10 great collaborations by Eric Clapton

When we talk about rock highlander, the first names to come to mind are Iggy Pop, Ozzy Osbourne or Keith Richards. We always forget Eric Clapton. Perhaps because it is difficult to think of him as a survivor because of composure and his almost noble do.

Those who saw him play in semiuman conditions in the company of Duane Allman or in one of the shows of the early 70s, when he loved to wear a sweater with “No Snow, No Show” written, he could hardly imagine it turned 80. However, if there is one thing that SlowHand has always managed to do it is really getting back in the sense when everyone gave him for passed off. Heroine, alcoholism, the loss of a child, up to the months in which he moved in a wheelchair: difficult to get the better of him.

To celebrate its birthday we put together its 10 best collaborations or at least the most intense, live or in the studio. Even in sharing Eric has always managed to give his best.

Lady Soul It is one of the most successful records of Aretha Franklin. There is a very classic blues, Good to me as i am to youwith which Ahmet Estrate, Atlantic Mastermind, wants to close the album and thinks that Eric Clapton is the right person to do it. A rupture decision, given that at the time it is thought that only African Americans can authenticly interpret the blues. When Clapton arrives in the studio you find Franklin and his friend Bobby Womack, one who knows something about black music. Clapton is so intimidated that he wants to play his part in complete solitude. The result is creepy.

Unlike Clapton, the Beatles were not bands for guests and George Harrison insists a lot to convince his companions to bring the guitarist to the studio with them. If the first version of the song, engraved by Harrison, still has a decidedly folk soul, the contribution given by Clapton completely changes the cards on the table. The final version of While My Guitar Gently Weepsembellished with a large solo, has a more electric attitude and more in line with the direction taken by the Beatles in those years. The other Beatles, initially hesitant, fall in love with it. In particular John, who a year later involves him in the first live album of a member of the Fab Four.

An unknown afternoon in the 90s, Eric Clapton and Stephen Stills find themselves together to recall the old days. Between a memory of Jimi Hendrix and one of the Summer of Love, Stills puts his solo debut on the plate. When the solo of Go back homeEric has a jolt: «Friend, you were really on fire On that one, tough stuff ». “Look Eric that you are the one who sounds,” says Stills. With that piece he had removed, Clapton had redone of the favor that Stills had done to him by participating shortly before in his first solo album. Clapton was in the midst of drug addiction and alcohol and had also canceled the days spent with Stills to record that piece of history.

Clapton hasn't seen herself for two years, has replaced everything with heroin. His friends are terrified of the idea that too many musicians who died in previous years can soon reach. Everyone, from Pete Townshend to Ronnie Wood understand that the only thing to do is bring him strength on a stage. Inevitably, the result is not always the best: Clapton is rusty and slowed down by addiction. But when we remember to be God, it is still of rare intensity. The cover of Little Wing By Jimi Hendrix is ​​excruciating and poetic, and the presence of Townshend and Wood brings the performance to legendary levels. It is the first of one of the many ashes.

It can be said that the artistic rebirth of Clapton Post detoxification took place with the publication of 461 Ocean Boulevardbut the performance in the cinematographic transposition of Tommy Of the Who remains one of the most incredible moments not only of the film, but of the entire decade of the guitarist. Its version of Eyesight to the Blind It is so intense and hypnotic that it even overcome the original. The role of Santone that sounds in front of the catatonic Roger Daltrey is the most spot on for him at that moment, where to get out of the addiction he tries to attack everything, even to the oriental spirituality so dear to friends Townshend and Harrison.

Exactly ten years after the Rainbow Concert, Clapton (with the help of Jeff Beck) sets a tour full of guests to support care and research on multiple sclerosis. Behind the project there is a second charity purpose: Jimmy Page is found in the same conditions as Eric in the early 1970s, devastated by the heroine, from the death of John Bonham and the end of the Led Zeppelin. It came to weigh less than 40 kilos. At the end of the evenings there are jam sessions that somehow become the prototype of the G3. The filmed version of Layla It is tears, with Clapton so on the ball to deserve a moving and unexpected embrace of Jimmy during the execution.

What's better to get out of your delusions if you don't get to the service of Roger Waters? Ideally called to replace David Gilmour in that beautiful mess of The Pros and Cons of Hitch HikingClapton goes to the service of the bassist of Pink Floyd, but he does it with 100%claypestical instrumental parts. Clapton simply sounds how he knows how to do and, according to many, records some of his best parts, at least of the decade. The most striking example is represented by the Assolo of 4:41 amwhich shows how much Eric's black soul can marry with any topic or author. One of his most ecstasiant moments.

Chuck Berry was not the most pleasant person to share the stage with. Egocentric and aware of being a living myth, when he is in Jammare with Keith Richards and Clapton he wants to show them who is the true king of the six ropes. Richards, who is repeatedly took fish in the face by his declared master, is mainly. In that climate of celebration, but marked by moments of tension hidden with difficulty by the smiles of the three, perhaps the final masterclass was born on what is the rock'n'roll is. And Clapton? Strengthened by his class and the ability to adapt to anyone without being intimidated, he relaxes and gives his best. Never a phrasing above the lines, never a demonstration from Alfa male. He enjoys it and makes a great impression.

«For years I have kept in the custody of the most faithful of my guitars an article in which Eric Clapton said he loved my music. Then, one day, I found it on the phone who invited me to participate in Chicago in his event ». It was the edition of the 2010 CrossRoads Festival. Pino Daniele dreams of big and offers him an equal exchange, a year later in Cava de 'Tirreni for a charity concert. Performance, today perhaps even more than then, moves extremely. Daniele, aware of the perhaps unrepeatable moment, pulls out one of the most intense versions ever, with Clapton who, always behind him so as not to take away the scene, accompanies him with that classic touch never over the top, but moving as nothing else.

For some time, due to his health conditions, Ozzy Osbourne knows that every album could be the last. But he still has a dream: he would like to bring together Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, the three guitarists of the Yardbirds in the same album. Only Page takes back. Clapton, reborn for the umpteenth time after the vicissitudes related to Covid, accepts, giving life to one of the most improbable pairs on the history in history. But it is only apparently, because the musical roots of the Black Sabbath sank in the blues and the combination proves to be very right. Maybe the highest point of the disc.