ERIC CLAPTION: Achieving a life goal
by Nathan Harris
I accomplished a life goal this past week. Fulfilling a promise I made myself years ago, I saw Eric Clapton in concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Clapton has been a huge influence on the growth of my musical tastes. He gave me my first taste of the blues, which has opened musical doors for me both backwards to his influences and forward to those who are carrying on the tradition.
Trying to look past my own starry-eyes, Slowhand is older than he once was. He didn’t reach for the high note in “Layla” and didn’t perform with the same energy that he has in the past. Still, this is Clapton.
This is the one who played on the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” wrote “Tears in Heaven” for his dead son, helped in the formative stages of the Yardbirds, rocked with super-group Cream, and brought Bob Marley’s music to America.
Living legend is trite, but I’m not sure it says enough.
I coined a term that I’m not going to use here (bluesgasm) though it was pretty close to the truth. If I were a six-year-old boy, Clapton would be a giant Ninja Turtle with a real samurai sword.
There was a surprising amount of collaboration between rock star and band, and also between Clapton and his opener, the Robert Cray Band. It was points in his favor every time Clapton surrendered a solo to his backup guitar or keyboard, and it happened more often than you would think. Cray, a soulful blues artist with a talent for creative compositions, joined Clapton for the encore as the two paid tribute to Robert Johnson (click on his photo below to learn more).
All in all, it was an important night for me. Now that I’ve seen Clapton before either one of us dies, it’s time to move down my list of life goals. I wonder how much it would cost to fill a pool with strawberry gelatin?
