Big Paulie

This is from Dave Moulton's blog, dated 08/06/07

https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/


Once a Cyclist....

"Once a cyclist, always a cyclist.

At heart anyway if not by active participation.

Eric Clapton, in his youth, rode a bike as well as played guitar; he even raced a little and rode a few time-trials.

The guitar became his number one passion and won out over the bicycle, but the bicycle keeps popping up now and then throughout his life and career. In his early days with Cream he made an album called Disraeli Gears.

The story goes that one day in the recording studio Eric was telling the other band members about his bike racing and his road bike. One of them asked, “Did it have those Disraeli gears?”

This was quite funny because what he really meant was derailleur gears. Benjamin Disraeli was a British prime minister in the 1800s during Queen Victoria’s reign. This is how, the now famous album, got its name.

I recently discovered Eric Clapton has a personal blog. He doesn’t write much, mostly posts pictures of his travels, and of objects that interest him.

Recently he posted a picture of a Unicanitor bicycle saddle along with pictures of some cowboy belt buckles. You would be hard pressed to find more dissimilar objects than these and no one but an ex-cyclist would find a bike saddle interesting enough to take a picture.

A search through the archives, unearthed a picture of a Cinelli badge, the kind they used to put on their steel handlebar stems. Also, a fixed gear Cinelli track bike.

I checked back through all the previous posts via the “Back” button to the very first one posted on November 17th, 2006. At the top, he wrote:

“Driven by insatiable passions, governed by the need to be free and independent.......these are some of the things that stop me in my tracks.”

This quote is followed by photos of two different Ferrari cars, and a Dodge Night Runner truck. The fourth picture is of a vintage Cinelli Special Corsa road bike that appears to be in new condition.

Just goes to show how the experience of riding a simple machine like a road bicycle, even briefly in one’s life, can become embedded in a person’s psyche, their subconscious, and it never leaves."

cccorlew

That's a great story of the album title. I'd always wondered about it. It was, I think, my first "cool" record. I played it to death.
I remember reading something 20 or 30 years ago (maybe the rolling stone) about Clapton getting a way cool bike and thinking how much that rocked.

Thanks fo rth post

BluesDawg

Actually, Cream's drummer, Ginger Baker was the bicycle racer. The way I heard the story, Clapton was asking Baker for advice on buying a bike when a roadie made the comment about disraeli gears. But either way, it's a cool story.

Big Paulie

I just knew that, A) Blues Dawg would post, and B) he would somehow blow this story to kingdom-come with his encylopedic knowledge of all things guitar!

But seriously, check out this Clapton concert that apparently got cancelled. It was intended to raise funds for cycling in Russia, or something like that...

https://www.russia-ic.com/culture_art/festivals/219/

Big Paulie

+1

Plus, I had just finished doing a book report on Benjamin Disraeli when that album came out, so I somehow thought I understood the subtext of the title! (As a dillusional 14 year old!!!)

SaiKaiTai

+1, also.

Very enjoyable story.

Jet Travis

Great story. Is it true that Clapton was doping?

cyclezen

I got 'cream'-d back in '66 with Fresh Cream, they had a short romance, but I've been that state ever since

I did not know this
this is so kool

thanks

tlc20010

Now reasonably OT: From Allan Sherman to the tune of "Won't you come home Bill Baily"

When Benjamin Disraeli was Prime Minister of England,
And good old Queen Victoria was the Queen,
Whenever she would need him for official palace business,
Disraeli, he was nowhere to be seen.

She went down to 10 Downing Street,
The doorbell there she rang,
And when there was no answer,
This is what the good Queen sang:

Won't you come home, Disraeli. Won't you come home.
Come home to Queen Victoria.
Don't leave that House of Commons, and that House of Lords.
Just sittin' waitin' for ya.
I'm gettin' awful lonesome, 'cause all I do
Is sit here reading Ethan Frome.
Now don't leave me flat,
The key to the palace is under the mat.
Disraeli, won't you please come home.

Won't you come home, Disraeli. Won't you come home.
Come home to Queen Victoria.
Don't leave that House of Commons, and that House of Lords.
Just sittin' waitin' for ya.
You claim official business took you away
To Egypt, and Bombay, and Rome.
Well, I ain't so certain,
'Cause you're the Nineteenth Century Richard Burton,
Disraeli, won't you please come home.

Disraeli, won't you please (I miss you, Dizzy)
Disraeli, won't you please,
Disraeli, won't you please,
Disraeli, won't you please come home.

Hoz

"Gear" in the 1960s British slang meant "good", or great. So It also had double meaning.

BluesDawg

Just a minor adjustment. And what do I know? I'm just a harmonica player.

Digital Gee

Who's Eric Clapton?

BluesDawg

"Clapton is god" - or so I've heard

JanMM

Read a recent book about the making of the Derek and the Dominoes album (hint: Derek is Eric) and there was much info about his early life - no mention of bicyles. Not an encyclopedic volume, tho.

BluesDawg

Derek was Dwayne (Allman) and Eric.

SaiKaiTai

I'm biting my tongue a bit here but it's "Duane". I idolize the man so I point that out.
And, I do believe, Derek was, in fact, just Eric. I'm not sure I follow "Derek was Duane and Eric" so maybe I'm just being thick

gear

You make me blush.

Wildwood 

His time was before doping controls were prevalent.
"Coming into Los Angelees, carrying a couple of ____, don't check bags if you please Mr. Customs Man."

Wildwood 

IMHO, not quite but almost.
BB is King.
Jimi is dead and gone, but not forgotten.

tcs

Funny Dave Moulton didn't mention Peter Gabriel, who rides a Mouton bike. Well, make that an Alex Moulton bike.

TCS

BluesDawg

You got me on the spelling. That's a bad mistake for a boy who came of age 30 miles from Macon, GA in the 70s. I'm probably wrong about that being the derivation of the name "Derek" too since I think they were already going by that name before Duane Allman joined the band for the recording of the Layla album. It is amazing how many people came to love Clapton's guitar playing from that album when many of the licks they were hearing were actually Duane.

JanMM

Some of the guitar is obviously Eric and some is obviously Duane and some is, well, hard to tell but all very, very nice.

SaiKaiTai

Ohhh... I get it now. D (uane) + Erek (sic). Wow, I completely missed that. I wonder?
I do know that the recording of the album was already in progress before Eric & the boys went to see the ABB where they were invited back for a jam and then Duane asked (or was asked) to help out with the rest of the recording. IIRC, the tracks on the album are in the order recorded which is why Duane isn't on the first 3 songs. Eric asked him to join the Dominos. Duane respectfullt declined. Family loyalties and all.

The discussion over who plays what continues to this day (beginning with its first review in Rolling Stone)

BluesDawg

BTW, I saw the brothers a couple of years ago and Derek Trucks (yes, he was named for the band) played Duane's part note for note in their cover of Layla while they showed Duane's image in the background. It was really something. Then he moved on to adding his own touches. I would really like to have seen one of the shows when he toured with Clapton recently.

Rick@OCRR

From somewhere deep in my memory banks, and (I think . . . ) from an article in Rolling Stone long about 1976 (or so), there was a story about Clapton and one paragraph caught my eye, regarding Eric's long friendship with Ernesto Colnago. From what I remember, Colnago had built at least one bike specifically for Eric Clapton and one for Mick Jagger as well.

Wish I remembered more, but considering how long ago it was, maybe I should be grateful that I remembered it at all!

Rick / OCRR