Yardbirds drummer explains why Eric Clapton was difficult to be in a band with: “He took the blues up as his personal crusade”
Drummers often hold the band together. And this can mean getting a good read on the personalities of other members of the band, and situations where clashes may arise.
In The Yardbirds this was Jim McCarty’s job, and observing from behind the drum kit gave him a stark perspective of the dynamic between Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.
READ MORE: Is a Back to the Future Marty McFly signature ES-345 about to become a reality?
In a new interview with Guitar Player, McCarty reveals that working with these musical giants in their formative years was not always easy: “Going back to the time, they were all learning how to do it… We were all trying to play and having good fun playing that sort of music. And they were all very different. Very.”
Clapton was, as McCarty recalls, “a very moody sort of guy”. He explains: “We’d be travelling in a transit van, going to the shows, and he would sit in the corner and not talk to anybody.”
As McCarty explains, tensions arose over the band’s desperation to have a hit, versus Eric’s zealousness for the blues: “He’d be in a little world of his own, obviously quite unhappy with the way it was going.”
“Eric was coming from a difficult upbringing, because he wasn’t really brought up by his parents,” McCarty says. “He was brought up by his grandmother, who he thought was his mother. We met her, and she was a lovely woman, very chatty and very friendly. But that gave him a challenged outlook on things, and I think he took the blues up as his personal crusade.
“He was totally dedicated to the blues, and also seemingly very ambitious… Eric was obviously gonna go somewhere. You knew that yes, one day he’ll be a big star, ’cause he was driven to do that, and he was getting a reputation while he was playing with us. He used to copy blues solos – Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy or Buddy Guy or somebody – and copy them note for note before he got his own thing going.”
Clapton ultimately left the Yardbirds shortly after the release of For Your Love in 1965. In his own words, Clapton said he left the Yardbirds for John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers because of their “earthier” blues sound, stating that he continued to play guitar in the same way but that the two bands’ interpretations of his music meant it came across differently.
The post Yardbirds drummer explains why Eric Clapton was difficult to be in a band with: “He took the blues up as his personal crusade” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
