Early in his career, the scrawled phrase "Clapton is God" was a common sight on the walls of London.īut Clapton's life has also been defined by a series of tragedies and oddities. With his sturdy blues foundation, liquid tone and architecturally structured solos, Clapton, 62, is one of rock's most influential and revered guitarists. (An accompanying two-CD retrospective, "Complete Clapton," is also being released this week.) He has played in several monumental bands (the Yardbirds, Cream) accompanied giants from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and topped the charts and filled arenas as a solo performer. "Clapton" chronicles the many musical configurations of Clapton's career. The autobiographies of Bob Dylan and Sting have been best sellers in recent years, this fall will see the publication of books by Ron Wood and Slash, and Keith Richards recently received a contract for more than $7 million for his life story. But as the luminaries of rock get older, they are beginning to write their own histories. There is now a long tradition of rock biographies, usually the more lurid, the better.
I just tried to take responsibility for all the different phases of my life." "I think that's a misunderstanding of it. "Someone recently read the book and told me that I was really hard on myself," Clapton said. His description of his relationship with Boyd, though, offers few excuses for his emotional swings, substance abuse and extramarital affairs (including one that produced his oldest daughter) that defined much of their decade together. "We each have our different versions of our years together," he said. On the phone from his home outside London, where he lives with his wife, Melia McEnery, and their three daughters, he singled out as far-fetched Boyd's description of a night in which he and Harrison had a "guitar duel" for her hand. Clapton said that he had not read her book but that he had seen excerpts in newspapers and noted discrepancies, both small and large, between the two accounts of their relationship. Clapton's memoir follows the recent release of Boyd's side of the story in "Wonderful Tonight" (named for a song he wrote about her), which in September entered the New York Times best-seller list at No. The saga sits at the center of "Clapton: The Autobiography," which is being published this week by Broadway Books. Clapton's 1970 masterpiece, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" (recorded with his band at the time, Derek and the Dominos), was an offering and a plea to her they eventually married in 1979 and divorced in 1988. At some point in the late 1960s, Eric Clapton fell in love with Pattie Boyd, wife of his close friend George Harrison. She had also inspired Clapton's 1970 album with Derek & the Dominoes, " Layla and Other Love Songs." In other words, Boyd was a major rock 'n' roll muse.NEW YORK - It is one of the most mythic romantic entanglements in rock 'n' roll history. Before "Wonderful Tonight," she inspired multiple Beatles songs, including "If I Needed Someone" and "Something," as noted by Mental Floss. The marriage is particularly notable in the rock 'n' roll history books because Boyd had previously been married to Beatles guitarist George Harrison. "Wonderful Tonight" was inspired by English model Pattie Boyd, who married Clapton in 1979.
The ballad seems to be a simple retelling of a typical scene between a typical couple, aside from the fact that the couple in question was one of the most famous in rock 'n' roll history. "She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blonde hair/And then she asks me, 'Do I look all right?'/And I say, 'Yes, you look wonderful tonight.'" "It's late in the evening/She's wondering what clothes to wear," Eric Clapton sings in his 1977 hit "Wonderful Tonight" (via Genius).
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