History YMMV / EricClapton

* CoveredUp: Clapton didn't write "Cocaine". That was J.J. Cale.

** Also "After Midnight", another J.J. Cale song.

** Prior to that was the level of virtuosity and feel Clapton acquired between leaving Music/TheYardbirds (where he was already well regarded as an impressive player) and the "Beano" album, which set the scene for the rest of Clapton's career.

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* NeverLiveItDown: Going on stage, dead drunk in 1976, and stumbling into an anti-immigration, anti-black rant including such choice sayings as "Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!". Clapton has tried to explain it in the past as drunken trolling aimed at hecklers, but mostly him, his fans, and his numerous multi-ethnic collaborators all just pretend it never happened.
** His anti-vaccination, anti-quarantine statements in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic are well on their way to becoming this as well.

** In fact, Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses," which wound up on the B-side of "Strange Brew" in the spring of 1967, was the first record to utilize a wah pedal, beating Hendrix' "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" by several months.

* NeverLiveItDown: Going on stage, dead drunk in 1976, and stumbling into an anti-immigration, anti-black rant including such choice sayings as "Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!". Clapton has tried to defend it in the past as drunken trolling, but mostly him, his fans, and his numerous multi-ethnic collaborators all just pretend it never happened.

** Most people know "I Shot The Sheriff" was originally a Music/BobMarley song, but Clapton's version is still the best-known.

** Most people know "I Shot The Sheriff" was originally a Music/BobMarley song, but some think it's a Clapton original.

* CommonKnowledge: A lot of people seem to believe "Eric Clapton's son Conor died in 1991 because Eric left a window open in his 53rd-story apartment," which is nowhere close to the truth. For one thing, Clapton didn't have custody of Conor; that was Conor's mother, Lory Del Santo. The apartment was being leased by Del Santo and her then-partner Silvio Sardi, and there was also a nanny living with them. Clapton didn't live there and wasn't present when the accident happened. A janitor had been working on the window and left it open, and Conor, being a rambunctious 4-year-old, ran to the window before anyone could catch him. Clapton was scheduled to come to the apartment later that day to take Conor out for lunch and a visit to a zoo.

-->''I get off on '57 Chevys''
-->''I get off on screamin' guitar''

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: "Wonderful Tonight" and "Let it Grow"

* CreatorBreakdown: After the death of his son, Conor, in 1991. He came back with "Tears in Heaven".
** And "Layla", his way of shouting out the pain from his unrequited love to Pattie Boyd, then-wife of his buddy Music/GeorgeHarrison.
*** What's more, he's admitted that pretty much everything he wrote for Music/DerekAndTheDominos is about Patti in some way.

* DrugsAreBad: "Cocaine".

* TearJerker: "Tears in Heaven". Oh, goodness, [[GriefSong "Tears in Heaven"]]. The story behind his four-year-old son Conor's death is just heartbreaking. If this doesn't make the listener's eyes mist over, chances are good they don't have a soul.
** "Bell Bottom Blues, you made me cry..." is an apt description of the effect the titular song can have.
*** "Wonderful Tonight" from ''24 Nights'', his Royal Albert Hall performance and two-disc set. It's slower-paced and a lot gloomier--if the original one is the main couples' dance at ''your'' wedding, then this one is you watching the new couple have their first dance, while feeling that you must examine your own life a bit harder if you're ever to have that shining moment.
*** [[LyricalDissonance "My Father's Eyes"]] deals with Clapton's experiences growing up without knowing his father. In the first verse, he expresses a sense of lacking direction ("Just a toe-rag on the run/How did I get here?/What have I done?"). In the second, he describes the [[HopeSpot joy of raising his son]], but also doubts his worth as a parent ("Where do I find the words to say?/How do I teach him? What do we play?"). In the final verse, disaster has struck and his son is dead, and he [[BookEnds realizes that he had his father's eyes]]. ("As my soul slides down to die/How could I lose him?/What did I try?/Bit by bit, I've realized/That he was here with me/I looked into my father's eyes")

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Clapton is best known now for his unplugged solo material and his lighter pop hits, but back in the 60s he was an even more influential guitarist than Music/JimiHendrix. This was even the guy who influenced Hendrix.
** The image of a guitar hero playing a Gibson Les Paul through a Marshall amp arguably began with Eric.

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: "Cocaine".

* TearJerker: "Tears in Heaven". Oh, goodness, [[GriefSong "Tears in Heaven"]]. The story behind his four-year-old son Conor's death is just heartbreaking.

** While the riff in "Layla" is definitely epic, that was [[MisattributedSong Duane Allman, not Eric Clapton]] on the guitar. This leads people to mistakenly believe that ALL the great guitar playing on the album was Duane Allman, even on the three tracks on which he did not appear.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Goes both ways with "Let It Grow". Reviewers in 1974 noted the resemblance of the melody to [[Music/LedZeppelin "Stairway To Heaven"]]. Fast forward eight years, and [[{{Music/Toto}} "Africa"]] has melodic similarities to "Let It Grow".

*** [[LyricalDissonance "My Father's Eyes"]] deals with Clapton's experiences growing up without knowing his father. In the first verse, he expresses a sense of lacking direction ("Just a toe-rag on the run/How did I get here?/What have I done?"). In the second, he describes the [[HopeSpot joy of raising his son]], but also doubts his worth as a parent ("Where do I find the words to say?/How do I teach him? What do we play?"). In the final verse, disaster has struck and his son is dead, and he [[BookEnds realizes that he had his father's eyes]]. (As my soul slides down to die/How could I lose him?/What did I try?/Bit by bit, I've realized/That he was here with me/I looked into my father's eyes)

* OldShame: In the early 70s, Clapton was a big supporter of Enoch Powell's anti-immigration rhetoric and made a few [[{{Understatement}} slightly controversial statements]] regarding race relations in Britain at a time when racial tension was very high.

* NeverLiveItDown: Going on stage, dead drunk in 1976, and stumbling into an anti-immigration rant including such choice sayings as "Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!". Clapton has tried to defend it in the past as drunken trolling, but mostly him, his fans, and his numerous multi-ethnic collaborators all just pretend it never happened.
* OldShame: In the early 70s, Clapton was a big supporter of Enoch Powell's anti-immigration rhetoric and made a few slightly controversial statements regarding race relations in Britain at a time when racial tension was very high.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: "Wonderful Tonight"

* MagnumOpus: ''Music/LaylaAndOtherAssortedLoveSongs'' is the usual pick, with occasional votes for ''Music/DisraeliGears'', ''461 Ocean Boulevard'' or a given LiveAlbum.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Clapton almost exclusively played the UnpluggedVersion of "Layla" in live shows for a time due to the [[EpicRocking extreme difficulty]] of coordinating the song outside the studio. These days, it mostly depends on which sidemen he has. A rare example of an artist dispalcing their ''own song'', as the acoustic version is the version you are most likely to hear on pop stations these days and it is the version younger listeners are more familiar with, although the electric version still remains a beloved classic as well.

* MagnumOpus: ''Music/LaylaAndOtherAssortedLoveSongs'' is the usual pick, with occasional votes for ''Music/DisraeliGears'' or a given LiveAlbum.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Clapton almost exclusively played the UnpluggedVersion of "Layla" in live shows for a time due to the [[EpicRocking extreme difficulty]] of coordinating the song outside the studio. These days, it mostly depends on which sidemen he has.

** And "Layla", his way of shouting out the pain from his unrequited love to Pattie Boyd, then wife of his buddy GeorgeHarrison.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming: "Wonderful Tonight"