Clapton is Good

Sometimes late at night, I’ll find myself spiraling down some YouTube rabbit hole of favored music clips. And such a sleep-robbing session in the past usually began with and maybe again ended with a five-minute and one-second Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood performance of Winwood’s “Can’t find my way home.” Should you go find that clip check out the look of satisfaction Winwood gives Clapton at the 4:45 mark. I hope one day I do one thing that gives me such a feeling of having done something very very well.

From that song I’d usually branch off to Clapton’s “Layla” (both versions), and his version of “While my guitar gently weeps” (with McCartney on the piano, Ringo on drums, and, oh my, George Harrison’s son playing guitar). Which would naturally demand another watch of “My father’s eyes.”

I used to love Clapton. I found it interesting how he would be kinda awkward when talking to the crowd, and how he was so clearly comfortable being in the background when performing with others, as he is in that clip with Winwood, just playing excellent guitar as Winwood sings.

In the 1960s when Clapton was in the band The Yardbirds, someone spray-painted on the wall of a building in London “Clapton is God.” That became a meme and has been much repeated for over half a century. Any debate about who the greatest electric guitar player of all time is — Hendrix, Page, Knopfler? – by law must include mention of Clapton. So imagine my excitement when, as the first surge of Covid was winding down, and we didn’t know to expect such regular encores, I learned that Clapton was coming to my hometown of Austin. Because the Internet has now afforded ticket scalpers the ability to electronically expand their usurious business, and because I have no idea how to play intelligently in this new world, and because I didn’t want to take a chance on getting closed out of this perhaps last chance to see the apparently ailing Clapton, I paid $600 for two tickets. A lot of money, but, Clapton.

As the concert date approached, consider these three converging vectors:
– A second Covid spike ramped up.
– Texas Governor Greg “also not God” Abbott signed an executive order prohibiting mask mandates in schools, including public universities. With the Clapton concert venue being part of the University of Texas at Austin campus, people were going to be allowed to attend the concert without a mask and without being vaccinated against Covid.
– Consider these two headlines from Rolling Stone. The first was about two months before our upcoming concert: “Eric Clapton Will Not Play Shows Where Proof of Vaccine Is Required.” This second one was a week after the Austin concert: “Anti-Vax Hypocrite Eric Clapton Breaks Own Vow, Plays Venue With Vaccine Mandate.”

So, we kinda struggled with our decision. We were pretty sure we were not going to take a chance. But once Clapton turned from professional guitarist to amateur epidemiologist I decided I didn’t want to go, simply out of passive protest.

Oh, how passive. Clapton would’ve already gotten his fraction of our $600, irretrievably. I tried, unsuccessfully, to sell our tickets on one of those reseller sites. The day of the concert we drove down and tried to sell them, like old-school scalpers. (Ahem, scalpees!) We were pessimistic – even before the Covids people were largely dependent on online ticket purchasing. We were more just interested in eyeing the scene than hoping to cut our financial loss. But eventually, we sold them (to other, better scalpers, I think) for a total of $50.

Just as any discussion of the best guitarists would include Clapton, any discussion of who/what is God would entail loving concern for others. And Clapton’s stance on Covid vaccinations places him clearly, to me, NOT in that category.

So Clapton is good, but he is not God. And I think he owes me 550 bucks.

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Coda: A May 18, 2022, Associate Press article asserts “Eric Clapton cancels shows after testing positive for COVID.” The article quotes his Facebook page: “Eric is also anxious to avoid passing on any infection to any of his band, crew, promoters, their staff and of course, the fans.”

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