TIME FOR A CHANGE | ERIC CLAPTON, THE BAND, AND MUSIC FROM BIG PINK

“Clapton is God.”

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From the desk of Contributing Editor, Eli M. Getson–
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Have you ever thought you had it all?  Once-in-a-lifetime talent, looks, fame, adoring fans, beautiful women on your arms, private jets and chauffered cars at your beck and call.  People hang on your every word, and yet, you have that nagging feeling something is not right.  Is this it?  Who am I?  What purpose does my life have?

Then one day it hits you– hammers you actually.  You get total clarity and begin to change everything you’ve known and held sacred.   So it was when Eric Clapton heard The Bands Music from Big Pink.  It was like all of a sudden he heard this record and said to himself, “Now this is what music should sound like.” For me personally– this has always been one of the most interesting moments in rock music history.

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1968, NY– Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce of Cream. –Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis

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Back in 1968, Clapton was leading Cream, playing to sold-out arenas, enjoying massive commercial success, and can sample all of the earthly pleasures that are thrown the way of a guitar god. Then he hears this album, by Dylan’s back up band no less, and decides Cream is done, and that the music he’s been playing is self indulgent crap.  In a way it makes sense.  By ’68 Clapton and Cream were so big, they could just show up and people would go crazy.  It was probably becoming a little too easy to “mail it in” on any given night.   Also, don’t under-estimate the power of ego– it always rears its ugly head. Clapton’s bandmates Jack Bruce (bass) and Ginger Baker (drums) were both virtuosos in their own right, and the competition to “out solo” each other at live shows probably got stale as well.  Ultimately all this, and the loss of comeradery and togetherness, took its toll.  Imagine taking a plane across the pond, then separate limos to different hotels, with each band member having totally different entourages to boot.  It would soon spell the end for of one of rock ‘n rolls most spectacular trios ever.

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Robert Whitaker, Eric Clapton, 1967, © Collection Robert Whitaker.

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Ultimately, I speculate here, by ’68 Clapton may have felt he had scaled the heights as a guitarist– there was him and Jimi Hendrix and everyone else– and in his private moments he may have sat wondering what to do next.  Like many of us he was looking for something to inspire him, to make him work at it. So when he put Music from Big Pink on his record player he listened once and was mesemerized, he listened a second time and may have been slightly confused (the vibe of the album makes it sounds like in could have been made in 1868), he listened a third time and began to feel that spark that every artist feels when they have a creative rush– and by the fourth listen Cream was done.

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It is not really suprising, the music The Band was making emphasized song writing versus individual virtuosity– it certainly didn’t hurt that Bob Dylan wrote three of the songs on Big Pink. The vibe of it sounded down home, casual– the polar opposite of the music Clapton was making with Cream.  Music from Big Pink effectively ended Cream, but for Eric Clapton it proved such an inspiration that he went on an eight year odyssey to find himself and ultimtely recorded No Reason to Cry in 1976, in Malibu with Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston, Dylan, and finally The Band. The duet with Dylan, Sign Language, is quite moving. While this album was not critically loved, Clapton cites it has one of his favorites.  The sessions feel easy, laid back– just what you want when you’re doing what you love and working with friends.

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1969– The Band at Richard & Garth’s house above the Ashokan resevoir, Woodstock. — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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1968– David Crosby and legendary British blues guitarist Eric Clapton.  – Image by © Henry Diltz/CORBIS

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1969– The Band — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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1968– (Left) Eric Clapton Carrying Guitar Case –Above images by © Henry Diltz/CORBIS

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1968– David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, and Eric Clapton, while Mickey Dolenz films the musicians’ get together. — Image by © Henry Diltz/CORBIS

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1968– David Crosby relaxes with legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. — Image by © Henry Diltz/CORBIS

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Eric Clapton with Acoustic Guitar — Image by © Neal Preston/CORBIS

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1977, San Francisco– Rick Danko and Ronnie Hawkins perform with The Band during their Last Waltz performance at the Winterland nightclub in San Francisco. — Image by © Neal Preston/CORBIS

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1978– Eric Clapton Playing Electric Guitar — Image by © Neal Preston/CORBIS

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1970s– Eric Clapton Playing Electric Guitar — Image by © Neal Preston/CORBISS

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1971– George Harrison and Eric Clapton performing at the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

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1967– Eric Clapton at London Airport — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

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1967, L.A.– Eric Clapton of Cream at The Whisky a Go Go. — Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis

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April 1967, New York– Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, producer Felix Pappalardi. — Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis

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1967, New York– B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop. — Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis

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1965– John Mayall, Hughie Flint, Eric Clapton and John McVie — Image by © Michael Ochs

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1969– Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm Rehearsing — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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1969– The Band — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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1969, Woodstock, NY– The Band — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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1968– The Band — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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Woodstock, NY– The Band — Image by © Elliott Landy/Corbis

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George Harrison also heard “Music From Big Pink” and was profoundly moved– and the demise of the Beatles was not too many years later. People have to remember that ‘68 was an incredibly charged year worldwide by any standard– RFK, MLK, The Prague Spring, The Democratic Convention in Chicago, The Election of Nixon, student protests all over the globe. To a lot of young people the revolution was near, and I think a lot of the music made that year reflected the tumult and rage in the broader society. That is what makes “Music From Big Pink” and The Band’s next self titled album that much more unique. As I cited in the piece “Big Pink” sounded like it could have been made in 1868– the music was hard to place, and maybe reflects the pure joy of making music and the relative isolation of Upstate New York from where it was all going down. I believe this environment, allowed Dylan and The Band to just focus on their craft, and write and record some music that remains some of my favorite stuff. Whenever I hear “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” I almost think it was actually sung by the Confederate Army during the Civil War.