I Like Eric Clapton.


There. I'm not ashamed to say it anymore. I'm quite aware how just how very unhip that comment is, relegating me to some sad adult fm fan [shudders] but I'm only being honest. True, this formerly great artist has, in the opinion of many, sunken to a new artistic low, a lull if you will, of comfortably sogginess (though consistently soggy) existence. This is a state of existence where the guitar notes that used to wail out in beautiful, rubbed-raw-and-bloody agony is now a half assed diddy you secretly know he could (and probably did) come up with while sitting on the porcelain during a toilet break between being a daddy and playing with the kids in the yard. You get quite angry with him at times, because you're convinced he still has the chops to whip out something as awesome as Bell Bottom Blues and all those Cream tunes but continues to be drawn to write schmaltzy songs.
In fact I don't even know why people keep calling him a blues rock n' roll-er. The blues part I get because the whole parallel with Robert Johnson and his blues guitar solos still smoke but the whole rock n' roll thing I don't think still applies so much anymore. His best songs (in his solo years) have always been admittedly pop with soft melodies and quiet lyrics of heartaches and unrequited love. Most of the people who claim these are rock songs are the suits who think Hotel California is the best rock song ever written and go to the beach on weekends to sit in the local "bar" with their khakis shorts and $15 dollar drinks thinking the thick version of Ride, Sally, Ride the "house band" is playing is some really smokin' blues. Not to say Clapton's songs are not good. In fact they're quite nice - just not rock. I think it'd be better for everyone if we'd just stop kidding ourselves and admit the fact.

Why am I even writing a blog entry about Clapton you ask?? Well, I was browsing around on the internet (ok yes, wasting time) and I came across an article promoting Clapton's new album Back Home. I went over to iTunes to check it out. Its a whole album about how's he's finally found happiness with a woman he really loves and settled into his role as typical English fuddy duddy daddy and husband. It is further erosion to his rocker image and it was a little surprising to me, by the way his voice sounded, how much he didn't care. I was a huge fan at one time, a bit of time ago, researching into all his albums, following every detail of his life professional and personal, even going so far as to buy his electronic/dance side project TDF: Retail Therapy, which I admit requires a certain level of fandom. While I delved deep into his life, I realized that understanding the troubles and struggles with love, addiction and loss he went through was integral to his music and appreciating it. He's one of those artists who's music is attached/connected in such an incredible way to the events of his life, its sometimes impossible to tell the two apart. Those are the songs that speak to us, the way his voice cries out and guitar wails that makes our heart break for him and spring tears in our eyes, because maybe he was going through so much shit and confusion he didn't know how to do it himself. Perhaps in that way, we liked him better when he was in pain and there was turmoil in his life. I myself would have to say he certainly created better music when he was a drug addict and vastly unhappy but to say I would want him to continue in that way just so I could have the benefit of a few lovely songs, that's just plain stupid. Quite the contrary, I've felt such a connection to his life and pains that when I hear these plain unchallenging exercises of schmaltzy hand-holding love and cliche fatherhood ballads in the new album Back Home (that he probably recorded to fulfill his contract rather than answering any creative need), I just feel, not disappointed but so.......surprisingly......happy for him.

Recommended Tunes For Today:
Some highlights of Clapton's career accompanied by the album cover from where the song came.


+ Cream - Strange Brew
(The layers of vocals are way very cool)
+ Cream - Tales Of Brave Ulysses
(The recording is amazing. I don't think he coul ever reproduce it live (or in the studio for that matter) ever again.


(Probably his best album)
+ Derek And The Dominoes - Bell Bottom Blues
(Personally I think this is more achey and anthem-ic for love than Layla. "Do you wanna see me crawl across the floor to you?" the anguish in his voice is just breaking surface yet undeniable)
+ Derek And The Dominoes - Keep On Growing
(With the bright melody, optomistic lyrics and the overwhelming feeling that Clapton believes with such hope every word he sings, you can't help but want to believe in the power of love too)
+ Derek And The Dominoes - Little Wing
(I never thought a Hendrix song could be interpreted in a way that could compete with the original and especially with a song as beautiful as Little Wing. Until I heard this.

- I'd like to add here that I know he never liked his voice, he wanted the old black man's voice from the blues records he loved so much and now that he's gotten older, he tends to utilize that grumble of age. However, I actually prefer the young sweeter, straining voice. It was much more unique and added an element of fragility to his songs that was quite nice.


+ Eric Clapton - Floating Bridge
(The first disc of Blues (Studio blues) is a fine example of his blues power. Sometimes better than his live performances where the solos can go a bit over the top. The restraint in some of the shorter songs are almost perfect. Favorites: Mean Old World, The Sky Is Cryin, Cryin, Alberta, Give Me Strength, To Make Somebody Happy)


+ Eric Clapton - Behind The Sun
(The fact that Phil Collins produced this album shouldn't deter you from listening to this song. The screaming strain of heartbreak from his Derek and the Dominoes days have been compressed to a voice just above a whisper, internalized)


+ Blind Faith - Presence Of The Lord
(At the top of his game, the riffs from the solo come streaming out with ease and precision. I would also like to note with this song, Clapton is a bit unique and interesting that while all the hippies/rockers around him were getting turned on to Eastern religion and alternative thought, he was quite attached to traditional his Catholic upbringing and continued/continues throughout his career)


+ Eric Clapton - Running On Faith
(The solos are almost self indulgent but I must admit, he always picks the right notes, the right sequence and which to accentuate/hold. This is probably the reason he's so popular)


+ Eric Clapton - Told You For The Last Time
(A very young Clapton in his first solo album with a very fine example of that sweet vulnerable voice)
+ Eric Clapton - Blues Power
(Ironic that the song Blues Power isn't very bluesy at all. Adding further insult to injury the first line is "Bet you didn't know I knew how to rock n' roll" is accompanied by a decidedly funky soul-ish rhythm. Well, I won't be picky. I love this song anyways)


+ Eric Clapton - Please Be With Me
(Another quiet number, but the anguish isn't there, replaced with a contemplative calm)
+ Eric Clapton - Mainline Florida
(Very thematic song, almost summing up the feel for the whole 461 Ocean Boulevard album)
+ Eric Clapton - Motherless Child
(This sure isn't the same song as the one From the Cradle, boy oh boy. Everyobody plays like they're posessed


+ Eric Clapton - I Want A Little Girl
(Geez, I wonder if this has anything to do w/ his new wife - or girlfriend at the time - he'd never admit it though.


+ Eric Clapton - Born In Time
(You might hate the way he changed it into a pop song but I admire the way he could transformed a Dylan song into the gentle result. Almost makes Dylan into a romantic)


Wow. Found this while image hunting. I've never seen this pic before and I thought I'd seen them all.