“A lifesaver”: The 1983 song that saved Eric Clapton’s life and rock ‘n’ roll to boot
Eric Clapton, also known as Slowhand and, quite simply, according to one bridge-adjacent hyperbolic graffiti artist, ‘God’, is a rock and roll legend unlike any other.
As the 1960s exploded into the cultural revolution, Slowhand had been shredding his fretboard for some time with Cream and the John Mayall band and had rightly taken a seat at the table of the greatest living musicians, especially in rock music. It had pushed Clapton into an almost untouchable sphere of creation.
An instrumental figure in the world of music, the guitarist has been a part of some of the most influential bands of all time, with Cream and Blind Faith, and even a little moment with The Beatles, as well as an equally lucrative solo career. And he did it all rather effortlessly.
As he once famously quipped, “Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I’d rather lie around. No contest.” Some might call that lazy, others would say that it’s part of the rock ‘n’ roll way of thinking that pushed him to a precipice of guitar fame where Jimi Hendrix resides as his only competition.
A British institution in his own right, Clapton took part in another British institution when he appeared on a 1989 episode of Desert Island Discs. As part of the BBC show, Clapton picked eight pieces of music he’d take with him to the proverbial inescapable island, but there was one that stood out above the rest, one song that he couldn’t live without.
Clapton picked a collection of songs as part of his appearance on the acclaimed show back in 1989. Desert Island Discs has been woven into the dense tapestry of British pop culture ever since it first aired, featuring Roy Plomley in 1942. It’s a time-honoured tradition that has seen Prime Ministers and rock stars alike walk through its studio doors. The format is always the same, each week a guest is invited by the host to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island and pick out one song they deem to be the “castaway’s favourite”.
Naturally, asking a musician to pick just eight songs to listen to for the rest of their life is one thing but to narrow it down further to one i another. It means that often our guest’s selections are the creme de la creme of music. Clapton was no different when he picked his favourite track and essentially the song the guitarist couldn’t live without: Prince’s ‘Purple Rain.’
During the conversation, a chat which included Clapton picking songs from artists such as Stevie Wonder, Muddy Waters and more, he selected the iconic 1983 song ‘Purple Rain’ as his favourite song, describing it as a “lifesaver”. In amongst his bid to get sober during the heady ‘80s, the Purple One’s song arrived with thrilling reinvigoration.
While Clapton’s good friend, Keith Richards, might have scoffed that Prince was “an overrated midget”, the former Cream rocker was firmly in the camp hailing the young Minnesotan as a new hero. As he would later proclaim when Prince passed, “He was a true genius and a huge inspiration.” Seemingly, his signature tune meant an enormous amount to him, too.
The song closes out Purple Rain and acts as the final piece of the gorgeously purple puzzle. While there are plenty of rhythms to be enjoyed, it is Prince’s searing outro that will live in our memories forever. The song remains a classic and would also, fittingly, become the final song he’d ever perform for an audience. It was a send-off of truly epic proportions.
Clapton says he saw Purple Rain, Prince’s epic mauve movie, “at a time when I thought rock and roll was dead, then I went to see Purple Rain.” he continues, “This is someone who is a reincarnation of Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown in one. I thought that’s exactly what the world needed. Very controversial figure, but I love him dearly, and I think musically he’s a genius.” We’d struggle to argue with Clapton, especially about who is and who isn’t a great guitarist.
When asked to pick his favourite song out of the bunch selected in 1989, Clapton said of the track, “Though every one of them means a great deal to me for different reasons, that last one [‘Purple Rain’] embodies so many different things, and emotionally it’s just so powerful. I think I’d choose ‘Purple Rain’.”
Slowhand has even covered the song on occasion, most notably as the encore for a run of shows in London last year, one of which you can see below. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then it’s clear that Clapton has a lot of love for ‘Purple Rain’ as this impassioned performance will show.
As he quipped when he was asked what it was like to be the best guitarist in the world, “Go ask Prince”. Praise doesn’t get much loftier than that.
