When Clapton was God

[Grey]

Didn’t Bowie do some bad racist stuff or did I dream that?

You didn't, that was during his "Thin White Duke" era.

[Larry Mal]

I just re-read the article about what Clapton said about "wogs" and Enoch Powell and all that. I don't know why. I guess I've been reading it for years and since it's not actually on video that I'm aware of, there was always the chance that it was a rumor, or that Clapton would deny it and how could I prove it, you know? I mean I always believed it. I wasn't sure if Eric Clapton believed it, though.

But I guess he's an old man and is talking about the mistakes he's made in his life. That is what it is, I guess.

I'm not a young man, either. I have young children. I live in a big and diverse city. I see my kid play with other kids of all kinds of backgrounds and skin colors, different religions and languages. He doesn't even notice that stuff, they don't either, he doesn't care he just likes to play with them.

I mean it tears me up to think that at some point the poison of racism is going to be apparent to him, and this wonderful, magic world of friends and play is going to give way into the world we actually all live in, filled with people hurting people for all kinds of reasons, real and imagined.

Frankly, the world will be better when Eric Clapton is dead, it'll be better when I'm dead, it'll be better when several more generations have passed. People are slowly losing their tribal identities and maybe if enough time has passed, we'll evolve out of the kind of hate that led Eric Clapton to say those kinds of things so long ago.

Or maybe I'm just fucking naive. But when I see my kids playing with kids that are, I guess, "different" from him I have to wonder why what he's doing isn't the rule. How long the mistakes of the past will perpetuate, if we'll evolve past those things like we have so many other things.

I mean, we've got to, right?

[Singlebladepickup]

Those tiki torch motherfuckers in Charleston were younger than you or I, Larry. Maybe in a few more generations.

[Stosh221]

People are slowly losing their tribal identities and maybe if enough time has passed, we'll evolve out of the kind of hate that led Eric Clapton to say those kinds of things so long ago.

For sure, one hopes.

The older I get the more I'm convinced that 90 percent of self-imposed human misery reduces to our zeal for petty in-group/out-group bullshit—and it’s intractable. Take your pick:

Your nation state vs. my nation state
Christian vs. Muslim vs. Jew
Catholic vs. Protestant
Sunni vs. Shiite
Othrodox vs Reformed
Lots of melanin vs. Not a lot of melanin
Republican vs. Democrat
Fender vs. Gibson
Blues vs. Shoegaze
iOS vs. Android
Nikon vs. Canon
Nikes vs. Keds

There’s no end to the list, and it’s pretty depressing. Pick anything, and sure as hell one group of human beings will find a way to prop up its own tottering sense of self regard by targeting another group and knocking it down through ridicule, criticism, ostracism, vilification—all the way up the ladder of monstrosity to murder and genocide.

Essentially we’re a species of obnoxious, amoral killer ape with a meager capacity to hold the savagery at bay through the intersession of (a very fragile) culture.

As far as I can figure the only way not to become an obnoxious amoral killer ape is to acknowledge that one is an obnoxious amoral killer ape—and then decide to offer the big cosmic middle finger to our own shitty impulses by not expressing and acting on them.

Eric Clapton? Not really my jam, but if the music moves someone, or s/he finds something to admire in his craft or decades-long stamina, all good by me. In the grand pageant of human douche-ery, EC and admirers get a pass from me.

[Telliot]

Whatevs, snowflake.

[Larry Mal]

Those tiki torch motherfuckers in Charleston were younger than you or I, Larry. Maybe in a few more generations.

Well, the question isn't do people like that still exist, but the question is what percentage of society actually holds those views?

And I'll say the answer is stunningly higher than I had thought it was- if you had asked me before Obama became President, I would have said that racism is on the wane and that the nation was healing, and I would not say that now. I'll still say though that the percentage of Americans with racist views is an ever dwindling number, and that's why you are seeing what I think (and hope) is a last burst of the forces of racism in this nation (emboldened by recent events I won't mention out of respect for keeping Scott's thread about what he wants to talk about).

So while there are racists under the age of 30 in the United States as always, they are fewer in number than there were thirty, fifty, seventy five, a hundred years ago.

Hard to quantify that number, of course.

It's also possible that I could be wrong, also. You are seeing a surge of ethno-nationalism in the world today. It could be that there will be a repeat of the last century.

[Singlebladepickup]

I know this thread is about racism, rehabilitation, and redemption, but I just wanted to add that while we're talking about 60's psych blues guitar noodlers, Clapton wasn't even worthy to pal around with Hendrix like he did for a while. I don't listen to Jimi much anymore, but his playing AND songwriting was just so far beyond Clapton that I couldn't even understand the comparison when I liked Clapton. It's like EC made it his life's work to leech off black folks, but he had no real soul and could never compare to any of the people he admired so instead he said a bunch of derogatory stuff about minorities. Despite everything, some white peoples found him godly. He seems like an empty vessel, and I'd feel bad for him if he wasn't full of hate. I read he still defends that MP as being extraordinarily brave and not at all racist. He's like music's Mel Gibson, you just need to liquor him up to see his true self.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

I'll say one thing, in his defence, and I've not checked the full facts on this so forgive me if I get it wrong. Didn't his infant son fall to his death from a New York apartment window years ago? That's the kind of thing that'd fuck anyone's head up, for good.

[andy_tchp]

Yes. That was in the early '90s and must've been a harrowing ordeal.

He was a fuckhead prior to this; the racist rant about 'wogs', 'coons', 'Arabs' and Jamaicans was in the mid '70s.

[scottT]

I know this thread is about racism, rehabilitation, and redemption, but I just wanted to add that while we're talking about 60's psych blues guitar noodlers, Clapton wasn't even worthy to pal around with Hendrix like he did for a while. I don't listen to Jimi much anymore, but his playing AND songwriting was just so far beyond Clapton that I couldn't even understand the comparison when I liked Clapton. It's like EC made it his life's work to leech off black folks, but he had no real soul and could never compare to any of the people he admired so instead he said a bunch of derogatory stuff about minorities.

It's been told that meeting EC was one of the first things Hendrix wanted to do upon moving to London. So there was genuine admiration on Jimi's part toward a fellow blues musician. He's thinking of EC as a colleague. It may be fair to say that Clapton was more a "studied" player. He learned by listening to the greats as most of them did and maybe more of that seeped into his style as opposed to Hendrix who is more in the spirit of breaking boundaries and experimenting with the sounds of the electric guitar itself. But I think to say that EC tried to copy his heroes, couldn't compare, and so he just finally blew his top one day out of that pent up frustration isn't right.

I love the story about when Hendrix came to town & was billed to play the same night as Clapton. There was a little stand-off as they decided who was to play first & Hendrix eventually agreed to go on first (lower down the bill, so to speak).
Half way through his set someone at the side of the stage saw Clapton stood motionless, staring in bewilderment with a fag almost falling out of his mouth, as he realised he'd never be able to follow Hendrix's wizardry.

OK, that tale's probably evolved somewhat over the years but it still makes me smile.

I know. A lot of those stories sound apocryphal. Very Sergio Leone western--there's a new gun slinger in town. (Cue the Good The Bad and The Ugly theme.) I read that the first time the two met was at a jam arranged by Jimi's manager Chas Chandler. EC wasn't really prepared for Hendrix who showed him up I guess, because afterward he chided Chandler: "you didn't tell me he was THAT good!" There is a competitive tradition in the blues called "head cutting" which Jimi probably knew well, so I suspect there may have been a little of that going on.

[Singlebladepickup]

I'm not even talking about straight skills, EC never had a song near as good as If 6 Was 9, Manic Depression, Crosstown Traffic, Castles Made of Sand. It's more than just playing with feedback and noise (although machine gun is waaaay better than anything EC made in his career, even if we're talking about just vocal melody and leaving guitars out of the conversation). I'm talking about songwriting and attitude.

[budda12ax7]

Lots of Clapton hate here....can't say I'm familiar with anything after Cream.... Is there anything after Cream????

[Larry Mal]

Sure there is.

The worst song ever.

[TeenageShutdown!]

I can’t help but feel smoldering anger when I’m in a grocery strore & hear Wondrful Tonight combined with some moron with a cart who won’t get the hell out of the way.

[brucer]

^Always love Larry's posts. Wit, wisdom and humanity.

Those tiki torch motherfuckers in Charleston were younger than you or I, Larry. Maybe in a few more generations.

^But this seems too true ... sadly.

The older I get the more I'm convinced that 90 percent of self-imposed human misery reduces to our zeal for petty in-group/out-group bullshit—and it’s intractable. Take your pick ...

^^And this.

In the grand pageant of human douche-ery, EC and admirers get a pass from me.

But so is this.

Hell, I was raised in a small Canadian industrial town in the 60's and 70's and racist, misogynist, homophobic views were as common as bread and butter ... and didn't require the lubrication of drugs and alcohol that EC was surely enjoying at the time of his infamous rant. And yet, often, the same idiots that expressed these views would just as commonly interact with courtesy and decency to individuals from the groups that they so casually dismissed and belittled. I still don't know what to make of that.

Anyway, EC is a far more talented player than I can ever hope to be and dedicated his life to music. I'll give him a pass and try to take more comfort from his repentance and obvious remorse than I take offense and anger from his transgressions.

As to his 80's output: Pretending and Forever Man aren't really any worse than Glen Frey's Smuggler's Blues or Robert Cray's Smoking Gun. Go ahead, hate the blooze, but they were all doing it. Is what it is, I guess.