Eric Clapton: a part of my life

A few days ago I was thinking about how Eric Clapton’s music evolved over time. I don’t say “evolved” as in “it was bad-now it is good”, far from me such an idea, just that Clapton’s music changed over time as the music business itself. I am not a big fan of Clapton,not in the way I could say about other artists or bands. I can not say that I know all his songs and everything he does or did, but Eric Clapton always had and always will have a special place in my heart.

My first contact with Eric Clapton’s music was when I bought 2 tapes, one with Metallica and one with Eric Clapton (as you may see, my taste in music was not quite oriented at that time as Clapton and Metallica had nothing to do one with the other). The tape was kind of a best of, at that time, so it offered me kind of Clapton’s best works. From that tape I remember Layla, the electric version, and Bell bottom blues. I kept this second song till now in my memories, without listening it again for a long time since I have lost that tape and I can say that it left a strong mark on my musical path.

Regarding Layla, I just love it. However, I am not speaking about that electric version that we all know, but about the acoustic guitar version that just blew me off. Acoustic guitar version of Layla made me listen it over and over again with the light turned off, on my headphones.

I had a period when unplugged concerts were the best things ever for me and when I got Eric Clapton’s unplugged concert I felt God put a hand on me. I am not joking, I got this from a friend of mine that made me a copy and I played that tape over and over till I learned it by heart. I mean I knew what will come next, what will be the reaction of the public, I remember that “hand on, hang on, hang on” of Clapton when he missed a tempo in the beginning of Alberta (if you know the concert you know what I am speaking about), so that unplugged concert was one of the best pieces of music from my high school period and I have always kept it close to my heart. Even today I have an mp3 version that I listen once in a while with great joy.

And an other thing: when I play the guitar in the evening, to relax, I often play Layla, the acoustic version. I find it way better that the electric guitars version. Cleaner, shorter and with more feeling…

In my opinion, that unplugged concert gave the future musical direction of Clapton. I love Layla, I love Alberta, I love Tears in heaven, Malted milk, etc, so My father’s eyes and Change the world came naturally to me and I marked them as pearls in the crown of Clapton along with the rest I enumerated before.

In my opinion, Clapton evolved a lot during his last years of artistic activity. I am not a big fan of his early years, probably because of the guitar sound of that period, sound that I don’t like that much, but I just love his way of playing the acoustic guitar and the feeling he transmits. I haven’t seen many guitar players able to transmit that feeling when playing only 2-3 notes on the guitar. If you listen to “It’s probably me guitar” solo you will notice that in the beginning of the solo there are only 2-3 notes, but in my opinion the most difficult to express. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself and you will understand…

This is my personal opinion, you may think another thing, maybe you love the early years more. If so, tell me why you love those years more than the last years, I would really like to know and if you have a good point, I will post your reasons here.

What do you say?

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