[Slowhand] thoughts on "Clapton: The autobiography"

[Apurva Parikh]

Slowhanders, I had a chance to finish the book over the past 2 days as I had
a lot of free time due to being on a plane and travelling for work... here
are my initial thoughts after having just finished it..

1. I wasn't really interested in much of the Pattie/George/Layla stuff as
that has been documented and commented about, but Eric's chapters on that
whole episode and his pursuant marriage to "Nell" as he called her were more
interesting than I thought, and absolutely made this man more than just a
musician, he had vulnerabilities and emotions that were fragile just like
anyone else *obvious*..
2. Eric didn't write too much about his conquests or go into that much
detail other than mentioning his dalliances with women and the general
patterns that were emerging/ed. I found this stuff to be of course the most
revealing and personal and absolutely riveting to read about..

3. His childhood and the early days were good to read about as well but
eric's writing style doesn't allow you to get settled into any one given
topic for too long, he bounces around and gets to the end of that era and
moves on to another... The parts about his real mother and grandmother and
the politics there were most interesting.

4. As far as guitar playing, Fender vs les paul, beano, there's not hardly
enough detail for die hard fans, choices and styles and tones are brushed
off very slightly, especially the recording of Beano only gets a page maybe
more, but i think eric probably found it hard to explain or discuss how
great a guitar player because he just is..

5. The cream, blind faith, Dominoes stuff was mildly interesting but mostly
boring to me, along with all the anectdotes about his friends from Ripley,
etc..

6. I very much enjoyed his sections on his addcition, the lost years and how
he came out of it, very good to read and get his thoughts on that era, i
find it unbelievable he remembers what he does.

7. The chapters on Conor, Unplugged, etc are good but of course written from
a distance as Eric has explained, he doesn't and cannot go back there and
relive those things, but in any case, it's nothing new.

8. Everything about touring now, melia, kids the last 10 years is truly
great stuff, maybe a tad boring for most, but i find it a tidy fitting to
his story to always be running, chasing and now settled at home it provides
hope and inspiration in a way that is hard to explain...

I wasn't expecting too much tawdry stuff i just wanted to get a picture of
the man i've admired as a musician, but now come to admire as a man,
husband, father and friend..

Good book, definitely an easy read and while may not have the earth
shattering tabloid stuff, it's marked story by a reserved man..

AAP
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