By way of irony, during the same week last month that Brian May was declared the greatest rock guitarist of all time, the BBC broadcast the documentary ‘ERIC CLAPTON – LIFE in 12 BARS‘ – an overview of the life and career of Eric Clapton, a man believed by many to be a worthy recipient of the accolade bestowed on May.
An engrossing, admirably honest and sometimes painful watch, ‘Life in 12 Bars‘ (director Lili Fini Zanuck, 133 mins, 2017) begins in 2015 with Clapton paying tribute to his recently deceased blues guitar hero BB King and going full circle to end with late-life contentment with second wife Melia and young family.
In between his story is told through archival footage and voice over interviews, the narrations also taken from the archives – the exalted status he holds as a guitarist given as much emphasis as the trauma, addictions and tragedy that for many years dogged his personal life.
The first two-thirds of the documentary depict how Clapton (born 30 March 1945 in Ripley, England) emerged from a traumatised childhood to become the most feted guitar player of his generation – Eric Clapton guitar virtuoso, but complex, conflicted man; hopeless drug addict, reckless drunk, who eventually conquers his demons, to find his sobriety challenged when young son Conor died in the most tragic of circumstances in 1991.
Yet rather than return to his previous, self-destructive ways he finds solace in music – in similar fashion, as Clapton says in a late-90s interview included in the film, ‘the same way I did when dealing with my bad experiences as a child.’
What had left him so scarred was discovering at the age of nine who he thought were his parents were actually his grandparents – and his elder sister was in fact his mother – Clapton the son of 16 year-old Patricia Clapton and a Canadian solider stationed in England toward the end of World War Two.
Later as a teenager, Clapton was rejected again by his mother, by now living in Germany with a new family and wife of a different Canadian solider, a refusal to accept her first born into these circumstances inflicting upon Eric psychological scars that would take decades to heal.
By the age of 15 Clapton, a solitary youth, was mastering the guitar while becoming fixated with blues men such as King and Muddy Waters. ‘I saw them as one man with his guitar against the world,’ recalled Clapton, ‘and that’s how things felt to me.’
After establishing a hallowed reputation on the London club circuit, Clapton gained widespread recognition first with The Yardbirds and then John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers – his career path leading in 1966 to Cream, a substantive power trio also comprising Ginger Baker (drums) and Jack Bruce (bass).
While their stunning individual prowess was often greater than the whole – or perhaps, because of it – Cream became a huge worldwide success, one commentator claiming that for two years they were ‘bigger than The Beatles and Rolling Stones‘ (in terms of record sales possibly, although not with regard to the inventiveness of their records).
During the 1966-68 period, Clapton also became friendly with two other guitarists of great renown, seeing a kindred spirit in the shy Jimi Hendrix, with Beatle George Harrison ‘becoming my best friend.’
Both relationships, however, were to have unfortunate consequences. Hendrix died from an accidental drug overdose in September 1970, (‘I cried for days,’ said Clapton, ‘not because Jimi had gone but because he hadn’t taken me with him‘).
In the wake of this bereavement, Clapton managed to finish the double album ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs‘ credited to Derek and the Dominoes – Cream having long since disbanded due to internal wrangling, particularly between Bruce and Baker – most of the tracks amounting to an open love letter to Harrison’s wife Patti, with whom Clapton had fallen ‘obsessively in love with.’
Despite being appreciated by Mrs Harrison, critics and the record buying public (Clapton sings the breathtaking title track as if his life depends on it), this grand attempt to woo the object of his affections failed, as for the moment she remained with Harrison.
‘It didn’t work,’ reflected Clapton, ‘so it was all for nothing.’ Hit hard by the rejection, Clapton became a full-blown heroin addict, the film at this point surprisingly making no reference to the part played by Pete Townshend in his subsequent recovery – Townshend organising a highly publicised ‘comeback concert‘ for Clapton in January 1973 and whose maneuverings secured a part for his friend in the film version of ‘Tommy‘ twelve months later.
By this time, after the collapse of her marriage to Harrison, Boyd and Clapton were now an item, but his drug addiction had been replaced by a descent in alcoholism – and given his gargantuan consumption of brandy for the rest of the decade, one wonders if the ‘12 bars‘ of the title alludes to the blues or amount of hostelries he was visiting on a nightly basis.
Here the piece would have benefited from a brief overview of his albums of this era (a mixed bag to be sure, but worthy of appraisal), although it does not shy away from his tendency to be a ‘thoroughly dislikable drunk‘ (Boyd) or many of the utterly shambolic live performances he gave as the 70s drew to a close.
While locked into this drunken spiral Clapton also made some appalling racist remarks, that were as crass as they were surprising given the amount of black musicians he had worked with (two in his touring band at the time) and been influenced by.
During the 80s he finally became sober but it was offset by divorce from Patti in 1989, although by the time they parted he had fathered a daughter and son to different women outside of the marriage. By the spring of 1991 Clapton had grown particularly close to Conor – only for tragedy to strike on March 20, the four year old boy falling to his death from the window of a New York apartment.
In response to the tragedy Clapton wrote the affecting acoustic ballad ‘Tears in Heaven,’ its inclusion on his 1992 ‘Unplugged‘ set resulting in the song and album winning a combined six Grammys at the 1993 awards – the resurgence in his career finally matched by personal content with a second marriage producing three daughters.
‘Life in 12 Bars‘ makes for absorbing viewing, the life and times of a key figure in the development of rock music – and all the drama therein – presented with unflinching honesty.
For years a disturbed soul troubled by trust issues, (‘Eric found it hard to communicate‘ says 60s girlfriend Charlotte Martin, ‘I would ask how he felt about our relationship and get a guitar riff as a reply‘).
In one of several unsettling passages in the film, the Eric Clapton of 1970 states: ‘My relationship with heroin is everything – I don’t expect to live too long.’
In a life of many contradictions, thankfully his longevity has proved the ultimate contradiction.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is also the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.