The guitarist wrote 'Tears in Heaven' as a tribute to his late son and, via its inclusion on the 1991 soundtrack to Rush, it became a hit single and, later, a centerpiece to the Unplugged set. Also in 1991, Clapton's young son Conor died in a tragic accident. It arrived three years into MTV Unplugged's run - 1989 also being the year Clapton stirred artistically with the assured AOR of Journeyman - and a year after Paul McCartney established the practice of an official album release of an Unplugged session with his own Unplugged (The Official Bootleg). and it went platinum all over the world it also won the Album of the Year Grammy for 1992 - makes it difficult to place Eric Clapton's 1992 MTV Unplugged in context, but it's important to do so.

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of The Paris Review, and the Daily ’s correspondent.Its massive success - it is one of the rare albums to be certified as diamond in the U.S. Then, as Clapton wended his way through the chorus, my mom would say, “The original’s much better.” Some, perhaps, would never even know that this was a man who’d pined for Pattie Boyd and won her from George Harrison who had enlisted the services of Duane Allman for one of the finest slide-guitar solos of all time who had most assuredly not been unplugged. Maybe they knew that within a year most people would recognize this Lite FM version more readily than the original. Maybe they felt, in that moment, that aging wasn’t so ignominious-different, certainly quieter, slower-but rather had a certain style. Perhaps these are even the same savants who had so excited my mom’s admiration only moments before-they’re merely giving a second voice to their joy in sharing an experience with others. Now, it’s more than possible that these whoopers had, in fact, recognized the song before this moment. Later still, just as he hits the chorus, she’d make a prediction: “Here come the real morons.”Īnd, indeed, at the mention of the titular “Layla” there are a few whoops of thrilled approval and very belated recognition. “And nobody’s waiting by your side?” Now, they’re sure-even those who were maybe succumbing to peer pressure in those first few moments can applaud with authority. “What’ll you do when you get lonely,” he sings. The real clapping starts when he goes into the first verse. “How do they know?” my mom would always say with wonder. And literally within one bar-probably two seconds-someone shouts “YEAH!” and there’s a flurry of enthusiastic applause.

“See if you can spot this one,” begins Clapton with lazy impishness, breaking into the now-familiar acoustic riff. Unlike the rest of the world, the crowd captured on tape was presumably hearing this cover for the first time. Recall, to start, that the set was recorded in front of a Brixton audience. And whenever that live cover came on in our car-as it did in the cars of countless boomers across the nation and the world-my mom would go on the same tear. In stores on MTV in the local salon, Visual Difference, where tough young women gave me terrible haircuts between cigarettes. When it came out, I remember hearing it was everywhere. But the relaxed, dad-friendly “unplugged” take made an instant sensation, too: it was an inescapable part of the soundtrack of the early nineties. To this day it’s a Lite FM staple-just try to visit the dentist’s office without hearing it. In 1992, Eric Clapton released an acoustic version of his 1970 Derek and the Dominos classic, “Layla.” Inspired by the Persian epic The Story of Layla and Majnun-and, of course, by Clapton’s personal life-the original was ubiquitous at the height of album rock.

Layla eric clapton unplugged