In the wake of the death of prog rock legend John Wetton, Eric Clapton has released a piece of music he’s calling “For John W.” You can listen to it below.
He uploaded the track to his Facebook page. It’s one-minute-and-38-seconds long, and features Clapton taking a simple phrase on his acoustic guitar and building from there. Clapton did something similar when Jack Bruce, his former bandmate in Cream, passed away in October 2014.
Wetton died from cancer on Tuesday at the age of 67, after a career that saw him rise to fame in the early ’70s as the singer and bassist in King Crimson and become a star a decade later as the frontman of Asia. In between, he served as a session and/or touring musician for such high-profile acts as Uriah Heep, Roxy Music and Wishbone Ash.
A few weeks prior to his death, Wetton announced that he was pulling out of Asia’s slot opening up for Journey in March and April to begin a new round of chemotherapy. His spot in the band was taken by Billy Sherwood, the multi-instrumentalist who, coincidentally, was recruited to fill in for Yes‘ founding bassist Chris Squire as he underwent leukemia treatment and died shortly thereafter.
Although Clapton has repeatedly noted his desire to quit touring, he has two nights scheduled at both New York’s Madison Square Garden and the Forum in Los Angeles for March.
Read More: Eric Clapton Releases Song for John Wetton | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/eric-clapton-john-wetton-song/?trackback=tsmclip
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
A lovely piece of music and a wonderful gesture.
Clapton and Wetton are 2 names I've never seen together. Did their paths cross at some point?
JimSheridan,
I had the same thought. I own a lot , in fact most, of EC's records and am pretty sure that JW is not on any of them. And I am not aware of any live touring of them together (??) EC was hardly in the prog/ glam scene ( King Crimson / Roxy Music )
I guess he may have been on the same bill with KC back in the Cream days.
Still , their paths must have crossed as EC does not do this for many others . Not even ones he did play with like Dick Sims (461; keyboards )
He did , of course, make a whole album for JJ Cale .
He did one of these for both Jack Bruce and Prince as well.
I was curious to any connection between EC and Wetton as well as I couldn't recall any time they had played together. However, they could have just been friends or Clapton might have just been a fan of his work.
Sounds awfully like the Anthony Newley song "What Kind Of Fool Am I" to me.
A cross between that and a section of "The Very Thought Of You".
