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Post subject: Clapton Autobiography
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:29 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Having spent a week with Eric back in the Cream days, I was particularly interested to read this, as well as pick up all the insider guitar/amp and songwriter lore like the rest of you.

Sad to say, this is an awful piece of writing. Clapton began with a professional ghostwriter but foolishly blew him off, preferring to say things "in his own voice." Huge mistake. The result is colorless, flat, and toneless as a Lace Sensor Gold into a '66 Kustom 100.

But much worse is that he avoids any mention of the making of the actual music! No guitar/amp lore, no technique allusions or even references to his own development as a player...NOTHING! Not even songwriting insights or any creative insights at all. Incredible.

What you get is an endless monotone of..."tour good." "relationship bad." "Gig was great fun." "I am miserable." "I was drunk during those years." "I sobered up." "I had a daughter." "I enjoy her."

Plus a confusing confetti of poorly contextualized names who aren't well fleshed out, people come and go without any purpose or character texture, and ultimately the reader could care less.

And sex? "I took up with a beautiful Italian girl on that tour. I became quite obsessed with her. We later had a child." Are you kidding me???

Writing takes skill. Clapton is not a writer. This reads like we all wrote in the second grade: "I went here and did that. Then this other thing happened. It was bad. But then I fixed it and it was good."

Any of us looking to glean any tiny tidbit of guitar player, performer, songwriting, musical ANYTHING from this book will be bitterly disappointed.

What you come away with is a highly dysfunctional guy who spent most of his life in shallow, self-destructive relationships with women, drugs and booze. Who finally finds salvation in God and cleans up his act with the help of 100 million dollars in the bank and his pick of any woman in the world. And builds a rehab center for billionaire pop stars in paradise. That's nice.

And oh, he enjoyed the music now and then. But you won't enjoy this book now, or then.


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:35 pm
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Yet he manages to pull things from the unknown and turn them into songs :o

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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:41 pm
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I've come to realize a few things.

EC is a guitar player, EC is an exceptionally good, if not great guitar player. I rarely ever have any use for anything any guitar player has to say other then what he says with his guitar no matter how talented they may be. (Normally consisting of a bucnh of sentences with Me, I or My used ad naseum in them). EC's level of musicianship has little or nothing to do with his success or proficiency of any other artistic endeavor outside of the realm of music.

So I agree, I probably wouldn't enjoy this book very much.


D

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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:20 pm
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nah nah nah naahh nah-nah cocaine.... :p

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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:45 pm
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Right, this is a critique of his BOOK, not him as a person or any other creative endeavor on his part.


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:55 pm
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i liked the book i think the important message he was making got through in a very honest and unglorified way


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:33 pm
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He was pretty honest about his addiction and recovery. And it is a fast read, no multi-syllabic words. His description of the Conor incident was very odd and robotic. It was like he was describing something that happened to someone else he didn't know very well.

We know he's almost deaf, and after such massive doses of substances for so long, there is a huge burnout factor. That's one of the underlying messages I get from this book. There is an emotional disconnect, the affect is missing.


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Post subject: interesting view
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:49 pm
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Interesting review of the EC book...

Thanks :)


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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:17 pm
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On another level apart from the quality of the book, I find I really don't like this man. And I totally agree with the above dudes who say correctly, "Who cares, it's about the music!" Well, yes and no. I like to like the person doing the music. But I really don't.

The last chapters recount little but his sailing around on his 100 million dollar yacht with his sycophant pals and his fanatical love of blowing the heads off wild birds with shotguns. I mean, I could really get to hate this guy!

Does that affect my appreciation of his talent? Not one bit, this guy was born with wiring that made him soar far above others. Does this book taint my appreciation of listening to his music? To be honest, I think it does. That may not be fair, but he is so connected to his music as a person, that this is not John Williams or Aaron Copeland or Beethoven, this is a kind of folk hero. The man IS the music. And the man is frankly kind of a burned-out creep.


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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:06 am
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I agree with last post. One thing is his music talent, and a different subject his personal life.

He is a "I want to be like him...." model on his music talent, not a role model of a person. Same happens to lot's of talented artists or athletes. :?


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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:44 am
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my view is the book is a testamonial it may be the last step to his recovery i think it was the clapton is god thing was the real problem and t all came to easy to fast .money and music were the only things he had everything else was elusive or unavailable i accutually have pity he had to lose so much to discover the most important things in life .as far as passing judgement on his personality i dont really know him


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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:32 am
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I thought it was a pretty good book, but I was not looking for an exact minutr by minute description of 50 years of music....

Or even a guitar lesson for that matter!!!


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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:57 am
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Well, no guitar teacher worth his bones would start a student off with Clapton's technique--he uses every lazy-man cheat in the book. Extensive hammer-ons and offs to achieve speed (as opposed to actually plucking the note), emphasis on the first three fingers to the detriment of the little finger, the tilted hand, etc etc.

Clapton's a bit like Django in the sense that he gets a huge amount out of very few "digital" resources. The fact that he gets away with his cheats without being able to get near any of say Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page or SRVs brilliant technique says a lot about his raw talent and perspicacity to learn and invent some pretty complex stuff the "wrong way".

I'd agree with gatz, anybody looking to this book to be about music need look elsewhere. The book is the 13th step in his recovery, a personal confessional that reads like a truth-telling in group therapy not for our edification, but for his. They should pay us rehab counselor rates to read it!

Unfortunately the tale is being told AFTER the burnout, not before or during. There is no sound and fury signifying anything. The fire's long gone out, and what's left is less Clapton is God, and more Lord & Lady Clapton. Less Cream, and more tea and crumpets.


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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:06 am
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Maruuk wrote:
Unfortunately the tale is being told AFTER the burnout, not before or during. There is no sound and fury signifying anything. The fire's long gone out, and what's left is less Clapton is God, and more Lord & Lady Clapton. Less Cream, and more tea and crumpets.


True but I would bet that if SRV or Hendrix had lived this long... They would fade a bit too. That is kind of the way of things... But hey, lets throw on some Cream, follow it up with a bit of Texas Flood and finish with Voodoo Chille!!!!

...this just might end up a good day after all....


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Post subject: Re: Clapton Autobiography
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:21 am
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Maruuk wrote:
Having spent a week with Eric back in the Cream days, I was particularly interested to read this, as well as pick up all the insider guitar/amp and songwriter lore like the rest of you.

Sad to say, this is an awful piece of writing. Clapton began with a professional ghostwriter but foolishly blew him off, preferring to say things "in his own voice." Huge mistake. The result is colorless, flat, and toneless as a Lace Sensor Gold into a '66 Kustom 100.

But much worse is that he avoids any mention of the making of the actual music! No guitar/amp lore, no technique allusions or even references to his own development as a player...NOTHING! Not even songwriting insights or any creative insights at all. Incredible.

What you get is an endless monotone of..."tour good." "relationship bad." "Gig was great fun." "I am miserable." "I was drunk during those years." "I sobered up." "I had a daughter." "I enjoy her."

Plus a confusing confetti of poorly contextualized names who aren't well fleshed out, people come and go without any purpose or character texture, and ultimately the reader could care less.

And sex? "I took up with a beautiful Italian girl on that tour. I became quite obsessed with her. We later had a child." Are you kidding me???

Writing takes skill. Clapton is not a writer. This reads like we all wrote in the second grade: "I went here and did that. Then this other thing happened. It was bad. But then I fixed it and it was good."

Any of us looking to glean any tiny tidbit of guitar player, performer, songwriting, musical ANYTHING from this book will be bitterly disappointed.

What you come away with is a highly dysfunctional guy who spent most of his life in shallow, self-destructive relationships with women, drugs and booze. Who finally finds salvation in God and cleans up his act with the help of 100 million dollars in the bank and his pick of any woman in the world. And builds a rehab center for billionaire pop stars in paradise. That's nice.

And oh, he enjoyed the music now and then. But you won't enjoy this book now, or then.



Dude, you should seriously consider being a book critic!

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