Tag: Eric Clapton

Friday’s Theme Music

Reaching back today to ’67, when I was eleven. Feels like a hundred years ago and feels like yesterday evening. Cream was a short-lived supergroup. Eric Clapton was already one of my guitar idols. Here comes Cream with those quasi-psychedelic, hard-rock, deep bass song, “Sunshine of Your Love”. I heard it and thought it was the future’s edge swinging toward me.

Now I sing it as a walk the street, sunshine on my head, laptop in my backpack, heading to the coffee shop to write, and think of it more as an homage to sunshine. At least, that’s why I was singing it yesterday. I thought the sunshine would enjoy it.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Another rejection last night. That always opens a darkside vein, for a bit, at least. I pondered the usual of whys and hows for an hour, slept on it and sluiced through some dreams. Then I arose this morning, told myself onward, and started humming this old classic to myself.

Oh lordy lord, oh lordy lord
It hurts me so bad, for us to part
But someday baby, I ain’t gonna worry my life anymore

“Worried Life Blues” have has been sung and played for decades. I’ve heard many performers do this song, but I went with B.B. King and Eric Clapton, two musicians I admire and enjoy. This version is from Riding with the King (2000). I especially love King’s deep, emphatic style on this song.

Pour a cup of something and listen with me. Sing along, if you’re so moved. Enjoy the day.

 

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Tuesday’s Them Music

Exchanged some comments with a blogger last night. He’d reminisced about enjoying Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and AC/DC with his brother while they were growing up (Boys Will Be Boys). That reminded me how much I enjoyed Clapton, and eventually led me to streaming “Pretending” from his Journeyman album (1989). I like the power with which the song opens after the slight piano intro. The song lifts me up when I stream it in my head while I’m walking.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

On this throwback Tuesday, I found myself in the kitchen streaming an old favorite in my head.

“If you got bad news, you want to kick those blues, coffee. When your day is done and you want to run on, coffee. She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie. Coffee.”

No doubt I’ve posted this before. It’s a rainy day, and it calls for coffee, stat. What better song than Eric Clapton’s cover of the JJ Cale classic, “Cocaine”? While “Cocaine” is an anti-drug song, my version of “Coffee” is not anti-coffee.

Cheers

 

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Once again the stream pulls me back in time.

I enjoy Eric Clapton’s style of music and performances. I immediately bought his “Journeyman” album on its release. I was stationed in Germany at that point, driving a silver Audi. I remember setting off for a Volksmarch one Sunday morning and slipping this CD into the player to hear as I sped across the landscape under gray skies and a weak sunrise.

Clapton’s version of “Before You Accuse Me” from this album became my favorite track. Bo Diddley wrote the song while I was an infant and I’ve heard numerous covers that I’ve enjoyed. Clapton’s cover is a powerful, rocking version.

Let us rock.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Care for a little cream for your Friday coffee?

Robert Johnson’s masterpiece, “Crossroads” (or “Cross Roads Blues”) has been covered by many. I like the Cream version because it was the first one I heard when I was young. It’s hard to overcome that first love. More metaphysically, it’s a song that captures so much of life’s essence, IMO. We think, after making a journey, that we’ve gone somewhere. And we have, but then, we found ourselves at another crossroad. Decisions are made, moods are felt, directions are chosen, prayers are offered, and help is sought.

So here you are, on Friday, with a “Crossroads” about what to do, where to go, and maybe, who to be.

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Today’s Theme Music

This was an interesting oddity that I found on the net.

Thirteen years old, I was just getting into groups like Cream. Cream was Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce. I knew who Glen Campbell was, of course; being in America in nineteen sixty nine, Campbell was difficult to avoid. He was well-accomplished, with well-known hit songs like “Gentle On My Mind,” “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” and “Wichita Lineman.” By sixty-nine, he was hosting television shows.

This video is of Glen Campbell hosting a show and introducing Cream in nineteen sixty-nine. I never saw this video before today, and it’s definitely a ride on the wayback machine. Cream, so accustomed to playing stadiums with deafening levels of sound, seem strangely muted here. The contrast between their long-haired hippie appearance and Glen Campbell’s look is striking, and can easily be a metaphor for the difference in the America that was, and the America that was coming. Look at the set’s simple production, as well. It’s a far cry from “American Idol.”

Take a look to moderately far back in modern America, to nineteen sixty-nine, with Glen Campbell, and Cream.

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Today’s Theme Music

The stream has shifted. Into the flow comes an all-time favorite by a little band called Derek and the Dominoes, with help from a guy named Duane Allman. Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon wrote the song, “Layla,” as a love ballad about Eric’s love for George Harrison’s wife, Patty Boyd. Duane entered the picture and changed the song to its more familiar rock sound.

Back in those days, I didn’t know about the confusion arising over the name of the group. I knew when I heard the song, I loved it and sought it out. I thought it was Eric Clapton playing, but if it was this guy, Derek, I didn’t care. Being a slow witted animal, I eventually grasped that it was Eric playing and singing, with help from the great Duane Allman – which explains the similarity to the Allman Brothers’ music of that period, right? It all eventually came together.

To me, this is a triumphant, feel-good song that ignites my creative energies. Pick up your air guitar. Time to jam.

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Today’s Theme Music

I often sing the blues. My version is the first world blues. I’m blue about the state of the world, environmental concerns, human rights. I’m also blue ’bout computer issues and awful television shows while simultaneously, hypocritically decrying our consumer society. I’m blue because I love auto racing and hate its economic and environmental impact. I’m blue because while I have plenty to eat, my metabolism has slowed and I can’t eat all the foods I want all the time. I’m blue because my hair is thinning and graying even while I know I’m in a pretty damn good place. I’m blue because I’m a basket of contradictions and because my cats don’t get along better. And the blues strike, too, because I’m pretty healthy while so many friends and loved ones suffer from health issues. I sing the blues because there are too many people who seem evil for the sake of being evil and care about no one but themselves.

That’s why I sing the blues. That’s why I’m thankful for an era where we had folks like B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Etta James, Albert King, Doctor John, Phil Collins, Robert Cray, Paul Butterfield and more to lift me out of the blues via that terrible technology that I love and hate.

Here they are, strong of voice, at the top of their skills, performing ‘Why I Sing the Blues’. 

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Today’s Theme Music

An old favorite, Steve Winwood wrote this song. Blind Faith with Winwood on vocals, recorded and released the song in 1969. Others covered it multiple times. I like this live version from Guitar Crossroads, with Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhill.

It’s a good walking song, and easy to sing in your head. Enjoy.

 

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