Eric Clapton--aka "Old Slow Hand"--is one of the greatest guitarists of all time and the only musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on three separate occasions. In his long career with such supergroups as The Yardbirds, Cream, and Blind Faith, as well as a solo artist, he has received countless awards. To mark his illustrious 50-year career, Eric Clapton Treasures celebrates the legendary musician through stunning rarely published photographs and 20 items of removable facsimile memorabilia, including posters, tickets, flyers, and signed photographs. Eric Clapton Treasures gives readers a front-row seat (and backstage pass, too) to Clapton's unparalleled career.
After Steven died, I began to read books about grieving, written by those who also had a child die. I could not get enough. I needed to feel like I was not alone. I needed to identify with somebody. I needed to know that I was not going crazy and that what I was feeling was normal -- whatever normal means when your child has died. It helped knowing others had gone through what I was now experiencing. I learned that bereaved parents may do things that seem strange to others. That does not mean they are crazy or that they are not moving forward in their grief. They are coping the best way they can. They are trying to keep their childs memory alive. Darcie Sims, a former grief counselor and bereaved parent, once said that as long as you are not hurting yourself or anyone else, then you are grieving exactly the way you need to do it.
From the Yardbirds to Cream, Blind Faith to Derek and the Dominos, and a hugely-successful solo career, Eric Clapton's fifty years in the music business can look like an uninterrupted rise to become one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived. But his story is as complicated as it is fascinating. Clapton's god-like skill with a guitar was matched by an almost equal talent for self-destruction. He has never shied away from telling the truth about his battles with drink and drugs - or the sometimes catastrophic impact they had on the other people in his life, including his first wife Pattie Boyd. And without those deep personal lows we may never have had the musical highs that won him millions of fans. His story is also one of a long but successful road to sobriety, redemption and happiness. Motherless Child chronicles Clapton's remarkable journey: the music, the women, the drugs, the cars, the guitars, the heartbreak and the triumphs are all here. The book includes interviews with some people close to Clapton who have never spoken on the record before. It explores his musical legacy as one of the most influential musicians of his generation, and as the keeper of the flame for the blues.
'These guitars have been really good tools; they're not just museum pieces. They all have a soul and they all come alive.' - Eric Clapton 'In his own words, Clapton tells his story through the history of his instruments.' - Rolling Stone In Six-String Stories Eric Clapton reflects on a legendary career as told through the tools of his trade: his guitars. Collected together here for the first time are the instruments Clapton sold in three record-breaking auctions between 1999 and 2011 to benefit the Crossroads treatment centre he founded in 1998. Featuring some of the most iconic guitars ever played, Clapton guides the reader through nearly 300 instruments as he discusses their provenance, reveals insights about his own playing, and shares anecdotes from each chapter of his spectacular life in music. 'One by one these guitars were the chapters of my life. They belong to a very well-loved family.' - Eric Clapton Six-String Stories presents a 'family tree' that makes connections between iconic instruments, such as Clapton's famous 'Blackie' Stratocaster, and previously unknown rarities, placing them in the chronology of his career. Clapton recalls the instruments he bought to emulate his heroes, the guitars with unknown origins that became their own legend, the ones that never left his side, and the legacy they left behind. Every piece has been individually photographed, revealing every curve, detail and scratch, while the work of over 80 of the world's best rock photographers shows the instruments in play. See Clapton's evolution from the psychedelic Sixties, through the stripped-back Seventies, electric Eighties, and unplugged Nineties, right up to the sale of the last guitar. 'As an avid rock or blues fan, I would look at all the pictures in this book.' - Eric Clapton Historical and technical information for each piece in the collection - including playlists and concert dates for those instruments used on records and at public appearances - completes the story behind each guitar. 'The guitars are things of great beauty.' - Eric Clapton
(FAQ). Eric Clapton has been a rock god for half a century. From busking on street corners and in local pubs to the raw blues of the Yardbirds, the rock/blues fusion of Cream, the guitar brilliance of Derek and the Dominoes, and the unforgettable songs of his solo career, he has proven his incomparable talent in the music world. His enduring presence has made him the subject of countless books, articles, reviews, websites, and gossip. Is there really anything new to learn about the man they call Slowhand? Eric Clapton FAQ combines the obvious, the well-known, the obscure, and the unknown into one place. It was not written as a definitive Clapton biography or a tell-all book that has the final say. It is, as the title suggests, a book of facts. Clapton is one of those public figures we know much about, but he still seems to be partially shrouded in mystery. Sometimes the stories and facts about his life change and evolve, which is all a part of his mystique. Eric Clapton FAQ uncovers some of that mystery and celebrates his talent in an entertaining style. Packed with dozens of rare images, this book is must for Slowhand fans.
According to Eric Clapton, John Mayer, and the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy is the greatest blues guitarist of all time. An enormous influence on these musicians as well as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, he is the living embodiment of Chicago blues. Guy's epic story stands at the absolute nexus of modern blues. He came to Chicago from rural Louisiana in the fifties—the very moment when urban blues were electrifying our culture. He was a regular session player at Chess Records. Willie Dixon was his mentor. He was a sideman in the bands of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He and Junior Wells formed a band of their own. In the sixties, he became a recording star in his own right. When I Left Home tells Guy's picaresque story in his own unique voice, that of a storyteller who remembers everything, including blues masters in their prime and the exploding, evolving culture of music that happened all around him.
"In this absolutely unprecedented and beautifully produced coffee-table volume, best-selling music writer Paul Grushkin draws on top museum collections and private archives, renowned photographers, lauded poster artists, and record labels to illustrate the remarkable 70-year synergy between music and motoring. The narrative comprises scores of first-person interviews with prominent figures and explores common themes that have been addressed in vehicle-related songs - as symbols of freedom, vehicles as status symbols, as courting tools, as utilitarian work conveyances, as metaphors (when Reverend Horton Heat sings about his "Big Red Rocket of Love," he's not just talking about his shoebox Ford), and vehicles simply as vehicles. Illustrated with images of musicians, bands, vehicles, album and poster art, and collectibles, the book draws direct lineages juxtaposing artists that may have previously seemed disparate. Also included are music's car-related lore and tragedies, like Gene Vincent's motorcycle accident that spurred his spiral into alcoholism; Hank Williams' death in the backseat of his Cadillac; the death of So-Cal punk icon D. Boon in a tour-van accident; and Neil Young connecting with Stephen Stills in L.A. because the latter saw the former's Ontario plates in a traffic jam. In the end, Wheels is the expansive sort of book that everyone from the most casual music fan to the most hardcore musicologist will find difficult to put down."--Provided by the publisher.
He was one of the most celebrated blues artists of his era, a visionary Chicago singer-songwriter in the 1930s; his overseas tours in the 1950s ignited the British blues-rock explosion of the 1960s. But Big Bill Broonzy has been virtually forgotten by the popular culture he helped shape. Riesman details Big Bill's complicated personal saga, and provides a definitive account of his life and music.
