Review: Clapton: Inexplicable
OKC crowd doesn't appreciate Eric Clapton's timeless performance
By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
3/7/2007
I never thought I'd hear Eric Clapton get booed, but Oklahoma City booed him Monday night following his sold-out show at the Ford Center.
The boos rang out when Clapton, who performed many of his hits from the Derek & the Dominos era, left the stage after performing "Cocaine" and a four-guitar jam of the blues classic "Crossroads." The boos came despite Clapton's nearly two-hour concert and a soaring version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing."
The boos followed a series of blistering guitar solos from Robert Cray, Derek Trucks and Clapton, and some pedestrian plucking from Doyle Bramhall II. The night was over with a bow and a quick exit stage left.
Who boos Eric Clapton, honestly? It was an odd end to an alternately awing and sleepy night that kicked off with Robert Cray and his stripped-down, four-man blues band mixed with soul style. Cray did not disappoint with his slick blues voice soaring over his guitar, eyes squinting shut as he soloed with his band behind him, especially on his Iraq War-inspired song "20."
Clapton, clad in a black shirt and pants and with a little bit of a double chin, took the stage flanked by two large projection screens hanging from the ceiling, and launched into the song, "Tell the Truth."
Rows of neon lights flanked the band, backed by a gray curtain as Clapton traded bluesy licks with Bramhall and Trucks.
Also trading solos were the bassist, Willie Meeks, and two keyboardists who added a gospel soul to the night.
But the highlight of the night was a transcendent, tear-jerking and soulful performance of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing."
Just as with Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," if you've spent more than three afternoons in a guitar store, you've surely heard some hack plucking out "Little Wing" on a Fender Stratocaster, maybe followed with a little "Bold as Love."
But I've never heard it the way Clapton played it Monday. Backed by two big-voiced gospel-style singers, Clapton coaxed Hendrix's sweet melody out of the song with his own spin that elaborated on the song's ethereal beauty.
Also wowing was the performance of the full and electric version of "Layla," at which the lights cut out near the end, coming up on the piano player as he caressed out the melody of the song's sweeping and jarringly distinct closing, so famously different from the song's first half.
The crowd, mostly comprised of baby boomers who were rowdy kids when Clapton made his name, spent much of the concert in their seats. But one couple danced in the aisle during the sweet and soft "Wonderful Tonight."
While he sang, "and then she asks me, 'Do I look all right?' And I say, 'Yes, you look wonderful tonight,' " a woman with blond hair leaned her head close to that of a graying, mustachioed man as they swayed to the music.
Others stared transfixed at the man who wrote the music that was a soundtrack for their lives.
Midway through the show, his band left the stage and Clapton sat down on a stool with his acoustic guitar across his lap for an intimate cover of the folk-blues number "Driftin' Blues" about a man set adrift because of a woman's meddling.
And the night ebbed and flowed between the softer songs and such rocking numbers as "Further on Up the Road."
But it wasn't all roses. The Ford Center swam with a myriad of solos from Trucks, Bramhall and Clapton, which worked, so long as Bramhall didn't play.
Bramhall, the son of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan's drummer Doyle Bramhall Sr., played as if he were lost, sick, sleepy or high.
But Trucks' slide guitar made notes that seemed almost to speak and Clapton was what you'd expect: Quiet, except for when he soloed, and unable to be ignored when the hot lights fell on him.
It might be expected that Clapton would give some acknowledgement of Oklahoma's role in his own music. Tulsa and Clapton were linked in the 1970s, when several area musicians landed gigs touring with the guitarist as his backing band, including the late bassist Carl Radle and guitarist J.J. Cale, who penned the song "Cocaine."
If Tulsans were looking for an acknowledgement from Clapton of that role, here's what they got:
"I'd like to say hello to Andrew Oldaker out there," he said in a break midway through the show, in one of the few moments when he spoke to the audience. "I saw your dad (Tulsa Sound drummer Jamie Oldaker) the other night. It's nice to be back."
But booing when he left the stage for the night? It was a shocking show of a lack of class. Maybe he didn't play the songs the crowd wanted -- but booing?
Oklahoma City has to be one of the only places where a guy can play nearly two hours with some of the biggest names in music, artfully perform timeless songs that stretch across two generations of fans, and still get booed.
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Matt Elliott 581-8366
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