Eric Clapton
The 1970s Review DVD
Review by Gary Hill
In some ways the 1970s were Eric Clapton’s most productive, at least in terms of his solo career. One might also consider the Derek and the Dominoes project to be one of Clapton’s shining moments and that came out in the 1970s. All these things are covered in this documentary. I have to say that from the narrative, it really sounds like Clapton more than anything else was following direction and influence from others around him in terms of his creativity. Of course, part of that might be from the fact that there are no direct interviews with Clapton as this is an unauthorized documentary. There are some bits of archival interviews and interviews with many who were around him at the time, but one can only really guess at what went on from Clapton’s point of view. For my money this is mostly worthwhile because of the archival performance footage that it contains. The narrator tends to be unable to convey a lot of excitement which makes this kind of boring, but it’s clearly worth checking out both for hardcore Clapton fans and those looking to better understand a critical part of his career.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.
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