“He didn’t use it”: The solo Beatles song Eric Clapton turned down
Any musician who has ever played anything marginally close to rock always dreams of interacting with a Beatle. The Fab Four practically wrote the rulebook for how every iconic rock act should operate going forward, so getting the opportunity to make music with any of them is the musical equivalent of getting knighted in many respects. But while The Beatles’ catalogue features some of the most incredible highs any musician could ever ask for, it was a lot different when they were collaborating with their friends.
Granted, it’s hard to think that any of the band members were exactly struggling when they flew solo. Every one of them was aching to get out of the constant pressure of being in the biggest group in the world, and throughout the 1970s, every single member of the band seemed content to play with whoever they wanted. While Ringo Starr was usually the one who was constantly bringing in guest stars, though, the other Threetles usually had a certain point to make beyond making an album full of singles.
Paul McCartney figured the next best thing would be to start from scratch with Wings, and while John Lennon worked on creating his most authentic voice with Yoko Ono, he wasn’t above using a few of his friends on record, like bringing in Klaus Voorman on bass or having George Harrison come in to play a bit of guitar on Imagine. If there was one member who was most uncomfortable with a solo career, though, it was Harrison.
He was always the reserved member of the group, and he never exactly felt comfortable being at the front of the stage, as evidenced by the massive group that he brought out on tour all the time. And despite Harrison having disagreements with people like Eric Clapton over the years, it was as if nothing could go wrong as long as they could speak through on All Things Must Pass.
By the time Harrison reached the 1980s, though, he and Clapton were on separate career trajectories. Clapton had been mining the same blues licks and trying to get tighter and tighter, but Harrison finally could loosen up on Cloud Nine, making the kind of pop marvels that most people had been waiting for since 1979. The only way to celebrate was to go around the world again, but when it came time to make some new songs, Harrison remembered Clapton not wanting to join the party.
Despite performing back and forth on the Live in Japan record, Harrison said that he had initially offered the tune to Clapton but was turned down, saying, “There’s a song here, when Eric was doing the Journeyman album, and I wrote this song for him, but he didn’t use it. I think we made an attempt at it, we just ran through the song, and at that time he was working with Michael Kamen doing the music to Lethal Weapon 2, and the director Dick Donner heard this song, and he wanted it in the film. And Eric didn’t want it so Dick Donner asked me if I’d record the song, which I did.”
Although Clapton was already heading towards easy-listening territory with his Unplugged record, this could have been a fine way for him to ease into that sound. The song may have been a bit more rootsy thanks to Tom Petty’s contributions to the tune, but looking back on how things worked out, it was smart for ‘Slowhand’ to take the song ‘Run So Far’ from Harrison instead.
Especially considering that Harrison wouldn’t see his final album, Brainwashed, released, ‘Cheer Down’ actually works pretty well as one of the last tunes that he got to see come out. After spending years preaching about his own personal beliefs and philosophies, this kind of breezy tune could join the ranks of ‘End of the Line’ from the Traveling Wilburys as one of the best moments of his later career.
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