Clapton, or “Slowhand” as he is affectionately called by fans recently announced that not only was he a “Belieber” but, more importantly, that he might be retiring following the release of his new album. Here, the laid-back grace of that same songwriter’s “Somebody’s Knockin'” is derived from a twelve-bar structure, a style which, if it were more prevalent within the song selection, might’ve rendered I Still Do as a more resounding personal statement from Eric Clapton.
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Right as he was going into the studio with Glyn Johns, who produced Slowhand with Clapton 40 years ago, the guitarist came down with an intense case of eczema. His new disc being released Friday, “I Still Do”, fits like a comfortable shoe into his canon. “I can’t say who it is, but I like the speculation”.
“It’s one of those things that’s been haunting me”, Clapton said. “If there is, I’ll have to figure out what to do next – maybe take it easy for a while”. You hear those tones, deep and cutting, on Clapton’s own “Spiral”, a smoldering knock-off in which the singer declares “I’m just playing this song… you don’t know how much it means to have this music in me”. Even after the band broke up, Clapton appeared on at least one track of each of the former Beatle’s solo recordings.
While the thought was “really sweet”, Clapton said it’s not him. “I told her, “I just want to thank you for being who you were, and for looking after me when I was a little boy, and a hard little boy”, he said. As it turned out, the real artist’s record company didn’t want the guitarist on the track associated with Clapton.
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The newspaper noted that, with the loss of big name musicians like David Bowie and Prince, and with Clapton being especially hard-hit by the loss of his musical idols, J.J. Cale and B.B. King, Clapton may feel it’s time to hang up the guitar before he’s forced to quit.
