@cyclone88 What I think he is saying is no to the relentless rhetoric on vaccines. He took a vaccine and became violently ill. As he described it he thought he would never play again and that he was deceived by someone telling him this would be harmless. After his ordeal he seems to have become angry and is saying I'm not going to be pushed into doing this again nor should anyone else and in his opinion it's bullshit. Having read about his ordeal that's what I got out of it.
Thanks for that explanation. To those of us who don't follow musicians' vaxx status, I'd never have known that from the song. I'd counter that anyone getting vaxxed in the US has to give informed consent which means they're told what might happen immediately after the vax, what symptoms are alarming, & when they should call their doc. Clapton may have received less detailed info in the UK, but he's an old man (per Covid definition) w/peripheral neuropathy so he should've checked w/his doctor first & perhaps tried another type of vax. When one is 76 w/pre-existing conditions, you pay attention to what's being said. Peripheral neuropathy is a degenerative condition that causes numbness in limbs & THAT alone could cause him never to play again. The vaxx may have had nothing to do w/it. It's still a lame song.
@olddog Derek Trucks is an excellent guitarist and a good person from what I can see. I first saw Derek at a pool hall in High Point, NC in the mid 90's. I didn't even know that pool hall would have a band from time to time. No stage just set up in the corner next to the bar. I had seen Derek sit in with the Allman Brothers and found his slide work to be really good so I went and enjoyed it. Then Derek Trucks was way, way into following in the footsteps of Duane Allman. Statesboro Blues and other Allman and Derek and the Dominos favorites were great with Derek recreating Duane's style on slide perfectly.
My favorite guitar player is Dickey Betts. His tone and melodic style which is all his own and his great song writing put him on top with me. Also I'm big on Duane Allman and man does Duane knock it out of the park on Fillmore East and Eat A Peach. But Dickey, my favorite, last time he toured had lost his ability to play. One clam and blown note and sour note after the other. Now Dickey apparently doesn't play at all. His lifestyle, age, light stroke and severe head injury from a fall has taken its toll. But I'm fine with Dickey being rich, living in a beautiful gated mansion and retired. Dickey earned it and then some.
But Dickey, Duane, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes and I would guess everyone in the Allman Brothers circle have great respect and devotion to Eric Clapton. His ABB connection goes back to 1970 when he showed up at an ABB show in Miami and when Duane saw Eric he froze:)
I'll just say this. When Eric Clapton showed up in 2009 to play with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon, Eric Clapton was not only a bigger star, more famous and richer than anybody in the Allman Brothers but EC was way more famous and a bigger draw than the Allman Brothers Band itself!!
I'll admit that and say it because it is true!! And my favorite band by far is the Allman Brothers Band and Dickey and Duane are my favorite guitarists. Also I have tremendous respect for Berry Oakley, Butch and Jaimoe, Gregg, Chuck Leavell, Warren and Derek Trucks etc. If Clapton was playing across town from an Allman Brothers show I would be at the Allman Brothers show. But the Clapton show would draw a much bigger crowd!!:)
that is all true, but fame and fortune etc doesn't mean the song is good. I'll bet more people have heard of Brittany Spears and Bieber than Derek Trucks, but it is obvious that BS and Bieb have more talent getting teeny boppers wet in the pants than actually making music. And, even the Beatles had a few (rare) clunkers. Mr Moonlight comes to mind.
Let's show some love and respect for Clapton. This is a historic clip here. Clapton did this out of love and respect for Duane Allman!! And his friendship and admiration for Derek Trucks.
I'm telling you it was a big deal for Clapton to show up at an Allman Brothers Band show. Clapton is more famous and popular than my favorite band the ABB!
Yes, Yesterday was one of their top three all time selling singles (tops overall as far as cover versions I believe) - but it’s my least-favorite Beatles song
john’s vocal intro sung at the top of his voice to Mr Moonlight is cool -
EC’s forthcoming acoustic album sounds cool
All true....Now if only ultra rich Eric Clapton would make right the messed up publishing for various Duane Allman contributions to the Derek and the Dominoes recording. I’m sure Duane’s daughter would love a little help from EC in this longstanding legal battle.....You know, out of respect for Duane.
@chain Clapton is ultra rich alright. Over $300 million. Brother Duane Allman was worth less than $10 thousand when he died. Gregg said it always bothered him his brother missed out on the money. Duane got one nice royalty check for At Fillmore East then he was gone. Gregg said shortly after Duane's death the money began to pour in. Gregg and Dickey were millionaires by 1973.
Rita Coolidge was cheated out of probably a million dollars of sales and airplay royalties on the song Layla. But that was more Jim Gordon's doing than Clapton but when Robert Stigwood, Clapton's manager at the time, found out about it he told Rita to go @#$#@#$#@.
Rita said at least that money has gone to support Jim Gordon's daughter all this years.
Though the album partially bears the name Lockdown Sessions, Slowhand has spent quite a bit of the last year expressing in no uncertain terms his strident opposition to public health measures related to COVID-19, teaming up with Van Morrison for the anti-lockdown anthem Stand and Deliver, and more recently releasing a solo tune quite transparently tackling the same subject matter, This Has Gotta Stop.
Neither track appears on The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions, which can be pre-ordered here.
Eric Clapton – The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
- Golden Ring
- Black Magic Woman
- Man of the World
- Kerry
- After Midnight
- Bell Bottom Blues
- Key to the Highway
- River of Tears
- Rock Me Baby
- Believe in Life
- Going Down Slow
- Layla
- Tears in Heaven
- Long Distance Call
- Bad Boy
- Got My Mojo Working
Thanks for the update. I very much enjoyed Unplugged & look forward to this based on the titles. Glad he's not including his latest.
As for public health, I don't look to Clapton or Morrison for guidance, particularly since their opinions are based on British policies & in Clapton's case, an unconfirmed link between the vax & his peripheral neuropathy. Even David Crosby claims to have been shocked that an "intelligent" Clapton would hook up w/miserable anti-Semitic Morrison. What's happening in the US is leading us back to where we were in March 2020 w/new variants & public health measures turned into political issues when they are medical issues causing rises number of cases in pockets of unvaxxed populations. Maybe someone should write a song about that.
@chain Clapton is ultra rich alright. Over $300 million. Brother Duane Allman was worth less than $10 thousand when he died. Gregg said it always bothered him his brother missed out on the money. Duane got one nice royalty check for At Fillmore East then he was gone. Gregg said shortly after Duane's death the money began to pour in. Gregg and Dickey were millionaires by 1973.
Rita Coolidge was cheated out of probably a million dollars of sales and airplay royalties on the song Layla. But that was more Jim Gordon's doing than Clapton but when Robert Stigwood, Clapton's manager at the time, found out about it he told Rita to go @#$#@#$#@.
Rita said at least that money has gone to support Jim Gordon's daughter all this years.
Exactly my point, robertdee.....Since Clapton, as you say, is so rich, why not support and get behind Duane's daughter's effort at getting some of what's owed her?
Especially since publishing in this day and age isn't quite the cash cow it used to be....Surely a musician with a net worth of $300 million can sacrifice a slice of his publishing as he evidently doesn't need the money.
@chain I just check two websites that track the net worth of famous people and Eric Clapton's net worth on both sites with one stating (as of August 2021) is $450 million dollars. So Clapton is up there with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The richest musician/song writer is Paul McCartney. Both sites put Sir Paul at $1 billion, 200 million.
Yes you have a point. If Clapton REALLY had respect for Duane Allman he would have his accountant to calculate how much money Eric has made off of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs then send Duane's daughter a nice cut of that sum.
People worth over $100 million to me have more money than one person could possibly need.
At least Clapton still has a 'rock n roll' spirit and some rebel left in him.
"At least Clapton still has a 'rock n roll' spirit and some rebel left in him."
There is no rock'n'roll spirit in that generic song, and he's about as rebellious as an old man shouting at kids to get off his lawn. He's releasing another album of blues covers - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
At least Clapton still has a 'rock n roll' spirit and some rebel left in him.
Seems backwards, I thought the knock against Clapton was he lost his "rock spirit" when stopped using needles.
A bazillionaire, recovering smack-addict, racist xenophobe who stole his best friend's girlfriend (whom he abused and subsequently repeatedly cheated on), whining about lock-downs because he's one of the very few whose pre-existing condition caused a reaction to a life-saving vaccine (that has kept millions of his fans healthy) just might not be the guy anyone should be listening to just because he has a megaphone and knows 4 chords.
Good to know we still disagree about everything. Glad our Allman boys sainthood didn't taint the music for ya.
Good to know we still disagree about everything. Glad our Allman boys sainthood didn't taint the music for ya.
Hey, good to know that your opinions are formed using baseless presumptions since I have never stated nor believed the members of the Allman Brothers were saints - far from it. However, none of them have written a song whining about attempts to stop a pandemic, which is the topic here. I don't blindly lionize artists, I separate the art from the people and I happen to not care for some of the music Clapton produced, regardless of him being a pretty pitiful human being.
@aiq Too bad Bonnie Bramlett wasn't at that show. I know that she and Eric go way back, but maybe she would've smacked him like she did Elvis Costello for dissing Ray Charles and James Brown. 😉 https://www.columbusmonthly.com/article/20151209/lifestyle/312099362
@aiq Are you quoting Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair? I can't remember.
That couldn't be Clapton could it?
This band is too diverse for Clapton to have said the above. Yeah Clapton publicly lured George Harrison's wife from him and much of the Layla album is Clapton's bleeding heart about loving a woman that belongs to another man. But EC couldn't be the source of that outrageous rasist blabber could he?
I wonder how many happily voted for this racist? Forgivable if you only watch the State run media as I'm sure it wasn't reported.
"[In Barack Obama] you’ve got the first sort of main stream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and nice looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man."
"Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids."
"If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black."
"You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."
@rusty Wow!! That is hard to believe. It seems that would have sunk his career yet B.B. King jumped at the chance to made an album with him and he regularly has blacks in his touring bands.
He claimed a year or so after it happened he was drunk (when wasn't he then?) & didn't remember it, didn't do politics so he didn't know if the candidate he was promoting was good/bad, but the whole thing was hilarious. When the comments re-surfaced in 2018, he vaguely recalled it, called himself a semi-racist who championed black music, but still thought those 1975/76 comments were "very funny."
@cyclone88 Maybe he was drunk and still embarrassed by Hendrix being invited to jam with Cream. Jack Bruce said Jimi was doing things he had never seen before and just blazing away. Said Clapton finally left the stage and left Jimi by himself. When Bruce got back stage he said Clapton looked like he had seen a ghost and was trying to light a cigarette but his hands were shaking so badly he had a difficult time doing it. Then their manager strolled by and Clapton got angry and yelled at him " Why didn't you tell me he was that ******* good?!"
But Clapton always talks about Hendrix in glowing terms and how he cried when Jimi died.
Jimi Hendrix coming out and jamming with Clapton would be similar to Buddy Rich playing drums next to Ginger Baker or John Bonham. Rich would blow them off the stage!!
Over the years, I've made a lot of excuses for people who blurt things out when they're blotto. Usually I come back around to the acceptance that booze and drugs often act as truth serum - they're saying exactly how they feel.
I can also generally accept to a degree that "times were different" back then. Humor involving race, sexual orientation and stuff like that seemed more acceptable in the 70's. In the current PC climate, it's popular to revisit and rejudge some works. Did laughing at that Richard Pryor video make me a racist? Some of the stuff doesn't seem as funny in retrospect. Hopefully we continue to evolve and learn.
@rusty You know with Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Albert King ( Albert lied about being B. B. King's brother. His name wasn't King), Muddy Waters etc being good friends with Clapton....maybe he was drunk and making fun of those on the wrong side of that debate back then. Using those words to show how hurtful such talk is to other human beings.
If Clapton REALLY meant those words it's amazing any musicians of color would have anything to do with him. It would be a deal breaker with Rolling Stone magazine or Madison Square Garden and on and on.
If Clapton REALLY meant those words it is a miracle Clapton's career wasn't over and nobody would play with Clapton, Rolling Stone magazine would condemn him and major venues such as Madison Square Garden would never allow him to play there.
I don't know what to think of this:?:?:?
@robertdee Nobody but Clapton knows what was in his mind and heart when he said those things. One of the greatest aspects of humanity is the capacity to forgive and forget. I don't think of Eric Clapton in this light. With Clapton's inspiration by and his devotion to the Blues greats and the fact that he was once involved with a black woman (I think at the time of this fiasco?) - it's hard to imagine or accept him as being a classic racist. A lot of people say things when they're pretty sure nobody else is listening - but to say these things into a microphone at a concert? He shoulda known that dawg was gonna come back and bite him on the arse!
@rusty That is true Rusty. Only Clapton knows how he really feels about people who are different or not an Englishman.
But I know ME! Drunk or high I would never say those things about people of other races, ethnic backgrounds and country of birth. I'm 74 years old and have NEVER fostered those kind of thoughts and feelings toward other human beings. So it would be impossible for me to utter such hate even when drunk and not on my best behavior.
As to Clapton I do remember him dating a black lady. *
* I am not using African American in this context because black people in England or Jamaica are not African Americans. Once I saw a man discussing the people in Kenya including President Obama's half bother as African Americans. They don't live in America thus they are not African Americans.
We're way beyond PC these days; we're in CRT (Critical Race Theory) that is trickling down from academia into real life. Most of it makes no sense & contradicts MLK Jr, but it's apparently here for a while.
Clapton's remarks sparked a 5 yr Rock Against Racism movement in the UK, but in the 1970s, black musicians were getting recorded w/big artists, getting big $$, and big label PR by playing w/guys like Clapton. In 2018, Clapton called himself a "semi-racist" while describing the influence of black musicians, hiring black musicians, and once having a black girlfriend & admitted to being a misogynist & marital rapist. His 1976 diatribe was anti-immigration as much as a racist & he stands by that immigration policy. It was about 2018 that he started agreeing w/Morrison's conspiracy theories (which are also QAnon theories), he hooked up w/Morrison for Stand & Deliver, & now we have this odd little protest ditty.
I've learned to believe people when they tell me who they are. Doesn't affect an objective acknowledgement of their talent. But when someone says he's a racist & domestic abuser, I accept his assessment.
@cyclone88 We can all learn. For the longest, I thought QAnon was an organization for closeted gay people. 😉
I would recommend viewing Clapton's autobiographical documentary film "Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars" released in 2017.....In it he shows the footage of the show in which he spewed some very racist comments. Along with many other clips of his drugs use, discussions about his mother/women issues, etc.
It's a great autobiographical film and is quite insightful about the life of a somewhat tortured and very complex human being.
