The one band Eric Clapton said should have never quit: “They were out of order”
From the moment that Eric Clapton started playing music, he was never going to be tied down by one band.
The Yardbirds may have been a great way for him to get his start, but the idea of him answering to the same musicians over and over again was only going to put a damper on his creativity after a while. Like all his heroes before him, he was born to be a drifter, but that didn’t mean that he forgot about what good chemistry looked like when he got together with new musicians.
Cream was already one of the most skilled power trios that the world had ever seen, and even though the thought of them breaking up broke a lot of people’s hearts, Clapton was only getting started when he walked out of the band. Blind Faith may have been a breeding ground for even better things, and while Derek and the Dominos was the best band that anyone could have hoped for, going out on his own was the best thing he could have hoped for after getting songwriting.
Because as much as the blues might be about paying tribute to the legends that came before, Clapton still needed to quote his own heart. None of his inspirations wanted to hear him copying their licks outright, so the next best thing was for him to listen to what his fellow players were doing. And right as the 1970s began, Clapton found himself drawn to the singer-songwriter scene more than anything else.
Bob Dylan may have helped kick down that door, but everyone from James Taylor to Joni Mitchell to Cat Stevens had a story to tell in between their tunes. And after coming off the heartache that came with getting together with Patti Boyd, Clapton was relying on The Band to help get him through that time.
Cream was still going strong by the time Music From Big Pink came out, but their Americana sound fit Clapton’s taste perfectly. 80% of them may have been Canadian, but when listening to them play with Dylan as the Hawks back in the day, each of them had a common understanding of the folk tradition from the moment that they locked in on a groove. But while Clapton could continue to play for the rest of his days, Robbie Robertson was convinced that all good things needed to come to an end when The Last Waltz began.
Any band could hope to go out at the top of their game, but judging by what he heard, Clapton felt that Robertson should have never left after that one phenomenal show, saying, “Some of the performances The Band did after The Band broke up were far superior to what they were doing before he called it a day. And I was speculating on what the gigs were like before there. You could see they were out of order, but after The Last Waltz, they got their act together and I imagine at that point, Robbie could have regretted it.”
That said, it’s not like Clapton couldn’t be there to help out his old friend during those final days with the group. His solos might not have been his greatest performances, but seeing Robertson cover for him after he loses his guitar strap is just further proof of the reason why The Band worked off of each other so well.
Most groups needed to have their act together if they were going to be performing next to Bob Dylan, but even after years of animosity and drug abuse, there was always that sixth sense that people had only heard about before seeing them live. They could practically read each other’s thoughts, and even if Clapton was free to do what he wanted, chances are he would have killed to have that kind of chemistry with his backing group.
