He may not be country, but from the earliest of his beginnings, his life has been a Country Song, who is he..... Eric Patrick Clapton aka Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey, England, the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Claptons birth and then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up with his grandmother, Rose, and her second husband, Jack Clapp, who was stepfather to Patricia Clapton and her brother Adrian, believing they were his parents and that his mother was actually his older sister. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the erroneous belief that Claptons real surname is Clapp (Reginald Cecil Clapton was the name of Roses first husband, Eric Claptons maternal grandfather). Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, leaving young Eric with his grandparents in Surrey. Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently. Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder, listening to them over and over until he felt hed got it right. After leaving Hollyfield School, in Surbiton, in 1961, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art. His guitar playing was so advanced that by the age of sixteen he was getting noticed. Around this time Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, and the West End of London. In 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in the pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group, The Roosters, whose other guitarist was Tom McGuinness. He stayed with this band from January through August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a seven-gig stint with Casey Jones & The Engineers. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Most every genre of music will in some way pay tribute to the man I typically refer to as Clapton. Most all of us know his accomplishments due to our desire to play like Clapton, so there really is nothing I can tell you that more likely than not you dont already know. From Cocaine to I Shot The Sheriff, the man has become an Icon of Rock, but a Legend to the guitar. Happy Birthday Eric, your music always tells a story---and though none of us are worthy, once weve been judged by Our Creator and He wipes them away, there will never again be any......
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:21:25 +0000
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