Clapton desired to break out of the standard forms of rock and blues to create a new sound that allowed more experimentation and improvisation. He wanted to start a revolution in music, and the super trio of Cream did just that.
Much to the dismay of their fans, the members of Cream announced in that they would part ways. Tension and strife created by three strong, creative personalities, intensified by the drug use of all three, proved to be too much for Cream.
Before disbanding, Cream went on a farewell tour and, in , released one last album, Goodbye, which went to number two on the charts in the United States. Clapton's next band, Blind Faith, became yet one more short-lived supergroup. They quickly made their presence known in the music world by staging a free concert for , people in London's Hyde Park.
But, after a six-week tour in the United States, the band called it quits. Clapton's most lasting work with Blind Faith is the song "Presence of the Lord. Although generally disappointing as a debut solo album, Clapton did find an audience for the song "After Midnight," which made it into the Top In the spring of , Clapton brought together a new band, Derek and the Dominos. They toured throughout England during the summer of Much of the album was inspired by Clapton's love for Patti Harrison, the wife of his good friend, ex-Beatle George Harrison.
By the early s, Clapton's heroin addiction was becoming unmanageable. His drug use was fueled by the trauma of losing two of his closest friends.
Slide guitar player, Duane Allman, who collaborated with Derek and the Dominos, was killed in a motorcycle accident, and Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose. Finally, after hitting the depths of his addiction, Clapton kicked his heroin habit using a controversial electro-acupuncture treatment.
With drugs behind him, Clapton staged a comeback concert in London in January In he released his second solo album, Ocean Boulevard. The album went to number one on the charts as did his remake of the Bob Marley song "I Shot the Sheriff. Unfortunately, Clapton had traded one addiction for another, and this period marked his fall into a serious drinking problem.
Each album was only marginally successful. Their surname was Clapp, which has given rise to the widespread but erroneous belief that Eric's real name is Clapp. Years later his mother married another Canadian soldier, moved to Canada and left Eric with his grandparents. When Clapton was 9 years old he discovered this family secret, and the experience became a defining moment in his life.
Clapton grew up a self-confessed "nasty kid". During his secondary school years he attended the Hollyfield School in Surbiton. His first job was as a postman. Influenced by the blues from an early age, at 13 Clapton received an acoustic guitar for his birthday, but he found learning the instrument so difficult he nearly gave up.
After high school, Clapton studied stained-glass design at Kingston Art School but was later kicked out for lack of progress in his studies. Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones and the Engineers, in September King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene. They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson; a joint LP, recorded in December , was issued belatedly under both their names in In March , just as Clapton left the band, the Yardbirds had their first major hit, on which Clapton played guitar: " For Your Love.
Clapton recommended fellow guitarist Jimmy Page as his replacement, but Page was at that time unwilling to relinquish his lucrative career as a freelance studio musician, so Page in turn recommended Clapton's successor, Jeff Beck although Page would also eventually join the band. His passionate playing in nightclubs — and on the immensely influential album, Blues Breakers — established Clapton's name worldwide as a blues guitarist. With his Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and Marshall amplifier, Clapton's playing by then had inspired a craze of graffiti that deified him with the famous slogan "Clapton is God.
The graffiti was captured in a now-famous photograph. During his time with Cream, Clapton began to develop as a singer and songwriter, as well as guitarist, though Bruce, one of rock's most powerful singers, took most of the lead vocals and wrote the majority of the material with lyricist Pete Brown. Cream's first gig was a low key performance at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester on July 29th before their full debut at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival.
Cream established an enduring legend on the high-volume blues jamming and extended solos of their live shows, while their studio work was more sophisticated than original rock.
In early , Clapton's status as Britain's top guitarist was shaken by the arrival of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix attended a performance of the newly-formed Cream at the Central London Polytechnic on October 1, , during which Hendrix sat in on a shattering double-timed version of "Killing Floor".
Hendrix's arrival had an immediate and major effect on the next phase of Clapton's career, although Clapton continued to be recognized in music polls as the premier guitarist. Cream's repertoire varied from pop soul " I Feel Free" to lengthy blues-based instrumental jams " Spoonful" and featured Clapton's searing guitar lines, Bruce's soaring vocals and prominent, fluid bass playing, and Baker's powerful, polyrhythmic jazz-influenced drumming. In a mere three years Cream had immense commercial success, selling 15 million records and playing to standing-room only crowds throughout the U.
They redefined the instrumentalist's role in rock and were one of the first bands to emphasize musical virtuosity, skill and flash. Their U. Although Cream was hailed as one of the greatest groups of its day, and the adulation of Clapton as guitar hero reached new heights, the band was destined to be short-lived. The legendary infighting between Bruce and Baker and growing tensions between all three members eventually led to Cream's demise. Another significant factor was a strongly critical Rolling Stone review of a concert of the group's second headlining U.
By this time he had also fallen deeply under the spell of the music of The Band after they had released the album Music from Big Pink and began to believe that rock music was heading in a new direction. He was so infatuated with them that he even asked to join them, but was turned down. Cream's farewell album, Goodbye , featured live performances recorded live at The Forum, Los Angeles, October 19, , and it was released shortly after Cream disbanded in , and also featured the studio single " Badge", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison, whom he had met and become friends with after the Beatles had shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium.
The close friendship between Clapton and Harrison also resulted in Clapton's playing on Harrison's " While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Beatles' White Album - according to some, a tactic intended to make the other Beatles take Harrison's song more seriously, but whatever the truth, by all accounts the presence of an outsider, especially of Clapton's calibre, had the effect of bringing harmony to the irritable band. In January , during the making of what would become the Let It Be album, Harrison walked out after an argument and in his absence - fearing Harrison had gone for good and concerned that the album could not be completed - John Lennon proposed that Harrison be replaced by Clapton.
Clapton's miraculous guitar-playing on the album also inspired his most flattering nickname, "God," popularized by a bit of graffiti on the wall of a London Tube station reading "Clapton is God. Despite the record's success, Clapton soon left the Bluesbreakers as well; a few months later, he teamed up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form the rock trio Cream.
Performing highly original takes on blues classics such as "Crossroads" and "Spoonful," as well as modern blues tracks like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room," Clapton pushed the boundaries of blues guitar.
On the strength of three well-received albums, Fresh Cream , Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire , as well as extensive touring in the United States, Cream achieved international superstar status. Yet they, too, broke up after two final concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, citing clashing egos as the cause. After the breakup of Cream, Clapton formed yet another band, Blind Faith, but the group broke up after only one album and a disastrous American tour.
Then, in , he formed Derek and the Dominos, and went on to compose and record one of the seminal albums of rock history, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. A concept album about unrequited love, Clapton wrote Layla to express his desperate affection for Pattie Boyd, the wife of the Beatles' George Harrison.
The album was critically acclaimed but a commercial failure, and in its aftermath a depressed and lonely Clapton deteriorated into three years of heroin addiction. Clapton finally kicked his drug habit and reemerged onto the music scene in with two concerts at London's Rainbow Theater organized by his friend Pete Townshend of The Who. Despite his great musical productivity during these years, Clapton's personal life remained in woeful disarray. However, by this time Clapton had simply replaced his heroin addiction with alcoholism, and his drinking placed a constant strain on their relationship.
He was an unfaithful husband and conceived two children with other women during their marriage. Clapton and Boyd divorced in In , Clapton's son Conor died when he fell out of the window of his mother's apartment.
The tragedy took a heavy toll on Clapton and also inspired one of his most beautiful and heartfelt songs, "Tears in Heaven. In , with the help of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Clapton finally quit drinking and has remained sober ever since. Being sober for the first time in his adult life allowed Clapton to achieve the kind of personal happiness he had never known before.
In , he founded the Crossroads Centre, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, and in , he married Melia McEnery. Clapton, who published his autobiography in , was ranked the second greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in An time Grammy Award winner and the only triple inductee of the Rock and Roll of Fame as a member of The Yardbirds, as a member of Cream and as a solo artist , he continued to record music and tour through his 60s, while also performing charity work.
In , Clapton revealed that he had been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy three years earlier, a condition that left him with back and leg pain. In early , he admitted in an interview that he was also dealing with tinnitus, a ringing in the ears caused by noise-induced hearing loss. Despite the ailments, the guitar legend said he intended to continue performing that year.
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