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158 of 184 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Soul Bared for All to See, October 10, 2007
I love biographies, especially of celebrities, having read them all my life. As I have gotten older, though, my attention span wanes, and I read less and less. This book, Clapton:The Autobiography, is an exceptional one, and as a pseudo musician (I can play several instruments, but I certainly wouldn't say I play any well), the prospect of reading about Eric Clapton, from the source, so-to-speak, was a prospect that excited me. I feel blessed that one can pre-order a book and have it on ones doorstep the day it hits the streets, as was the case with this book and the accompanying CD.
First of all, this is an exceptional book, but unlike some biographies, and fewer autobiographies, it is not one that would be a "page turner" for everyone because it is not full of cute anecdotes that make for sharing stories around the water cooler the next day.
A case in point is the time when Eric first met Jimi Hendrix. Chas Chandler of the Animals was trying to develop a career as a promoter and came across Hendrix in New York. Promising him a chance to meet Eric Clapton, he took Jimi to London. After meeting several musicians (Eric Burton, Andy Summers, et. al.), Chas took Jimi to hear Cream play. Backstage, Chas introduced Jimi, and they asked if Jimi could sit in with them for a few numbers, which seemed kind of ballsey. In CLAPTON, Eric writes that Jimi played Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" in true Hendrix fashion playing "the guitar with his teeth, behind his head, lying on the floor, doing the splits, the whole business. It was amazing.....They (the crowd) loved it, and I loved it, too, but I remember thinking that here was a force to be reckoned with. It scared me, because he was clearly going to be a huge star, and just as we were finding our own speed, here was the real thing." In other accounts I have read and heard about from others, Eric after seeing and hearing Jimi perform, goes over and sits down, looking rejected. Another musician comes over to ask him, "What's wrong?" In some accounts it's Jack Bruce, in other accounts it's Peter Townsend. Eric replies, "I'm (expletive-deleted). If I'm "God," who's he?" Which to me would have been a funny anecdote.
It is still an exceptional book because it is so personal.... Filled with the flaws and mistakes of an exceptionally talented man who carried around for most of his life the baggage of being a "bastard" to some in his own family, for his mother had had an affair with a soldier during WWII and left him as a child to be raised by his grandparents. While learning that his "parents" were actually his grandparents, he writes at length of the insecurities of not having his mom there, and, the heartbreak of finally meeting her, and asking her if he could call her "Mummy now?" Only to be told, ""I think it's best, after all they've done for you, that you go on calling your grandparent Mum and Dad." Of that moment, he wrote, "In that moment I felt total rejection."
Growing-up wasn't all that bad, though. Eric showed some talent in art, and music was something that his Grandmother Rose loved. He wasn't a diligent student, but in art, and later in the guitar, he worked long and hard at learning and later creating.
This is a very thorough book, almost a true musician's book because it leaves out nothing of the ups-and-downs that seem to be the norm for all musicians. In the book, he talks of why some tunes were written a certain way, how he evolved in his musical craft, and what he was wanting to achieve in each group he played with. He mentions names on individuals in even the earliest of groups he played in, what they did together, and is very thorough in providing the reader his a written history of their achievements.
One wonders, though, where all this would have led had Eric not had so much alcohol and drugs in his early life, of if in some way, this was the catalyst to help him overcome those insecurities of his youth (Actually, he states this in a roundabout way that it was, but one still wonders just how much of what we have now would there have been with less alcohol and drugs.)
I can't think of any aspect of Eric's life that he doesn't discuss in ERIC: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY: His love life, particularly his infatuation with Patti Boyd, George Harrison's wife; His relationships with other musicians and what he respected them for; His heartbreaks such as the loss of his son Conor.
I've given this book four stars, not because it is not exceptional, but because it isn't one that will be readable and enjoyable to all. However, if you are a lover of rock and blues music, or one who really wonders just what has gone through the head of someone as influential as Eric Clapton, I would recommend it to you.
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54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
NO BEAUTY BENEATH THE SKIN, October 23, 2007
I would look to offer up my thoughts after reading this much anticipated book several times over and would like to put to pen what I had been thinking for sometime. I was taken quite back my Eric's hubris and lack of remorse for many of his actions. Indeed his behavior towards women and lack of almost any complementary tone towards other wonderful musicians he has played with, and made money off of, was rather disturbing. What makes this is even worse - is that he is this way sober and off drugs! One reviewer quoted that he was honest and always had been; I doubt that then and now. It appears that denial and a genuine lack of insight to one's own character are his guiding demeanor. I feel very sorry for his wife, from Columbus Ohio and her parents who have to read this book about a post 60 year old man who still wishes that he had sex with a female when he was in his twenties. Regretful? How about repugnant. It's akin to my grandfather talking about having sex with someone in his younger days, while my grandmother sits across the room in her rocker. Distasteful.
I also agree, with another reviewer, that the middle portion of the book really loses focus, and instead of moving chronologically from one LP/CD to the next, it seems as though every two pages reveals yet another female conquest, lavishly praised for her beauty before he sleeps with her and moves on - never to be heard from again. Much like substance abuse, he documents himself as stimulus seeker without a moral compass, without regret or remorse of whom he hurts. (The only lament I can detect is when Mick steals a mistress from him.) As in when he is distraught that his wife and mistress both are at ends with him, or when he actually details how he wished/prayed for Conner's mother would come back after 4-5 hours of bonding to relieve him of his monthly duties as a father. One would consider this event almost shameful, but he lacks that quality as a person as best depicted when expounding on the death of his son later in the book.
Amazingly little time is spent on the areas and events where fans and musicians, like myself, would want to know what happened from Clapton's POV: Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie, and the formation of Derek and the Domino's. He woefully dismisses jamming with George Harrison, playing with him in Delaney & Bonnie post Beatles (something many of us had wished to know more of) and totally ignored the contributions of Dave Mason in the formation of D and D's. This despite the fact that he played on, and is credited for, most of the early tracks included in the Crossroads Compilation, as well as Harrison's All Things Must Pass. Even less for Andy Fairweather-Low, Knopfler, Dunn, etc.
Yet, another annoying trait is Clapton's chronic use of terms like fearful, insecurity and low self-esteem........as to prepare us for yet another arena or explanation of bad choices, bad decisions or bad behavior. The problem is that not all behavior is justified or rationalized. Sometime bad is just bad and unfortunately for Clapton, he has never learned this. For example, the Lady he sleeps with from NY, whom he is told will bring Patti back to him. Really? Did you actually believe that sleeping with another lady would get your wife to love you more? Perhaps the prevailing addiction is sex not drugs. One suspects that his written regret here is that he considered her to be unattractive and fat; not that Patti never came back. Yet as he put it: I did it anyway.
What does come through in this book, is that Clapton has been a golden goose or cash cow for management for most of professional career, constantly changing his imagine to be in vogue through out the 80's and 90's despite claiming to be a purist, even though he never clearly recognizes it. Albeit on second thought maybe he does: an autobiography, followed by (yet another!) Best of CD collection of which most songs have been released many times over, and supported by (gasp) no less than two Amazon interviews to support the cause.
Readable? Barely.
Informative? Rarely
Fleeced? Probably
Sellout? Absolutely.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Who Is Will Jennings? Ask Clapton. , November 10, 2007
After expending several hours of my life that I'll never get back reading this book, it dawned on me that Clapton takes the entire credit for writing 'Tears In Heaven,' when if you look it up anywhere, you'll discover that lyricist Will Jennings HELPED HIM WRITE IT. But is Jennings mentioned? Nope. Nowhere.
Skip this account of a guy who never knew what he wanted (and probably still doesn't, more's the pity for the current Mrs. Slowhand). I'm told by a good friend that this is a classic symptom of the alcoholic. It has nothing really compelling to recommend it; no mention of his songwriting style or craft, nothing but repeated reminders of how he's sober now.
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