English rock and blues guitarist, singer and composer Eric Clapton is generally considered an influential guitarist of the turn of the 60s and 70s. Later he became an important singer and composer. His most famous author’s songs include “Layla” and “Tears in Heaven”. On Sunday, March 30 is 80 years old.
Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 in Ripley, England in the County of Surrey, a teenage mother and a Canadian soldier who was deployed in England during World War II and returned to his wife before his son’s birth. Clapton was largely raised by his grandparents.
He started playing the guitar at a teenage age and studied briefly at Kingston College of Art. After playing on solo guitar in two smaller bands, in 1963 joined the Rhythm-and-Blues group The Yardbirds, in which his blues affected game and sovereign technology began to attract the attention of a wider cultural audience.
Clapton left the group in 1965when she tried to achieve a commercial success style. In the same year he became a member of the formation John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and his guitar play soon became the main asset of the group. She won devoted fans on the London club scene.
In 1966 Clapton left Bluesbreakers and founded a new group with two other virtuoso rock musicians, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. Cream has achieved international popularity with its sophisticated merger of rock and blues, “spiced” by improvised solos.
His teammates, but Clapton’s championship in Blues form and phrasing, his quick game and simple vibration were massively imitated by many other rock guitarists. The high energy and emotional intensity of his play in songs like “Crossroads” and “White Room” set a standard for rock guitar solos.
Cream fell apart at the end of 1968 – after releasing Fresh Cream (1985), Disraeli Gears (1967), Wheels of Fire (1968) and Goodbye (1969). In 1969, Clapton and Baker founded a new Blind Faith group with keyboardist and singer Steve Winwood and bass guitarist Rick Grech, but the formation disintegrated after the upload of a single album.
Clapton manifested himself as a capable singer on his first solo album, which was released in 1970. Soon he put together three musicians (bass guitarist Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon and Bobby Whitlock keyboardist) and He founded a new group Derek and the Dominos, in which he was the main guitarist, singer and author of the songs.
While recording the double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), which is considered Clapton’s masterpiece and a milestone between rock recordings, the American guitarist Duane Allman joined the team. Clapton disappointed with the bland album sales and also heroin -dependent for two years retreated into seclusion.
After overcoming addiction he successfully returned. With the album 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), which features a hit remodel of songs by Bob Marley “I Shot the Sheriff”. He took a more relaxed approach that emphasized his compositional and singing skills rather than playing guitar.
Over the next 20 years, Clapton has released a range of albums including Slowhand (1977), Backless (1978), Money and Cigarettes (1983), August (1986), UNPLUGGED (1992), which contains it contains hit “Tears in Heaven”, written after the death of his little sonand from the Cradle (1994). At the Grammy award ceremony in 1993, the song “Tears in Heaven” won the song and Record of the Year award, and the album “UNPLUGGED” was declared an album of the year.
Clapton also examined his musical influences in a pair of collaboration awarded by the price Grammy – na albumoch Riding with the King (2000) s B. B. Kingom a The Road to Escondido (2006) s J.J. Caleom. The critical and commercial success of these albums has strengthened his position of one of the best rock musicians in the world, with the following albums such as Clapton (2010), Old Sock (2013) and I Still Do (2016) capture the persistent qualities of his artistic abilities. In 2018, Clapton released his first holiday album Happy Xmas.
In 2016 his autobiographical book Clapton was published, a year later came to the cinemas film Clapton: Life in 12 Bars. He was presented by the Rockrock of the Hall of Fame as a member of The Yardbirds in 1992 as a member of Cream in 1993 and as a solo artist in 2000.
