Slowhand re-emerging

Slowhand re-emerging

While Unplugged featured Clapton playing acoustic guitar, his 1994 album From the Cradle contained new versions of old blues standards highlighted by his electric guitar playing. The album showed that Clapton could still effectively play blues along the more mainstream music featured in his other records.

Clapton's 1996 recording of the Wayne Kirkpatrick/ Gordon Kennedy/Tommy Sims tune "Change the World" (featured in the soundtrack of the movie Phenomenon) won a Grammy award for song of the year in 1997, the same year he recorded Retail Therapy, an album of electronic music with Simon Climie under the pseudonym TDF. The following year, Clapton released the album "Pilgrim", the first record featuring brand new material for almost a decade. Clapton finished the twentieth century with critically-acclaimed collaborations with Carlos Santana and B. B. King.

In 1996 Clapton had a relationship with singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow. The couple dated briefly but it is rumoured that Sheryl wrote "My Favorite Mistake" about her relationship with Clapton. They remain friends currently, and Eric Clapton also appeared as a guest on Sheryl Crow's Central Park Concert when the duo performed a Cream hit single "White Room".

In 1999 Clapton, then 54, met 23-year-old store clerk Melia McEnery in Los Angeles while working on an album with B.B. King. They married in 2002 at St Mary Magdalen church in Clapton's birthplace, Ripley, Surrey, and as of 2005 have three daughters, Julie Rose (2001), Ella May (2003), and Sophie Belle (2005). He wrote the song "Three Little Girls," featured on his 2006 album "The Road to Escondido," about the contentment he has found in his home life with his wife and daughters.

Following the release of the 2001 record Reptile, Eric performed "Layla" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Party at the Palace in 2002 and in November he organised and hosted the The Concert for George at the Royal Albert Hall, a tribute to George Harrison, who had died a year earlier of cancer. The concert featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Ravi Shankar, and others.

In 2004, Clapton released two records packed full of covers by legendary Bluesman, Robert Johnson. Me & Mr Johnson. The same year, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Clapton #53 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

In May 2005, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker reunited as Cream for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Concert recordings were released on CD and DVD. Later, Cream performed in New York at Madison Square Garden.

Back Home, Clapton's first album of new original material in nearly five years, was released on Reprise Records on 30 August.

Eric Clapton (4th from left) and his band live in 2007In 2006 it was announced that Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II would join Clapton's band for his 2006-2007 world tour. Trucks is the third member of the Allman Brothers Band to support Clapton, the second being pianist/keyboardist Chuck Leavell who appeared on the MTV Unplugged album and the 24 Nights performances at the Royal Albert Hall theater of London (RAH) in 1990 and 1991, as well as Clapton's 1992 US tour.

On 20 May 2006 he performed with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, at the Highclere Castle, in aid of the Countryside Alliance. On 13 August 2006, Clapton made a surprise guest appearance at the Bob Dylan concert in Columbus, Ohio. Though he did not take the stage with Dylan, he played guitar on three songs in Jimmie Vaughan's opening act.

A collaboration with guitar legend J. J. Cale, titled The Road to Escondido, was released on 7 November 2006. The 14 track CD was produced and recorded by the duo in August 2005 in California.

The rights to Clapton's official memoirs, written by Christopher Simon Sykes and published in 2007, were reportedly sold at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair for USD $4 million.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Clapton is currently working on an album with Robbie Robertson. Robertson performed with Clapton at the Crossroads Guitar Festival. They played "Who Do You Love?", which Robertson originally did with Ronnie Hawkins, as a member of The Hawks. Clapton and Steve Winwood also reunited at the Festival, performing a set featuring numerous Blind Faith songs. The two decided to carry on the collaboration, and will perform together at Madison Square Garden in New York City for three sold-out shows on February 25, 26, and 28, 2008.

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Tragedy again

Tragedy again

In 1984, while still married to Pattie Boyd, Clapton began a year-long relationship with Yvonne Kelly; they had a daughter, Ruth, born in January 1985. Clapton and Kelly did not make any public announcement about the birth of their daughter, and she was not publicly revealed as his child until 1991, at the funeral of his son Conor. Boyd did not know of the existence of Ruth until 1991: "What cut deepest was that Eric had known about the child all along. While declaring undying love to me and pleading with me to go back to him, he had been paying Yvonne maintenance for the past six years."

Hurricane Hugo hit Montserrat in 1989 and this resulted in the closure of Sir George Martin and John Burgess's recording studio AIR Montserrat, where Kelly was Managing Director. Kelly and Ruth moved back to England, and the myth of Eric's secret daughter was born as a result of newspaper articles published at the time.

Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989 following his affair with Italian model Lory Del Santo, who gave birth to their son Conor in August 1986. Boyd herself was never able to conceive children, despite attempts at in vitro fertilization. Their divorce was granted in 1989 on grounds of "infidelity and unreasonable behaviour."

The early 1990s saw tragedy enter Clapton's life again on two occasions. On 27 August 1990, good friend and fellow guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was touring with Clapton, and two members of their road crew were killed in a helicopter crash between concerts. This marked the third iconic guitarist who was also Clapton's good friend to be killed, the first being Jimi Hendrix in 1970, the second being Duane Allman just over a year later in 1971, and the third being Vaughan. All three, along with Clapton himself, are known as some of the greatest guitarists to ever live. Then, on 20 March 1991 at 11:00AM, Conor, who was four years of age, died when he fell from the 53rd-story window of his mother's friend's New York City apartment, landing on the roof of an adjacent four-story building. Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven" (on the soundtrack to the 1991 movie Rush). The song was co-written by Will Jennings. He received a total of six Grammys that year for the single "Tears in Heaven" and the Unplugged album.

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Comeback

Comeback

In 1981, Clapton was invited by producer Martin Lewis to appear at the Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. Clapton accepted the invitation and teamed up with Jeff Beck to perform a series of duets - reportedly their first-ever billed stage collaboration. Three of the performances were released on the album of the show and one of the songs was featured in the film of the show. The performances heralded a return to form and prominence for Clapton in the new decade.

In 1984, he performed on Pink Floyd member Roger Waters's solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and went on tour with Waters following the release of the album. Since then Waters and Clapton have had a close relationship. In 2005 they performed together for the Tsunami Relief Fund. In 2006 they performed at the Highclere Castle, in aid of the Countryside Alliance, playing two set pieces of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb".

As Clapton came back from his addictions, his album output continued in the 1980s, including two produced with Phil Collins, 1985's Behind the Sun, which produced the hits "Forever Man" and "She's Waiting", and 1986's August.

August, a polished release suffused with Collins's trademark drum/horn sound, became Clapton's biggest seller in the UK to date and matched his highest chart position, number 3. The album's first track, the hit "It's In The Way That You Use It", was also featured in the Tom Cruise-Paul Newman movie The Color of Money. The horn-peppered "Run" echoed Collins' "Sussudio" and rest of the producer's Genesis/solo output, while "Tearing Us Apart" (with Tina Turner) and the bitter "Miss You" echoed Clapton at his angry best.

The period kicked off Clapton's extensive two-year period of touring with Collins and their August collaborates, bassist Nathan East and keyboard player/songwriter Greg Phillinganes. Despite his own earlier battles with the bottle, Clapton also remade "After Midnight" as a single and a promotional track for the Michelob beer brand produced by Anheuser-Busch, which had also marketed earlier songs by Collins and Steve Winwood.

Clapton won more plaudits and a British Academy Television Award for his collaboration with Michael Kamen on the score for the critically-acclaimed 1985 BBC television thriller serial Edge of Darkness.

Clapton also worked on the music for the "Lethal Weapon" motion picture series alongside Michael Kamen and David Sanborn.

Many factors influenced Clapton's comeback, including his "deepening commitment to Christianity", to which he had converted prior to his heroin addiction.

In 1989, Clapton's commercial and artistic resurgence finally came full circle with Journeyman, which featured songs in a wide range of styles from blues to jazz, soul and pop and collaborators including George Harrison, Phil Collins, Daryl Hall, Chaka Khan, Mick Jones, David Sanborn and Robert Cray.

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Controversy

Controversy

On August 5, 1976, Clapton was placed the center of controversy when he spoke out against increasing immigration during a concert in Birmingham. Visibly intoxicated, he remarked that England had "become overcrowded" and told the audience to "Stop Britain from becoming a black colony". He said, "I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism." Clapton also voiced his support of controversial political candidate Enoch Powell, telling the crowd "I think Enoch's right...we should send them all back. Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!". These comments, along with equally controversial remarks and actions by David Bowie apparently expressing admiration for fascism (which Bowie later apologised for), led to the creation of the Rock Against Racism movement in the UK.

Clapton later explained that he felt angry since an "Arab" had felt his wife's bottom. He stated in a 1978 interview that he had "rabbited on about nothing". He stated that "what started it, was the upsurge in London of Arab money-spending and their lack of respect for other people's money. "How much is Hyde Park?" and all that, and for some reason it all came pouring out of me that night". In a 2004 interview with Uncut magazine, Clapton called Enoch Powell "outrageously brave". He also stated that "My feeling about this has not changed really. We have always been up to some funny business in this country, inviting people in as cheap labour and then putting them in ghettos."

Clapton has also stated that "There’s no way I could be a racist. It would make no sense". In his autobiography, he called himself "deliberately oblivious to it all" and wrote, "I had never really understood or been directly affected by racial conflict... when I listened to music, I was disinterested in where the players came from or what colour their skin was."

In the late 1980s Clapton added four black musicians to his band: bassist Nathan East, keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, drummer Steve Ferrone and backing singer Katie Kissoon. Whilst Clapton had previously played and recorded with many black musicians including Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, BB King and Robert Cray and had also appeared alongside performers of varying ethnicities at collaborative events such as The Concert for Bangla Desh, this was the first time Clapton had been in a band in which the official members were not all white. Defenders of Clapton's claim not to be racist also point out that he has dated Afro-Caribbean supermodel Naomi Campbell, and has had a home on the Caribbean island of Antigua for many years.

In an interview with Melvin Bragg on The South Bank Show broadcast on 2 December 2007, Clapton reiterated his support for Enoch Powell and denied that Powell's views were racist.

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Solo career

Solo career

Clapton's career successes were in stark contrast to his personal life, in a chaotic mess by late 1971. In addition to his (temporarily) unrequited and intense romantic longing for Pattie Boyd, he withdrew from recording and touring to isolation in his Surrey, England residence. There he nursed his heroin addiction, resulting in a career hiatus interrupted only by the Concert for Bangladesh in August of 1971 (where he passed out on stage, was revived, and continued the show). In January of 1973, The Who's Pete Townshend organised a comeback concert for Clapton at London's Rainbow Theatre aptly titled the "Rainbow Concert" to help Clapton kick his addiction. Clapton would return the favour by playing 'The Preacher' in Ken Russell's film version of The Who's Tommy in 1975; his appearance in the film (performing "Eyesight To The Blind") is notable for the fact that he is clearly wearing a fake beard in some shots, the result of deciding to shave off his real beard after the initial takes in an attempt to force the director to remove his earlier scene from the movie and leave the set.

In 1974, now partnered with Pattie (they would not actually marry until 1979) and free of heroin (although starting to drink heavily), Clapton put together a more low key touring band that included Radle, Miami guitarist George Terry, keyboardist Dick Sims, drummer Jamie Oldaker and vocalists Yvonne Elliman and (in 1975) Marcy Levy (later better known as Marcella Detroit of 1980s pop duo Shakespear's Sister). With this band Clapton recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), an album with the emphasis on more compact songs and fewer guitar solos; the cover-version of "I Shot The Sheriff" was Clapton's first #1 hit and was important in bringing reggae and the music of Bob Marley to a wider audience.

The 1975 album There's One in Every Crowd continued the trend of 461. The album's original title The World's Greatest Guitar Player (There's One In Every Crowd) was changed before pressing, as it was felt its ironic intention would be missed. (Clapton's own original cover artwork, a self-portrait of a miserable-looking character with a pint glass, was relegated to innersleeve status and replaced by a photograph of Clapton's dog Jeep, apparently with its muzzle on a coffin.) The band toured the world and subsequently released the 1975 live LP, E.C. Was Here.

In 1976, Clapton appeared at The Band's farewell concert on 26 November. It was the second farewell concert Clapton had played on that date; eight years earlier, he had played Cream's farewell concert in London.

Clapton continued to release albums and toured regularly. Highlights of the era include No Reason to Cry, whose collaborators included Bob Dylan and The Band, and Slowhand, which featured "Wonderful Tonight", another song inspired by Pattie Boyd, and a second J.J. Cale cover, "Cocaine", which has since become a rock staple.

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Derek and the Dominos

Derek and the Dominos

Taking over Delaney & Bonnie's rhythm section — Bobby Whitlock (keyboards, vocals), Carl Radle (bass) and Jim Gordon (drums) — Clapton formed a new band which was similarly intended to counteract the 'star' cult that had grown up around him and display Clapton as an equal member of a fully-fledged group. The band was unnamed early on simply called "Eric Clapton and Friends" with its final name, Derek and the Dominos, an accident, by all accounts. Whitlock claims the previous performer, Tony Ashton of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke mispronounced their provisional name of "Eric and the Dynamos" as Derek and the Dominos. While in Clapton's biography a different story emerges claiming Ashton told Clapton to call the band "Del and the Dominos", Del being his nickname for Clapton. Del and Eric were combined and the final name became "Derek and the Dominos."

Clapton's close friendship with George Harrison had brought him into contact with Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd, with whom he became deeply infatuated. When she spurned his advances, Clapton's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, most notably the hit single "Layla", inspired by the classical Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi's The Story of Layli and Majnun, a copy of which his friend Ian Dallas had given him. The book moved Clapton profoundly as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he couldn't marry her. Clapton found a strong similarity between the situation of Layla and Majnun and the one between him and Boyd-Harrison.

Working at Criteria Studios in Miami with legendary Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd, who had worked with Clapton on Cream's Disraeli Gears, the band recorded a brilliant double-album, which is now widely regarded as Clapton's masterpiece. The two parts of "Layla" were recorded in separate sessions: the opening guitar section was recorded first, and for the second section, laid down several months later, drummer Jim Gordon composed and played the elegiac piano part.

The Layla LP was actually recorded by a five-piece version of the group, thanks to the unforeseen inclusion of guitarist Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band. A few days into the Layla sessions, Dowd — who was also producing the Allmans — invited Clapton to an Allman Brothers outdoor concert in Miami. The two guitarists — who previously knew each other only by reputation — met first onstage as Duane stopped playing in mid-solo only to discover Clapton sitting right in front of him. Clapton and Allman played all night in the studio and became instant friends, and Allman was immediately invited to become the fifth member of The Dominos. (These studio jams were eventually released as part of the 3-CD 20th-anniversary edition of the Layla album.)

When Allman and Clapton met, The Dominos had barely started recording anything. Duane first added his slide guitar to "Tell the Truth" on August 28th as well as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." In a window of only four days, the five-piece Dominos recorded "Key to the Highway," "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," and "Why Does Love Got to be So Sad." When September came around, Duane briefly left the sessions for gigs with his own band. In the two days he was absent, the four-piece Dominos recorded "I Looked Away," "Bell Bottom Blues," and "Keep on Growing." Duane returned on the 3rd to record "I am Yours," "Anyday," and "It's Too Late." On the 9th, they recorded Hendrix's "Little Wing" and the title track. The following day, the final track, "Thorn Tree in the Garden" was recorded.

The album was heavily blues-influenced and featured a winning combination of the twin guitars of Allman and Clapton, with Allman's incendiary slide-guitar a key ingredient of the sound. Many critics would later notice that Clapton played best when in a band composed of dual guitars; working with another guitarist kept him from getting "sloppy and lazy and this was undeniably the case with Duane Allman." It showcased some of Clapton's strongest material to date, as well as arguably some of his best guitar playing, with Whitlock also contributing several superb numbers, and his powerful, soul-influenced voice.

Tragedy dogged the group throughout its brief career. During the sessions, Clapton was devastated by news of the death of Jimi Hendrix; eight days previously the band had cut a blistering version of "Little Wing" as a tribute to him which was added to the album. On Sept. 17, 1970, one day before Hendrix's death, Clapton had purchased a left-handed Stratocaster that he had planned to give to Hendrix as a birthday gift. Adding to Clapton's woes, the Layla album received only lukewarm reviews upon release; Clapton took this personally, accelerating his spiral into drug addiction.

The shaken group undertook a US tour. Despite Clapton's later admission that the tour took place amidst a veritable blizzard of drugs and alcohol, it resulted in the surprisingly strong live double album In Concert. But Derek and the Dominos disintegrated messily in London just as they commenced recording for their second LP in 1971, without Duane Allman. Several tracks were recorded (five of which were released on the Eric Clapton box-set Crossroads), but the results were mediocre with a distinct lack of Bobby Whitlock's influence (he does not even appear on "Got To Get Better In A Little While," which had become a live favourite during their tour.) Although Radle would be Clapton's bass player until the summer of 1979 (Radle died in May 1980 from the effects of alcohol and narcotics), the split between Clapton and Whitlock was apparently a bitter one, and it wasn't until 2003 before they worked together again (Clapton guested on Whitlock's appearance on the Later with Jools Holland show, playing and singing "Bell Bottom Blues", available on a "Later with Jools" DVD). Another tragic footnote to the Dominos story was the fate of drummer Jim Gordon, who was an undiagnosed schizophrenic who some years later during a psychotic episode murdered his mother and was confined to 16 years to life imprisonment. Gordon was moved to a mental institution after several years, where he remains today.

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Blind Faith & Delaney and Bonnie and Friends

Blind Faith & Delaney and Bonnie and Friends

A desultory spell in a second supergroup, the short-lived Blind Faith (1969), which was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic and Ric Grech of Family, resulted in one LP and one arena-circuit tour. The supergroup debuted before 100,000 fans in London's Hyde Park on 7 June 1969, performed several dates in Scandinavia, then began a sold-out American tour in July before its one and only album had been released. The LP Blind Faith was recorded in such haste that side two consisted of just two songs, one of them a 15 minute jam entitled "Do What You Like". The album's jacket image of a topless pubescent girl was deemed controversial in the U.S. and was replaced by a photograph of the band. Blind Faith dissolved after less than seven months together. While Winwood returned to Traffic, by now Clapton was tired of both the spotlight and the hype that had surrounded Cream and Blind Faith. He wanted to make music that more closely resembled that of The Band.

Clapton decided to step into the background for a time, touring as a sideman with the American group Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, who had been the support act for Blind Faith's U.S. tour. He also played two dates that fall with The Plastic Ono Band. Clapton became close friends with Delaney Bramlett, who encouraged him in his singing and writing, which would show determined growth in his next effort. Using the Bramletts' backing group and an all-star cast of session players (including Leon Russell and Stephen Stills, he recorded his first solo album during two brief tour hiatuses, fittingly named Eric Clapton, which included the Bramlett composition, "Bottle Of Red Wine", and one of Clapton's best songs from this period, "Let It Rain". It also yielded an unexpected U.S. #18 hit, J. J. Cale's "After Midnight".

Clapton went from the stage with Delaney and Bonnie to the studio with the Dominos to record George Harrison's All Things Must Pass in spring 1970. During this busy period, Clapton also recorded with Stephen Stills, Dr John, Leon Russell, Plastic Ono Band, Howlin' Wolf, The Bonzo Dog Band, King Curtis, Ashton Gardner & Dyke, Martha Veléz, Billy Preston and Ringo Starr.

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