The 1973 gig Eric Clapton was forced to play against his will: “I wasn’t even really there”
All great rock stars are creatures of the stage. Whether or not they actually claim to be the best showmen of all time, the art of being able to conjure up a jam session and play like you’re assaulting your instrument half the time is the kind of dexterity that takes people ages to fully master.
Despite being able to play guitar like no one else, Eric Clapton remembered playing one song that he never wanted to on behalf of Pete Townshend.
To understand where Clapton was at that stage, though, it’s important to remember what he had already gone through. The Cream frontman had been one of the most exciting guitarists on the scene ever since leaving the Yardbirds, and no one looking to keep a level head is going to be too hard on themselves when they are named ‘God’ by everyone else.
In fact, after Jimi Hendrix’s passing, only Clapton and maybe Jeff Beck could have been considered the most technically gifted guitar players of their time. Even though Jimmy Page was certainly in the conversation, Clapton was the one who always exhibited taste, almost like the guitar was a long-lost lover crying out for help whenever he took his lead breaks.
Then again, part of that pain came from deep inside. Clapton had been struggling with his unrequited love for Patti Boyd in the early 1970s, and once he stole her away from George Harrison, he was nursing massive addictions that weren’t going away too easily. Even when he had everything he wanted later in life, the picture of a man being shown into a room after a night of heavy drinking in ‘Wonderful Tonight’ is much less romantic than you probably remember.
In an effort to keep his friend on the straight and narrow, Townshend organised a show for him in 1973 featuring some of his best friends on the circuit like Steve Winwood and Ronnie Wood of the Faces. Townshend was already growing concerned about Keith Moon’s drug intake, so if he could help another addict however he could, then why not?
The concert, which eventually became known as the Rainbow Concert, marked a crucial turning point in Clapton’s career and personal life. Although he viewed the event with discomfort at the time, it effectively pulled him back into public view after years of addiction and isolation. Surrounded by fellow musicians who genuinely wanted to help him recover, Clapton slowly began rediscovering both his confidence and his purpose as an artist.
Townshend’s intervention also highlighted the sense of camaraderie that existed among many of Britain’s rock elite during that era. Beneath the egos, excess and legendary rivalries, there was still a network of musicians looking out for one another when things spiralled too far. Clapton may have resisted the spotlight that night, but the show ultimately helped save his career, paving the way for a more reflective and mature phase of his music throughout the 1970s and beyond.
The only problem was that Clapton never liked the idea, telling Rolling Stone, “I did that very much against my will. I wasn’t even really there. It was purely Townshend’s idea, and I didn’t know what I’d done to earn it. It’s simply that he’s a great humanitarian and cannot stand to see people throwing their lives away.”
Clapton may not have cleaned up his act completely by that point, but he did have enough strength to carry on making albums like 461 Ocean Boulevard. Suddenly, fans got to see the Clapton that they had always dreamt of, albeit with a little less bite than before. There were still the guitar fireworks, but not necessarily as many purely hard rock songs.
Though this might mark a change in Clapton’s signature style for a lot of fans, that’s by no means a bad thing. Clapton had already spent years as a blues rock journeyman, and this was him settling into the next phase of his career as a song craftsman.
