Clapton autobiography review

[eryque]

As a lover of autobiography, memoir, and Eric Clapton's music, I almost lacked the patience to wait for the library to let me know when it was my turn to borrow this book. I wish that I could say the wait was worth it.

Others have posted that they didn't like reading because of the cretin that Clapton appeared to be, particularly during the darkest depths of his addictions. I honestly applaud him for so honestly coming clean about his tresspasses, and for using those to fuel his desire to turn his life around in his 20 years of sobriety.

My problem with the book is that it is one of the most boring autobiographies I've ever read. I finished the book only out of stubborn determination and the hope that it would become interesting. As far as I'm concerned, the reason to write an autobiography is to include the perspective and thoughts that no one else has. Certainly Clapton has had a storied career that begs for further insight. He's played with nearly all of his musical heroes, he's written groundbreaking albums over and over again, and he's managed to remain important and relevant on the music scene for almost half a century.

In spite of this, only two items receive any particular attention: his binges of drug and drink, and his family life in the last ten years. Most of the highlights of his actual career are glossed over in two paragraphs or less, without adding anything that the world didn't already know.

It could be argued that he's a fine human being and simply writing about what he values the most as he enters middle-aged, namely is family and personal relationships. I can applaud him for that. But when one of rock's greatest guitar players describes one of his albums as the highlight of his career while only writing 6 sentences about it, something is seriously lacking in the writing.

This book is devoid of any real insight about his creative process, any compelling stories of meeting his heroes or any of the hundreds of musicians he's recorded with over the decades, any analysis of his music or the intensive study he's gone through at various times.

If you are an addict and need a story of how someone who has managed to stay sober during some incredibly trying times (including the death of his son), then you may find this book to be inspiring. I suspect that most fans of his music will find this book disappointing.

[aznrambo481]

I think you're thinking from a guitarist standpoint (understandable, of course; this is the tele forum!). However, from any other standpoint, I can understand his writing style. I think that he wrote about what he thought was important at the time he was writing it. In retrospect, I bet that he thought his lifelong battle of alcohol and drugs was more significant than his music. Of course, one cannot explain without the other, but he highlights his addiction and talks less of his music to show the human in everyone. Even though "Clapton is God", he is human like the rest of us. I really liked it, but I do understand your interpretation of it. It definitely would have been interesting if he focused more on his creative process and his thoughts on playing with famous musicians throughout the ages.

[eryque]

I don't think it's simply a guitarist's point of view that I have. I would reasonably expect frequent mention of his addiction, and even a full chapter dedicated to his family. Maybe two. I wasn't disappointed that he didn't go into his craft in depth, I was disappointed that he didn't go into it at all.

The guy's famous for being a musician and wrote a book that was not at all about music and not a good book about addiction. His writing style is to gloss over everything.

It's a good thing he might make a decent living as a guitar player, though ;)

[chabby]

Then you should read Led Zeppelin's autobiography. I'm almost finished with it and cretin would be a nice term in regard to these guys. It's unbelievable what 20 year old millionaires can do as well as their managers.
They used to love coming to Seattle because they always styed at the Edgewater Hotel and fished off the deck in Puget Sound. Thye would catch what we call dogfish (mudsharks) and throw them in the closet and leave them there. They would also do very kinky things with the fish with groupies too - I mean these cats were sick, especially John Bonham God, rest his soul.

It makes for "when truth is stranger than fiction" type reading. Of course I didn't think it was going to be a primer in leading the Christian life either, but geez these guys were just flat out bad people with absolutely zero morals. It makes you lose respect for them even though they were great musicians. Because in the end, how can anybody be considered truly great if they have the charachter of Satin himself? The short and obvious answer is; they can't. Too bad. It makes me not want to have any part of their music, which is a shame because I love it. But how can you seperate them from the music they made? If you can do that, then what makes you any better for supporting folks who are of that nature? That's my struggle right now. Like with anything else in this life, there are choices to be made. What if Adolf Hitler turned out to be a great painter - would you go out and buy his art? That's my point. These guys were bad if they did even half the things reported in the autobiography.

[crawdad]

I saw the Clapton interview on Larry King. I felt like I had basically read the book. No need to dwell on the minute details of booze and drug abuse for me. I found the "Crossroads" bio on Clapton more interesting, yet still lacking in details I would have liked to have known. Whenever an auto-biography is written with a ghost writer, I sense the editing and the omissions by design.

Actually, I have yet to read a musical celebrity's bio that I felt was extraordinary, with the possible exception of Bob Dylans "Chronicles: Volume 1." It still left things out of the story, but the stories he told were illuminating on several different levels. I think it was because his story was the story of the times he lived through and not just a "here is my life in a nutshell" type of book.

No--forgive me--there is one other that deserves credit: Levon Helm--"This Wheel's On Fire." That is one of the best biographies I've ever read. He held very little, if anything, back.

[chabby]

I agree Levon Helms book was a very good read. It was a real page turner for me and I read it fairly fast.

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by chabby

Then you should read Led Zeppelin's autobiography. I'm almost finished with it and cretin would be a nice term in regard to these guys. It's unbelievable what 20 year old millionaires can do as well as their managers.
They used to love coming to Seattle because they always styed at the Edgewater Hotel and fished off the deck in Puget Sound. Thye would catch what we call dogfish (mudsharks) and throw them in the closet and leave them there. They would also do very kinky things with the fish with groupies too - I mean these cats were sick, especially John Bonham God, rest his soul.

Hence the origins of the Frank Zappa song....Mud Shark.....Hit it boys.....




Mud Sh-sh-shark

THE MUD SHARK DANCING LESSON!

Mud Sh-sh-shark
We're gonna do a little dancing,
A little dancing thing called the Mud Shark
Now, this dance started up in Seattle

Lemme tell you 'bout the Mud Shark...
The origins of the Mud Shark are as follows: There's a motel in Seattle, Washington called the Edgewater Inn. The Edgewater Inn's built on a pier.. so that means that when you look out your window you don't see any dirt -- it's got a bay or something out in your backyard,,, And to make it even more interesting, in the lobby of the aforementioned motel there's a bait and tackle shop where the residents can go down whenever they want to, and rent a fishing pole and some preserved minnows and schlep back up to their rooms, open the window, stick their little pole outside and within a few minutes actually catch a fish of some sort that they can bring into their motel room and do whatever they want with it... you know what I mean? Now in this bay there's quite a variety of ah... fish! Not only do they have mud sharks up there, they got little octopusses that you can catch. And all these denizens of the deep can come in real handy... Let's say you were a travelling Rock and Roll band called the Vanilla Fudge. Let's say one night you checked into the Edgewater Inn Motel with a 8mm movie camera, enough money to rent a pole, and just to make it more interesting -- a succulent young lady (Mnaaaah!) with a taste for the bizarre... My mind drifts back to a meeting, a chance meeting in the Chicago O'Hare Airport where the members of the Vanilla Fudge told Don Preston about a home movie they made at the Edgewater Inn with a Mud Shark. I'm gonna tell you, this dance, the Mud Shark, is sweeping the ocean!...


Out
You go out
So far out
You do the Mud Shark. baby ... etc

[Telemaniac]

I just went through listening to the audio book version of Clapton's autobiography, I have a three hour commute each day and I listen to CDs, so audio books are useful. Have to say I agree with Eryque completely, it is boring, and dreadfully repetitive, and frankly EC doesn't come out of it too well IMO. I also noticed that he has a reall liking for the word "really" - really great, really good, really liked, really etc etc. I also though it a very disjointed account, and agree too much emphasis on substance addiction.

The audio book is read by Bill Nighy, English actor (Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually, Underworld, H2G2), in a quite plummy English voice which doesn't really gel with visions of EC, either.

[Hockey Rocker]

I don't know. I went into Clapton's biography with very limited expectations. The man never struck me as a person of stunning intellect, but he did mutate electric Blues into a widely accepted form of popular music, so his influence on popular culture cannot be denied.

I think he is a simple man. He is not a literary genius. He liked a certain type of American music, played it a certain way, decided to be a full-time musician, and played with blistering chops on the Mayall album. Wow. Then he drugged himself up as he pursued a life of debauchery and music.

Late in life he changed. He had an epic moment of clarity that proved to be the turning point in his life. That's the story here folks.

I think some readers may have some preconceived notion about Clapton, attributing positive traits to the man that are simply unwarranted. If so, the reader can't help but be let down. If you go in figuring the guy is a schlub who plays a mean guitar, then the reading experience may be a bit different. Maybe my low expectations contributed to my enjoyment of this autobiography. Too many autobiographies are just the opposite for me; the more deference to the author's intellectual stature, the greater chance that I may be disappointed by their memoir.

[Stubee]

I'm an avid reader, plow through books, and agree with the above: "EC" is a boring read. I'm now into the last 1/3 of the book, looks like it'll stay the same. But I persist because, frankly, it is kind of an interesting story anyway.

Eric is a musician, not an author. He's writing about his life, not what we want to hear. And he does pay the utmost respect to music & what it means to him in many different ways throughout the text: his guitar & music, including other's music, were his only solace in some of his darkest moments. I've heard him speak about music elsewhere, he has immense & deep respect for it and what it's meant to him.

Maybe he feels the details of his career (accurately, most likely) have been exhausted in the media already. I'm pretty much retired now, but during my 31+ years doing my job the last thing I ever, ever wanted to talk about was "what I do". I can understand him not digging into that. He also recognizes his difficulty in relating to people on a personal level, highlights that and his other frailties throughout. So "warts and all", he lays it out there for all to see. No hero stuff here at all.

He's a musician, I like his music. For more compelling reads, there are tons of biographies on tons of musicians that provide much more, well, entertainment.

[odiemann]

The man never struck me as a person of stunning intellect

I guess some folks thought that the British accent, the glasses, the acoustic stuff, and short hair somehow meant he had become intellectual. I thought it was fine for a scan read, but you won't find it as part of any post-secondary course work.

I suppose the focus on addiction goes hand in hand with his recent devotion to rehabilitation, that's okay.

[Tim Armstrong]

I read it and I'm glad I did. It's Eric Clapton writing about being Eric Clapton, in a very honest way. He wrote the story from his present point of view, and he wrote it himself, without a ghost writer.

Yeah, he didn't go into a lot of detail about much of his music, and he certainly didn't talk much about his gear (which most of us guitar fanatics would have liked), but I felt like his focus was on what happens when a guy who loves playing guitar and making music becomes a huge, huge star. Life gets weird. Relationships get weird. Emotional baggage tends to pile up in the background as enablers keep one from facing stuff.

Clapton wrote about what was important to HIM, not us, and I applaud his recovery from drugs and alcohol addiction, and his growth from a pretty self-centered, insecure and unpleasant fellow into someone who appears to be quite a bit more emotionally healthy.

Having said all that, I think that Crystal Zevon's biography of Warren absolutely smoked Clapton's book!

Cheers, Tim

[Skully]

Having said all that, I think that Crystal Zevon's biography of Warren absolutely smoked Clapton's book!

I agree -- and I liked Clapton's book. I think Zevon ws a much more interesting person, and world's better as a songwriter. And he had a great sense of humor, which Clapton seems to be sorely lacking. Sadly, even during his long period of sobriety, Zevon never really got his stuff together. I don't know if one would call him a dry drunk during that time. He certainly was obsessive-compulsive and immature in his relationships with women and others. Although there were some inspirational highlights to the last year of his life (recording his final album, seeing the birth of his twin grandsons), it was much more, sad pathetic than the VH1 documentary revealed.

[charlie chitlin]

I agree, Eric.
Excellent assessment.
What about a taste of what it feels like to become a peer to your heroes?
To share a room or a stage with Muddy, Wolf, Jimi...
What is it like to do something (anything) at such an elevated level?
What did it feel like to realize that he was achieving a dream?
He must have felt exhilerated about SOMETHING at some point in his life besides fishing.
Is he that numed/dumbed from drink and drugs that these things aren't etched in his psyche?

[Skully]

What about a taste of what it feels like to become a peer to your heroes?
To share a room or a stage with Muddy, Wolf, Jimi...
What is it like to do something (anything) at such an elevated level?
What did it feel like to realize that he was achieving a dream?

I think Clapton covered those things.

[BLACKCAT69]

I was pretty disappointed as well. I was hoping for some deeper insight into his collaborations with all the great musicians whom he's known and worked with over the years....particularly Ronnie Lane, however what we get is a very general gloss over. Oh well, he is obviously not a literary guy. When the Pete Townshend autobiography comes out, later this year possibly, we will probably be complaining ..."Too much information"!

[eryque]

Originally Posted by Skully

I think Clapton covered those things.

Yeah? Where? He recorded an album with one of his heroes and managed to cover the whole experience in two paragraphs :-) That's just one example.

The one thing that I think he did a decent job of writing about was his relationship with Pattie. It was interesting that the woman he'd put on such a high pedestal turned out to be merely mortal, flawed like everyone else, and that it was not so much the dream romance he had envisioned.

It was also interesting to read that she and George had been having their share of marital problems. It seems like Clapton didn't steal her away so much as he opened a door and she chose to go through it, away from George.

[Skully]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skully
I think Clapton covered those things.

Yeah? Where?

Throughout the book.

He recorded an album with one of his heroes and managed to cover the whole experience in two paragraphs :-) That's just one example.

What were you expecting? On the nose rhapsodizing? "Ah, it was my dream come true, working in the very same studio with one of my childhood heroes, seeing his now aged ebony fingers move up and down the rosewood fretboard..."

[geddins]

I am just about finished with it, and I've found it a bit of a slow read, but all in all I'm happy I have read it. I'm actually glad he didn't try to delve into the music side of it too much....I have enjoyed learning more about the "people" side of EC through this book.....

[eryque]

Originally Posted by Skully

Throughout the book. What were you expecting?

Ummm... no. They weren't.

I was expecting something more than a paragraph. His relationship with Muddy Waters is explained in 3 sentences (not consecutive). His writing about his boat amounted to almost as much as everything he wrote about all of his music.

Originally Posted by Skully

On the nose rhapsodizing? "Ah, it was my dream come true, working in the very same studio with one of my childhood heroes, seeing his now aged ebony fingers move up and down the rosewood fretboard..."

I think even Clapton knows to stay away from trite imagery.

I'll say that I was certainly not expecting him to suddenly become a member of the intelligentsia, but he's clearly an intelligent man who has spoken very eloquently about his music in interviews in the past. I'd expect a man who is known as a musician to include at least some of that in his book, and I'd hope for more detail than he could include in interviews, which are always limited by air time or column inches. None of that (and I do mean none) was in the book.

[danieldeblanke]

I thought it was a great read.
It helped me understand my brother who survived a heroin addiction by becoming a raging alcoholic.

I think that EC was pretty honest about not remembering a lot because he was always three or four sheets out.

Its not Kafka, its an honest auto biography from a legendary guitar player.