Eric Clapton

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Eric Clapton was born in 1945 in Ripley, in the English county of Surrey. He belongs to the generation of British guitarists who discovered American blues in the 1960s and brought it to a rock audience with loud amplifiers. In 1967 an unknown fan in London wrote 'Clapton is God' on a wall. Clapton is the only person to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: as a solo artist, with The Yardbirds and with Cream.

Music and breakthrough

From 1963 to 1965 he played in The Yardbirds. Then he joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. The album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966) is known to fans as the 'Beano album', because on the cover Clapton is reading a comic. On it he played a 1960 Gibson Les Paul through an overdriven Marshall amplifier. That combination produced a thick, long-sustaining guitar tone that many guitarists after him sought. Still in 1966 he started the trio Cream with the bassist Jack Bruce and the drummer Ginger Baker, which broke up in November 1968. Blind Faith (1969) followed, and Derek and the Dominos, with the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970).

Influence

The loud blues rock of Cream became a foundation for the hard rock of the 1970s. Clapton also played as a guest with others, such as the guitar solo in While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles. He wrote Tears in Heaven after the death of his little son Conor in 1991. It appears on Unplugged, an acoustic concert from 1992 that reached number 1 on the album chart in America.

Listening

• 
  Hideaway · John Mayall with Eric Clapton, 1966
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1970Eric Clapton
• 1974461 Ocean Boulevard
• 1975There’s One in Every Crowd
• 1976No Reason to Cry
• 1977Slowhand
• 1978Backless
• 1981Another Ticket
• 1983Money and Cigarettes
• 1985Behind the Sun
• 1985Edge of Darkness (soundtrack)
• 1986August
• 1987Lethal Weapon (soundtrack)
• 1988Homeboy (soundtrack)
• 1989Journeyman
• 1992Rush (soundtrack)
• 1994From the Cradle
• 1998Pilgrim
• 1999The Story of Us (soundtrack)
• 2000Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
• 2000Riding With the King
• 2001Reptile
• 2004Me and Mr Johnson
• 2005Back Home
• 2006The Road to Escondido
• 2010Clapton
• 2013Old Sock
• 2014The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale
• 2016I Still Do
• 2018Happy Xmas
• 2024Meanwhile

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 1: The Origins of Pop Music^NL Reader
• Mixtape 3: The Beatles^NL Reader
• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Blues rock GenreCream, the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, took the blues to the big halls, with long solos and loud amplifiers; Clapton played Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues as Crossroads.
• Purple Haze SongBritish guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck came to watch and were impressed.
• Music from Big Pink AlbumEric Clapton cites the album as a reason for leaving Cream.

See also

• Purple Haze
• Music from Big Pink
• 461 Ocean Boulevard
• There’s One in Every Crowd
• No Reason to Cry
• Backless
• August
• Back Home

Sources

1. Wikipedia (en): Eric Clapton
2. Wikipedia (en): Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
3. Wikipedia (en): Blues rock
4. Wikipedia (en): While My Guitar Gently Weeps