Eric Clapton (An Essay)

Eric Clapton is an English blues-rock guitarist-singer-songwriter-composer. With a Silver Clef Award, six Grammies, and CBE of the Order of the British Empire, he has reached number four in the Rolling Stone magazine’s Top Hundred Best Guitarists list and number fifty-three on their “Immortals: Top Hundred Best Artists of All Time” list. Still, with all that, very few young people today listen to Eric Clapton, blues guitar-god and music genius. So who is the man behind the music, and what has happened in his life to make his art so influential?

Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945, to Patricia Molly Clapton, a seventeen year old in Ripley, Surrey, and Edward Walter Fryer, a twenty-five year old soldier from Quebec. Fryer went to war just before Clapton was born, and returned home to Canada after that. Meanwhile, Clapton grew up with his grandparents and mother, believing his grandparents to be his parents and his mother to be his older sister. Several years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Canada, leaving her son with his grandparents.

Clapton received his first guitar for his thirteenth birthday, an acoustic Hoyer, and found the steel-stringed instrument to be very difficult. He nearly gave up, but was influenced by blues artists of the time and practiced for hours trying to learn chords and copy the style of guitarists he listened to on his tape recorder.

After school in 1961, Clapton began studies at the Kingston College of Art, but was dismissed after the first year of school because he wanted to keep his focus in music. He played in public places for tips, and joined his first band when he was seventeen, a group called “The Roosters”. He left them in 1963.

This was about when he joined The Yardbirds, where he began to listen to blues artists from Chicago, including Buddy Guy and B.B. King. He formed a distinctive style and was soon talked about all over as one of the most promising guitarists in the British music scene. They first toured England with Sonny Boy Williamson Jr., and just after Clapton left the band in 1965, The Yardbirds had their first major single, “For Your Love.” It was during this time that he gained the nickname “Slowhand,” as a joke because he was such a fast guitar player. It was also during Clapton’s time with The Yardbirds that he became good friends with George Harrison of The Beatles, a friendship that resulted in Clapton playing guitar on the Beatle’s White Album in the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and many other Clapton appearances on Harrison’s solo albums.

A year after he left The Yardbirds, Clapton started his first ‘power trio’ band, called Cream. Cream consisted of bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and Clapton himself. This is when Clapton started to hone his talents as a singer and songwriter, though most of the singing and writing was done by Bruce. It was with Cream that Clapton had his first appearance in the U.S.—“For Your Love” made it to the American Top Ten after Clapton had already left The Yardbirds. He became good friends with his ‘rival guitarist,’ Jimi Hendrix.

Cream’s music style varied, from soul-pop song “I Feel Free” to their bluesy instrumentals such as “Spoonful.” They quickly became popular, selling millions of records in both the U.S. and U.K. Although the super group was declared the “best of their day,” Cream was to be short-lived. Fighting between Bruce and Baker caused tensions among the three that led to Cream’s farewell album, aptly named “Goodbye.” In 1968, just two years after their birth and just before “Goodbye” was released, Cream disbanded. The only Cream reunions were in 1993, at their induction to the Hall of Fame, and a full-scale reunion in 2005, which consisted of four sold-out concerts in London and three more in New York.

Between 1969 and 1970, Clapton played in two more temporary bands, Blind Faith first, followed by Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. He also recorded his first, self-titled solo album, and played with several other artists, including Dr. John, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, and Plastic Ono Band.

Next, in 1970, came Derek and the Dominos. This name was reportedly an accident, when the original name Erik and the Dynamos was misread. It was during his time with Derek and the Dominos that Clapton fell in love with his good friend George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. She spurned his advances, and this was the inspiration for the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. This album contained Derek and the Dominos’ explosive single, “Layla.”

Clapton’s success as a musician masked his personal life, which was made increasingly difficult by drug and alcohol addiction. In 1971, he quit touring to hide at his residence in Surrey, where he indulged in heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. He kicked the habit with the help of Pete Townsend of The Who, and by 1974 he had kicked his Heroin habit and was dating Pattie, though the two of them didn’t marry until 1979. He continued to drink heavily. Hit singles such as “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Wonderful Tonight,” and “Cocaine,” came out, and brought Clapton to number one on the charts time and time again. “I Shot the Sheriff” was particularly influential in bringing reggae music to the forefront, and brought artist Bob Marley to a bigger audience.

The eighties saw Clapton performing on Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters’ solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and producing more solo albums of his own. Journeyman included collaborative works with George Harrison, Phil Collins, Daryl Hall, Chaka Khan, Mick Jones, David Sanborn and Robert Cray.

In 1984, Clapton began a relationship with studio sound assistant Yvonne Kelly, which resulted in his ‘secret daughter,’ Ruth. Boyd and Clapton finally divorced in 1989 after another affair with italian model Lori del Santo, which resulted in another child, Conor. Boyd had been unable to bear children, and reportedly ‘criticized’ Clapton’s keeping Ruth a secret until 1991.

In August of 1990, while touring with Stevie Ray Vaughn, their helecopter crashed and two members of the road crew, plus Vaughn, died in the accident. A year later, tragedy struck again when four year old Conor fell from the 53rd story apartment window where he was living with his mother. This resulted in the song ‘Tears in Heaven,’ a song expressing Clapton’s grief, cowritten by Will Jennings. That song alone won him six grammies that year.
In 1994, Clapton had a brief relationship with Cheryl Crow, and in 1999, at the age of 54, he met 23 year old store clerk Melia McEnery, whom he married in 2002. The two had three daughters, Julia Rose (2001), Ella May (2003), and Sophie Belle (2005).

Clapton’s grandparents eventually told him the truth about his parentage, and his lack of knowledge about his father was an apparent source of anxiety for him. Then, in 2007, with the help of benevolant journalist Michael Woloshuck, he found was able to get some more information about Edward Walter Fryer, born 1920 and died 1985. A saxaphone and piano player, he was a drifter who had several wives and a few children, apparently unaware that he was the father of Eric Clapton.

Eric “Slowhand” Clapton: well known guitarist, singer, and composer. When Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Lennon, and others fell victim to drugs and accidents, Clapton managed to survive drug addiction, alcoholism, and tragedy. His style has influenced many artists, such as Jonny Lang and Bob Marley, and he has performed with members of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, and The Who. His music will continue to be popular among blues fans, and influence other musicians in the future.

Yeah...Had to write that for my music teacher, because I was unavailable to sing with the Choir for graduation. I figured, well, since I had to write a paper anyway, I'd ask for constructive criticism.

So constructive criticism on what was wrong/write/could've-been-better would be appreciated.

thanks,
Brii333