Eric Clapton stands by Enoch Powell

"eatin crow blues"

"if i had possession over my senses"

yeah that would probably have something to do with one of his biggest songs being titled "cocaine" *smashes head against monitor*

I'm glad someone said that...

ok maybe it was the coke made him boring. maybe he was just boring to start with, he just had natty threads...

xpost

JJ Cale wrote "Cocaine"

i see you and raise you this one:

eric clapton did not write, i shot the sherrif.

And Counting Crows = tedious crap. Game over!

No. Peschek read my ILM comments last week re. indignity of reviewing Bay City Rollers, rang me up and tried it. I told him not to. And as I'm now writing for Time Out, not writing for Uncut doesn't bother me at all.

i couldn't quite work out why clapton was on the cover of a newsstand publication in the 04 == who gives a shit about clapton?!?

-- ENRQ (miltonpinsk...), April 26th, 2004.

hence my slamming ead against monitor.

the observer mm has had chris blue writing for it - arguably the biggest imbecile to turn on a word processor. it is bad.

marcello working 4 time out is a good thing. he will make it better, as i saad, by a long fucking chalk, without even having to metaphorically get out of bed. my experiences with it, not good, though.

i wonder whether there is any connection between the current return to the headlines of all these pivotal moments in the creation of the cultural side of the New Right - Clapton's comments, the announcement today that HBO are to make a film of the Stones' 1967 drug busts and the events that followed (personally i reckon Rees-Mogg defended them when he wasn't expected to mainly because he didn't have the deep and profound cultural Americoscepticism of many other conservatives of his generation and ilk, cf his comments on Bush and Iraq), BBC4 showing the Scorsese documentary on the influence of the blues on mainly southern middle-class Brits - and the fact that we are a week away from the 25th anniversary of Thatcher's election.

Yeah, I was rather irritated to see Uncut filled with nearly 30 pages IIRC on the man... Ironically, the same day I read the Uncut, I was going through some very old Q's (dreadful magazine, generally speaking) in the house and, flicking through, chanced upon an interview with Phil Collins from 1995 or 1996 in which Collins referred to a friendship with Clapton and IIRC said they'd both been talking about Powell supportively. Was a bizare coincidence to come upon this on the same day, and it has ever more turned me against Clapton; whose own music has always bored me anyway.

1. It's really kinda tatty to misrepresent private conversation between us in a public forum. When I realised that you - a regular freelance contributor to Uncut - had been slagging off the magazine and, at one point, me by name, called you immediately. Responding to the somewhat self-dramatising thing you'd said about 'maybe my time at Uncut is coming to an end', I said: "Marcello, when you're good, I really like your writing. However, the swiftest way to 'end your time at Uncut' is to continue post unprofessional shit about the mag and me on messageboards.' What was it you posted: "He tried it and I told him not to." Oh, please. Grow up man.

2. As I later wrote to you, you've had a substantial amount of work from me, including your first Album & Reissue of the month. It seems sad that you're so unconcerned about the end of a relationship with the first publication to give you print work.

3. I asked you to review the Bay City Rollers reissues because, as I told you, I felt you were one of the few writers who could provide some kind of insight and perspective without being cattily dismissive. That's hardly an 'indignity.'

4. Uncut isn't perfect. We exist in the marketplace, with all the vitiated imperatives that implies.

5. You also need to understand that if you intend to work in anyway in print media, you will have to follow a bassline of professionalism: one of the things this means is that if your editor asks you to tweak a line, you don't throw your toys out of the pram. Often it means that they're actually bothering to engage with your work, which is actually a compliment.

6. You also need to realise that Time Out and Uncut are very different magazines, and that if they are willing to run your copy unchanged, that may be for a whole range of reasons, and not simply because they see it as tablets of stone. I will be interested to see whether you're still as enamoured of TO in 6 months time; remember, 6 months ago, you were very happy to be working for Uncut.

7. I mailed you and said the door was still open here, but that you had to reply. You have chosen instead to continue this brittle carping. It is your choice that Uncut's reviews section is no longer home to your occasionally glorious subversion. I think that's a shame.

David

(btw, uncut was not the first publication to offer me work)

essentially Powell was an even balance of three distinct Right-wing tendencies - monetarist, romantic and straight-up racist. monetarism and breaking down the ideas placed in the mainstream by the Attlee government was very important to him for much of his life, it's true, but he held views on the superiority of the aristocracy to everyone else - going hunting as a young man so as to ape the landed classes, even insisting that Shakespeare's plays must have actually been written by some aristocrat because nobody from such relatively "humble" stock could create such great works - which led to a big gulf developing in the 80s between him and younger monetarists, many of whom were concerned almost above all else with breaking down the culture among the British middle classes of genuflecting towards pre-existing upper-class anti-commercial values (what i call "Wienerisation" after the man who had the biggest influence on it). i suspect that Powell's balance of monetarism, romanticism and racism seemed much much less contradictory when he was actually espousing it than it does now, the Right being so much less divided then.

Powell's insistence about Shakespeare's plays being written by some other aristocrat is truly barmy, and very suggestive of someone who wants to compartmentalise culture in a very rigid way. The man was supposed to be a scholar; did he have much evidence for these specific views on WS' plays' authorship...?

It is amazing to me that the Tories could hold themselves together as they did... the pursuit of power and the common objective to defeat Labour and to restrain 'socialism' are clearly the reason, but it's still strange that Heath, Maudling and MacLeod (whose views and policies are closer to today's left than to the right) could be of the same party as Joseph, Powell and Peter Griffiths (IIRC the name of the candidate who won a Birmingham seat against Labour's Patrick Gordon Walker, in the 1964 GE with an openly racist campaign)...

'Powell's insistence about Shakespeare's plays being written by some other aristocrat is truly barmy'

I'm afraid it isn't actually. He may have chosen to believe it for snobbish, classist reasons, indeed so have many others over the last few centuries (Shakespeare Conspiracy Theories do have a long pedigree). But they can't be dismissed that easily. Even Jonathan Bate and Stanley Wells, two of the most prominent Shakespeare scholars, had trouble providing a decent defence in the recent 'Much Ado About something' documentary (which explored the 'Marlowe was Shakespeare' theory). The oft cited' Shakespeare couldn't have written the plays because he wasn't educated enough' reason is contemptible, but also plausible. Not enough to change my mind, but still problematic. Even those candidates who weren't aristocrats, like Marlowe, (who went to Cambridge) had further education. Shakespeare's success in the dramatic/poetic world based on his origins is 'unusual', there's no denying it.

So disbelieving Shakespeare as the Folio author is not 'barmy'. Some barmy people have taken up the cause however.

From all I have experienced of the academic debate; it seems there's little doubt that some works were collaborative; i.e. say, some scenes of "Macbeth" were definitely of the mark of a different writer than the established Shakespeare. I remain to be convinced that there is strong enough evidence for people to assume that an aristocrat wrote WS' plays rather than assume the conventional wisdom.

I have never myself said I was sure of WS' full authorship of the Folio texts. It is not that fact itself, but more the way Powell seems to be taking the stand; i.e. making it a class issue.

I would advise everyone who has been defending Clapton's comments on the grounds that he was drunk to check out my thread over on ILE on the subject of drunken utterances:

It Must've Come from Somewhere!

I think I only like one thing by Clapton - Blind Faith "Can't Find My Way Home"...did he write that, or was it written by S. Winwood?

Hated Cream, hated his solo career, hated his boring guitar playing style, hated the way he's been bankrolled by his cover versions whilst all the time somehow taking the credit- Marley, Dylan, Greg Philinganes (sp.)....

Losing a child is always tragic; cashing in on the fact that you've lost one through a record is unforgiveable. It doesn't help that the song is totally dire, of course, but Clapton prolly doesn't care - he's laughing all the way to the bank, people are buying the record because of their sympathy, their empathy. Ker-ching!

(thanks fer the link tho, MarkH, will check it out)

Hey, for the non-anglophile, could someone give me a hint as to what Enoch Powell stood for/did in the 70s and what Clapton said to align himself with him? While Marcello summed up the Uncut comments, no one's really said what he did in the first place. Was it just a dumb, disingenuous "the blacks will be better off if they don't come here at all" comment?

There was an episode of "Mr. Show" where they made fun of this. It was great.

Everything else OTM.

I know this is a thread about Eric Clapton and what kind of racist he might be, but what was the purpose of qualifying 'cleaning lady' with 'Puerto Rican' in that statement? Does it mean that the fact that she is Puerto Rican contributes to her being dumb?

If so, isn't this whole thread a case of the pot calling the kettle... err... black?

Back on the Eric Clapton-racist issue, I'm a darkie and a fan of some of his music. He is a deeply flawed and stubborn person, which makes him a good bluesman.

I think some of the following facts are of interest when considering his Enoch Powell remarks:

1. In 1967 in an interview with Rolling Stone, he stated that he's uncomfortable with the idea that people concern themselves with his views on anything other than music as that is all he knows anything about.

2. He lives in Antigua in the Caribbean for most of the year (surrounded by darkies), where he founded and still runs the Crossroads drug & alcohol rehabilitation centre - and offers heavily subsidised treatment for local Antiguans.

3. One of his best friends was George Harrison, possibly the least racist person ever born.

4. He once made the following remark when asked about Hendrix in the late 60s: "everyone and his brother knows that spades have big dicks". Does that reveal some kind of insecurity not only about his playing (which was widely publicized) but in sexual matters too? His early goal as a guitarist, he has revealed on many occasions, was to sound like a black guitar player - and until Hendrix's arrival in London, Clapton did the best impersonation of one. Then with Hendrix on the scene, he though 'who needs an impersonation now that they have the real thing?'. The stupid thing about this was that Hendrix came to London specifically to meet Clapton, a hero of his. Clapton soon overcame his insecurity enough for the two of them to become great friends.

5. Clapton loves black music (obviously), and not just the blues, but rock n' roll, rhythm n' blues, soul, reggae and some jazz.

6. He's been out with black women, including Naomi Campbell - as people above have pointed out.

7. For the past 20 years, most of his band has been black.

8. When he first arrived in America, touring with Cream, he spent the entire trip speaking in a faux Southern cotton-picker accent.

9. He was a junkie.

10. He was an alcoholic.

11. He quit every band he was ever in as they were getting big or bigger (even Cream).

12. The best music he did was pre-heroin.

12. He was best friends with George Harrison but that didn't stop him from 'stealing' his wife.

13. He married George Harrison's mrs only when his manager informed him that was what he was doing as it would be good for his image at the time.

14. He treated Patti Boyd (Harrison's ex) like crap the whole time they were married, and only began to regret it after they were divorced.

15. I think the most interesting thing about his Enoch Powell comments is that he's done a complete turn-around to explain what he meant by his comments. I think that's better than an apology in a way because it shows how wrong he thinks 'the keep Britain white' mentality is.

you've never met ethan trife.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/eric_claptons_disgusting_racist_tirade

refers to this thread in the article.

were those quotes in that article reported at the time?

Looks that way, as Rock Against Racism was formed, at least in part, in response to them:

Originally conceived as a one-off concert with a message against racism, Rock Against Racism was founded in 1976 by Red Saunders, Roger Huddle and others. According to Huddle, "it remained just an idea until August 1976" when Eric Clapton made a drunken declaration of support for former Conservative minister Enoch Powell (known for his anti-immigration Rivers of Blood speech) at a concert in Birmingham.[2] Clapton told the crowd that England had "become overcrowded" and that they should vote for Powell to stop Britain from becoming "a black colony". He also told the audience that Britain should "get the foreigners out, get the wogs out, get the coons out", and then he repeatedly shouted the National Front slogan "Keep Britain White".[3][4]

Huddle, Saunders and two members of Kartoon Klowns responded by writing a letter to NME expressing their opposition to Clapton's comments, which they claimed were "all the more disgusting because he had his first hit with a cover of reggae star Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" ... Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black. Who shot the Sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!". At the end of the letter, they called for people to help form a movement called Rock Against Racism, and they report that they received hundreds of replies.[2]