Clapton, Boyd Provide Pop Life Insights
Stephen King, whose novels often have rock music at their core, is the perfect choice to review Clapton: The Autobiography for the New York Times. Not only is he a rabid fan of the genre in general and of Eric Clapton in particular, but his history as a recovering alcoholic parallels Clapton’s. He calls the book a “drunkalogue”, parroting the Alcoholics Anonymous catchphrase, and says while Clapton does a workmanlike job of presenting the facts in “dry, flat-stare honesty,” he seldom offers “any real insight into the music he’s spent his life playing.”
There are exceptions:
“Then,” King writes, “there’s the story of one of the most notorious rock acts ever to play the storied Albert Hall in London — the Mothers of Invention. Clapton writes, ‘Frank Zappa’s keyboard player, Don Preston, known as “Mother Don,” broke into the hall’s organ keyboard, which was locked behind two glass doors, and played a raucous version of “Louie Louie” that brought the house down.’”
King says he could have used a few more of those sorts of anecdotes. I’d be willing to bet most readers of Clapton’s memoir will echo his sentiments.
On the flip side, Patty Boyd’s autobiography, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, gets raves from reviewer Stephanie Zacharek, who calls it a “charming, lively and seductive book” — no doubt a good deal like its author. Ms. Boyd’s muse inspired Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” and Harrison’s “Something”, a song Frank Sinatra called the best love song ever written. Ms. Zacharek writes perceptively:
Would “Layla” or “Something” have been written if Boyd had never existed? Harrison and Clapton would have achieved greatness without her; they’d have hung their dreams on some other girl. But that doesn’t negate Boyd’s story, which is largely about the transformative powers of rock ’n’ roll.
It sounds to me as though, taken in tandem, the two memoirs might offer a view of pop stardom rarely seen outside the inner circle.
(The first chapter of Clapton: The Autobiography is available online at the New York Times.)
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