Eric Clapton, widely regarded as one of the most important guitarists of all time, had a lasting impact on the face of rock and blues rock music while performing with groups such as The Yardbirds and Cream. However, his artistic output has been of diminishing returns over the years. While he is still busy, he has never been able to recapture the magic of those early records with Cream and others. Even Clapton confesses that one of his tracks is “a spoof” of a tune.
Eric Clapton hopped around a few other ensembles after the dissolution of psychedelic rock pioneers Cream in 1968. These included Blind Faith and a brief run with John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. Then, in 1970, Clapton issued his debut solo record, the first of 21 solo studio albums he would release throughout his career. The most recent addition to Clapton’s repertoire was the surprising 2018 Christmas album Happy Xmas. It debuted at 97th on the UK album charts.
Much of Clapton’s early solo career was marred by heroin use and drunkenness. These issues had a detrimental impact on both his musical output and demeanor. Despite these failures, the guitarist and songwriter managed to keep releasing solo albums every few years. All of these albums were commercially successful. In truth, Clapton is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with over 250 million recordings sold worldwide. This does not even account for the immense success of his early bands, The Yardbirds and Cream.
Clapton’s undisputed solo success has not kept him from having a few misses. This is to be anticipated with almost 20 albums under your belt. Pilgrim, released in 1996, was one of the guitarist’s best-selling records, tracking the top ten in the UK and the US. However, the record’s content is notably lackluster. The blues rock influence associated with Clapton is merged into a middle-of-the-road pop sound. This fusion is most ludicrous on ‘Sick and Tired‘.
The album’s tenth track, “Sick and Tired,” sounds almost exactly like a cringe-worthy blues rock impersonator. Simon Climie, Clapton’s main collaborator on Pilgrim, likely influenced the song’s style as a co-writer. Reports indicate that the song intends to be a spoof, employing the iconic blues theme of heartbreak. Hilariously, it substitutes a parrot for a woman in its narrative.
“I told Simon to program a shuffle and exaggerate the backbeat so it would sound like a Texas-style groove,” Clapton once stated in an interview with Guitar World Magazine. “The riff came first and I just thought of the Vaughan brothers.” I started making up ridiculous lyrics on the go and decided it would be a good idea to turn it into a song. It’s a spoof.
They’re not laugh-a-minute satire tunes; they feel more like a generic, somewhat drab 1990s pop-rock track by an aging rock star. Nonetheless, the album remains popular with die-hard Clapton fans, and Pilgrim is one of the guitarist’s most successful records.
