The one singer Eric Clapton called a genius of pop music: “It took me all this time to understand”
Every song Eric Clapton ever played was about being more than a pop singer.
The art of popular music may have been about getting the next big hit on the charts, but for someone known as a disciple of the blues, the charts were secondary. It was all about spreading the love of the music that set his world on fire, but sometimes the greatest songs of all time are the ones that outshine anything else that comes out on the hit parade.
And it was no different when Clapton was making some of his greatest tunes. There were plenty of opportunities for him to make the best music that he could on the charts, but right when you thought he had a home with one band, he would be off working with whatever next set of musicians set his mind going, whether that was playing off of Steve Winwood, playing with Delaney and Bonney or finding his musical younger brother in Duane Allman when working with Derek and the Dominos.
But in every one of those bands, Clapton was never one to talk up his own voice or anything. His gift was clearly in making the guitar cry as only he could, but there were plenty more times when his voice brought a lot of character to every song. He had the perfect softer tone compared to Jack Bruce, and when he finally struck out on his own, it was better for him to leave his voice unadorned rather than working on what he thought his idols like Howlin’ Wolf would have been doing.
Compared to the true legends, though, Clapton couldn’t hold a candle to what the true singers could manage. He felt that the biggest names in rock, like Mick Jagger or Elvis Presley, were in their own class half the time, but even beyond the realm of traditional rock and roll, Frank Sinatra had the kind of cocksure attitude that no one could mess with, no matter which genre of music they came from.
Others had tried to match his intensity, but at the end of the day, Clapton had to bow to what ‘Ol Blue Eyes’ could do, saying, “It took me all this time to understand Frank Sinatra – that’s been really difficult. And I think it might have something to do with the fact that he is so highly revered. And often my response to that idolatry is to go, ‘Nah’ – to trash it and go looking for something more obscure. Because he was so familiar and popular. And bit by bit I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that he was a genius.”
Sinatra might not be everyone’s first choice for a rock and roll god or anything, but he does have the same commanding presence as one. There are plenty of singers who are still copying his suave demeanour to this day, and while his music was often in the “easy listening” category, he had his fair share of influence by practically creating the idea of the concept album on In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.
And when you listen to Clapton’s softer material, there are a few times where he matches what Sinatra taught millions of singers. ‘Wonderful Tonight’ is far from the most complex tune that ‘Slowhand’ ever wrote, but the simplicity behind everything is what makes the song pure, alongside the other romantic tunes like ‘Fly Me to the Moon’.
So while Sinatra doesn’t really fit the definition of rock and roll, he occupies a similar space that everyone from Willie Nelson to Johnny Cash does in that arena. None of them is actually of the genre by any stretch, but that demeanour and that wild look in their eyes whenever they performed will forever have a home next to the other legends like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in rock circles.
