While Cream was working on their fourth and final album, Goodbye, Eric Clapton and George Harrison began writing a song for it. The favor was being returned to Clapton, who played lead guitar on Harrison’s classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” from the Beatles‘ White Album, but somewhere along the way, their new Cream song ended up being mis-titled.
“Each of them had to come up with a song for that ‘Goodbye’ Cream album, and Eric didn’t have his written,” recalled Harrison. “We were working across from each other, and I was writing the lyrics down, and we came to the middle part, so I wrote ‘Bridge.’ Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing. ‘What’s a Badge?’ he said. After that, Ringo [Starr] walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park.”
The song remained as “Badge” and appeared on Goodbye, marking the duo’s first collaboration. The two later reconnected on more projects in the ’60s through ’80s. Both play guitar, along with Ringo Starr on drums, on Jackie Lomax’s 1968 single “Sour Milk Sea,” which Harrison had originally written for the White Album. Two years later, Clapton played guitar on Harrison’s third solo album, All Things Must Pass.
In 1987, Clapton also appeared on Harrison’s eleventh album, Cloud Nine, playing guitar on the title track, “That’s What It Takes,” “Wreck of the Hesperus,” and “Devil’s Radio,” four years before the two toured Japan together in 1991.
George Harrison (left) and Eric Clapton at Limehouse Studios in London during the recording of ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ spotlighting rockabilly songwriter and guitarist Carl Perkins. In the background are drummers Slim Jim Phantom and Ringo Starr. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)‘Journeyman’
When Clapton began working on his 1989 album Journeyman, Harrison had another contribution for his friend. “Run So Far” was never released as a single but was Harrison’s sole contribution to the album, which was considered a return to form for Clapton, who was previously struggling with an alcohol addiction.
Harrison’s lyrics spoke directly to Clapton’s personal struggles and the feeling of being trapped in addiction.
You fly
Out as your smile wears thin
And I sigh
Knowing the mess you’re in
And you know that you can’t get away
And you know you can’t hide it from yourself
Lonely days, heavy heart
No escape, can only run so far
I know
Something I ought to say
Stuck here
Trying to find a way
And you know that you can’t get away
And you know you can’t hide it from yourself
Lonely nights, blue guitar
No way out, can only run so far
Lonesome tears, at the bar
One-way street, can only run so far
For the album, Harrison, who also plays guitar and sings harmony on “Run So Far,” also offered Clapton two more songs for Journeyman, including “Cheer Down,” which he co-wrote with Tom Petty and later appeared on the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), and “That Kind Of Woman,” first recorded by Gary Moore and later covered by Clapton in 1990.
Once released, Journeyman was a comeback for Clapton, hitting the Top 20 (at No. 16) and winning a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the single “Bad Love.”
Harrison’s version of “Run So Far” was later released on his twelfth, posthumous album, Brainwashed, in 2002. It was co-produced with his son Dhani and Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne, who also plays guitar and bass and sings on the track.
Photo: Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images