For those of a certain age, it’s a bit of a “back to the future” moment – or perhaps a “there’s nothing new under the sun” moment.
Eric Clapton really is kind of morally erratic.
If you’re of that certain age, you may remember the controversy about Clapton either “being way ahead of the curve on immigration” or “being a corrosive racist”, depending on your ponit of view, in the seventies, as he approached bottoming out on booze, coke and heroin. It led to him, with a nod to Laura Ingraham, “shutting up and singing” for most of the last five decades or so.
Oh, he had his moment of grace during Covid…
…until his anti-lockdown and COVID vaccine statements and his singing on a Van Morrison-penned song, “Stand and Deliver.”
These gestures infuriated many on the left, and in 2021, flamewars raged in guitar forums over Clapton’s statement, and of course, the Enoch Powell rant resurfaced from those who were pro-lockdown, given its being reprinted in numerous American newspaper columns about Clapton, and from those wishing to cancel him on social media.
But it seems that Clapton, now 78, is in the “I’ll say what I want and I don’t care” phase of life:
But now Clapton has outdone himself when it comes to displaying his own antisemitism, moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy. In an interview with The Real Music Observer YouTube channel, he criticizes the Senate hearings into antisemitism on US college campuses, while stating that Israel is running the world (a clear antisemitic trope). At the same time, he fawns over Putin, Russia, and China – who he claims are all unfairly demonized – while expressing the desire to play there with his “brother” Roger Waters:
I’ve always observed the adage “love the art, ignore the artist”. It really doesn’t matter whether I agree with the artist (or can find reasons that the artist agrees with me whether they like it or not) or don’t.
And I’ll keep doing that.
Sorry, Eric. Shut up and play the guitar:
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