Jon's Rock on a Stick: Slowhand

It's been a while I know... so might as well come out all guns blazing!

And what better gun to blaze (please forgive me for that one!) than Mr Eric Clapton. The man that influenced a million guitarists, and with one of the more complicated upbringings I've ever come across. In summary: his dad, a Canadian serviceman, sodded off back home after the war, leaving baby Eric and his mum with her parents. Clapton grew up thinking his mum was his older sister.... Sounds like a soap opera!

The young Eric started out busking around the Kingston and Richmond area getting the odd gig here and there. Eventually he joined the Yardbirds in 1963 helping them achieve commercial status and himself becoming one of the most talked about guitarists in the country. In 1965, after getting disillusioned with the increasingly commercial route the Yardbirds were taking he moved on to join the critically acclaimed John Mayall and his bluesbreakers. At this point I should point ouy that all of his bands have been of note and probably deserve a post to themselves at some point, but I will skip on from these two earlier groups, to when (I think) it gets more interesting.

Cream are probably the one band people most associate Clapton with, and were dubbed the first 'supergroup', a classification Clapton would end up hating! Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were more renowned for their Jazz backgrounds which would explain the jazz tinged sound that Cream would produce, but with Clapton on board they would spearhead the UK rythym & blues movement. I've taken one of their more famous tracks for the first song of this post. The short sharp radio friendly 'Strange Brew', taken from the 1967 classic 'Disraeli Gears'

After Cream split due to internal tensions between Bruce and Baker in 1969. Clapton moved onto Blind Faith, another supergroup formed by Ginger Baker (again), the outrageously gifted Steve Winwood and bassist, Ric Grech, both from Traffic. Success was short lived and after seven months and one album and tour, they all went their seperate ways. However the one album was a bit of a hit. Taken from the self titled 'Blind Faith' here is 'Had to Cry Today'

In a concious effort to take a more backseat role, Clapton then joined up with rock duo Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and their imaginatively titled revue called 'Delaney, Bonnie and Friends' who had supported Blind Faith on their US tour. I'd heard of them but had never heard them, until I researched for this post and was pleasantly surprised with what I found...

Check out this performance, this is 'Coming Home' from the live album 'On tour with Eric Clapton'. Not only does it feature a watertight rythym section an absolutely killer performance by the brass section in the middle eight, and even the promoter quite brilliantly telling the audience that its the best live performance they've had in Croydon for quite a while...... South London never had it so good!

Following on from his short lived involvement with Delaney and Bonnie, Clapton grouped together with their backing band to form Derek and the Dominos, another attempt by Clapton to stay out of the limelight as a member of the band. Although they were joined for the majority of recordings by slide guitar king Duane Allman (yes! of the Allman Brothers). Sadly, they only released one album during their time mainly down to tensions between several members, but WHAT an album it was! 'Layla and other assorted love songs' was Claptons ode and declaration of love for his good friend George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd. It spawned one of rock musics greatest ever songs in the title track (the name Layla is taken from a 12th Century Persian poem titled Layla and Majnun, a story of unrequitted love). The album has a host of gems on it, and I have selected the excellent 'Keep on Growing' for your aural pleasure. Enjoy!

After Derek and the Dominos split in 1971, Clapton fell into a Heroin induced stupor and did not record anything for several years. He made a few appearances at the odd benefit gig, but it took good friend Pete Townshend to break him free of his addiction and persuade him to get back into the studio.

I've taken the final offering from this post from my favourite old music program, The Old Grey Whistle Test. This is the song that really put Clapton back on the map, but it is not his own compostion. Bob Marley released this a year earlier, and there are plenty of live versions of this on the web and on record, but I just love the bands performance here. It has such a groove to it, and its so tight its unreal. Shame its so short.