By Steven Srebrenick -- World News Trust
(Editor's note: Steven Srebrenick is taking aim in this story at rock and roll icon Eric Clapton with what may be entirely baseless accusations. You decide. Srebrenick's opinions are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of World News Trust or anyone else.)
Sept. 19, 2006 -- It's been years since Eric Clapton has enjoyed the fame the public thought he so richly deserved at different time periods. He's went on tour and touted it is to be his "Last Concert Tour." It very well may turn out to be, but this rouge has been worn out by the best. The Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and the countless bands that are now being forced into reuniting when VH-1 tracks them down. The Who just performed last week here in New York City, and Black Sabbath and Def Leppard also did recently...
Oh yes and let's not forget The Ramones. Those guys reunited for their last tour at least four times in their careers before the demise of their lead singer. And strangely, Joey Ramone died without the famous Eric Clapton having anything to do with it. Or did he?
Our subject is Eric Clapton and the trail of bodies in Mr. Clapton's wake. Several times during the late 20th century, Clapton was present right before the tragic deaths of two of the most famous and great guitar players music lovers have ever known.
The first death of a great musician that died from partying too much with Clapton, was Jimi Hendrix. The night Jimi Hendrix died, he had been partying with Clapton.
Clapton was one of the last people to get drunk with the awesome Hendrix. Though Clapton enjoyed fame in his brief stints with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluebreakers, and Cream, it was only after Hendrix was eliminated from the picture that Clapton could get past the magnitude of recognition Hendrix had in comparison with himself. Since he had been there, he became part of the news story that kept him in the public eye. Granted, while he created some great music after the passing of Hendrix, Clapton didn't have to compete with the innovation, fame, greatness, and attention Hendrix was easily gleaning from the same public Clapton had been trying to seduce, but not able to do to the extent of Hendrix with Hendrix in the picture. With Hendrix gone, there was no other solo guitarist that could be recognized with the kind of fame Hendrix had been able to gather.
Sure, anyone can say Robin Trower, but ya know, he was always second-rate in comparison, and was also in the shadow of Hendrix, even publicly called by the media, 'the white Jimi Hendrix.' When Hendrix died, Trower was, basically, a novelty and a sad reminder that the great Jimi -- the left-handed African-American, break-through pioneer of rock and roll, acid rock, or whatever you want to call it -- had died.
As everyone knows, Clapton was never charged with even having anything to do with the death of Hendrix, but the fact remains, he was coincidentally there. Yes, there are "simple" coincidences, some people believe, and there are other people who don't believe that "simple" coincidences occur. This writer looks at the questionable death of Jimi Hendrix and thinks that maybe there was too much partying going on.
But then it happened again. Another great guitarist died when good 'ol Eric was hanging around.
The death of Stevie Ray Vaughn was a terrible loss to humanity and the world of music. But in the case of his death, Clapton was able to, literally, kill two birds with one stone. The second bird was Clapton's manager, whose name escapes me right now, but he also died in the same incident with Stevie Ray Vaughn. The incident I speak of was when Clapton, out of the "kindness of his heart,' or what ever the hell his reason was, "coincidentally" gave up his seat on a particular helicopter that crashed and killed Vaughn and Clapton's manager in what was called "a tragic accident." Accident? Hmmm, I just don't know.
Once again Clapton's name and fame skyrocketed as his main competition in music was now released from the fleshy vessel that we call life. Why and how would there even be a connection or possibility of this being true? Well, I'll tell ya -- the guitar-playing brother of Stevie Ray Vaughn is Jimmy Vaughn. According to everyone before and after the death of Stevie, it was well-documented that Jimmy was and is, in fact, a better guitar player than the late great Stevie Ray ever was.
Yet, it was all about Clapton when Stevie Ray died. Did the music world and Stevie Ray fans look for even a brief moment to the better guitar-playing Jimmy Vaughn after his brother died? Barely. An album that Jimmy and Stevie had recorded before he died, that had been shelved, was released and distributed by Stevie's old record label. Heck, I thought of it being less-than-great. It got critical acclaim, but was not well-received by the public at-large, nor the radio stations that force-fed us Clapton's stupid-assed song "Cocaine" like it was oxygen and we were all dying because we can't breathe.
Songs like "White Room," "Cocaine," and "Crossroads" have been worn out like they were the only songs ever recorded, yet nothing of the great Jimmy Ray Vaughn, and scant few of even Stevie's catalog of songs, are recognized with the same repeated play as the songs Clapton recorded. Granted, "Layla" is one of the greatest rock 'n roll songs ever recorded, but even that song is a testimony to the lack of moral fiber and correctness of what is right and wrong that Clapton seems to exude.
For those of you unaware, "Layla" is a song about the former wife of the late George Harrison, who was Eric Clapton's friend. Some friend. Eric was tossing her the sausage while she was still married to George, and Gerogie boy did not know that Clapton and his wife were getting it on, or that Clapton, the friend, had, in fact, fallen in love with his "best friend's" wife!
We all make mistakes, and anyone could accidentally fall into the genitalia of a friend's spouse without even knowing that it happened, right? Don't even contemplate that, because we all know that happens when two people consent -- not by accident. Clapton, therefore, was, behind his pal's back, taking advantage of what George had considered the trust of a friend. That is who Eric Clapton is, and part of the reason why it can be reasoned that he had a hand in the death of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. If he'd lie to his best pal about pounding his wife, why wouldn't he lie about his own involvement in the deaths of the two people who were standing in the way of his getting the fame that he so wanted and could not get with those two musicians in his way. It was an endless replay of both Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn's music for months after Stevie Ray died.
The hardest death that Clapton had a hand in was the sad and unfortunate death Clapton's completely innocent son in another "tragic accident." For anyone needing a memory refresher, Clapton's son died when he fell out of a window in Eric's high-rise apartment when Eric's babysitter allowed the child access to a weak window screen or an open window. It can only be called neglect by Clapton to have no safety for a small child in his expensive apartment in New York City.
Sadly, it was the the death and unfortunate loss of Clapton's toddler son that brought Clapton back into the public spotlight. His song, "Tears In Heaven," about the death of his boy became so famous that it won a Grammy award as "song of the year." He actually profited more from the death of his own child than he had ever previously been able to do.
With a track record like Clapton's, it is a wonder that more bodies don't come washing ashore on a daily basis. Because of the bizarre and unlikely accidents surrounding the actual causes of death of the people aforementioned, Clapton is lucky authorities haven't linked these occurrences for a more thorough investigation. Now that it has been 15 years since the death of Clapton's son, 19 since the death of Vaughn, and 34 since the death of Hendrix, it is unlikely that Clapton will be investigated further in these matters. But who will be next? Maybe he'll come after me for writing this… Maybe he is a British secret agent with a license to kill -- Eric Clapton, MI-5 agent, or maybe he's a double-O agent like James Bond, and Hendrix and Vaughn were secretly agents against the British Empire…
But are there more skeleton's like these in Clapton's closet? I don't know. If there are, maybe someone else should speak up regarding these issues. The fact, through it all, remains that the dubious Mr. Clapton is still at-large and free of the persecution that other people who have a hand in the death of others get. We can only speculate what Jimi Hendrix would have done had he been able to live beyond the icy touch of Eric the Reaper. And the same goes for Stevie Ray Vaughn and his own son.
The loss of these people is still remembered by me, and I stand tall in my call to others to cry out against these atrocities and boycott Clapton on a grand scale. The loss of Hendrix and Vaughn still reverberates throughout our culture, and he who had a hand in their deaths makes more money in one year than most of us may ever earn in our entire lifetimes. He is one musician who needs to be forgotten, and by doing so, it may allow the repeated playing of other musicians who did not have to have a hand in the death of others to be famous. That goes for all the other killers, like many rappers, who have been propelled to stardom even though they are known to have murdered others in their quest for fame.
I say all of this most regrettably because my favorite rock song is Layla...
And no, there is no evidence that Clapton had anything to do with the death of Joey Ramone... yet.
(The opinions of Steve Srebrenick are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of World News Trust, or anyone else.)
