![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Eric-Clapton-Guitarist-Musician-1975-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Matt Gibbons)<\/p>\n
Fri 13 June 2025 15:45, UK <\/p>\n
Any artist should be looking to evolve whenever they pick up their instrument. It\u2019s one thing to have a sound and stick with it, but if someone tries to play the same riff every time they pick up their guitar, there comes a point when they\u2019re going to be stuck down in a rut and never find their way out. Eric Clapton<\/a> knew the importance of keeping things fresh better than anybody, but he also realised that sometimes means going back to his roots to remember where he came from.<\/p>\n Throughout his career, Clapton made his entire living out of becoming a connoisseur of all kinds of electric guitar playing. Most people would have stopped once the girls started screaming, but as soon as The Yardbirds started to go in a poppier direction, Clapton knew that he would never be typecast. He wanted to make something new, and whether that was working with Cream of Derek and the Dominos, he was making sure that he kept pushing the guitar forward.<\/p>\n Did it always work? Not necessarily. There are always going to be those tunes like Cream\u2019s \u2018Wrapping Paper\u2019 that fall on deaf ears, but when looking at his journey throughout multiple decades, Clapton always made sure to keep everything fresh, whether that meant getting into reggae, embracing his singer-songwriter side, or managing to disassemble his classic tunes when playing Unplugged.<\/p>\n Then again, Clapton could have probably stopped after 1973 and still have been considered a legend. Outside of introducing Jimi Hendrix to the British public with Cream, \u2018Slowhand\u2019 had the badge of honour of working with every single Beatle, whether that was playing on \u2018While My Guitar Gently Weeps\u2019 or trading licks with George Harrison on All Things Must Pass<\/a>. Of all the fairweather gigs with the Fabs, though, working with John Lennon in the Plastic Ono Band was bound to be interesting.<\/p>\n While people may have baulked at the idea of Lennon going solo and having Yoko Ono scream into the microphone beside him, Clapton knew he had a chance to do something different when they played the Toronto Peace Festival in 1969. Cream were already on the way out, and since the band didn\u2019t have much rehearsal, it was easy for him to cut loose a bit more when making songs as simple as \u2018Money\u2019 or Lennon\u2019s own \u2018Yer Blues\u2019.<\/p>\n