Biographic - Sunday November 15, 2020 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

This month sees Guitar legend Eric Clapton release a remastered special 50th Anniversary edition of the classic 1970 Derek and the Dominos album "Layla and other assorted love songs." Born on March 30, 1945 in, Surrey England, Eric Patrick Clapton began to play guitar in his teens and joined his first band, The Roosters, at 17. Within a few months he was playing in R&B outfit The Yardbirds. But just as the group began to enjoy chart success, blues purist Clapton quit in protest at the direction the music was talking. His successor was Jeff Beck, who was later replaced by Jimmmy Page. When The Yardbirds disbanded, Page formed The New Yardbirds, who soon became Led Zeppelin. Clapton joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. His blistering guitar work had earned him the ironic nickname "Slowhand" in The Yardbirds. Soon graffiti began to appear on London walls proclaiming "Clapton is God." In 1966, Eric teamed up with the bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker to form Cream. America was conquered and millions of albums sold, but the band fell victim to ego clashes, disbanding in 1968. Baker joined Eric in the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith, alongside Stevie Winwood and Ric Grech. Retreating into the background, Eric played as a sideman with Delaney and Bonnie And Friends, and immersed himself in studio work with the likes of Stephen Stills and George Harrison. His next project saw him recruit guitarist Duane Allman and others to join him in Derek and Dominoes for the album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs." The title song was a tale of unrequited love inspired by his feelings for model Pattie Boyd. Following the breakdown of her marriage to Beatle George Harrison, she eventually wed Clapton, although the marriage ended in divorce in 1989. Inducted three times into the rock and roll hall of fame, he is a commander of the order of the British Empire and a commander of the order des arts et des lettres of France. But for all his triumphs, his life has been dogged by tragedy. He has battled addictions, and the deaths of close friends Jimi Jendrix, Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan affected him deeply. In 1991 he suffered the devastating loss of his 4-year-old son with the model Lory De Santo, in a tragic accident at a New York apartment. Eric expressed his grief at Conor's death in the haunting song "Tears of Heaven."

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