“Not possible”: Which song did Eric Clapton forbid himself from recording?
When Willie Dixon was talking about his song ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, he spoke about the way that people find different things to be spiritual about. Regardless of religion or culture, there was a great inclination for a lot of people to believe in something bigger than themselves. It’s that desire that Willie Dixon touches upon in his blues tracks.
“People believe in mystic things. Like people today believe in astrology. That’s been going on for generations, since biblical days,” he said, “People all over the world believe in it. Even before Jesus was born, according to the Bible. The wise men saw the stars in the East and were able to predict about things. All of these things are mystic. They say, ‘Hoochie coochie people are telling fortunes.’ You know, like the wise men of the East. They call them ‘voodoo men’ or ‘hoochie coochie men.’ They used to call them ‘hoodoo folk’ and ‘two-head people.’ They got many names for everybody.”
We channel a lot into spiritual things as they help us deal with instances that often feel out of our control. While some people find solace in spiritualism, a lot of people also find it in music, which is why it’s interesting hearing Willie Dixon combine the two. The song resonated with a number of people and was eventually recorded by the blues legend Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters did a great deal for blues music as he became one of the most popular artists within the genre. When he toured the UK, a number of people who heard him were deeply moved and decided they wanted to try to recreate his sound. People like Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton were all inspired by him, as that combination of sound and something spiritual elevated them higher than ever before.
Eric Clapton was such a big fan that he wanted to record his own rendition of the song. He worked hard trying to nail the guitar parts for the song and wasn’t happy with the way it came out. He buys into music as a different form of spirituality, and Muddy Waters is a huge contributing factor towards that, so it made sense that Clapton wanted to get the recording just right. He acknowledges that people likely enjoyed the song, but he didn’t think he was living up to the expectations he had set for himself.
“‘Hootchie Cootchie Man’ is like the crown jewel, isn’t it? I mean it’s like the lion’s den with this one. And we’d done it dozens of times,” said Clapton, “And to most people it probably sounds all right. But to me it just is not good enough. And so we do it again and again and again. And I don’t know what that is. It’s some kind of perfectionism in me. I love this man so much that I want to do it absolutely perfectly, and of course that’s not possible.”
Without Muddy Waters, a lot of the artists like Eric Clapton, who we credit with pioneering rock music, likely wouldn’t have pursued the style that they did. As such, Clapton wanted to pay respect to him, but didn’t feel as though he could do the song justice, so he decided not to release what he recorded.
