Eric Clapton at the Cow Palace, July 1974
Eric Clapton was born in 1945, in Surrey, England, and began to play the guitar as a teenager. He was especially drawn to the earthy sound of American music, particularly the blues of Robert Johnson, Freddie King, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy. At the age of seventeen he joined The Roosters, and later played with Casey Jones and The Engineers. In October, 1963, he joined The Yardbirds, staying with them until March, 1965, and appearing on their first album, Five Live Yardbirds, which was recorded during a performance at the Marquee Club in London and released in 1964. (It was during this time that Eric Clapton gained the nickname of "Slowhand.") When The Yardbirds had a hit in both the United Kingdom and the United States with "For Your Love" (written by Graham Gouldman), Eric Clapton became unhappy and resolved to quit the band, saying that he wanted only to play authentic blues.
After Eric Clapton left The Yardbirds, he accepted an offer to play with John Mayall, another strong-minded musician who was fervently committed to taking a tough, heartfelt approach in performing the blues. The piercingly sharp tone of Eric Clapton's guitar (a Gibson Les Paul, combined with a Marshall amplifier) was a pronounced highlight on John Mayall's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966), an uncompromising album of honest blues that also featured Eric Clapton's first track as lead vocalist, on which he sang Robert Johnson's "Ramblin' on My Mind." Eric Clapton quickly established a singular reputation as a peerless guitarist during his stint with John Mayall, to such a degree that one fan was moved to scrawl the words, "Clapton is God," on the wall of a station in the London Underground.
In July, 1966, Eric Clapton parted ways with John Mayall and formed a new band, Cream, with Jack Bruce (vocals, bass, harmonica) and Ginger Baker (drums). By the end of that year, Cream had released two singles, "Wrapping Paper" and "I Feel Free," and their first album, Fresh Cream. Three more albums followed: Disraeli Gears (1967), which featured "Sunshine of Your Love," one of their most famous tracks, Wheels of Fire (1968), a double LP that included four tracks recorded at performances in San Francisco, and Goodbye (1969), their final album. (In 1968, Eric Clapton also added his talent to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," one of George Harrison's tracks on The Beatles.) Cream had a brief lifetime, but their loud style of electric blues, played in a heavy, extended manner with each of the musicians forcefully pushing the collective sound into new realms, set an unprecedented standard of performance in rock 'n' roll.
When Cream ended, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker joined with Steve Winwood (The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic) and Ric Grech (Family) in Blind Faith. In June, 1969, Blind Faith gave their first performance in public at a free concert in Hyde Park, London, followed by a tour of the United States. After the release of their first and only album, Blind Faith (which included one of Eric Clapton's most eloquent compositions, "Presence of the Lord"), in August of 1969, the band broke up. After Blind Faith, Eric Clapton toured and recorded as a guitarist with an American band, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, and also made two appearances with The Plastic Ono Band. (He also played on a single by The Plastic Ono Band, "Cold Turkey.") His first album to be recorded under his own name, Eric Clapton, was released on Polydor Records in August, 1970. In addition, his guitar could be heard on George Harrison's album, All Things Must Pass.
After releasing Eric Clapton, he formed a new band, known as Derek and The Dominos, with three of the musicians (Bobby Whitlock on keyboards, Carl Radle on bass, and Jim Gordon on drums) who had worked on the album. Their first album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (which also featured the guitar of Duane Allman), was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, and released in November, 1970. The most impressive track on the double album was "Layla" itself, a song that Eric Clapton wrote to express his anguished love for George Harrison's wife, Pattie. Among the other tracks on the album were "I Looked Away," "Bell Bottom Blues," "Keep on Growing," "Anyday," and "Tell the Truth." Derek and The Dominos toured the United States and attempted to record a second album, but the band dissolved in 1971.
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By the early 1970s, Eric Clapton was at loose ends and had fallen into a reckless habit of using hard drugs, particularly heroin. After the breakup of Derek and The Dominos, he chose to retreat from his fame, hiding himself in the privacy of Hurtwood Edge, his country house in Surrey, and apart from an appearance with George Harrison at the Concert for Bangladesh in New York City on August 1, 1971, he did not engage in any musical activities. He finally returned to action in January, 1973, when he gave two performances (with a band of celebrated friends, including Pete Townshend, Steve Winwood, Ron Wood, Ric Grech, and Jim Capaldi) at the Rainbow Theatre in London. Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert, a live recording drawn from both performances, was released in September, 1971.
In 1974, having turned away from the harmful burden of heroin (but now overdoing his consumption of alcohol), and having finally succeeded in enticing Pattie Harrison away from her husband, he released a new album, 461 Ocean Boulevard, and commenced another tour of the United States. 461 Ocean Boulevard was recorded during a return trip to Criteria Studios, and among its best tracks was a faithful cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," which became a hit (#1 in the United States) when it was released as a single. The album and the single marked the beginning of Eric Clapton's rise to worldwide stardom, not merely as a guitarist in a band, but as an eminent performer in his own right, as he became more assured of his skills as a singer and a songwriter.
Eric Clapton came to the Bay Area on July 21, 1974, performing at the Cow Palace with a band that include Yvonne Elliman (who had become well-known as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar) on vocals, along with Carl Radle, George Terry (guitar), Dick Sims (keyboards), and Jamie Oldaker (drums). "Legs" Larry Smith of The Bonzo Dog Band also made an appearance, holding a toy guitar and providing an element of offbeat comedy. During much of the performance, it seemed that Eric Clapton, wearing a hat and sunglasses, was not fully at ease being in the spotlight. He tended to keep to himself while he was onstage, but in spite of his withdrawn demeanor, there were still moments when the feeling that he conveyed with his guitar was as strong and as true as ever.
In the years after his appearance at the Cow Palace, Eric Clapton kept up a grueling life in the world of rock, recording one album after another (including, between 1975 and 1989, There's One in Every Crowd, No Reason to Cry, Slowhand, Backless, Another Ticket, Money and Cigarettes, Behind the Sun, August, and Journeyman) and regularly going out on the road, working steadily to maintain his name as one of the best guitarists in the world. When his longtime habit of drinking alcohol to excess finally became an unbearable problem in the 1980s, he was treated for alcoholism, and thereafter gratefully extolled the virtues of sobriety. Through the 1990s and beyond, with guitar in hand, he has continued to be a faithful performer, doggedly pursuing his chosen vocation as a musician.
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Because I had never seen Cream, Blind Faith, or Derek and The Dominos, the show at the Cow Palace was my first experience of seeing a performance by Eric Clapton. After listening to his music for many years, and reading about him in Melody Maker and Rolling Stone, I had high hopes for the concert. Eric Clapton had just become active again, after several years of being sidelined by drugs, and he also had a current hit ("I Shot the Sheriff") on the radio, so his tour in 1974 was regarded as a major happening in rock 'n' roll, with a lot of interest from the public and the press.
When he stepped onto the stage at the beginning of his performance, with his face hidden under a hat and sunglasses, and started to sing "Smile" while playing an acoustic guitar, it was quite surprising. I remember thinking, "Is that actually Eric Clapton?" He certainly did not look as he usually looked in photographs. For a moment or two, as I watched in confusion, I suspected that some kind of mischief might be afoot. Was it merely someone pretending to be "Slowhand," while the guitarist himself lurked out of sight? It slowly became clear that the figure onstage was, indeed, Eric Clapton. (The hat finally came off toward the end of his set, but the sunglasses remained throughout.)
Things became more lively (and much louder) after he exchanged his acoustic guitar for his Telecaster. He proceeded to perform some of his strongest songs, including "Let It Rain," "Badge," "Tell the Truth," and "Blues Power," He also performed a handful of songs ("I Shot the Sheriff" among them) from his new album, 461 Ocean Boulevard. When Eric Clapton played the introduction to "Layla" in the middle of the show, the crowd roared with unbridled delight. As he played the famous riff (with Duane Allman's part omitted as a tribute to the late guitarist), a huge wall of lights lit up behind him. That song was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening.
For the most part, it was an unusually low-key performance for such a famous musician. Eric Clapton, for his own reasons, did not want to come across as a "star" at that time. He said only a few words while he was onstage, and he appeared to go out of his way to diminish his own stature as a performer (I presume that is why he chose to have Yvonne Elliman share the vocal duties with him), but as the familiar tones flowed from his electric guitar, he could not diminish the overwhelming effect that his music had on the audience. (I can also affirm that although Eric Clapton was a much older figure when I saw him perform again in 2011, his overall musical integrity, still defined by his special connection to the durable purity of the blues, was no less impressive than it had been in 1974.)