Guitar Genius

I didn’t own any Eric Clapton music-until now.  While I enjoyed Clapton’s music, I didn’t truly appreciate his impact on music and others’ influence on him–until now.  I didn’t realize how  autobiographical his music was-until now.  I recently finished and absolutely absorbed his autobiography, Clapton. 

Eric Clapton succeeded in life because of this love of music, despite his lack of love for himself, abandonment by his mother, massive amounts of drugs and alcohol, and loss of a child.  He was in Chicago last summer rasing money for his rehab center in Antigua, Crossroads.  I wish it was this year, when I would understand this project better and encourage all my family and friends to attend. Creating this recovery center for addicts seemed to help Clapton take control of his own life, possibly for the first time.

He jumped from band to band early in his career, trying to find one to play the types of blues music he loved, yet had success with all his bands.  He crossed paths and worked with many of today’s biggest blues/rock/jazz artists, many when they were all reaching for success. He fought a solo career though he said “I knew I had it in me early, but I had stuffed it down to the point that I stopped believing in myself.”  (p. 120)- who hasn’t felt like that?

Until Clapton mentioned his diaries in the middle of the book, I wondered how he remembered dates/places/people in such detail, especially during his drug & alchohol hazed days. No matter what field you work it, it would be amazing to  collaborate with such a wide range of talented individuals on projects. 

His book Clapton is such a telling story about life and addiction, enabling,  the difficulties of overcoming fears, problems, devastation, and the choices we make in life. C

note: I also wrote about his autobiography in my blog on April 15,08.

 

Album Art- Which were your favorites?

Do you know the one of the first album covers that was truly designed by the band, and not their manager?  It was the Beatles very influential Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  This was one of the trivia nuggets I gleaned from a fun exhibit of LP Art–60 years in Album Art at our local museum, The Lake County Discovery Museum.

 

The exhibit showcased the evolution of album art, and its impact on musicians and popular culture. My husband and I were brought back, looking at some of the most popular album covers of our growing up. How many did we own?

There were many genres of music represented–rock, punk, pop, funk, jazz, fusion, with rock being the largest grouping.  There were also some interactive factoids you could read, a headset with music samples, and a fun A-Z game where you could try to choose which letter went with which music group (I did very poorly on this).

Coincidentally, I am reading the autobiography Clapton, by Eric Clapton.  I have always appreciated his guitar genius, and I wanted to learn more about his life.  While touring this exhibit, I was reading about the hippie, drug-using years of the late 1960’s, where he met, befriended and was inspired by artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and  Jimi Hendrix  Clapton mentioned many of the albums that lined the museum walls, which included his former group Cream. 

An extra bonus at the Museum was an art exhibit by Jim Flora, an amazing graphic deisgner from the 1940’s and 50’s who designed classical and jazz album covers, wrote and illustrated children’s books, designed advertising pieces, and funky, creative pieces of art.  Any of them would fit in beautifully in my home!

Entertaining, reminiscent, and educating (and not too overwhelming). What more can you ask from a museum experience? C