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He has played as a member of iconic groups like Derek and the Dominos, Cream and The Yardbirds but he also managed to carve a successful solo career.Eric Clapton Top Songs in the Charts Top One Hit Wonders of the 1990s Top Pop One Hit Wonders Tears in Heaven was the 4 song in 1992 in the Pop charts. He’s a talented singer, prolific songwriter, and an influential guitarist. Eric Clapton is one of the most revered musicians of all time and for good reason.
It starts with Derek and the Dominos because the songs on “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” are more of a piece with his solo career than his previous work. Here’s a look at the best of the songs that even now continue to define his legacy. Over the years, Eric Clapton evolved into a master songwriter and has been inducted into the. He preferred to fill his albums with cover songs because, as he says today, he was unwilling to reveal himself beyond what could be determined from the music and his guitar playing. And Clapton definitely lived up to the billing as the former Yardbird who’d already cycled through John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, moved from Cream to Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and Derek and the Dominos before launching a solo career in 1970 with a self-titled gem of an album.During the early years of his career, Eric Clapton contributed very few songs to the various bands he played with. By 1967, Eric Clapton’s reputation as one of the hottest young guitarists on the British blues scene was such that when somebody spray-painted “Clapton is God” on the Islington Underground station, it stuck.
His soulful reading of the lyrics makes the most of lines as defeated as, “Some of this generation is millionaires and I can’t even keep decent clothes to wear.” But his guitar does all the heavy crying. “Double Trouble”The most Claptonesque track on “No Reason to Cry,” an album he recorded with the members of the Band, Bob Dylan and Ron Wood, this smoldering blues is an Otis Rush song and Clapton clearly knows his way around this territory. From “Eric Clapton” (1970). The wah-guitar intro is classic, it ends in a dueling guitar lead and that horn part is a nice touch. Across the albums 10 songs, Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds keep matters dark.Clapton’s vocal here is self-assured enough to put across the line, “I’ll be your box of matches, baby, when you need a light” and make it sound like poetry. “Bad Boy”Eric Clapton had already carved out a respectable career for himself before.
Eric Clapton Top 10 Songs How To Rock And
Why? Because it manages to take a great song even higher, a rousing rendition with powerful vocals and some really nice guitar work. “Tell the Truth” (live)A Clapton-Bobby Whitlock co-write, “Tell the Truth” was amazing when Derek and the Dominos did it on “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.” But I’m going with the live recording from late 1974 at the Hammersmith Odean, included as a bonus track when “461 Ocean Boulevard” was reissued. From “Eric Clapton” (1970). It’s meant to be a good time and it is, no more, no less. “Blues Power”It may have seemed a little disingenuous for Eric Clapton to begin a song in 1970 with a statement as ridiculous as “I bet you didn’t think I knew how to rock and roll.” Dude, we knew you when you were in Cream, OK? At least he follows through with a record that proves he knows exactly how to rock and roll with a spirited vocal and scrappy guitar leads.
That’s a trick he should have used more often. And it’s nice to hear him slip into falsetto on occasion. And the call-and-response between Clapton and those gospel-flavored backing vocals? That’s pure Clapton circa 1970, as is the slinky wah-guitar lead. The horns that greet it aren’t.
It’s a blues traditional and Clapton definitely takes it more into the rock realm without losing sight of its roots. “Motherless Children”The opening track on Clapton’s second album, it set the tone with a twangy country-rock guitar riff before taking flight on a stinging slide-guitar break, all before he grabs the mike more than a minute in to sing about motherless children and how they have a hard time when mother is dead, Lord. From “Eric Clapton” (1970). But it’s that upbeat vibe that ultimately makes it what it is.
The vibe here is ominous, chilling, funereal, not far removed from the sort of thing Dylan was chasing decades later on “Time Out Mind,” but bluesier and bleaker. But this version of Elmore James’ “The Sky is Crying” made up for the disappointment. “The Sky is Crying”Coming hot on the “461 Ocean Boulevard,” “There’s One in Every Crowd” was seen as something of a letdown.
“I Shot the Sheriff”This song hit No. From “There’s One in Every Crowd” (1975). And that is a beautiful thing.
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Cale song, “After Midnight” was Clapton’s first single, announcing the launch of his solo career with a No. “After Midnight”A spirited J.J. From “461 Ocean Boulevard” (1974).
From “Eric Clapton” (1970).RELATED: Summer playlist: 30 classic songs about summer 9. There’s also a really nice, if compact, guitar lead that gets underway with a flurry of triplets and only gets better from there. “Bottle of Red Wine”A rollicking celebration of rock and roll excess, it kicked off side two of his solo debut with Clapton demanding his lover to “get up” and “get your man a bottle of red wine” because “I can’t get up out of bed with this crazy feeling in my head.” He asks more nicely later, even saying please. From “Eric Clapton” (1970). The gospel backing vocals testifying at the end of most lines is a nice touch, but what elevates this single to its spot on this list is that searing blues-guitar break. And it’s held up pretty well, despite that awful version Clapton re-recorded for a beer commercial.
Hey, the sexual revolution was a thing then. “Please remember that I want you to come too,” he advises his partner as they’re making love against the wall. “Easy Now”An understated acoustic-guitar-driven highlight of Clapton’s self-titled debut, it would have sounded right at home on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled debut as well, especially given the lyrical thrust, if you will. From “Eric Clapton” (1970). And as much as it appears to have been written as a vehicle for Bobby Keys’ sax work, Clapton definitely wins the spotlight over with his gritty playing on the back half.
And that’s before you toss in Clapton’s wounded vocal, pouring his heart out while setting the scene with a cautionary tale from 1923. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”The tone on that opening lick alone would be enough to earn this heartbreaking Jimmy Cox ballad, as done by Derek and the Dominos, a place of honor on this list. From “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” (1970). The twin-guitar harmony after the bridge is a brilliant departure, and it ends in a wailing guitar lead from Clapton that seems to pick up where the heartache in that vocal left off. “I Looked Away”The opening track on Derek and the Dominos’ only proper album, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” this country-flavored ballad sets the tone for the album of heartache that follows with, “She took my hand and tried to make me understand that she would always be there/But I looked away and she ran away from me today/I’m such a lonely man.” The ache in Clapton’s vocal track is nicley underscored by melancholy blues guitar fills reminiscent of Robbie Robertson’s work with Dylan and the Band.
But he hits his stride here on the epic (some would argue God-like) solo where it really does begin to feel a little like the sky is crying. But Clapton’s clearly chasing something different here, from that bombastic opening salvo to the melancholy melody he plays on his guitar coming out of that opening salvo, the perfect setup for his soulful reading of the psychedelic lyrics. Do I miss the glockenspeil of the Hendrix original? Of course. “Little Wing”Derek and the Dominos transform this tender ballad by the Jimi Hendrix Experience into something more dramatic, more emotional and more majestic. From “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” (1970).
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