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I didn't know Eric Clapton was an anti-lockdown, racist dude

Did you already know about Clapton's racist past?

  • Yes

    Votes: 371 35.4%

  • No

    Votes: 529 50.5%

  • I never knew it was this bad

    Votes: 147 14.0%
  • Total voters
    1,047
riverfr0zen

riverfr0zen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,165
Manhattan, New York
So Variety posted this tweet about Clapton playing on single in support of an anti-lockdown movement.




Cor, I thought to myself, guess another artist lost to 2020's madness. Then, as I go through the thread, I start reading more bad things about Clapton that somehow I never knew. Admittedly, I've never really researched him, and maybe the most I knew was regarding the sad story behind Tears in Heaven. But:






I'm just curious how many people were in the same boat as I was, not knowing the extent of his vile-ness.
 
Nigel Tufnel

Nigel Tufnel

Member
Mar 5, 2019
3,151
User Banned (3 days): inappropriate joke
Would think he would have learned the value of a good lock by now.
 
Rag

Rag

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,874
He's a total piece of shit. Maybe it's callous of me, but I've always thought it was extra shitty that he needed someone else to help him write his tear jerker song about his dead kid.
 

Deleted member 4346

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,976
I learned about the racist rant earlier this year. It's not even a little racist, it's just plain hanging out there.
 
Rats

Rats

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,112
Ugh. I had no idea. I'm not a huge fan or anything but I enjoy a lot of the music he's been involved with.
 
uzipukki

uzipukki

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,722
I had no idea he was such a jackass. Fuck his ass.
 
PJV3

PJV3

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,676
London
I knew about the racist rant but i thought he sorted himself out on that score, the lockdown is sadly creating a long list of idiots from the UK music scene.
 
Doggg

Doggg

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Nov 17, 2017
14,462
Eric Clapton? More like

cdcover.jpg
 

Deleted member 55807

Banned
Apr 9, 2019
631
Yeah, I knew. It's extra weird because he's a blues guitarist and thus has made his fortune using African American musical heritage. I wonder what kind of mental gymnastics go on inside his head...
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,771
Here's the full quote from Clapton. I didn't know about it until he had a duet with Babyface back in the mid-90s as a way to make himself seem like he's apologizing for his past. After that, he could fuck off with his mediocre sounding music.

"Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands … So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country … I don't want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white … The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans don't belong here, we don't want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don't want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man … This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck's sake? … Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!"
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Blamed it all on being coked out of his mind and alcohol abuse.
 
Katten

Katten

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,501
Grew up with parents that loved his music, so always had him in that "I don't really listen to him, but respect his talent" place in my head.

Only heard about him being a vile piece of shit a few months ago, and that speech he gave back then was some deep down racist evil shit. To a point where I am sure there must be some "this isn't who I really am" interview somewhere.. There always is with these people.
 
Nigel Tufnel

Nigel Tufnel

Member
Mar 5, 2019
3,151
I have a free trial of satellite radio right now and learned that 1. Ozzy hosts an hour of radio and 2. has a coherent understanding of the pandemic and what reasonable behaviors to protect yourself and others look like.


What a world.
 
GameDev

GameDev

Member
Aug 29, 2018
558
I'm surprised there's people who didn't know he was terrible. I thought it was knowledge as common as the fact that Lennon beat his wife.

If you study music history you'll quickly learn that basically anybody who has every picked a musical instrument and made a decent living from it is probably a terrible human being.
 
Stick

Stick

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,298
this is the kinda shit that will make me quit listening to a person's music. I liked a few of his songs, but they won't be missed.
 

hitmon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,422
Rag said:
He's a total piece of shit. Maybe it's callous of me, but I've always thought it was extra shitty that he needed someone else to help him write his tear jerker song about his dead kid.
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I liked that song and a few others from his past, but I did not know this or about his views in general. This has been enlightening.
 
GeoGonzo

GeoGonzo

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,329
Madrid, Spain
Violence Jack said:
Here's the full quote from Clapton. I didn't know about it until he had a duet with Babyface back in the mid-90s as a way to make himself seem like he's apologizing for his past. After that, he could fuck off with his mediocre sounding music.



Blamed it all on being coked out of his mind and alcohol abuse.
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What the absolute fuck? I had no idea and I'm dismayed anyone would have a career after that.
 
game-biz

game-biz

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,715
Good lord at that rant...Jesus Christ. I expected it to be bad, but wow. Literally made me nauseous reading that.
 
Spacejaws

Spacejaws

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,816
Scotland
Wow. I actually enjoy the BB King and Eric Clapton ablum, Riding with the King, but learning this...I don't think I can ever listen to it again without thinking about what a racist fuck he is.
 
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Nerdkiller

Nerdkiller

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,127
Sandwiched between Engerlund and Yankland
Patrick Bateman said:
Clapton is an idiot.

They had a whole movement against him:

en.m.wikipedia.org

Rock Against Racism - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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Clapton told the crowd that England had "become overcrowded" and that they should vote for Powell to stop Britain from becoming "a black colony". He also told the audience that Britain should "get the foreigners out, get the wogs out, get the coons out", and then he repeatedly shouted the National Front slogan "Keep Britain White".
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EURGH! I guess the third option for me.
 
Bedlam

Bedlam

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,536
f4u1dfb6 said:
I have a free trial of satellite radio right now and learned that 1. Ozzy hosts an hour of radio and 2. has a coherent understanding of the pandemic and what reasonable behaviors to protect yourself and others look like.


What a world.
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Thanks for sharing. Knowing that makes me happy even after learning just now how much of a racist PoS Clapton is (I heard "stuff" before but didn't know the extent).

Also, on a further positive note: now I will never have to think about and remind myself who the shitty one is: Van Morrison or Morrissey. It's both.
 
Wackamole

Wackamole

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,936
Holy shit. Is that quote real? fucking hell. I was never a fan of his music or style of guitar playing but i always assumed he was a pretty nice guy. 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
OP
OP
riverfr0zen

riverfr0zen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,165
Manhattan, New York
GameDev said:
I'm surprised there's people who didn't know he was terrible. I thought it was knowledge as common as the fact that Lennon beat his wife.

If you study music history you'll quickly learn that basically anybody who has every picked a musical instrument and made a decent living from it is probably a terrible human being.
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I didn't know, but when I found out I thought that it was probably as you say, and somehow I had been living in a total hole all this time. That's why I put this up, cos I was curious. But looking at this poll, I'm pretty surprised too (that it seems about half of people didn't know).

Stick said:
this is the kinda shit that will make me quit listening to a person's music. I liked a few of his songs, but they won't be missed.
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Exactly.
 
Extra Sauce

Extra Sauce

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,917
how did I not know this until now?

Eric Clapton was a huge part of my childhood, heard his music a lot in the house growing up and to this day I still occasionally listen to his stuff as the ultimate "comfort food" music.

I know he was a full-on heroin junkie who also downed bottles of whiskey before going on stage during those years so part of me wants to believe he also left behind his bigotry when he got clean but I realize that is a huge stretch...

so I just looked it up midway through this post and yeah, he does blame drugs for the outburst and has apparently apologized many times since then. I don't think that makes it okay but man... it's just so bizarre all-around, considering he has hung out with, dated, and been heavily influenced by POC throughout his life.

edit: just read about the anti-lockdown stuff... him and Van Morrison makes it sound like they just want struggling musicians to be able to make a living again doing live shows but it reeks of hypocrisy seeing as they are both incredibly rich men who stand to profit from the return of live shows (so is it really about struggling musicians or just maintaining your own lifestyle?), and they make zero mention of the massive death toll of the virus, and how much worse it would get without lockdown rules.
 
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