His soulful reading of the lyrics makes the most of lines as defeated as, “Some of this generation is millionaires and I can’t even keep decent clothes to wear.” But his guitar does all the heavy crying. The most Claptonesque track on “No Reason to Cry,” an album he recorded with the members of the Band, Bob Dylan and Ron Wood, this smoldering blues is an Otis Rush song and Clapton clearly knows his way around this territory. The wah-guitar intro is classic, it ends in a dueling guitar lead and that horn part is a nice touch. “Bad Boy”Ĭlapton’s vocal here is self-assured enough to put across the line, “I’ll be your box of matches, baby, when you need a light” and make it sound like poetry. It starts with Derek and the Dominos because the songs on “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” are more of a piece with his solo career than his previous work. Here’s a look at the best of the songs that even now continue to define his legacy. And Clapton definitely lived up to the billing as the former Yardbird who’d already cycled through John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, moved from Cream to Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and Derek and the Dominos before launching a solo career in 1970 with a self-titled gem of an album. By 1967, Eric Clapton’s reputation as one of the hottest young guitarists on the British blues scene was such that when somebody spray-painted “Clapton is God” on the Islington Underground station, it stuck.

The best eric clapton songs