Bryan Heck

Orchestra

3/22/04

        Eric Clapton was born on March 30, 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England.  He was born the illegitimate child of Patricia Molly Clapton, who could not afford to raise him at the time.  He spent his life being raised by his grandparents, Rose and Jack Clapp, who, until he was nine, shielded him from the fact that he was illegitimate.  They pretended they were his parents, while his real mother claimed to be his sister.  Even after Clapton knew that he was, in fact, a bastard, he would still visit his mother, and she would still pretend to be his sister.

        From an early age, Clapton had an aptitude for art and especially for music.  At age 14, his grandparent bought him a £14 guitar, on which he copied the music of the greatest blues artists at the time.  From there, he went on to perform music, at which point he started his first band, the Roosters (which had member Tom McGuinness who later joined Manfred Mann).

        After the Roosters were through with, Clapton landed himself a spot in the Yardbirds where he played with the two other major British guitar heroes of the 60s, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.  The Yardbirds became very popular with their bluesy rock.  While on the Yardbirds, he even earned himself the nickname of “Slowhand” because his forceful string bending often times led to his breaking a string onstage.  He would replace it right there in front of the audience while they engaged in a slow hand-clapping.

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        Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965 because they were veering too far from the blues-style rock he really enjoyed playing.  He almost immediately joined another band, the Bluesbreakers.  Due to that band’s devout reliance on blues music, Clapton was really influenced and developed as a player.  He very quickly became the most prominent member of the group and graffiti reading “Clapton is God” started appearing everywhere in England.

        Clapton then left the Bluesbreakers in 1966 in order to start his own band, Cream, with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.  Clapton wished to start a musical revolution and change ...

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