The band that Eric Clapton was addicted to: “It became my drug”
He might have been raised in the idyllic village of Ripley, Surrey, but Eric Clapton was more concerned with a world far removed from quintessential middle England. When he received his first guitar on his 13th birthday, he became gradually ensconced in the Delta blues sound, a sonic palette from a far-flung clime that had emerged in ways his green mind would not yet fully comprehend.
Clapton took to the guitar quickly, and by the time he was 17, he had joined his first outfit, one of the earliest British R&B groups, The Roosters. Of course, a lengthy career ensued, seeing him form a definitive style and attracting much reverence as one of the finest guitar players. However, he also experienced several low points. Most astoundingly of these, given his career’s unfettered debt to African-American sounds, was his vitriolic racism.
The 1976 onstage outburst against immigrants in Birmingham is not only shocking because of its hateful contents and characterised by a wicked irony, but it also lacked what his sound had always been championed for: soul. It was like the evil twin of the Surrey native had taken to the stage, introduced by a flood of alcohol, with the man who had been the foremost proponent of the blues in Britain and a vital part of the counterculture nowhere to be seen.
Whether it be his work in The Yardbirds, Cream or Derek and the Dominos, Clapton became one of the ultimate rock guitarists by repackaging the expressive heart of the blues for his own era, with it amped up, and more technically proficient than it was when it first coalesced in Mississippi in the early 20th century. This sonic character meant that when Clapton was carving out a space for himself, the music of others particularly resonated with him when it was also greatly indebted to the blues and achieved something fresh. A select few succeeded in this; one of the finest and most culturally vital was The Band.
The Canadian-American group first rose to prominence as the backing act for rockabilly icon Ronnie Hawkins before gaining more celebration for sustaining Bob Dylan when he went electric. After working with the latter, the group, which featured the likes of Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, set about charting their own course. Their rootsy 1968 debut, Music from Big Pink, is one of the most influential records of the era, boasting classics such as ‘The Weight’.
The Band would resonate so powerfully with Clapton that the minute he heard them, he was addicted. Famously, he was one of the special guests drafted in to celebrate the group for their final performance, The Last Waltz, in 1976, alongside Hawkins, Dylan and many others.
Given their spiritual alignment, there was no one better to address the significance of The Band when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. It was there that Clapton recalled the first time he heard the group, outlining that “it became my drug.” Famously, the tape the Englishman heard was by The Crackers, one of the names they employed before finally settling on The Band due to label objections. Yet, their talent and motivations were evident. Clapton’s life was changed by hearing it.
Clapton recalled that an associate in Los Angeles gave him the tape, and after he took it on the road, it became his narcotic. He said: “I’d put this tape on, and I go into another world, and it was my kind of release.” The music particularly appealed to him as an Englishman who “worshipped the music from America” as The Band were also white but had “derived all they could from Black music, and they combined it to make a beautiful hybrid.”
He added: “For me, it was serious, it was grown-up, it was mature, it told stories, it had beautiful harmonies, fantastic singing, beautiful musicianship without any virtuosity. Just economy and beauty.”
After hearing the tape, Clapton knew he couldn’t play in Cream any longer. He even went to Woodstock to hang out with The Band, hoping to join them, but as he revealed when inducting them, he didn’t have the guts to ask. Instead, he tried to imitate them as closely as possible until he took the stage for The Last Waltz.