Is Eric Clapton a racist?

Curious to know what he said....

to be honest i've *never* seen any comment of his about it, at the time or since (that doesn't mean he hasn't commented, just that i never saw it)

if i recall correctly, it was also often pointed out at the time that he was very drunk, but whther that's a. true or b. relevant, i couldn't say

the skinhead stance in the early 70s was often violently anti-asian yet pro-reggae (not that clapton was associated with skinheads)

"Remember Bowie never apologised for his Fascist views - unlike Eric Clapton who realised his drugged up errors and made a public apology. Eric realised his mistakes. Therefore Bowie is the most EVIL SCUM OF THE FUCKING EARTH and Clapton is God.(Did you know Bowie pleaded for a part in Romper Stomper and backed up every single one of Morrisseys views. He also supported Enoch Powell 100% and paid $500,000 for one of Hitlers suits at an auction.......Think about it).
Dan Opstein
NY USA - Tuesday, March 19, 1996 at 09:58:56 (PST)"

1) Wake up in a completely different country then the one you went to bed in.
2) Turn on the tube and see some coked-out Pod Person on TV making you look like a psychofascist dweeb.
3) Realize in Horror that that dweeb is YOU.

I think he's been clean ever since.

Looking back on the 30th anniversary of Rock Against Racism

Many of those who will gather in Victoria Park next Sunday to watch the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Hard-Fi, the View and the others on the bill were not even born 30 years ago. But for those who attended the original concert in 1978 it was a show that changed their lives and helped change Britain. Rock Against Racism radicalised a generation, it showed that music could do more than just entertain: it could make a difference. By demonstrating the power of music to effect change it inspired Live Aid and its supporters claim it helped destroy the National Front. It was the triumphant climax to a story that began two years earlier, following one hot August night in Birmingham.

It was 5 August 1976 and Eric Clapton was drunk, angry and on stage at the Birmingham Odeon. ‘Enoch was right,’ he told the audience, ‘I think we should send them all back.’ Britain was, he complained, in danger of becoming ‘a black colony’ and a vote for controversial Tory politician Enoch Powell whom he described as a prophet was needed to ‘keep Britain white’. Although the irony was possibly lost on Clapton, the Odeon in Birmingham is on New Street, minutes from the Midland Hotel where eight years earlier Powell had made his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. But if the coincidence was curious, the hypocrisy was breathtaking: Clapton’s career was based on appropriating black music, and he had recently had a hit with Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’.

In usual circumstances his comments would have been merely ill advised, but it was the social and political context which made Clapton’s intervention so chilling. The National Front had won 40 per cent of the votes in the spring elections in Blackburn. One month earlier an Asian teenager, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, had been murdered by a gang of white youths in Southall. ‘One down—a million to go’ was the response to the killing from John Kingsley Read of the National Front. Sid Vicious and Siouxsie Sioux were sporting swastikas as fashion statements. David Bowie, who three months earlier had been photographed apparently giving a Nazi salute in Victoria Station, told Cameron Crowe in the September 1976 edition of Playboy ‘…yes I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air…is a right-wing totally dictatorial tyranny…’ In that same interview Bowie claimed that ‘Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars.’ This was Britain then in the sweltering summer of 1976, and in that context Clapton’s comments were potentially incendiary.

And apparently, Clapton is still a racist

This summer, in the last weekend of June, Eric Clapton will headline two shows in London and Leeds, the locations for the first and last Rock against Racism carnivals. While David Bowie had distanced himself from his pro-Nazi remarks, Clapton has not only never apologised for his outburst, but has continued to praise Powell; only last December on The South Bank Show he reiterated his support for the man and four years ago he told Uncut magazine that Powell had been 'outrageously brave'. In fact the truly 'outrageously brave' ones were those who spoke up against the hate mongers and stood up for a vision of a liberal and tolerant Britain; apathy and cynicism is easy, but Rock Against Racism was gloriously uncynical.

he is not a racist. he was just caught on a bad racist day.

ugh

clapton CANT be a racist. he pays tribute to black blues artists all the time and has said dozens of times how much he owes black music. liking black music/honouring bb king and co = not a racist. end of thread. can we just end this here now?

lolol

Bigging up racists at every opportunity and moaning about immigration for the last 30-odd years doesn't make him a racist tho.

Sorry, meant that for the Morrissey thread.

hey, eric clapton has black friends

and he makes money off of them!

he can't be racist!

i dunno why youre laughing big hoos. clapton covered bob marley too, so anyone saying that he had a problem with west indian immigrants in the uk at the time is just wrong.

titchy, are you being sarcastic you cheeky little blighter?

"eric clapton has black friends"

yep. and he doesnt even NOTICE theyre black. which just goes to show - as if proof was needed - that, again, he is not a racist. i would in fact argue that him speaking his mind is something he learnt from the blues songs he learnt as a teenager. ie more proof of how he isnt racist.

Bigging up racists at every opportunity and moaning about immigration for the last 30-odd years doesn't make him a racist tho.

Sorry, meant that for the Morrissey thread.

-- Noodle Vague, Thursday, 22 May 2008 19:50 (50 seconds ago) Link

o my damn. lo1!!

You're fucking with me.

Right?

You're fucking with me. xp

u right bro making mad $$$ off of black musical traditions and recording an album w/bb totally make "enoch was right" an ok thing to believe.

Just as a side note here, I love that PC shit disturbers have claimed the 'I have black friends' defense and made it that anyone who uses the phrase is clearly a bigot. What if you, like, really DO have black friends? What if you work in a soul fod restaraunt, intern at a hip hop label, and still - GASP! - criticize the welfare system?

bruvs, was it his fault white people prefer buying music by white people more than they like buying the black music that inspired said white people?

dont hate the player, hate the game.

Just as a side note here, I love that PC shit disturbers have claimed the 'I have black friends' defense and made it that anyone who uses the phrase is clearly a bigot. What if you, like, really DO have black friends? What if you work in a soul fod restaraunt, intern at a hip hop label, and still - GASP! - criticize the welfare system?

You intern at a hip hop label?

i would in fact argue that him speaking his mind is something he learnt from the blues songs he learnt as a teenager.

Enoch had them old woke up this morning, found a river of blood type blues.

People forget how involved Clapton was with black music in the 80s in the UK though. He put up the production budget for the first London Posse album, for instance. And he produced two of the tracks on the first Apache Indian album.

One of those was the song with all the Oswald Mosley samples, right?

actually ive heard that clapton interns at a hip hop label

xpost - Just using that as an example, taken from, err, real life accounts. heh heh heh

I'd also say I'm too busy defending late era Blck Sabbath on ILM to criticize the welfare system too. It ain't all about me, Noodle.

"What if you, like, really DO have black friends?"

you can still go on stage drunk and rant about evil immigrants.

clapton was there in covent garden at some of the early uk hip hop jams too. he helped lay out the lino.

My question though is, isn't it entirely possible to be politically to the right of Che Guevara and still, like, treat everyone equally and with respect? I'm just sayin.'

depends how theyre being equally treated.

What people forget is that Clapton wants all white British people to be sent back to Germany.

wait so titchy is being serious

Clapton actually wanted to give London an NBA franchise as well.

What if you, like, really DO have black friends? What if you work in a soul fod restaraunt, intern at a hip hop label, and still - GASP! - criticize the welfare system?

What about the welfare system? Are you implying that there a very certain group of people messing it up?

the only serious points i made in this thread were at 20.04 and semi-seriously, at 19.58.

wheres that nude spock paul revere gif

Pleasant Plains, I will not be party to a witchhunt, sorry bud. I wasn't 'implying' anything and was in fact basing this example on people I have known.

Why would dissing on welfare automatically make you a racist?

also, fuck Eric Clapton in his beady little eyes

I don't think it does automatically make you a racist, that's sorta my point. Can't Clapton hold political views his 'black friends' might disagree with? Something tells me these black friends would have less of a problem with his stupid ideas than knee jerk liberal types, no?

woah @ image of dan perry fucking eric clapton's eyes

And yes, fuck Clapton forever, dude sucks

anyone saying that he had a problem with west indian immigrants in the uk at the time is just wrong.

CLAPTON HIMSELF was the one who said he had a problem with West Indian immigrants in the UK.

Well, given that they're his friends, I would assume they're more tolerant of him than people who don't know him. I think that's true of everyone, though; you tend to be nicer to people you know.

My point was that bringing up criticism of the welfare system as a strawman example of What Racists Do seems really odd, particularly since it has nothing to do with the thread or the counter-example you were constructing.

That's worded poorly, I don't mean you were saying racists hate welfare, I meant you were saying that people assume that people who hate welfare are racists, and there's a gigantic implicit assumption in there that needs to happen in order for that to make sense.

huh welfare hating has been coded racism since st least reagan - obv not across the board - but still a fine example

I can't tell which responses are serious, but would kinda like to note that despite the names and the western habit of considering all non-white people west of Thailand to be the same color, India and the West Indies are really, really far away from each other.

yes but their names are v similar dont u see

Enoch Powell and Clapton both referred specifically to "black" immigrants, Powell at least was educated enough to know exactly what he meant, but it's hard to read Clapton as referring to anybody other than West Indian immigrants either.

xpost OK, well, I can't think of a better example without making a ridiculous leap, like, say you're Ziggy Marley's touring keyboard player and you spend the whole tour reading David Duke's book or something.

My only point is that it's totally possible to 'have black friends' and not necessarily do / say / believe things that are constantly advancing the causes of black people.

This is what happens whe you try to write serious, clear posts on ILM while listening to Half Japenmese really, really loud

u didnt tell us u were half japanese - this changes everything

Surely there's a difference between "to the right of Che Guevara" and "behind Enoch Powell"??

xposts

I'm not saying the guy shouldn't take some hits for these comments, but you guys are putting a little too much in when you take a musician's ideas as anything approaching cogent, reasoned thought on something as difficult as British immigration policy.

OTM

My only point is that it's totally possible to 'have black friends' and not necessarily do / say / believe things that are constantly advancing the causes of black people.

It's also possible to have black friends and say / do / believe things that actively impede the causes of black people. This doesn't make you a particularly good friend.

i hate ziggy marley's touring keyboardist, i don't care if that makes me racist

I'm not saying the guy shouldn't take some hits for these comments, but you guys are putting a little too much in when you take a musician's ideas as anything approaching cogent, reasoned thought on something as difficult as British immigration policy.

I don't think anybody's doing that, they're mostly saying "look, over the years Eric Clapton has repeatedly championed the views of a notoriously racist politician" and then drawing their own conclusions from that.

ziggy marleys half japanese touring keyboardist here w/a book recommendation 4 u

OK, I see your point there HI DERE. I guess the argument could be made that Clapton is kinda being two faced here.

I was merely defending the right of anyone who may live in a cushy gated community and / or has a voting record similar to Archie Bunker to claim they have black friends and not have it result in a liberal laugh riot, but I guess that's probably for another thread and another time

i just voted for africa on the toto song poll so i'm not a racist anymore

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Matt. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Oh wait...

just to be clear airports the liberal laugh riot comes from the obv fact that having black friends in no way precludes one from being a racist and to display proof of black friends in defense against racism charges absurdly illustrates ones lack of understanding of racism altogether thereby fanning racism suspicions

my wife's family is friends with an australian family who are very nice and friendly folks but the dad is racist as fuck. he always talks about enoch powell. so i guess i would be suspicious of clapton on those grounds.

this guy is pretty hilarious looking

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/11_01/powellL0411_468x825.jpghttp://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/enoch_powell.jpghttp://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/4/4c/Enoch_Powell.GIF

if trolls could fly ...

good job of hiding the strings holding up his smile

having black friends in no way precludes one from being a racist

I agree with this

to display proof of black friends in defense against racism charges absurdly illustrates ones lack of understanding of racism altogether thereby fanning racism suspicions

but not neccessarily with this. How does it 'absurdly illustate' anything if it's true? I mean, unless you're leading a double life, I don't think this is an altogether 'ridiculous' defense against racism, especially if the person accusing you of racism has never even met a non white person themselves. Kinda hard to be a seething, frothing racist loonie if your best buddies on your bowling team are all black, no?

Is that really what Enoch Powell looks like?

Not all racists are seething, frothing loonies, is the point being made here.

Powell was castigated as an extremist by senior figures in the Conservative Party. This is the same party that less than 5 years earlier had fought a by-election with the slogan "If You Want a Nigger for Your Neighbour, Vote Labour".

^shut the fuck up!! is that true? woah x 1000000

if having black friends in no way precludes one from being a racist then having black friends is a fallacious defense against racism charges

see

Smethwick By-Election, 1964

xp

1+1 may equal two, but whats wrong with saying it equals three?

rivers of blood http://youtube.com/watch?v=zMTndhA21O0

pretty interesting - never heard of this guy before

So, wait...

if having black friends in no way precludes one from being a racist then having black friends is a fallacious defense against racism charges

It seems to me that the reason the "But I have black friends!" defense works in some peoples' minds is that they can point and say "I hate those people, and they happen to be black. I don't hate them BECAUSE they're black, per Exhibit 1 - My Black Friends." This makes some sense to me.

Now, this is entirely different to me than a person who tries to defend themselves as not racist, despite undeniably racist behavior, by pointing to people who they regard as their friends who are black.

pretty interesting - never heard of this guy before

-- jhøshea, Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:31 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

64% of British people don't believe that Powell, specifically the Rivers of Blood speech, was racist.

And also - what is black, anyway? Chuck D.? Morgan Freeman? Janet Jackson? Mahalia Jackson? Kofe Annan? Joe Morgan? Toni Morrison? Mariah Carey? Tyler Perry? Peter Tosh? Pele? Kimbo Slice?

what are you going on about

Victor Wooten? Paul Robeson?

I'm just being stupid. My bad.

And also - what is black, anyway? Chuck D.? Morgan Freeman? Janet Jackson? Mahalia Jackson? Kofe Annan? Joe Morgan? Toni Morrison? Mariah Carey? Tyler Perry? Peter Tosh? Pele? Kimbo Slice?

-- B.L.A.M., Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:42 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Poll.

keep in mind, powell was a pre-eminent classical scholar, and wrote books about roman history and latin in his adult life.
therefore, he can't be racist or foolish.

ha many xposts

i know this so i point at q-tip and he says...

ha many xposts

ha many xposts must get dissed?

lol

Powell was a graduate of SOAS! That shit always surprises me.

you guys are all ingorant when god makes a cd than you would not even feel his gory

spark it up dom srsly

I am not the best speller sorry I am not like god shining on his licks

Powell was a graduate of SOAS! That shit always surprises me

Powell and a lot of his acolytes liked to pull that "racialist not racist" sleight-of-hand tho don't they.

what is black black baby dont hurt me

lol i srsly until just now thought racialist was a hilarious term invented by ali g

It's even more hilarious when people use it to defend themselves against accusations of being racist.

what is black, anyway?

Skipping 4 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

woah @ image of dan perry fucking eric clapton's eyes

-- J0rdan S., Thursday, May 22, 2008 3:26 PM (Thursday, May 22, 2008 3:26 PM) Bookmark Link

See, sometimes I don't want to "click here" to see the messages I'm missing.

what was your best clapton concert. dvd was mine!!!

As well as his education at Cambridge, Powell took a course in Urdu at the School of Oriental Studies, now the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, because he felt that his long-cherished ambition of becoming Viceroy of India would be unattainable without knowledge of an Indian language

http://viceroyofindia.com/

xp
that was in the 1930s, sos was set up in 1916. clearly its purpose was somewhat different in those days.

OK, can't be bothered to scroll through all of this, is Geir involved anywhere?

Not until now, but as I seem to recall, Eric Clapton had some rather violent anti-immigration views back in the late 70s, which may make him a racist. Because of his views, not because he is white and has a largely white audience.

the black friends = not a racist thing makes no sense. i know people MARRIED to people of other races who are still racist against that person's race.

Or even more against other races or cultures than their wives', I guess. Several of the people here who hate Muslim immigrants the most have imported wives from East Asia (Phillippines, Thailand)

I DEMAND YOU NAME THE MUSLIM-HATING ILXORS WITH MAIL-ORDER BRIDES RIGHT NOW, GEIR

Here=Norway

(OK, I laffed)

I can understand that it may have been possible to interpret wrongly though.

i know people MARRIED to people of other races who are still racist against that person's race.

Perhaps your definition of racism is a little too sensitive? I mean, don't white people who get married to Chinese people get to finally admit that Chinese people totally rock at doing math? Is that the kind of "racism" we're talking about here?

Yeah, they do don't they? Every last one of them.

Now, wait a second here! If there's one thing I've learned from internet race discussions it's that if you've ever dated a person from a different race, you are automatically not racist against anyone and anything you say or do is above reproach.

My curvaceous Colombian wife was saying the same thing only last night.

Which is why it is perfectly acceptable for someone like me, who has dated both a black chick and an indian broad to state that Mexicans are dirty, lazy and love to steal. Hey, I'm just saying what we're all thinking, right?

Man, I kind of want to start a "Hey, I'm just saying what we're all thinking, right?" thread on ILE now.

http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/4153_heading.jpg

Somehow, a little red cross in a small box is enterely appropriate.

We should all stop buying Eric Clapton records.

I have been observing that procedure for the past 35 years or so.

i think dating to verify stereotypes (whether chinese ppl rocking at match or black people being lazy or east europeans only being interested in other peoples jobs) and bringig the race of those partners' qualities into focus for other people is perfectly acceptable. noble even.

I was saying the same thing to my melodic Norwegian girlfriend the other nioght.

*math i meant. everyone knows chinese people arent good at match.

All I want to add at this point is "lol, Eric Clapton".

Maths you mean, you old American you

i do mean maths, but the person who cited the correct stereotype of 'chinese people rocking at math' used 'math' so i stuck with it.

fuckin Clapton

British racism is so.... curious

http://www.fender.com/custom-shop/features/brownie/

I don't know

It certainly is suspicious!

Let's ask the Japanese what they think...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xnBKPY_t0YM/SGPFXOiLgwI/AAAAAAAAA-U/TjV2MH_8wiU/s400/eric-crapton-4.jpg

those intentionally distressed lookin guitars are the worst

I'll say it's distressed. It's all like "Help! Get this old guy off me!"

sorry, that "joke" may have been worse than a pre-distressed fender guitar.

Road Worn®

"Relic'd"

haha dont even get me started on these guitars

JJJUSTEN DON'T YOU DARE QUESTION THE POWER OF "LACE SENSORS"

i'm suing

he's racist against good guitar playing

Experts at companies such as Gibson, Fender and Martin have meticulously replicated some of Eric Clapton's best known guitars. (...) In a collection of three videos, Mr Clapton talks about the Fender Eric Clapton "Brownie" Tribute Stratocaster, the Gibson Harrison-Clapton "Lucy" Les Paul, and the Martin "Crossroads" Eric Clapton Signature acoustic.

http://www.sonicstate.com/amped/2013/02/05/eric-clapton-crossroads-guitar-retail-collection-preview/

ugh...

There's a bit in the first video where Clapton is explaining that he used to buy second hand Strats that had a lot of wear on the fretboard, because they'd been played a lot, but the 'wear' on the tribute Strat isn't because someone's been playing it, it's because it's been gone over with a belt sander and £%£"$£IFJFI$I£$"£$%£$ arrgh...

so merzbow has played them then

Documentary on BBC2 right now, Eric Clapton: a life in 12 bars
which seems to be new?
Anyway he expresses the first substantial regret for his comments in this, that I've heard. At around 42 minutes the film addresses the Powell controversy and EC says that he when made the Powell comments he was becoming "fascistic" and "a semi-racist, which doesn't make sense as so many of my friends were black I championed black music".... " I hated everything". He, and the filmmakers, put it in the context of his chronic alcoholism and suicidal ideation. I mean, that's plausible, but if so why hasn't he made apologetic comments for his beahviour before now? He' been clean for years, right? Betetr late than never, I suppose.

Anyway, i hold no particular candle for the guy, he's been musically worthless for like 40 years, but I love the guy who made the Cream records and Layla and other Love songs, so I feel a little less bad about liking those records at least.

Shame?

maybe that guy in north carolina who claims "god is a racist" got confused and was just thinking about clapton

in any case, eric, apology accepted. now if only the 100 million or so racists in america would follow suit...

As recently as 2004 Clapton called Enoch Powell “outrageously brave,” so this recent expression of regret strikes me as complete horseshit.

Ok that's kinda disgusting.

As recently as 2004 Clapton called Enoch Powell “outrageously brave,” so this recent expression of regret strikes me as complete horseshit.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 1 July 2018 00:10 (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Exactly. Though, like I say, it's worth seeing this bit in the doc, because he does use the "f word" about himself, which seems to the furthest he's ever gone in admitting it.

i wouldn't say "complete horseshit", i'd just say "disingenuous". i'm not with fascist alcoholics anonymous, i could demand a fearless moral inventory from him but you know what, i'll settle for "i was wrong because i was a self-loathing drunk", even if his excuse lacks persuasive power. as far as these things go, i'll take "i was wrong because" where i won't take "i was wrong but".

otm

Yeah, I saw this documentary last night - hadn't seen it before and it does seem to be pretty new (it came out last year, apparently) - the guy seemed to have had mental health issues from the off, really - and of course when the trappings of success couldn't prevent him from being unhappy, he drank and drugged his way to as close to oblivion as he could. Sad, really. There was footage of him drinking and doing coke in the mid '70s and the guy just looks like a sad mess.

I like his stuff with the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos. Basically all the stuff before the smack addiction, alcoholism and bizarre behaviour.

I quite like that solo album from the alcoholic years, the one with the address in the title.

Anyway, his is not a pretty past but its not like he's Morrissey.

I like his stuff with the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos. Basically all the stuff before the smack addiction, alcoholism and bizarre behaviour.

Well, Ginger Baker was definitely on smack during Cream/Blind Faith, but for Clapton the harder drugs began to creep in during the Layla sessions, but it blew up into full-blown addiction circa '71. He spent a couple of years hiding away and doing smack, and when he came back he'd replaced smack with alcohol.

Eric Clapton: a life in 12 bars is most excellent.

I thought he was a quite dreadful human being before watching this but it has made me reasess. I now think he is a really dreadful human being.

I wonder if this is the documentary that a friend of mine was working on. FWIW he said Clapton was a boring cunt.

That doesn't surprise me at all!

I can only think that someone who could make a bad maudlin hit single about his bairn flying out of high rise flat window is a fucking psychopath tbh.

otm

I dunno, I can understand a musician using music to help them get over their grief...

...spending several years obsessively trying to pick up your friends wife, though...

I saw this doc last night. Pattie Boyd: I mean it's obvious but wowza.

It was a good watch, whatever you think of the man.

i enjoy Hitler documentaries

at least he didn't murder music

although he almost did murder Django Reinhardt, but that is another conversation.

Mostly old news peppered with some excessive both sides BS, but details Clapton’s history of self-serving bigotry and prejudice and goes into some fresh details about how he’s been actively supporting anti-vax activists:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/eric-clapton-vaccine-lockdown-racist-comments-1239027/

Came here to post that, too. It's mostly old news, yeah, but by running round-up stories like this every 10 years or so younger people get to hear it for the first time, in a sense inoculating themselves against this guy and his mostly worthless music.

would have assumed young ppl run no risk of getting into Eric Clapton either way but I guess Greta Von Fleet have young fans so

Clapton's legacy is mixed. I have found that deputies mostly like him, whereas he is not as popular among sheriffs.

Republican governors love him tho.

Also, the luxury rehab industry.

when he dies his tombstone will be forbidden to visit for those who are vaccinated.

years later, guards will talk about how weird it is that they've never had to enforce this rule.

when he dies his tombstone will be forbidden to visit for those who are vaccinated.

I briefly read this as "when he dies his *trombone* will be ..." etc., and thought it was a meta joke that by the time he dies he will have been so forgotten that no one can even remember what instrument he played.

RIP, Eric Clapton, trombone great.

it's in the way that you use it

iirc his nickname was "slowbone"

ask Patti

https://freshsheetmusic.com/media/catalog/product/p/a/paul_murtha-eric_clapton_on_stage_-_trombone_1-musicnotes_thumbnail.png

if Connor Clapton had grown up today, his dad would still get to write Tears in Heaven

I like to believe Clapton died somewhere in 1976, but was kept alive through infusions of racist propaganda and far-right conspiracy theories, resulting in the creature that has been infecting us with pseudoscience for the past year or so.

Too bad Clapton didn't join the "27 Club" instead of Hendrix. The world would've been a whole lot better with that swap.

we'd have never gotten "Change the World" or his "I Shot the Sheriff" cover!

There was a Clapton documentary on about a month ago and one memorable part had him saying his parents made him cut his hair when he was a teenager, and that ever since then he hadn't trusted anyone.So yeah, some traumas he's working through here, give the man a break, etc.

I imagining some alternate universe where people complain "Man, I can't believe Hendrix went from Electric Ladyland to this bland Babyface shit! I bet Clapton wouldn't have done this had he survived that heroin overdose."

My guitar teacher is a big fan of Clapton ... but literally only what he did in Cream through Derek & the Dominoes, so 1967-1970. He is bored by or outright hates everything he's done since 1970.

So as far as he's concerned, yeah, Clapton died in 1970, right after Hendrix.

"My Father's Eyes", Pilgrim, THIS is authentic blues!!!!

The outtakes from the aborted second album for Derek & the Dominos are pretty good (I think from 1971?) but that's pretty much the miserable end of the Eric Clapton worth hearing.

can't lie, i quite like this cocaine/sunshine of your love mash-up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdqSEPmdF98

Whenever I consider the forking paths of Hendrix surviving, the outcomes are far more Clive Davis presents Carlos and Jimi's Supernaturals III than Mdou Moctar collabs.

I'm going to have to disagree with the "Clapton sucks after 1970" angle -- in fact, I think "461 Ocean Boulevard" is one of the best albums Clapton has made (but I do think the hits are the weakest tracks on the album -- I've never really been a fan of "I Shot the Sheriff" and "Willie and the Hand Jive," but I absolutely love "Motherless Children" and especially "Let It Grow"). After that, though, I will say that things generally do go downhill from there (though I do have a bit of a soft spot for "Lay Down Sally," weirdly enough).

I actually like unplugged

There was a Clapton documentary on about a month ago and one memorable part had him saying his parents made him cut his hair when he was a teenager, and that ever since then he hadn't trusted anyone.So yeah, some traumas he's working through here, give the man a break, etc.

A bizarre moment in my 10-year-old life -- I briefly got obsessed with the song "Bad Love" and would rewind and play that part of my Journeyman cassette over and over again. Very much a product of that pre-adolescent phase where you start to have an inkling of what having your own music taste is but haven't really figured it out yet, much in the same way as you might start to stare at a girl you think is pretty at that age but have no idea what might be a next step.

In my actual adolescence I briefly thought Cream was alright, but the more other music I heard the less good they seemed.

diarrhea medicine

I've always thought of Clapton as medicine that *gave* you diarrhea.

Only just noticed how much of a self-rip that song is from Layla. Even the chord change from the chorus to verse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUbpwNWmjfI

Now that I think about it, Layla, On Tour with Eric Clapton and Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton are the only three Clapton-related albums I enjoy as a whole, and he was a sideman on two of those (though he's easily the best thing about Blues Breakers). I might throw the live Yardbirds album in there too, but regardless, his heyday is ridiculously uneven for a figure of his stature - pretty much everything I'd ever want to hear from Cream is on that 20-track The Very Best of Cream compilation. Luckily he was so prolific that there's more than enough music to fill a truly great box set of those years (1963-1971, and Crossroads was NOT it, even if you clip off the later stuff).

I think this is the only blip in the "Clapton sucks after 1970" write-off. Pros And Cons is terrible Waters cringe but Clapton stuck around for the first leg of the tour and hearing him on something like "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" where he's forced to be interesting is legit great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIu03Nh-QTk

What about “it’s in the way that you use it”

He used it wrong.

As I noted above, my angle isn't so much "Clapton sucked after 1970" as it is "Clapton sucked after unveiling his racist side to the world." I stand by this wholeheartedly.

So it's more like, "Clapton sucked after August, 1976" then?

I guess so, yeah. I still admittedly love "461 Ocean Boulevard".

Live shows are another thing. The material can be terrible, whether it's the songs or the arrangements, but he can still play well when he cares/tries/exercises good taste for once.

I guess so, yeah. I still admittedly love "461 Ocean Boulevard".

― Lone Wanderer Mark II

Great, underrated album. Very stoned vibes. It might be my favorite of his.

Eh...at this point I love blues and blues rock but really why bother much after Cream considering. I'd rather just listen to Freddie King, Magic Sam, Walter Trout, Govt Mule or Rory Gallagher or Buddy Guy. Even of his generation, Jeff Beck and Robin Trower were doing fresher things than old slow hand over the last decade or so.

Only one of EC's later records I have been remotely curious about but not enough to check it out was the one he did with JJ Cale. Never got around to that one, but there are JJ Cale records I have not checked out that are in front of that one.

The live gig DVD reunion with Cream was pretty good, I saw that one.

FWIW, some skeptics have had nice things to say about From the Cradle - it's the one latter day Clapton album that might be worth your time, but as earlnash mentioned, you can find much better blues albums from the last 30 years elsewhere. Buddy Guy alone has done better (check out 2001's Sweet Tea).

I will second the praise for the Cream reunion DVD. Surprisingly quite good, easily the best thing Clapton has done in the last 40 years.

a lot of cream songs have this sort of low key hazy smokiness that i can appreciate on some level, different thing from fully actualized hard rock like zep or sab

like, how tom heavy the drumming is on sunshine of your love, it kind of floats above everything while stringing it all along

Buddy Guy's Sweet Tea rules. My early Clapton fan pal saw one clip of the Cream reunion and, seeing that Clapton was apparently playing his Strat, shut it right off.

Not to derail the thread, but this is a very funny skewering of Clapton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFiYTs7EWsU

I like fooling people into thinking this is Will Oldham:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awbA-uWHycE

Yeah, some of those sleepy-time "Tulsa" records are harmless...if someone puts them on, I won't object and may even find them pleasant, but they're not something I'd ever want to put on myself.

Eric Clapton is good ... for me to poop on

The version of "We're Going Wrong" on that Cream reunion is totally ace. That said, a huge part is that Jack Bruce's voice is sanded into a fine gravel and has such an ache and Ginger Bakers rolling toms are really tasty.