Eric Clapton T-ShirTS

Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born 30 March 1945), nicknamed "Slowhand", is a Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer and composer, who is one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Often viewed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time among critics and fans alike, Eric Clapton was ranked 4th in Rolling Stone’s list of The Greatest Guitarists of All Time and #53 on their list of the The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time..

Although Clapton's musical style has varied throughout his career, it has always remained rooted in the blues. Clapton is credited as an innovator in several phases of his career, which have included blues-rock (with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and The Yardbirds) and psychedelic rock (with Cream). Clapton has also achieved great chart success in genres ranging from Delta blues (Me and Mr. Johnson) to pop ("Change the World") and reggae ("I Shot the Sheriff"). Clapton also achieved fame with Derek and the Dominos with the song "Layla".

Clapton joined The Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band in 1963 and stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King and B.B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene. The band initially played Chess/Checker/Vee-Jay blues numbers and began to attract a large cult following when they took over the Rolling Stones' residency at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond. They toured England with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson; a joint LP, recorded in December 1963, was issued belatedly under both their names in 1965. In March 1965, just as Clapton left the band, the Yardbirds had their first major hit, on which Clapton played guitar: "For Your Love."

Still obstinately dedicated to blues music, Clapton took strong exception to the Yardbirds' new pop-oriented direction, partly because "For Your Love" had been written by pop songwriter-for-hire Graham Gouldman, who had also written hits for teen pop outfit Herman's Hermits and harmony pop band The Hollies. Clapton recommended fellow guitarist Jimmy Page as his replacement, but Page was at that time unwilling to relinquish his lucrative career as a freelance studio musician, so Page in turn recommended Clapton's successor, Jeff Beck (although Page would also eventually join the band). While Beck and Page played together in the Yardbirds, the trio of Beck, Page, and Clapton were never in the group together. However, the trio did appear at the 1983 ARMS charity concerts, as well as on the rare blues album Guitar Boogie. Having quit the Yardbirds in March, Clapton joined John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in April 1965. His passionate playing in nightclubs — and on the immensely influential album, Blues Breakers — established Clapton's name worldwide as a blues guitarist. With his 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar and Marshall amplifier, Clapton's playing by then had inspired a well-publicised graffito that deified him with the famous slogan "Clapton is God".

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in mid-1966 (to be replaced by Peter Green) and then formed Cream, one of the earliest supergroup bands. Cream was also one of the earliest "power trios", with Jack Bruce on bass (also of Manfred Mann, the Bluesbreakers and the Graham Bond Organisation) and Ginger Baker on drums (another member of the GBO). Before the formation of Cream, Clapton was all but unknown in the United States; he left The Yardbirds before "For Your Love" hit the American Top Ten. During his time with Cream, Clapton began to develop as a singer and songwriter, as well as guitarist, though Bruce took most of the lead vocals and wrote the majority of the material with lyricist Pete Brown. Cream's first gig was a low key performance at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester on 29 July 1966 before their full debut at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. Cream established an enduring legend on the high-volume blues jamming and extended solos of their live shows, while their studio work was more sophisticated than original rock.

In early 1967, Clapton's status as Britain's top guitarist was shaken by the arrival of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix attended a performance of the newly formed Cream at the Central London Polytechnic on 1 October 1966, during which Hendrix sat in on a shattering double-timed version of "Killing Floor". Top UK stars including Clapton, Pete Townshend, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles avidly attended Hendrix's early club performances. Hendrix's arrival had an immediate and major effect on the next phase of Clapton's career, although Clapton continued to be recognised in UK music polls as the premier guitarist. Clapton and Hendrix remained friends up until Hendrix's death in 1970. The day before Hendrix died, Clapton had found and purchased a left handed Stratocaster, and planned on giving it to Hendrix, but was crushed to learn he would never get the chance.

Cream's farewell album, Goodbye, featured live performances recorded live at The Forum, Los Angeles, 19 October 1968, and it was released shortly after Cream disbanded in 1968, and also featured the studio single "Badge", co-written by Clapton and George Harrison, whom he had met and become friends with after the Beatles had shared a bill with the Clapton-era Yardbirds at the London Palladium. The close friendship between Clapton and Harrison also resulted in Clapton's playing on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Beatles' White Album—according to some, a tactic intended to make the other Beatles take Harrison's song more seriously, but whatever the truth, by all accounts the presence of an outsider, especially of Clapton's calibre, had the effect of bringing harmony to the irritable band. It had also been stated vigorously (mostly by other guitarists) that Clapton also shared solos with John Lennon (not counting intro beats, two measures Lennon, four measures Clapton, x 3) on The End (song) from Abbey Road. In January 1969, during the making of what would become the Let It Be album, Harrison walked out after an argument and in his absence—fearing Harrison had gone for good and concerned that the album could not be completed—John Lennon proposed that Clapton replace Harrison. In the same year of release as the White Album, Harrison released his solo debut Wonderwall Music that became the first of many Harrison solo records to feature Clapton on guitar, who would go largely unaccredited due to contractual restraints. The pair would often play live together as each other's guests, right up until Harrison's death in 2001 and the following tribute concert in his name, for which Clapton was musical director.

A desultory spell in a second supergroup, the short-lived Blind Faith (1969), which was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic and Ric Grech of Family, resulted in one LP and one arena-circuit tour. The supergroup debuted before 100,000 fans ( including me - les:) in London's Hyde Park on 7 June 1969, and began a sold-out American tour in July before its one and only album had been released. The LP Blind Faith was recorded in such haste that side two consisted of just two songs, one of them a 15 minute jam entitled "Do What You Like". Nevertheless, Blind Faith did include two classics: Winwood's "Can't Find My Way Home" and Clapton's "Presence of the Lord". The album's jacket image of a topless prepubescent girl was deemed controversial in the U.S. and was replaced by a photograph of the band. Blind Faith dissolved after only a year together, and while Winwood returned to Traffic, by now Clapton was tired of both the spotlight and the hype that had surrounded Cream and Blind Faith, and wanted to make music that more closely resembled that of The Band.

Clapton's close friendship with George Harrison had brought him into contact with Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd-Harrison, with whom he became deeply infatuated. When she spurned his advances, Clapton's unrequited affections prompted most of the material for the Dominos' album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, most notably the hit single "Layla", inspired by the classical Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi's "The Story of Layla and Majnun", a copy of which his friend Ian Dallas had given him. The book moved Clapton profoundly as it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful, unavailable woman and who went crazy because he couldn't marry her. Clapton found a strong similarity between the situation of Layla and Majnun and the one between him and Boyd-Harrison.

By the mid 70's, now partnered with Pattie (they would not actually marry until 1979) and free of heroin (although starting to drink heavily), Clapton put together a more low key touring band that included Radle, Miami guitarist George Terry, drummer Jamie Oldaker and vocalists Yvonne Elliman and Marcy Levy (later better known as Marcella Detroit of 1980s pop duo Shakespear's Sister). With this band Clapton recorded 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974), an album with the emphasis on more compact songs and less guitar solos; the cover-version of "I Shot The Sheriff" was a major hit and was important in bringing reggae and the music of Bob Marley to a wider audience.

In 1976, Clapton appeared at The Band's farewell concert on 26 November. It was the second farewell concert Clapton had played on that date; eight years earlier, he had played Cream's farewell concert in London. Ironically, it was partially because of The Band's music that Clapton had decided to leave Cream in the first place.

Clapton continued to release albums sporadically and toured regularly, but much of his output from this period was deliberately low-key and failed to find the wide acceptance of his earlier work; highlights of the era include No Reason to Cry, whose collaborators included Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson, and Slowhand, which featured "Wonderful Tonight", another song inspired by Patti Boyd-Harrison, and a second J.J. Cale cover, "Cocaine", which has since become a rock staple.

In 1981, Clapton was invited by producer Martin Lewis to appear at the Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. Clapton accepted the invitation and teamed up with Jeff Beck to perform a series of duets - reportedly their first-ever billed stage collaboration. Three of the performances were released on the album of the show and one of the songs was featured in the film of the show. The performances heralded a return to form and prominence for Clapton in the new decade.

In 1984, he performed on Pink Floyd member Roger Waters's solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and went on tour with Waters following the release of the album. Since then Waters and Clapton have had a close relationship, and in 2005 they performed together for the Tsunami Relief Fund and on May 20, 2006 performed with Waters at the Highclere Castle, in aid of the Countryside Alliance, playing two set pieces of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb".

Clapton's choice of electric guitars have been as notable as the man himself
Early on in his career, Clapton used both Gibson and Fender guitars, but became exclusively a Gibson player in mid-1965, when he purchased a used Gibson Les Paul Sunburst Standard guitar from a local guitar store in London. Clapton played a Les Paul on the Beatles' studio recording of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." During Clapton's heroin addiction from 1969 to 1974, he began to sell off his collection of guitars to pay for his drug habit. Seeing Clapton selling his most treasured possessions was one of the reasons Pete Townshend was prompted to help him get over his addiction. Slowhand occasionally used a double-bound sunburst Fender Custom Telecaster with a Stratocaster neck during a Blind Faith concert at Hyde Park (1969-70).Later (due to the influence of Jimi Hendrix and fellow Blind Faith bandmate Steve Winwood, as well as his love of Buddy Guy's sound), Slowhand began using Fender Stratocasters. First was "Brownie" used during the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs which in 1971 became the backup to the most famous of all Clapton's guitars, "Blackie." In 1970, Eric bought 6 Fender Stratocasters from the Sho-bud guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee. He gave one to George Harrison, Steve Winwood and Pete Townshend. He used the best components of the remaining three to create "Blackie."