DESPITE KICKING THINGS off with a bang alongside Jeff Beck for 1981’s Amnesty International benefit in London, which many signaled as “a return to form,” Eric Clapton wasn’t ready for the Eighties. It seems obvious now, but looking back, even Clapton would probably agree. To that end, the downfall, if you could call it that, wasn’t so much steep as it was somber, with Clapton progressively moving away from his patented “woman tone,” which had come by way of blending various humbucker-equipped guitars with cranked Marshall amps.
Going into the Seventies, Clapton was still considered “God” by some. But by 1980, at 35, he was perhaps one of your lesser gods, shelling out soft rock accented by even softer — but still kinda bluesy — licks. But it wasn’t all bad, as by the early Eighties, Clapton had assembled a rocking, all-British band featuring Gary Booker on keys, Dave Markee on bass, Henry Spinetti (younger brother of actor Victor Spinetti, who starred in three Beatles movies) on drums, and most importantly, the ever-capable and entirely essential Albert Lee on guitar.
When Lee wandered into Clapton’s camp in 1978, the idea was to spice up Clapton’s backing band. “We’d known each other for a long time, and we ended up doing a session together in London in 1978 for Marc Benno,” Lee says. “We played together for a week on that. At the end of the session, Eric’s manager [Roger Forrester] came up to me and said, ‘How would you feel about coming out on the road with Eric to play second guitar?’ I thought, ‘That sounds like fun’ — and off we went.”
Considering that Clapton was grappling with self-inflicted issues including (but not limited to) drug and alcohol addiction, Lee coming along wasn’t just about providing a capable live partner; with his finger-style approach and hybrid-picking technique that was entirely different from Clapton’s, Lee brought new flavors and positive energy to the party. Moreover, he inserted some sorely needed blues edginess — or call it country sharpness — into a mix that had become increasingly soft-rock.
None of this was lost on Clapton, who, despite his status, has reportedly always been generous — certainly, to bandmates who deliver the goods. Clapton was so happy to have Lee on board that he gifted him a coveted ’58 Gibson Les Paul. “At our very first rehearsal, we were talking about guitars,” Lee says. “I happened to mention a Les Paul Custom that I had in the Sixties, and I was regretting the fact I’d sold it to buy something else; it was a big mistake. So Eric said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve got one of those at home somewhere.’ I thought no more about it — and I thought he’d forgotten about it. But the roadie showed up the next day with a ’58 Les Paul Custom, and he handed it over to me to use. Eric was a Strat man by then, so
