The one last band Eric Clapton needed to be in: ‘I adored their music’
Anyone in the 1960s would have probably given their left arm to be anywhere near Eric Clapton during his prime.
He had already shown his stuff as a decent blues player in The Yardbirds, but as soon as John Mayall took him in, everyone knew they were no longer dealing with a kid with a decent-sized Buddy Guy fixation. This was the next generation coming in to take over the rock and roll world, but that didn’t always mean being the most reliable band member when it came time to walk into the rehearsal room.
Despite being one of the greatest artists in his field, ‘Slowhand’ was already starting to become a little bit jaded with the idea of being in a band during the Mayall stage. He fully admitted that he was far from a diplomat when he left the Bluesbreakers to form Cream, but if he thought that working with a bandleader like Mayall was hard work, having three conflicting egos all in one band playing off each other was never going to go the distance in the same way The Beatles did.
And so began a lengthy stint of Clapton’s career where he flip-flopped from one band to the next depending on what he wanted to hear. Delaney and Bonnie definitely gave him a canopy to work under for a while, but in between working with Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos, Clapton was clearly honing his craft well. All he needed was the courage to fly on his own, and that came from hearing what people like The Band were doing at the tail end of the 1960s.
The singer-songwriter scene had already become fertile ground for people like Carole King and James Taylor, but what The Band were doing was being song craftsmen. They had their own set of classic tunes, but after sharing the stage with Bob Dylan as the Hawks for so many years, their sound reeked of every single Americana musician that came before them, which Clapton fell in love with when making his first solo steps.
He had already been listening to Music From Big Pink towards the end of Cream, and while he would have gladly joined his new favourite group on the spot if they asked him, he would have to wait until the end to actually be a full-fledged member of the group. The Last Waltz was clearly a bittersweet affair for everyone to be involved with, but Clapton couldn’t help but feel like he checked something off his musical bucket list as well.
Everyone knew that the group had said all they wanted to say, but Clapton felt that he no longer needed any other group once he played with them, saying, “I adored [their music]. It was very hard to make my way with this going on and not being a part of it until The Last Waltz. And in some respects, I was very relieved with The Last Waltz because it meant there wasn’t a band that I wasn’t a part of anymore. I could just go on and be me and that was alright.”
That’s not to say that the performance went off without a few hang-ups. Clapton is in fine form during all of the clips, but it’s a testament to The Band’s power that they still sound full after he had his own screwups. Anyone would have felt a difference when ‘Slowhand’s guitar cuts out of the mix, but when his guitar strap ends up failing him halfway through his solo, seeing Robbie Robertson pick it up so effortlessly is only further proof of how good their musical synergy was.
There are many pieces of Clapton’s solo material that do feel indebted to The Band, but even if he had a massive group behind him whenever he went on tour, it was much better for him to play music with seasoned pros like this. He was always a student of all forms of American music, and here was the group that had learned all those lessons firsthand and were teaching him the ropes.
