Eric Clapton gets candid with music producer Glyn Johns on their new album I Still Do, George Harrison and much more
Well it’s very nice to be here with you two music greats. Tell us something about how you two started and when did you first work together.
Glyn: I started as an engineer, which I only did because I was a failed artist. I wanted to be a singer. I formed a skilful little rock ‘n’ roll band and went on from there.We eventually got a record deal after I became an engineer. One thing led to another and I ended up a producer, but the whole reason was because I was a failed artist. It’s much easier to help someone else who’s really talented to do what they're doing than do it yourself.
Eric: The first time Glyn and I worked together was when Pete Townsend tried to rescue me from my own self-destruction and put together this gig at The Rainbow.
When was this, 1970IJ
Eric: Yeah, ‘71 or something. I had no real inclination to do it. I just thought “I’ll go along with this”. I was even late on the night of the show. I don't remember how I got there. They recorded the show to sell as a product: “live at the Rainbow”, and at some point during the process, Glyn was asked to mix it and I was supposed to be there to give him a little bit of feedback, but I didn’t show. That was his first experience of me, I think, wasn’t itIJOr was it worse than thatIJ
Glyn: It was. I went to all the rehearsals. Pete asked me to get involved from the very beginning, so I went to all the rehearsals and helped with putting the material together but Eric was never apparent.
Eric: In a way this is how we came about.
So the album I Still Do — it’s hard-core blues with quite a dirty guitar sound. It’s quite loose and a bit swampy here and there. How much of that is you, Glyn, and how much are the musiciansIJ
Glyn: It’s clearly all the musicians that are playing it. It’s his guitar sound, all I did was record it. The main difference was the process that we used, which was to do everything live. It enables you to capture the live sound.
Eric:You really want to get a live performance: that’s my cup of tea, it really is. I like to sing on just the one mic, and have everyone record on that one mic. You record drums, guitars, and vocals all on tape and mix it after. In terms of my favourite track on the album, the first one that comes to mind is Cyprus Grove, because it's the deepest part of what I do. I go straight there, and I understand that.
Well there’s a very late night feel in I’ll be Seeing You; everything’s shut down, you’re having the last few. Who are you thinking of when you’re singing itIJ
Eric:Everybody really. When we did the goodbye concert for George Harrison, Joe Brown came out and did I’ll See You in my Dreams and I thought, “That’s it”. When you’re waving your goodbye to somebody, they never really go anywhere.
Glyn, what’s your favourite track on the albumIJ
Glyn: Catch the Blues probably because it’s so totally and completely different. I absolutely love it; it’s just floating around. The rhythm section is astonishing, and I love the slide guitar playing. I think it’s extraordinary. And the vocal’s not bad, either.
Tell us something about I Will Be There.
Eric: We really intended I Will Be There as a tribute to Paul Brady, because he’d just been given a lifetime achievement award. We used this guy called Angelo Mysterioso for some of the instrumentals. Apparently a lot of people think that it’s George Harrison. Isn’t that fantasticIJ In the old days it would have been George. Well I love that track, and I still think Cyprus Grove is my favourite, but I like it all. I think it’s a good album. It's rough and ready.
Are there any songs you want to talk aboutIJ
Eric: Spiral. I remember I had this riff. Glynn came over to the house and I was playing around with it but we never really finished it. It was one of those things where we put it on the floor in the studio and it still wasn’t a song. We ended up trying to make it better by writing a bit more but it didn't work. Then Glyn got it and saw it, and I followed him. It was born there on the spot and recorded live.
Glyn: It was an extraordinary moment, without question. I always loved the chord sequence you had, and I kept going on “You’ve got to finish it, you’ve got to, because it’s going be great.” I suggested doing it that afternoon then he said I said “Well come on, let’s just get on with it a bit, let’s see what happens”. He stood there and played and sang what came into his mind as he was doing it, and I recorded it. It’s completely organic.
Eric: Can’t let You Do It kind of came out of the The Breeze, the album I did in tribute to JJ Cale. When I met up with his wife, Christine, I asked if there was any anything of his lying about that I could work with or finish. She gave me two CDs of unreleased material, which is all fantastic. This track was on it, and I liked it because it’s really a blank canvas; it’s very simple, it’s straightforward and hooky. So we covered it.
Glyn: The thing about Eric’s guitar has always been that, he’s not the type of player that sits and works things out. It comes literally as an emotive response, and so his playing goes straight from his heart to his fingers. It doesn't go via his brain.I know lots of guitar players who are brilliant who are the complete reverse of that, George Harrison being one. George worked everything out to the most intimate degree, but with Eric you could do three takes of one thing and they would all be completely different and that would just be his emotive response to what he was doing.