Eric Clapton
August

The private life of Eric Clapton, in terms of popularity, has always traveled on the same path as his artistic life, becoming an inevitable consequence of it. From the (im)possible infatuation with Pattie Boyd (the wife of George Harrison) to the excesses with smoke, alcohol, and cocaine, a life forever on a thin line of balance where courage and the desire to win contrasted with fragility and insecurity.

In the mid-1980s (even though we were still in the presence of the alcohol-drug combination), Clapton laid the foundations for a revival, which would find completeness in the following decade. In 1984, with the departure of Roger Waters from the Pink Floyd, Clapton lent his hands to the service of his colleague on the decent "The Pros and the Cons of the Hitch Hiking", for which he would also perform some live dates. In May 1985, he would suspend his TV appearance on The Late Night with Dave Letterman, during which he unexpectedly presented the famous "White Room", which he had not performed for about 30 years. With his presence at what will be remembered as the media event of the decade, Live Aid, the guitarist from Surrey, along with his band and the versatile Phil Collins, delivered a nearly 18-minute performance in which he also played "She's Waiting" taken precisely from the previous "Behind The Sun", of which the Genesis drummer was co-producer alongside Ted Templeman (Van Halen, Montrose, and The Doobie Brothers above all) and Lenny Waronker (The Doobie Brothers and Paul Simon, among others.

"August" (the tenth personal seal regarding his solo career) continues along that line of adaptation to a certain musical modernity started with his previous work, leaving it to Collins (also present in the control room) to strike the skins, highlighting a Clapton with a broad spectrum, capable of expressing himself naturally through perhaps easily accessible tracks ("Run" and "Behind The Mask"), but also others where feeling and intensity try to prevail ("Walk Away" and "Bad Influence"). And even though synthesizers are gaining ground without being inappropriately intrusive ("Hold On" and "Grand Illusion"), some songs also live off the reflected glory of the past, through infallible (but how unexpected?) brushstrokes capable of giving vibrancy to the colors of a sublime canvas, weaving mostly outrageously radio-friendly songs ("Take A Chance" or "Miss You"), providing an intuitive yet exquisite rhythmic taste ("Hung Up On Your Love" and "Tearing Us Apart" with Tina Turner).

The album dedicated to his unfortunate son Connor (born precisely on August 21, 1986, and who passed away at the age of 5 after falling from the 49th floor of a skyscraper...) is a mournful work in which the innovative musician admired alongside Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker certainly does not take precedence, but rather a Clapton more intent on showing the softer side of his music through which he expresses a highly personal way of making blues and rhythm and blues coexist (with less naturalness, allow me...) even playing the significant guest card (Gary Brooker of Procol Harum and the lioness of rock above all). Let's be clear, we are in front of an album that sees the consolidation of a pop vein capable of artfully marrying a contemporary sound, but letting an artist who is tired come through, disappointing those lovers of that musical revolution of which he was a creator, and who were hoping to rediscover that magic that had started to hover again with "Money And Cigarettes" just a few years earlier.