Clapton, Eric: The 1970s Review (DVD)

Here's an informative documentary on the career of legendary British guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, which takes an in-depth look at his career post-Cream and throughout the '70s. Though the story does pick up during his massive success with heavy blues rock super group Cream, and only briefly talks about his next venture in another short lived all-star collaboration, Blind Faith, the film makers really kick this off as Clapton begins his association with Delaney & Bonnie. At this point in time, the guitarist seemed to have gotten burnt out being the 'guitar god' and wanted to just be part of a band again, not necessarily in the limelight. This eventually led to him putting together Derek and the Dominos, which though the band eventually became very successful, in its initial run they had a hard time getting the public to notice before the band blew up due to massive drug & alcohol problems. The rest they say is history, as Clapton fell madly in love with George Harrison's wife Patti (whom much of Layla and other Love Songs was written about) and fell into a massive heroin addiction for a few years when the sad truth that they couldn't be together really hit him. When Clapton finally got himself out of his heroin haze a few years later, the guitarist had to reinvent himself somewhat, and released a string of successful solo albums throughout the rest of the decade that moved him further away from his guitar god status, and saw him become more of a songwriter-vocalist. The documentary features interviews with many of his band members throughout these years, as well as some footage with the man himself and noted journalists, and there are a lot of live concert snippets thrown in along the way. Basically, the film takes you all the way to the end of the decade where Clapton's drinking was starting to take on a life of its own, and he was again on the cusp of having to re-invent himself yet again, which would happen in the early '80s, but that's a story for another day, and another DVD.

Added: May 6th 2014
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: MVD Visual
Hits: 1623
Language: english

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