Holiday reads to thrill
Daily Dispatch reviewers look at some new books to get you reading this festive season
Biographies of musical giants usually tend to be tedious, humdrum accounts from cradle to old age, but this story of arguably one of the world’s greatest guitarists keeps the reader engrossed from page one to the end.
The author, who has also written biographies of such famous musicians as The Beatles, Sir Elton John, Buddy Holly, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, and separate stories of John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney, while he also wrote musicals on the lives of Elvis Presley and Neil Sedaka.
Clapton was born in 1945, the illegitimate son born of a liaison between a 15-year-old girl, Pat Clapton, and a Canadian soldier, both of whom disappeared from Clapton’s life, the soldier forever, while his mother returned from time to time after marrying another Canadian. Eric was raised by his grandmother who he thought was his mother, while his older “brother” was really his uncle.
As a teenager Clapton loved the blues and soon became adept at playing the guitar, specialising in Blues music. He became a founder-member of the mid-1960s band the Yardbirds and then later Cream in partnership with the late Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. The three could not tolerate each other, but despite this they made a short return in 2005.
The reunion was described as “three sexagenarians with shirts tucked around thickening waists summoning back the era of Flower Power”.
As a performer he played alongside some famous names, including Mick Jagger and the Stones while George Harrison became a special friend. Unfortunately, Clapton fell in love with Harrison’s wife Patty Boyd – he later married her – which put a strain on the friendship. Adding to his woes he became addicted to drugs and later alcohol, but he has since cleaned up his life.
The saddest chapter of the book relates the death of his beautiful five-year-old son, Conor, who accidently fell through a window of a high-rise apartment in New
York in 1991, leading to the composing of Tears In Heaven.
The author writes: “The song had none of the mawkishness of most death songs. It did not describe Conor or even mention his name.
He was an invisible celestial presence, to whom his father reached out rather shyly, as if still uncertain of having won him over in life: ‘Would you hold my hand/If I saw you in Heaven’.”
Norman’s book records the highs as well as the lows of Clapton’s life. The reader gets to know all the ins and outs of British music of the 1960s until the present day.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can recommend it, particularly for those who lived during the period when British music was a major powerhouse. – Peter Martin