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John Mayer honors Clapton with a cover

Eric Clapton has churned out countless hit songs over the years, with “Crossroads” being a particular favorite of John Mayer, apparently. According to the Battalion Online, the singer-songwriter has included a cover of “Crossroads” on his new record. They have a brief paragraph dedicated to it on a much longer article about John Mayer’s record: “John Mayer has a cover of Eric Clapton’s ‘Crossroads’ on the new album. The cover isn’t as good as some of the other covers he’s done, and it doesn’t seem to flow with the rest of the album. The song seems to fit better with those from ‘Try!,’ the John Mayer Trio album. On the other hand, ‘Half of my Heart,’ featuring Taylor Swift turned out to fit well in his line-up.”

Clapton fans may now have a reason to check out John Mayer—and vice versa. It would be nice to know that some John Mayer fans will be turned on to old Slow Hand. It would be even nice if they looked him up on StubHub and got some Eric Clapton tickets so they could see him work his magic live.

Tackling Clapton’s Pilgrim

The Discographer has done a great job of walking through Eric Clapton’s 1998 Pilgrim and making no excuses for what the record is. Quite simply—not that good. And it practically advertises this. Just look at that garish album cover as it screams “trough period.” It’s quite terrible, and apparently the music on it isn’t very good, either.

The Discographer manages to put his finger on one of the main problems of the album: It pushes the guitar to the background. This seems to be a rather bizarre decision considering Clapton’s whole identity has been founded on the instrument: “The album had a very modern feel to it which I’m not sure is always a positive thing where Eric Clapton is concerned. There are drum machines, strings, and synthesizers, all of which push his guitar playing into the background. He is one of the best guitar players in music history and I always want him to step forward and wring the guitar’s neck. I can’t help but think had he stripped the music back to basics it would have fared a lot better as the songs themselves are mostly fine.”

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Pattie Boyd says she regrets her fling with Eric Clapton

For seven years, model Patti Boyd was married to Beatles member George Harrison. But as time went on, their marriage started to buckle under various strains, and they eventually split. But while Harrison and she were growing apart, Harrison’s close friend Eric Clapton became enamored with the young model. Boyd recently told the Daily Express (which is attributed on OneIndia.com) that she regrets his advances: “Eric kept coming over and began declaring his love and passion for me. Because I was being ignored by my husband and being young I found it irresistible. Maybe if we weren’t so young, maybe we could have made it work.”

According to Boyd’s Wikipedia page—which has some pretty juicy tidbits in the “personal life” section—Clapton actually started going out with her 17-year-old sister, who broke up with him after hearing “Layla,” which she surmised was about Patti. If you look at “Layla’s” lyrics, you can see how she could conclude this: “I tried to give you consolation / When your old man had let you down / Like a fool, I fell in love with you / Turned my whole world upside down.”

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Memories of Clapton in film

Unless you’re a hardcore sci-fi junkie, you probably won’t recognize actor Joe Morton. His most high-profile role is probably Miles Dyson, the engineer in Terminator 2 who is responsible for creating Skynet. But he’s worked with directors ranging from Walter Hill to John Sayles (the latter directed him when he played the lead in the cult film Brother From Another Planet). StarLog.com has a pretty interesting Q&A with him that goes over his career.

So where does Morton cross paths with Eric Clapton? In 1998, when he appeared in Blues Brothers 2000, a sequel to the original Blues Brothers film, which notoriously was packed with classic soul and blues musicians. When the sequel was put together, they brought a new cast of musicians in, including the likes of B.B. King and Eric Clapton. Morton says he had tons of fun chatting with Clapton about working with some of the biggest names in the blues ever, and the scene in which he performs with B.B. King was actually the first time the two had played together. Ultimately, that led to them doing an album together, as well.

To see the talented guitarist show his stuff, get Eric Clapton tickets at StubHub.

The Discographer reviews Clapton and King

What do you get when you mix of the greatest guitarists of the ‘60s and ‘70s with one of the finest blues performers of all time? If you ask the Discographer, you end up with Riding With the King, a classic Clapton album that sees Slow Hand and none other than B.B. King himself performing together. It’s hard to imagine a greater honor being paid a blues acolyte like Clapton than getting to play alongside King.

The last paragraph of the Discographer’s review sums up why this will always be remembered as a record for all time: “This album was one of those ideas that sounded great and actually worked. It is the second of an excellent trio of blues albums that Clapton would produce and matches well with 1994’s From The Cradle and 2004’s Me and Mr. Johnson. Fans of B.B. King, Eric Clapton, the blues, and good music should all be pleased with this release. Riding With The King is a journey down a highway which is not traveled very often.”

Now if only they’d go back on tour. Get Eric Clapton tickets at StubHub.

The Independent talks to Ginger Baker

The Independent’s music section has two surprises on their site today: The first is using the word “truculent” in a deck. Who does that? Who would know what that means without a dictionary? Well, that is why they’re called the Independent.

But the more significant surprise is the interview they snagged with the drummer—and, yes, truculent—rock personality Ginger Baker. Baker helped form Cream with Eric Clapton. He’s apparently just released a biography entitled Hellraiser, which is an awesome name for a biography. Here’s a quote from the Independent that sums up who this guy is: “He was, rumour had it, the most truculent of rock stars, handy with both verbals and fists; while his Cream co-members, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, were mostly cool and understated, he was mysteriously agitated, bug-eyed and feral, like a pissed-off wizard.”

A pissed-off wizard is not someone you want to mess with. We bet that Clapton probably has some great stories about this guy—and vice versa. Read through the interview to see what he has to share, then check StubHub for some Eric Clapton tickets.

Clapton inspires the Washington Post

The Washington Post’s Fix blog doesn’t really cover music, but when announcing that they were going to be taking some time off, they decided to be cute and turned to Eric Clapton for inspiration. They were following Clapton’s lead—Slow Hand himself, they suggest in their latest post, lead them to “take it slow.”

It’s funny, but says something about the kind of serious influence that Clapton has actually had on musicians and media figures everywhere. He’s simply a major figure, and it can’t be overstated how important he has been to aspiring guitarists. Chances are, the blogger behind the Fix tried his own impersonations of Slow Hand back in the day, and probably can play a pretty mean guitar riff or two. Clapton just had that kind of an impact on anyone and everyone who heard him play.

That’s probably why he’s still such a big name. Consider how much of a letdown it was when he announced that he would not be performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebration a couple weeks back. Next time that Eric Clapton tickets are available on StubHub, you can bet they’ll sell out quickly.

Eric Clapton’s Journeyman gets reviewed

The Discographer is on a real Eric Clapton kick, and a recent post looks at one of his later records, Journeyman, the last that he went out to buy on vinyl (remember vinyl?). This was a record that didn’t do much for Clapton when it first came out, but slowly built a reputation in the years after its release, eventually gaining an audience that loved it. It’s got some quality songs on it that many people have forgotten about, including “Pretending” and “Bad Love.”

He also notes that Clapton has guest starred on enough albums to make it a full-time job, and had the favor returned with plenty of guests on his own albums. Journeyman includes a number of them: George Harrison, Phil Collins, Gary Burton, Hank Crawford, Jim Keltner, Daryl Hall, Richard Tee, and all featured on the record. In a sign that it was clearly the ‘80s, even Chaka Khan makes an appearance.

Overall, it’s a record that every Eric Clapton fan should look into again. If you’re looking for Eric Clapton tickets, make sure you look for them on StubHub.

Has anyone looked into Eric Clapton’s role on Billy Cosby’s album?

It’s an old story, but we thought it deserved another look: Billy Cosby released a hip-hop album this year featuring a number of guest stars. They included Eric Clapton playing guitar on a song, Alicia Key, providing vocals, LL Cool J also providing vocals, and…well, Bill Cosby seems to have contributed the tone of the record.

NME quoted him as saying the following: “I don’t like referring to the music as clean…What I like is what you’re not going to do. You’re not going to curse. You’re not going to put women down. You’re not going to put the glory of the gun somewhere. And you’re not going to put a whole lot of violence up front like that’s the thing that will cleanse you and make you feel better.”

That’s a pretty noble goal, although it’s not clear how many young kids are going to buy a Bill Cosby album. The kids who are into really hardcore gangsta rap definitely won’t be looking forward to hearing Alicia Keys and LL Cool J—nor will they care about Eric Clapton. But if you want Eric Clapton tickets, go to StubHub, and don’t expect to hear any rap.

Eric Clapton tribute band finds success

The Dayton Daily News has an article up on their site today about an Eric Clapton tribute band that started as a way for one member to make a little money while out of work, and has become a professional band that is popular throughout their region. The band is called Slowhand, naturally, and if there’s anything that makes the band stand out, it’s the fact that they take their material very seriously. Rick Bailey, the man who founded the band, notes that that simply isn’t true of many tribute bands.

“It’s a unique situation,” he said. “You really have to commit to learning the material and you have to do it right. In a regular cover band you can get away with a little less detail and have fun with it and be successful. I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. I’ve done a lot of that over the years myself, but it’s much more intense with a tribute band. Every detail is important, whether it be the look, the sound, the equipment, the clothing or the hairstyles.”

Sounds like a band to check out. Of course, if you want the real thing, you can always buy Eric Clapton tickets at StubHub.