Derek & The Dominos

Career Killers: “St. Anger” by Metallica

It’s been said that great art comes out of great suffering or adversity. Eric Clapton produced his masterpiece, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs while nursing a crippling heroin addiction and hopelessly in love with his best friend’s wife. Francis Ford Coppola had a nervous breakdown and allegedly threatened to kill himself multiple times while filming his classic film, Apocalypse Now. Ludwig van Beethoven composed some of his best and most-admired works after going deaf and while suffering from terrible health problems. Vincent van Gogh was, perhaps, the archetype of the tortured artist, battling mental illness for most of his career (including the infamous episode where he cut off his own ear) and produced some of the most beloved paintings in history.

Of course, sometimes, great suffering or adversity ends up producing crap – crap so bad that the artist is never quite the same afterwards. Case in point: St. Anger by Metallica.

(more…)

Presence of the Lords – A Concert Review of Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood at MSG

Concert Review:

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood

February 25, 2008

Madison Square Garden

The knock on Eric Clapton is that he plays to the level of the musicians around him. His best days were in bands, surrounded by the likes of John Mayall and John McVie in the Bluesbreakers, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in Cream, Baker and Steve Winwood in Blind Faith, and Duane Allman, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon and Carl Radle in Derek and the Dominos. As a solo artist, his albums and tours often turn into boring, uninspired affairs unless he’s collaborating with a talented musician that can push him, like a Mark Knopfler, a Stevie Ray Vaughan or a B.B. King.

Or a Steve Winwood. The two took part in the aforementioned Blind Faith, a supergroup whose hype far exceeded its actual output. The band, which began when Clapton and Winwood started hanging out after Cream and Traffic, their respective bands, broke up, was never intended to be anything more than an informal side project between two friends. Then Baker showed up and it turned into a “thing,” a “thing” that touched off a bidding war between record companies, a “thing” that caused riots to break out at their shows, and a “thing” that pushed Clapton away, causing said “thing” to die a premature death.

(more…)

Browsing Category

Browsing Category

Career Killers: “St. Anger” by Metallica

Presence of the Lords – A Concert Review of Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood at MSG