I also like to record tracks without cans [headphones]; I like to hear the sound the room is making itself, rather than the balance coming through the board and into the cans. I recorded "Motherless Children" [461 Ocean Boulevard] with just a Pignose mini-amp.

In 1985, Forte interviewed Clapton, who had recently turned 40, during a tour stop in Pensacola, Florida.

Is there any consistent setup that you try to have all your guitars conform to?

Yes, all of them need to be about 1/8" in the action, and I like it to be constant all the way down. I can't stand it if the nut is low, and the action gets higher as you go up the neck. I always take the wang bar off and have five springs, and just tighten the whole thing right up. I like frets to be generally somewhere between a Strat and a Les Paul. Les Paids' are too thick, and Fenders' are sometimes too thin. The Fender Elite is very nice because it's a blend. The neck on Blaclde, the Strat I play all the time, is probably my favorite shape. It's almost triangular on the back-V-shaped-with a slightly curved fingerboard, as opposed to the flat one. That, to me, is the best.

Is the Strat you use for slide set up differently than Blackie?

Yes, it has a very high action with a higher nut and thicker strings. I always use Ernie Ball strings.

What year is Blackie?

I don't know, because it's made up of about three different guitars. I was in Nashville in 1970 with Derek And The Dominos, and I went into the Sho-Bud shop, and in the back they had a rack of Stratocasters and Telecasters and various Fenders, all going for $100 each. No one was playing them then. Everyone was going for Gibsons.

Because of you, largely.

Yeah, maybe [laughs]. Well, I wasn't alone. But Steve Winwood had kind of gotten me interested in them, because he was playing a blond-necked Strat. It sounded great. Then I thought, "Well, yeah, Buddy Guy used to play one," and I remembered a great picture of Johnny Guitar Watson playing one on the Gangster Of Love album. So I just bought a handful of them and took them all back to England. I gave one to George Harrison, one to Steve Winwood and one to Pete Townshend. I kept three, and out of them I made one, which is Blackie. I just took the body from one, the neck from another, and so on. I have no idea what year the various parts are-so it's actually not a good collector's guitar at all. Well, it is now [laughs]. I feel that that guitar has become part of me. I get offered guitars, and endorsements come along every now and then. Strings & Things from Memphis tried to get me interested in a fairly revolutionary-looking guitar, the St. Blues. I tried it, and I liked it, and I played it on stage liked it a lot. But, while I was doing that, I was thinking, "Well, Blackie's back there. If I get into this new guitar too deeply, it's tricky, because then I won't be able to go back to Blackie. And what will happen to that?" This all happens in my head while I'm actually playing [laughs]. I can be miles away thinking about this stuff, and suddenly I shut down and say, "This is enough. No more. Nice new guitar. Sorry. You're very nice, but ...

Even though you have Blackie, your favorite stratocaster do you still have the temptation to shop around and collect guitars?

Yes, and there are still guitars that I want; they're like the Holy Grail for me. There's the fat-bodied guitar that Chuck Berry played in all the publicity photographs of him duck walking: a Gibson ES-350. It's got those black [P-90] pickups. I'm always on the lookout for a good one of those. They're actually very rare. I know of a couple, but the people won't part with them. Or if they do want to part with them, they'll quote such a high price you say, "Well, no, that's actually silly." Because I wont play it; I only want it because it looks good. On the other hand, there will come a time when someone will walk into the dressing room with the guitar, and you don't know why-it just is magnificent-and then you have to buy it. It could be a Les Paul, an Explorer, a Stratocaster, but it's just so perfect. You can tell by the way it feels that it's been played. if you can pick up the guitar and tell that someone great has played it-you can actually tell that-then you want to take it and endow yourself with what the guitar's got.

Judging by the sound you achieved on the Blues Breakers album, you must have been turned up to 10 on your amp.

Maybe it was. We'd gotten used to it, obviously. I remember reading an interview with [engineer] Gus Dudgeon where he said that I put my amp in a certain place, he went over and put a mike in front of it, and I said, "No, put the microphone over there on the other side of the room-because I'm going to play loud." I think that sounds like it would be true. We all had a definite idea of what they were doing in Chicago when those blues records were being made. John Mayall had ascertained that you could tell by the sound, the compression that was going on on the Little Walter records, for instance, that maybe they were recording the whole bloody thing through his vocal mike. Because when he took his mike away from his face, the band would get louder-which was a great sympathetic thing to happen. Then when he'd start singing, they would die down. We had definite ways of thinking about how we wanted to be recorded That still appeals to me a great deal-having one mike in the room and everyone arrange themselves around it to their satisfaction. So, yeah, I was probably playing full-volume to get that sound, and then I'd place myself in a way that it would be a good mix for the band. I was playing a Marshall 60-watt.

Your tone changed between the Blues Breakers album and Fresh Cream.

Yeah, we were using bigger Marshalls by then-100 watts. And we used the stacks in the studio. Fresh Cream was done in England, and Robert Stigwood produced it. I don't know who the engineer was. Then we went to America to do the Murray The K show, and while we were there, they invited us into the Atlantic studio, and I played with [engineer] Tom Dowd, and Felix Pappalardi became our producer. So Tom Dowd was the one getting the sound on Disraeli Gears.

It sounds like you're using fuzztone on tunes like "Outside Woman Blues" and "Swlabr" [Disraeli Gears].

There may have been. What we used to do was trip down to Manny's every day and pick up whatever was new. That's how I got my first wah-wah. Jimi was knocking around New York then, too, and we used to trade things. I have no idea how many gadgets were passing through the studio then. But it may have just been straight, with the Marshall full up. In those days, it would get that quality.

Did you go straight from the Marshall amps you used with Cream to the Music Mans you used in the '70s?

No, I was on Fenders for quite a while. Fender Showman was my number-one amp during Derek And The Dominos. When I got the Tulsa boys together, [bassist] Carl Radle came up with a Music Man, and I really got into them. The first ones were really great, but then I started blowing them up a lot, and they started sounding very thin. So I went back to Marshall recently. On the ARMS tour [a benefit for multiple sclerosis], I was using a little old Fender blond Twin.

You've recently started using a chorus for instance, on "Same Old Blues" [Behind the Sun].

I'm a funny person like that. If I like it, I'll forget it's there. I've got a pedal board that was built for me by the man who works with Steve Lukather [Bob Bradshaw]. It's got a bank of presets, but I just use the one chorus and then a deeper chorus. I sometimes put it on the minimal one and forget that it's on-just leave it. Then if I go back to normal, I think, "God, that sounds so straight." Very rarely now do I just play completely straight.

When you perform "Layla" onstage, you sometimes play the high part and sometimes play the low part. Who did which on the record?

Well, Duane [Allman] and I played all of it together. We found that whenever we were going to do an overdub, neither of us would do it alone. We'd either do it in unison or in harmony. So we did all of it together.

In 1988, when the four-CD retrospective Crossroads was released, Forte talked with Clapton about another milestone.

Did you decide to retire your old Stratocaster, Blackie?

Yes, I was worried that if something happened to Blackie, I'd be out on a limb, you know. I mean, it's still playable, although not comfortably so. It's got a great character the guitar itself is really a character-and it worried me, taking it around on the road. It just seemed to be unfair; it's like taking a very old man and expecting him to do the impossible every night [ laughs]. So it was [Fender's] Dan Smith's idea to copy Blackie as closely as we could and update it with a little bit of electronic work to give it a fatter sound, if I wanted it. Which is what one of the knobs does: It gives you a kind of graduation in compressions They duplicated the way Blackie felt, so I would have two or three Blackies, in effect.

After so many years with Blackie, does it feel comfortable playing the new models onstage?

Yeah, you just pick one up and it's exactly right. For me, it's exactly the way I would want a guitar to be. I'm very, very happy with it. And someone else that I know, who's very into guitars, came along and gave me an objective point of view-, he said it was the best guitar he'd ever played, all around. I mean, it's hard for me to say that-about my guitar that I've kind of put my name to-but for someone else to say it, I was very impressed.
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More than 30 years have passed since Clapton's passionate guitar first inspired devotees to proclaim that he was God. As the world inches ever closer to the Millennium, it is reasonable to ask, "Where is God now?" The answer is that he has just released Pilgrim (Reprise), his first full album of new material in more than eight years. More notable is the fact that the record contains mostly original material-12 of the disc's 14 tunes were written or cowritten by Clapton- something that says much about his development as an artist. For even in his heyday, he preferred filling his albums with cover songs because, as he says today, he was unwilling to reveal himself beyond what could be determined from the music and his guitar playing.Not anymore. Compared to much of Clapton's past work, Pilgrim is practically a Book of Revelations. Not in any sort of lurid, tabloid sense, but in the sustained openness that characterizes every song on the album. He stands up to some powerful ghosts on Pilgrim and, unlike in the past, does not rely on his guitar playing alone to do the dirty work. There is plenty of memorable guitar playing, of course-everything from scorching blues to smooth r&b to melodic slide to delicate acoustic fingerpicking. Also present, however, are some fairly out-of-character elements, like the straightforward, sometimes harrowing lyrics. Even more surprising are the vocals. Anyone who's ever heard "Layla" knows Clapton is capable of intense, even hysterical singing. But there is something different about Pilgrim. On the new album, he rises to the challenge posed by his uncommonly revealing lyrics by taking some uncommon risks vocally. From the raucous bluesy shouting of "Sick and Tired" to the technically demanding ornamentation of "Broken Hearted," he sings with the same controlled abandon once associated only with his guitar playing.The openness which so characterizes Pilgrim was foreshadowed by Clapton's 1992 triumph, "Tears in Heaven," which he wrote after the tragic accidental death of his four-year-old son, Conor. Without being maudlin, he succeeds in expressing his love for the child and pain at his loss-and with no electric guitar solo. He repeats his feat on Pilgrim with another song about Conor, the acoustic guitar-driven "Circus," which manages to be moving without sounding at all like "Tears in Heaven, Part II."Clapton addresses another painful topic on the album. He never knew his father, who abandoned him and his teenage mother before he was even born. On "My Father's Eyes," he pulls off a play on words that enables him to unite, as it were, himself, his father and his son-all in the same song. The clever, sensitive lyrics, combined with a very strong vocal, do fitting justice to subject matter that would daunt most singers." 'My Father's Eyes' is very personal," says Clapton. "I realized that the closest I ever came to looking in my father's eyes was when I looked into my son's eyes."The guitar hero par excellence, Clapton has always paid explicit tribute to his own heroes, whether by quoting an Albert King solo verbatim in "Strange Brew," referring to Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain" in "Layla," or recording a number of songs by Bob Dylan. He remains in the homage business still, as Pilgrim strongly indicates. Besides covering Dylan's "Born in Time," Clapton honors Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan on the upbeat shuffle "Sick and Tired" and Curtis Mayfield [see sidebar, page 501] whose falsetto voice and guitar style he emulates on "Pilgrim" and "You Were Gone."There is a certain irony that an album so filled with echoes of musicians who've influenced Clapton in the past should be so technically and musically rooted in the present. For this is one hip Pilgrim. The arrangements are very modern, as old-time Clapton fans will no doubt immediately perceive.Inspired by the high-tech sounds coming out of the British electronics movement and contemporary American r&b, Clapton and co-producer Simon Climie used drum machines, sequencers and funky sample loops with abandon. Just as he woodshedded the blues until his fingers were raw back when he was a guitar god in training, Clapton immersed himself in this music for the last three years, working with r&b kingpins Babyface and Tony Rich. Last year, the guitarist and Climie, under the name TDF, released the electronics album Retail Therapy (Reprise). While the record was no barn-burner, saleswise, it served as an excellent proving ground for his latest venture.It is true that Pilgrim is not bursting at the seams with classic Eric Clapton womantoned, Albert and Freddie King-fueled flights of Stratocaster or Les Paul fancy. But there's plenty of guitar, nonethelessfull-fledged screaming moments in "One Chance," blues heroics in "Sick and Tired" and even a beautiful, Curtis Mayfield-like cascading solo on "Pilgrim." Most of all, though, in keeping with the album's strongly integrated aesthetic, the guitar is primarily an important function of the whole. Elements like the lyrical, muted solo in "River of Tears," the melodic intro riff in "Broken Hearted" and the running commentary provided throughout the record by various slide guitars may not provide the orgasmic satisfaction of "Little Wing" or "Crossroads," but they're not supposed to. This is a family album, and the guitar is an important, albeit not dominant, member of that family."It's all about perspective and proportion," says Clapton. "I felt going in that the guitar should never be allowed to overshadow what the song was about."

GUITAR WORLD: Your new album is called Pilgrim. What significance does that word hold for you?
ERIC CLAPTON: I think everybody has their own way of looking at their lives as some kind of pilgrimage. Some people will see their role as a pilgrim in terms of setting up a fine family, or establishing a business inheritance. Everyone's got their own definition. Mine, I suppose, is to know myself. That's probably as close as I can get to it my goal is to really come to identify who am to myself.
GW: The album represents a breakthrough for you in terms of songwriting. It's bee almost a decade since you've even corn close to being this prolific. Was composing the songs on this album important to you process of self-discovery?
CLAPTON:Absolutely. As you've observed my normal output is usually much less than this. Actually, that used to be the way I wanted it. I would always want no more than two or three of my songs on an album because I just didn't want to reveal myself.It wasn't cowardice-or maybe it was. Maybe it was a mixture of cowardice and insecurity, or just low self-esteem. In the past I would think, "What have I got to say that's any better than, say, [songwriter] Jerry Williams?" Or whoever else was contributing songs to my albums. But on Pilgrim, I started developing a really healthy respect for my own talent.
GW: Who or what was responsible for this dramatic change?
CLAPTON: It was primarily due to working with [keyboardist and Pilgrim co-producer] Simon Climie, who was very encouraging and very supportive. I could always rely on him to be an objective sounding board. He gave me confidence, and then on brought it out there was no stopping could've carried on writing, but we'd ally ended up with more than we needed. We went in with virtually nothing, so the great thing was that it evolved and got written as we went along.
GW: In the past, you've been content to let your guitar do the talking. I get the feeling that, these days, that just isn't enough for you. That you want to take the same kinds of chances with your songwriting and singing that are usually associated with your playing.
CLAPTON: You're right. I originally set a wide-open boundary on this record, and once I knew that I'd stepped over the time limit and we were kind of numb, I thought, "Now that we've taken this chance, we might as well go for broke and just get everything as far put as possible."I just feel like I've become a little more whole in terms of how I see myself as a singer-songwriter-musician. There is a better balance now among the components than there was before. I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing-something I couldn't wait to get out of the way. Singing was originally like a chore that I didn't really enjoy.Now all of the components are completely integrated, equally important and really dependent on one another. I now enjoy singing as much as the guitar playing, if not more sometimes.
GW: And the lyrics, too, I imagine.
CLAPTON: Absolutely-the writing, too.
GW: This is going to sound a tad pretentious, but would you say that the artist has an obligation to reveal himself-to bare his soul?
CLAPTON: I can only speak for myself, but I believe it is my responsibility to do so. But to do so with care, as well.
GW: Responsibility to whom? To yourself or to your audience?
CLAPTON: To myself, and to the nature of the human race, really. I feel a real need to observe a level of propriety in what I'm handing out. Instead of me just venting or spilling my guts, I've got to consider how it's going to affect people. How it's going to affect me, as well. Because it's like a cycle.I've kind of learned to embrace that responsibility, and it makes me work harder. Instead of just chucking out the first thing that comes to mind or the first thing I feel, I really examine it much more now and go over it and think about cause and effect.
GW: Is the process joyful or something painful?
CLAPTON: Joyful, but in an odd way. When I first conceived this album, I told anybody who was going to get involved that my goal was to make the saddest record that's ever been made. It was like, "Are you with me, man and boy?" A couple of people responded by looking at me like I was insane. That this was not a good ambition. [laughs] The first person who totally understood where I was coming from was [noted session drummer] Steve Gadd, who said, "Yes! I get the point!" He understood that what I was trying to do was set something up that I could enjoy, because my enlightenment has come from true sadness. When I hear very sad records, I don't get depressed. I feel an affinity and I feel relief. The first thing I get is a sense of, "I am not alone. Thank God! I'm not alone."
GW: How difficult was it to take previously private feelings about specific tragedies in your life and express them artistically?
CLAPTON: It was difficult. For instance,, the first draft of "My Father's Eyes" came out sounding pretty petulant. The lyrics were too angry and childish. Where the art and craft came in was in being able to shape the anger into something people could empathize with. It wouldn't work for me to just kind of sulk in the song, because it wouldn't have communicated. Instead of feeling an affinity, people would've been repelled.So I felt the way to make "My Father's Eyes" into a sharing experience was to give it dignity, so that it would make it easy for someone else to identify with. That's where the craft comes in. It's learning how to use the power of your emotions, but figuring out how to present it in away that makes it okay for someone else to take that on board as being their message."My Father's Eyes" was the hardest song to record on the album. It was one of the first songs, along with "Circus," that I wrote after my son died. And it was the last one that I could let go of. In fact, I found "Circus" a lot easier to let go of. "My Father's Eyes" went through five incarnations in the making of this record, and I would veto it each time and say each wasn't good enough.In retrospect, I question what I was up to, because at the time it was purely from an artistic point of view that I said, "it's too fast," or "it's too jolly," or "it's too sad." Now, I actually think subconsciously I just wasn't ready to let it go, because it meant on some level-letting go of my son.

GW: Did writing and recording "My Father's Eyes" and "Circus" help you cope with the loss of your child?
CLAPTON:Music was very important. Talking about it with friends and seeking professional help were also crucial. Confronting it head-on was the best thing for me. It was very important that I be responsible, because there were others besides myself who needed comfort.
GW: "River of Tears" is perhaps one of the most passionate vocal performances of your career. Given the personal nature of this album, can we assume that it, too, is autobiographical?
CLAPTON:"River of Tears" was recorded very early in the Pilgrim sessions, and I can remember thinking, "This is as good as anything I've ever heard myself do." In fact, it became the standard for the rest of the album. I didn't want anything else to fall below that.Lyrically, it is about a specific person. My impulse for writing the song was initially very manipulative. I was always toying with the idea that when she'd hear this song there would be a reconciliation or something. It had a purpose. And then it started getting vindictive. It got quite vindictive in some of its early stages, and at some' point I started feeling like the lyrics were becoming too melodramatic. I realized that the way to save it was to bring it back to talking about me, and that maybe I'm an unavailable person, maybe it's me that's unavailable. That whole thing in the song about just drifting from town to town and not really being able to fit in takes the blame off somebody else and places it on myself.

GW: Your ability to question your own motives sounds like a therapist's dream come true. How did you sustain such honesty on the album?
CLAPTON: Working with a partner makes that possible-especially if it's someone who knows what you're up to. If Simon though I was being dishonest with my lyrics, h would call me out and say, "I think this is unfair," and I'd listen and address it. On that level, our partnership is as fruitful as anything I've ever experienced.
GW: Your guitar playing is somewhat subdued on this album, but one track where you really let it rip is "Sick and Tired." The song is built on a Texas-style shuffle rhythm, a la Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the vocal and solo are very much in the style of Jimmie Vaughan. Is this a tribute to the brothers?
CLAPTON: "Sick and Tired" was done purely for fun. The riff came first, and I just thought of the Vaughan brothers. I told Simon to program a shuffle and exaggerate the backbeat so it would sound like a Texas style groove. I then began improvising these silly lyrics, and thought, "Well, I might as well make it a song now." It's like a spoof, really.
GW: I'm not sure how you may take this, but we thought the vocals and playing on "Sick and Tired" sound more impassioned than any performance on your blues tribute, From the Cradle [Reprise, 1994].
CLAPTON: Funnily enough, I think that the bit of irony in there gave me the license to carry the anger of the vocal. I remember going into the studio and singing that with a lot of anger. Quite hard. But since there was irony in the lyrics, that made it okay. It didn't get overindulgent.
GW: You weren't operating under the pressure of making a grand blues "statement," as you possibly were when you recorded From the Cradle.
CLAPTON: Exactly.
GW: Are you particularly close to Jimmie Vaughan?
CLAPTON: I've known Jimmie for a pretty long time. And then with the passing of his brother, Stevie, Jimmie and I kind of bonded on a very deep level. We don't talk enough, and a lot of the time it's my fault, but when we get together I love him. He's as close as I'll get to having a brother. And I think the world of his playing. And his and singing-his singing is great!
GW: What did you think of Stevie's playing?
CLAPTON: Oh, he was one of the greats. I have to tell his story: We played on the same bill on his last two gigs. On the first night, I watched his set for about half an hour and then I had to leave because I couldn't handle it. I was going to go on after this guy, and I just couldn't handle it! I knew enough to know that his playing was just going to get better and better. His set had started, he was like two or three songs in, and I suddenly got that flash that I'd experienced before so many times whenever I'd seen him play, which was that he was like a channel. One of the purest channels I've ever seen, where everything he sang and played flowed straight down from heaven. Almost like one of those mystic Sufi guys with one finger pointing up and one finger down. That's what it was like to listen to. And I had to leave just to preserve some kind of sanity or confidence in myself.
GW: In addition to paying tribute to the' Vaughan brothers, it's clear you had someone else in mind while making this album. On several tracks you pay direct homage to r&b great Curtis Mayfield. Why Curtis?
CLAPTON: Well, his last album, New World Order, came out the year I was starting to put this album together, and it was a huge inspiration to me. It was great on so many levels.First, Curtis is older than me, yet he was working in a very hip field. The album was very progressive and featured guys like Organized Noise, a tremendously modern, urban r&b production company. That in itself is pretty cool. But what really got me was that he had recently been severely crippled in a terrible stage accident, and should be suicidal by all accounts, yet here he was singing about joy and gratitude and life. All of those components inspire me. Whenever I began to question why I was pushing myself so hard on Pilgrim, I only had to picture Curtis.
GW: Did you go back and listen to his classic albums? Some of the string arrangements on Pilgrim evoke earlier Curtis Mayfield tracks.
CLAPTON: Yeah. That was deliberate.

GW: Your vocal approach on "Pilgrim" and "Inside of Me" is very obviously "borrowed" from Curtis. Did this make you feel uncomfortable in any way?
CLAPTON:No, this is outright. To me, it's more heartfelt than just saying, "Thanks, Curtis, for the inspiration." Or writing that on the record, as anyone can do. I really wanted to work at making him proud, if I could. I hope that's how this works out.Now, he could be pissed-off! [laughs] Or maybe he could be both-proud and pissed off at the same time. Who knows? But I could just hear Curtis sing the opening line in "Pilgrim," so I had to do it in his voice. [sings] "How do I choose, and where do I draw the line between truth and necessary pain?".There's something kind of clever and wordy about that opening line, and 1 just thought, "This just sounds like the sort of thing he would sing." And then I looked down and realized it was a good line, but that it didn't really make any sense-it doesn't mean a damn thing! [laughs] But it didn't matter.
GW: You're right, because it sounds so righteous!
CLAPTON: That's the point. As long as it sounds righteous.
GW: Do you ever fear that you've crossed the line between homage and plagiarism?
CLAPTON: I think it comes down to motive. I think if my motives-to put it simply-are good, then I would use that as a license to go ahead. If my motive is to say "thank you" to Curtis-which it was-I believe that's good. But if my motive was, "Well, he just had a hit with that sound, now maybe if I imitate him, I'll have a hit, too," that needs some examining.
GW: Given your history as a blues scholar, part of you must really enjoy being a student.
CLAPTON: It's definitely in my nature.
GW: Then you've certainly been true to your nature, playing r&b over the last few years. Besides studying the music of Curtis Mayfield, you've worked with Babyface and Tony Rich, both of whom are in the forefront of modern r&b. It sounds like you actually took time out to learn something new, something that is rare for established artists.
CLAPTON: You're absolutely right. Between recording and touring, From the Cradle was a three-year project. All I did during that period was play and explore various forms of the blues. And when I stopped, I looked around and discovered that the world had changed at an astonishing rate. I couldn't make sense of anything. I hadn't been listening to the radio, and I had only really been stocking up what I needed to keep this blues thing up in the air. The only thing I could latch onto was contemporary r&b, because it has its roots in blues. It became a safe place for me, hanging on with one hand and poking other things with the other. I became particularly attracted to all the different forms of dance, which still is the dominant music in England at the moment. And I had to do a lot of learning. I also made a lot of choices in the process. It was all about that difficult process of putting your finger on a stove and getting it burned-trying things out.
GW: Was it particularly hard for someone as visible as yourself to do?
CLAPTON: It's certainly hard to do in secret. It's impossible to do. For example, as an experiment, Simon and I tried to record an album of electronic dance music anonymously, under the name TDF. We felt we had a license to explore because we were going to make music for a fashion show. And even though we were simply trying to stretch, we hit a stone wall. I was roundly criticized in England for sticking my nose in where it didn't belong-experimenting with things like drum and bass. And so I had to back off a lot of that stuff.

GW: Given your history, it's hard to imagine that you would even stick your toe into that world, much less your heart and soul. What attracted you to electronics?
CLAPTON: Some of the sounds, just some of the sounds. And I have to overcome my prejudices all the time. Don't forget, I'm 53 years old, and this stuff is very threatening to me as a musician. It's a bit like I'm one of the old lions, and here come the young guys-it's almost like they would like it if I didn't understand. They would prefer me not to understand because then I'm nothing to worry about. But the thing is, because I've had such a weird and varied experience with music, I can understand and I can enjoy it.I remember going into a club in Japan to see a specific drum and bass DJ. An English guy who'd had a few drinks came up to me and said, "What are you doing here?" As if to say, "You're not supposed to like this. It's not really cool for you to like this." But the thing is, I do. And if I hear something I like, my thing is, I want to do it. And I don't understand this divisionist way of thinking: "This is our music, that's your music. You stay where you belong and we'll just stay here." For me, cross-pollination has always been the lifeblood of music. And that's what we were trying to do with that TDF thing, Some people liked it, I liked it. And you know, most importantly, it was the launching pad for this album, because I got to be friendly with using loops and sequences. Actually, I don't know how to program a sequencer, but I got to the point where I wasn't threatened by music technology, which I think is a good thing.

GW: Did you use drum loops to help you write some of the songs on this album?
CLAPTON: Yeah. It was random. We usually turned to technology when we ran out of things to do andneeded a place to start. We would say something like, "Uh, well, um, have you heard the new Usher single?" And from there we'd just copy the drum program, dicker with it, and play along with it. That's how the song "Pilgrim" was born. We came up with a drum program that was derived from a hit-I can't remember which one-we changed it a little, and then I wrote the words. "Needs His Woman," which is a song that I've had for about 10 years, was also built-up and developed in this way.
GW: While this album represents a departure for you on many levels, you still managed to include one traditional blues song, "Going Down Slow," by St. Louis Jimmy. Just who is this St. Louis Jimmy?
CLAPTON: I don't know much about him. I've never seen any photographs of him, I don't even know what else he's written. I've asked B.B. King and Jimmie Rogers about him, and though both knew him, they were sketchy with the details. In any case, we recorded "Going Down Slow" primarily because I just wanted to include a blues, and that one has always been on my mind.
GW: No doubt you've noticed that many important bluesmen, including Luther Allison, Jimmie Rogers and Junior Wells, have died over the past year. What do you think this means for the future of the music?
CLAPTON: As long as we have their recorded work,I believe the blues is safe. For example, it could've been possible for me not to have any more experience of the blues than listening to albums by Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters. And even though I've been fortunate enough to have known many of the great bluesmen, I secured a faith in the blues even before I knew them personally through records.On the other hand, in terms of players coming along from that kind of experience, it's probably the end of the road. There was something about the nature of the way these guys played and the simplicity in their approach that could only have come from a very simple way of life - a way of life that is gone.Robert Johnson, for example, would've seen another musician only every now and then, let alone heard one, so his experience was so vastly different from that of musicians today. And the music must have been profoundly affected by that.
GW: You first heard Robert Johnson when you were very young, and it changed your life. Why do you think you connected so heavily to what was, essentially, an alien, remote music.
CLAPTON: I think it has something to do with my not having a father. I sought my father in the world of the black musician, because it contained wisdom, experience, sadness and loneliness. I was not ever interested in the music of boys. From my youngest years, I was interested in the music of men.
GW: And the remote element?
CLAPTON: That would add to the appeal, wouldn't it?
GW: Paul Simon was asked recently to name one of his contemporaries who still moved him, and he replied, "How about Eric Clapton?" He went on to cite your performance on MTV Unplugged, and how you used that outlet both to explore your musical past and find a direction for your future. Do you agree with that assessment?
CLAPTON: When I was first putting that set together, I don't think I had any idea where it would lead me, but I think it's fairly accurate to say that I saw it as a massive opportunity to set the record straight about who I was and where I'd come from. I felt it was essential that people stop thinking about me as this one-dimensional character who should always just seriously consider getting a hold of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker and putting Cream back together again.I always felt that people were saying to me, "Stop fucking about, man! Plug into your Marshall 100-watt and let's get the show on the road." And I went, "No deal. That's not what I'm about. I started my career playing an acoustic guitar in a pub by myself, and this is how simple it can be, and this is how enjoyable it is on that level." That's what Unplugged was about for me.And it was funny because I had my band with me, and a lot of the time I had to think of things for them to do. I could have happily just as well done it on my own. And that was important to me to state, not just for the audience at large, but for myself as well.
GW: That you were what? Not a guitar hero, but a songwriter?
CLAPTON: Or a journeyman. Just someone who really prefers the whole rather than one element. I think I wanted to bring people back from labeling me or trying to pigeonhole me, or getting it wrong. Just simply get ting it wrong.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Clapton plans to design own clothing range
23/05/2005

Legendary rocker Eric Clapton is launching his own clothing brand with a signature label cowboy shirt.

The Layla superstar recently ordered 12 of his favourite cowboy shirts to be flown from Denver, Colorado, to the UK so he could select four to wear for the four-night Cream reunion at London's Royal Albert Hall earlier this month.

Clapton is so fond of the Saw Tooth 640 shirt, made by Rockmout Ranch Wear, he is now in talks with the company to issue his own shirt.

It will be similar to current Rockmount designs, but will have some Clapton lyrics sewn into the back.

Gene***
Слепая вера на британском Амазоне будет 30 мая.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00083G3DM/qid%3D1116857955/026-0249597-0116439

2Alex Red:
>Слепая вера на британском Амазоне будет 30 мая.

К сожалению, даты Амазона ничего не значат, кроме того, что ожидаемый релиз все еще в работе. У них как-то в future releases стояли DVD Concert For Bangladesh и Let It Be, а потом все куда-то делось. Хотя здесь сроки уже рядом. Бум надеяться...

From Keith Fletcher's autobiography: Ashes to Ashes - the Rise, Fall and Rise of English Cricket.

Best of all was his regal dismissal of Eric Clapton in 1987, when Essex played Worcestershire at New Road. Clapton was matey with Ian Botham and having cleaned out the cricketers at cards (it rained), promised to play at Beefy's local pub. Forget the Albert Hall or Cream reunions, hearing EC play solo at the Crown in Martley was a special experience and each of us felt privileged. Indeed, the boys could talk of little else the next day. Unfortunately, we got hammered in the Sunday League match with Beefy smashing an unbeaten 125 after scraping Eric's yellow Ferrari on the gateposts of the players' car park.

None too pleased at our capitulation, Fletch was about to deliver us an almighty rollocking when in waltzes Eric, to tell us, his new best friends, not to worry about it. "When the man's the man," EC reasoned, presumably about Beefy, "there's not much you can do about it."

Not a man given to homespun wisdoms, Fletch nevertheless bit his tongue. "Do you mind giving us a few moments, Ernie," he said, "we're just in the middle of something here." As a bemused Clapton skipped out, there was an instant chorus of "what did you call him?" "That lads," countered Fletch, convinced he knew the identity of our previous night's entertainer, "was Ernie Clapham, the well-known guitarist."

Серёж, а ты по-русски напиши хоть немного, а то все английские тексты постишь...
Я понимаю, что там все очень важно и интересно, но все-таки...хоть для разнообразия:)

2pretty thing:
>Серёж, а ты по-русски напиши хоть немного
:)) Я уже писал в журнале МЬЮЗИК БОКС... могу прислать файл на почт ящик (для этого мне нужен адрес).
А вообще, я не большой спец в Английском + (как мне кажется) при переводе теряется нужная ритмика...

Inside Cream 1966-1969 This item will be released on May 31, 2005.

Drawing on rare film and television archive material this review revisits every single Cream album and critically reassesses the work of this legendary band from the glorious debut album right through to the demise of the band. A leading team of music critics, musicologists and working musicians considers vintage performances by Cream and traces the secrets of the band's success.

Inside Cream 1966-1969 CD
Featured tracks include:
Sunshine of Your love
Politician
White Room
I Feel Free
Tales of Brave Ulysses and many more!

Абсолютно точно!

ERIC CLAPTON, BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA, WARREN HAYNES, DAVE MATTHEWS, TED BEARD, AUBREY GHENT and the LEE BOYS are featured in the ROBERT RANDOLPH-based documentary, Press On, which is currently being screened across the country . . .