Clapton Chronicles: Solo

Nov 05

Doug1980s eric clapton No Comments

(Note: This one is probably the most frustrating as over half of the songs I mentioned, I couldn’t find YouTube links for including the song I’m featuring. Bear with me…)

I’m going to jump around a bit here and cover his solo career second and then Derek & The Dominoes last so excuse me for the historical gap, though his solo career did begin before The Dominoes. However, the song I’m covering comes way after that period – almost a decade and a half.

For being just one man, Clapton’s solo career can probably be described as the definition of eclectic to some. What do I mean by that? Well, think of it this way: a band like The Beatles had four people with different musical tastes all giving input; Clapton’s one man. Get it? The blues roots are there and prevalent in everything he did, but the musical genres those roots allow him to cross are staggering. Skiffle, rockabilly, pop, country, soul, reggae, et cetera; in the last post when I was referring to all his genres, most of them can be found here. Whereas Cream was psychedelic rock rooted in blues, The Yardbirds were blues-rock, Blind Faith was progressive blues, and Derek & The Dominoes were southern blues rock; Clapton’s solo career covered all of that and more. Why bring this up? Well, do you know how hard it is to pick out your favorite song or album from just one band doing one genre (a la Cream)? Imagine how hard it is to pick out your favorites for such variety.

Eric Clapton, 461 Ocean Boulevard, Slowhand, Money And Cigarettes; these albums are some of his best work and some of the best albums ever, but each is so varied. His self-titled keeps the soul-rock that he just immersed himself in with Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett (didn’t hurt that they helped produce) like the hit “After Midnight” as well as the funky “Bad Boy.” 461 showed the heroin-free Clapton with an extremely stripped down sound which is really evident in his cover of “Willie And The Hand Jive” and his only original on the album “Let It Grow.” Following the intense Layla sessions, this is a huge contrast, but also very symbolic. Then we had the extremely polished and insanely accessible album Slowhand which is most well known for the hits “Cocaine” and “Wonderful Tonight,” but also had one of his best southern jams in “The Core” and an angelically soothing instrumental piece “Peaches & Diesel.” Finally, Clapton seemed like he wanted to get back to some blues foundations and utilizing his guitar way more (the presence of Ry Cooder probably helped this, but will discuss that in the finale of the chronicles) for his album Money And Cigarettes. This album was the first for him since he quit alcohol. When he quit heroin, we got an insanely laid-back album. When he quit alcohol, he must have decided his guitar-leading tracks were really it for him. This album produced the track I’m going to talk about, but I’d be remiss to not to mention the personal attack of “The Shape You’re In,” the rock nostalgic that defined him in “I’ve Got A Rock N’ Roll Heart,” and the extremely driving Clapton anthem “Ain’t Going Down.” I will say that I skipped a bunch of albums here and there, especially some good ones like Backless, and we’re going to stop here instead of going on to his Phil Collins-era and his great album Journeyman, but go ahead and check out “Forever Man” and if you’ve never heard “Tears In Heaven,” now is a good time. The man’s been at it since 1970 with solo stuff; I had to draw a line somewhere!

All those songs I mentioned are among my favorite Clapton songs as is this next one. I can’t really pick it out of the bunch and say I like the most though, but it definitely does show up a lot when I go through my Last.fm playing history. “Pretty Girl” is a song from Money And Cigarettes that really exemplifies Clapton’s ability to make a great, slow, love ballad while keeping his guitar at the forefront. Written for his wife Pattie Boyd (the ultimate rock muse), it basically talks about a man’s wife, all she’s done for him, and his feelings towards her. Pretty straight-forward love ballad, but spectacularly memorable all the same. Musically, the guitar line is a fairly common trick of breaking down chords, but the use here sets the tone wonderfully. The simple riff during the chorus, to me, sums up how simple the message of the song truly is. Then there’s the fabulous guitar solo which does more to speak of the girl’s beauty than Clapton’s voice ever could. It really follows the same formula of “Wonderful Tonight” with using the swooping guitar to send a message of love, but it’s definitely more effective here. I will say that it lacks that instantly recognizable guitar riff, but more than makes up for it in all other categories.

Song: Pretty Girl
Artist: Eric Clapton
Album: Money And Cigarettes
Year: 1983

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