Blues music
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton, CBE, was born on the 30th March 1945, in Surrey, England. “Slowhand”, as he has been nicknamed, is a Grammy Award winning composer, singer and guitarist, who is regarded as being one of the most influential artist of the rock era.
Clapton was 13 when he first began to play the guitar and nearly gave up because he found playing an electric guitar so difficult. He joined his first group, The Roosters, in 1963. He later went on the join The Yardbirds, appearing on their 1964 recording "Five Live Yardbirds", which showed off his talent at playing blues guitar. In 1965, John Mayall asked the upcoming blues-star to join his group, The Bluesbreakers. He played with Mayall for ten years. In 1967 the words ‘Clapton is God’ were sprayed on a wall in Islington Underground. After this Clapton joined the band Cream, although this lasted barely two years.
It was in 1970 that Clapton went solo releasing the double album "Layla" which became one of the cornerstone rock records of the Seventies. After the release of this album, Clapton became addicted to drugs and became evermore reclusive apart from a concert in 1971 where he passed out on stage, was revived and finished the concert! January 1973 gave way to a comeback for the recovered star, which reintroduced him to public performing. His solo career began to really kick off with the release of "461 Ocean Boulevard" a year later topping the charts. Clapton's cover of Bob Marley's ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ proved to be a massive success.
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Through the 1980s Clapton released a live album, two further albums and created his own record label, Duck Records. In 1991 tragedy struck when his 4 year old son, Conor fell out of a 53rd storey window. Clapton expressed his grief with his track "Tears in Heaven". Between "Tears in Heaven" and his "Unplugged" album he won a total of 6 Grammys that year. 1998 saw Clapton win critical acclaim for his performances with Carlos Santana and B.B. King.
Since the turn of the century Clapton has kept himself busy performing with a myriad of artists across the world and he continues to be a major influence in all things musical. Rolling Stone rank him as the 4th Greatest Guitar Player of All Time!
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