Why I Suck.. Series 4, Episode 4 - Eric Clapton Pt. 3 - Post-Cream

 And we are back with the guitarist known to some simply as “God” - Eric Clapton! This is actually the third instalment covering EC's playing – the first covered hisdays as a Bluesbreaker and the legendary “Beano” album, in the second we took a look at his seminal work with supergroup Cream, and so in this one we'll be taking a look at What Eric Did Next. Now, there's actually a fair bit so we'll be skipping quite a lot of detail and just picking out a few salient points on his journey to become the vastly successful solo artist he is today.

In the immediate aftermath of Cream's demise, one of his first appearances was THAT solo on The Beatles' “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, brought in as a guest soloist as George Harrison was struggling to get the “crying” sound from his guitar that he wanted, and certainly working through Clapton's solo is heavy on the wide string bends. But the next band was Blind Faith, formed in 1969 and featuring Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech of Family. Billed as rock's first “supergroup”, the band managed one six-song album (albeit featuring a hit single, “Can't Find My Way Home”) and a US tour before disbanding – however, Clapton had become good friends with the support act Delaney & Bonnie, and this group would evolve into the next group, Derek & The Dominoes. This is the group with which EC wrote and recorded the song he is most closely associated with, “Layla”, famously written about his infatuation with the wife of his friend George Harrison (I'm going to spoiler the lick part of this post – there isn't anything from Layla as the focal point of the guitar playing is the riff, which I assume everyone reading this can already play..).

Iconic as the title song undoubtedly is, the album itself sold poorly, and Derek & The Dominoes went the same way as Blind Faith, and this was instrumental in Clapton falling into heroin use. 

Surprisingly, this failed to solve anything. However, it fortunately proved not to be terminal, and after various interventions from friends including Pete Townshend, Clapton was able to kick the habit and get back to music, assembling a touring band with which he recorded his first solo album, “461 Ocean Boulevard” which included the hit Bob Marley cover “I Shot The Sheriff”. This was the genesis of Clapton's solo career and set him on the path he still walks now.

However, it would be wrong to include any history of Clapton that didn't mention the tragic death of his 4 year old son Conor in 1991 after accidentally falling from a 53^rd floor window of a family friend's apartment in New York, inspiring the acoustic ballad “Tears In Heaven” which he performed on the “Unplugged” album in 1992, one of the first of the MTV “Unplugged” series. As well as managing to kick heroin, Clapton also struggled with alcohol abuse but impressively managed not to relapse despite this tragedy, and he runs a rehab centre in Antigua to this day.

So that's history dealt with – let's take a long at some of EC's playing through this period.

This first lick is taken from “Let It Rain”, from Clapton's self-titles solo album released in 1972. Interestingly, the song is in D major but it revolves heavily around the A chord making it more accurate to view it as being A Mixolydian (R 2 3 4 5 6 b7 – A B C# D E F# G) and in this lick Clapton is blasting A major pentatonic (R 2 3 5 6 – A B C# E F#) over the top, and you can see him utilising the “3 frets back rule” - taking the F# minor pentatonic shape (R b3 4 5 b7 – F# A B C# E) as the basis for this lick, starting in 2^nd position and moving back to first. Notice the 3 against 4 idea – technically known as a “hemiola”, this places a three note melodic phrase in a four note rhythmic grouping so that each time the notes fall onto the beat in a different way, often creating the illusion of something being much more complex! Another great example of this are the fast parts of the “Alright Now” solo, or basically anything John Squire and Noel Gallagher played in the 90s..

I did say I wasn't going to put anything from “Layla” up, but on the same album is the track “Bell Bottom Blues” with some terrific and emotive playing from Clapton. This lick is tucked away right before the fadeout and features EC milking string bends from the A minor pentatonic (A C D E G) scale at the 17^th fret – notice the C bent first up to D (3^rd to 4^th) and then just a quarter tone to in between C & C#, so in between minor and major. In the second bar Clapton performs a series of string bends on the same note, bending it up a tone, then alternating between bent and straihht, before finishing with a downward bend and a couple f howling G notes bent up to As to finsh the track off with a resolution to the root note.

In this third example we leap forward to the 80s – VERY 80s – with 1989's “Bad Love” and in the age of shred Clapton's solo is a welcome dose of good taste classic rock. This particular lick uses D minor petatonic and is based primarily around positions 3 and 4 of the minor pentatonic, and notice the “3 Magic Notes” motif – pick/ hammer/ pull, down to the next string and back up – he translates across the strings. It's a subtle thing, but these elements can help tie a solo together and provide a sense of narrative. The howling harmony bend that finishes the lick off provides a fitting climax to the run.

Finally we move things forward to more-or-less present day with a live version of Cocaine from 2017. This particular performance has some absolutely incendiary playing from EC and showcases his deft use of the Mixolydian (R 2 3 4 5 6 b7), both directly and by blending elements of major and minor pentatonic scales. To give some theory, E Mixolydian contains E F# G# A B C# D, whilst E major pentatonic contains E F# G# B C#, whilst E minor pentatonic contains E G A B D. When you blend them together you get E F# G G# A B C# D, so effectively getting the Mixolydian plus an additional minor 3^rd (G), which EC alternates with G# to milk the blues feel.

This particular lick is an absolute barnstormer, with Clapton going full pedal to the metal here (performed with a healthy dose of wah pedal too) – note F# bent up a semitone (2^nd into minor 3^rd), the repetitive 3 Magic notes phrasing grouped first in 4 then in 3s to build intensity, the C# (6^th) bent to D (b7th) and the quirky wide interval finger roll he performs on his way down the scale, as well as the use of chromaticism to spice up the ending, which finishes on a bluesy b7 rather than the safer root note.

I think Clapton often gets overlooked by a lot of guitarists as the “Radio 2 Guitar Hero”, the non-guitarist's guitar hero – and to be fair, tracks like “Wonderful Tonight” do him no favours there – but getting deep into EC's playing in his later days has shown me there is a lot to learn here and that the guy is the genuine article. Certainly, working through the epic live “Cocaine” solo was something of an eye opener as you really could feel like Clapton has taken some steps forward, proving that even the big names can still practice, can still improve as long as the will is there to do so. That EC clearly does is something I think we can all take as an inspiration.

Back next month with Brad Paisley, so break out the Stetsons and the Telecasters and get ready for some down-home country shred, y'alls