“Playing it seemed an impossible task,” Eric Clapton wrote in his 2007 autobiography about learning to play the guitar. One of the greatest players in the history of rock & roll started out like any other kid picking up a guitar for the first time. It was “almost the same size as I was” and he could “hardly press the strings down.” Yet he didn’t let all that detour him from his goal of learning to play. “I had no one to teach me so I set about teaching myself.”
Clapton is now seventy years old. He retains his lifelong passion of playing blues and has gradually over recent years more often than not filled the majority of his setlist with tunes that no longer reach into the more high-energy regions of his guitar playing. He is perfectly content to sit on his chair plucking out a sentimental lyrical poem to love born and lost than take “Crossroads” to it’s epochal nether regions. He prefers to let the notes talk TO him rather than LEAD him to another dimension. It is the Clapton maybe he was always meant to be.
All this is captured beautifully on the new DVD/CD Eric Clapton: Slowhand At 70, Live At The Royal Albert Hall. If you’re looking for theatrics, “After Midnight” and a newly revved up version of “Layla,” well, you’re out of luck. For a performance on the hallowed stage of the Royal Albert Hall in London, Clapton may be wearing jeans but his bred-in British reserve is to not raise a ruckus. He simply, and elegantly, plays his guitar and lets the emotions within the chords speak for themselves. He says thank you often but never falls into typical songwriter mode – explaining the meaning behind the tunes or who played it before him. He introduces keyboard player Paul Carrack as “magnificent.” And you can tell how deeply he is immersed in his playing by watching his feet.
The Royal Albert Hall has a long history with Clapton, dating back fifty years with the Yardbirds. Cream played their final two shows there on their farewell tour in 1968 as well as during the 2005 reunion trek. All tallied, Clapton has stood on that stage and put his fingertips to the strings an inconceivable 200 plus times. Filming the shows during his 70th year was only appropriate, a place he has called “homey” and “very comfortable,” and marks his 17th residency there.
The live footage was culled from the seven nights he played there in May of this year, giving viewers the crème de la crème of Clapton. Opening with JJ Cale’s “Somebody’s Knockin’ On My Door,” the highlights are strong: the R&B tinged “High Time We Went,” a lulling “Wonderful Tonight,” a spirited “Crossroads,” mainstays “I Shot The Sheriff” and “Tears in Heaven” and a brilliant “Little Queen Of Spades,” thanks in part to keyboardist Chris Stainton, which is a bonus featured track. You can never go wrong with a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” no matter who you are; and “Driftin’ Blues” again showcases the tenderness in which Clapton strokes the strings.
Clapton has never overstayed his welcome throughout his career. He went from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers to the sultry rock of Cream to Blind Faith, Delaney & Bonnie, Derek & The Dominos to the pick-up quartet the Dirty Mac for the Rolling Stones infamous Rock & Roll Circus. His notorious affection for being a sideman has always been apparent, allowing Duane Allman to shine on “Layla” and Doyle Bramhall II to come alive onstage next to him in more modern times. He is content to let others’ brilliance be the focal point while he steps aside. “He puts you on a level playing field so it never feels like you’re less than or not as talented,” Bramhall once told me in an interview for Hittin’ The Note. “He made me feel like I was actually a peer.” Carrack handles lead vocals on “You Are So Beautiful” and longtime Clapton bass player Nathan East does a harmonic “Can’t Find My Way Home.”
When he sits down with an acoustic for a midset homage to life’s bittersweet ways, you can certainly feel his journey with him – the sorrow of “Tears In Heaven,” “Driftin’ Blues” and “Nobody Knows When You’re Down & Out” before hitting on the longing for an untouchable love on “Layla.” The simplicity of which his voice aches even when attempting to add a tinge of hope within the stanzas is one of Clapton’s hidden gems. You know the heartache he felt when his four year old son died in a freak accident, the pain caused when he lost dear friends JJ Cale and BB King, the heroin struggles, the childhood secrets; they all combine with the joys of his life and funnel out through his guitar. If only those fingertips could talk, the stories they could tell. On second thought, they have been telling Clapton’s autobiography in more ways than his written tome ever could.
Eric Clapton: Slowhand At 70, Live At The Royal Albert Hall is by no means perfect as some of the editing and screen shots leave a lot to be desired, especially when coordinating the flow between the band and the audience. And elongated shots from behind Clapton only prove what a nice head of hair the man has at seventy. But overall, it’s a keeper.
Eric Clapton: Slowhand At 70, Live At The Royal Albert Hall is available in several options, from DVD to Blu-Ray to deluxe versions with CDs.
2 Responses
I wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts on this Clapton piece. Having attended the May 18th show at RAH, I have to say that this DVD highlights the best of Clapton’s vocals, which even he’d admit have never been his strength, his humility and eagerness to share the spotlight rather than shine it upon himself (I’m not sure he *ever* said anything but, “Thank you” all night) and…I have to add that the lighting of this show, and the projection of Clapton’s masterful hands on to the back wall of the theatre playing his Strat for all of us to see, was brilliant.
My only disappointment was during “Little Queen of Spades” the night I attended, Clapton began a loving and touching chant of “B.B. KING” as the song played on. I was hoping that might be included on the bonus track.