Eric Clapton :: essays research papers fc

Eric Clapton     Eric Clapton is an innovative guitarist, basically the first to combine blue and rock, which in turn jutularized blues. Because of his skill and ever-evolving style, his harmony is a lasting contribution in itself.     Eric Clapton do his recording debut with The Yardbirds, the Britishgroup that also featured guitar virtuosos Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Together,they created a all new blues/rock sound that many of the famous 60s and 70sbands copied. Clapton left The Yardbirds when he felt the band strayed too farfrom their blues roots towards pop music.     E.C. then joined British keyboardist, harmonica player,singer/songwriter John Mayall and his band, The Bluesbreakers to work on analbum. Clapton, with the fresh, up and coming band, do a pure blues albumthat many blues fans consider to be his best.     After the one-album stint with The Bluesbreakers, Clapton formed a newgroup call ed Cream with bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce and drummer ginger Baker.The trio made four highly successful albums together in the next few years.Their more rock like interpretations of old blues songs made blues more popularto the mainstream, much more so than with The Yardbirds. Cream had several top40 hits, including "Sunshine of Your Love", "White Room", and " junction".     Towards the end of the 60s Cream split up. Eric Clapton joined theband Blind Faith in 69 and did fairly well with it, but the group broke up chop-chop after the release of their only album. It was then that Claptonlaunched his solo career. For A few years in the early 70s Clapton played withbackup band "Delaney and Bonnie and Friends", and made a few pretty successfulalbums, but nothing in comparison to the popularity he had with Cream.This was the start of a period of time (basically most of the 70s) whereEric Clapton would substitute around from backup band to backup band. In doing this,he had to play differently with each one, so it kept his style fresh and everchanging. In the 70s Eric took more of a departure from blues and went on tobasically playing rock and pop. An exception to this would be when he coveredBob Marleys song "I Shot the Sheriff" and took a stab at reggae. He didexcellently with it, too, it was a big Top 40 hit.     The eighties saw Eric Clapton make fewer albums. Although this was the deplorable point in his career, he still made albums that were quality by any standard.They also saw a more mature Clapton. The Eric from the sixties with his endless,