Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born 30 March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, widely regarded as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and fourth in Gibson’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time”. He was also named number five in Time magazine’s list of “The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players” in 2009.
After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. On leaving Mayall in 1966, after one album, he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and “arty, blues-based psychedelic pop”.[6] After Cream broke up in November 1968, he formed the blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, recording one album and performing on one tour before they broke up. Clapton embarked on a solo career in 1970.

Alongside his solo career, he also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos, with whom he recorded “Layla”, one of his signature songs. He continued to record a number of successful solo albums and songs over the next several decades, including a 1974 cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” (which helped reggae reach a mass market),[7] the country-infused Slowhand album (1977) and the pop rock of 1986’s August. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton’s grief was expressed in the song “Tears in Heaven”, which appeared on his Unplugged album, and in 1996 he had another top-40 hit with the R&B crossover “Change the World”. In 1998, he released the Grammy award-winning “My Father’s Eyes”. Since 1999, he has recorded a number of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival. His most recent studio album is Happy Xmas (2018).

Clapton has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.[8][9] In 2004, he was awarded a CBE for services to music.[10] He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream.
In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 280 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. (wikipedia)

Reptile is the fourteenth solo studio album by Eric Clapton. The album was produced by Eric Clapton with Simon Climie and is Clapton’s first album to include keyboard work by Billy Preston and background vocals by the Impressions. The album reached the Top 10 in 20 countries, topping the national album charts in three of them. In total, the album sold more than 2.5 million copies and gained several certification awards around the globe. To help promote album sales, music network VH1 streamed the album in full on TV.

In the United States, Reptile peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 top albums chart, gaining a so-called “Hot Shot Debut” recognition by the American magazine, as the album sold a total of 101,500 units in its first week. In addition to its success on the main albums chart, compiled by Billboard, the 2001 release also topped the magazines top Internet albums chart for several weeks. In the first quarter of 2001, Reptile sold more than 215,000 copies in the United States alone. On 8 June, the rock album was certified with a Gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to commemorate outstanding sales figures reaching more than 500,000 copies. In total, the album stayed sixteen weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and sold more than 700,000 copies by the end of 2001 in the United States, making it that years 184th most purchased album. In Canada, Clapton’s 2001 release went to number 11 on Billboards top Canadian albums chart in 2001. In Japan, the release was even more successful, reaching position six on Oricons album chart in 2001. In New Zealand, Reptile peaked at number 15. However, in Australia, the Clapton album reached number 20 on the ARIA charts in 2001, and was certified Platinum for sales exceeding 70,000 copies in the country.
Reptile was a big success in Europe, topping three album charts in the continent, reaching the Top 10 in 16 countries and gaining a total of 13 certification awards for outstanding record sales. Overall, the album reached number two on the European albums chart in 2001. (wikipedia)

For a musician known to strive for authenticity, Eric Clapton has always been curiously obsessed with appearances, seemingly as interested in sartorial details and hairstyles as in the perfect guitar lick. It’s hard to find two photographs of him from the 1960s and early ’70s that appear to be the same person, and even after he formally launched his solo career he switched looks frequently. Thus, the album sleeve of his 13th solo studio album of new material, Reptile, its “concept” credited to the recording artist, seems significant. The album cover shows a smiling Clapton as a child, and there are family photographs on the back cover and in the booklet, along with a current photograph of the artist, who turned 56 in the weeks following the album’s release, in an image that does nothing to hide the wrinkles of late middle age. This photograph faces a sleeve note by Clapton that begins with his explanation of the album title: “Where I come from, the word ‘reptile’ is a term of endearment, used in much the same way as ‘toe rag’ or ‘moosh.'” (Thanks, Eric. Now, all listeners have to do is find out what “toe rag” and “moosh” mean!) The note then goes on to dedicate the album warmly to Clapton’s uncle.

All of this might lead you to expect an unusually personal recording from a man who has always spoken most eloquently with his guitar. If so, you’d be disappointed. Reptile seems conceived as an album to address all the disparate audiences Clapton has assembled over the years. His core audience may think of him as the premier blues guitarist of his generation, but especially as a solo artist, he has also sought a broader pop identity, and in the 1990s, with the hits “Tears in Heaven” and “Change the World,” he achieved it. The fans he earned then will recognize the largely acoustic sound of such songs as “Believe in Life,” “Second Nature,” and “Modern Girl.” But those who think of Clapton as the guy who plays “Cocaine” will be pleased with his cover of another J.J. Cale song, “Travelin’ Light,” and by the time the album was in record stores mainstream rock radio had already found “Superman Inside,” which sounds like many of his mid-tempo rock hits of the ’80s.

This diversity is continued on less familiar material, especially the many interesting cover songs. Somebody, perhaps the artist himself, has been busy looking for old chestnuts, since Reptile contains a wide variety of them: the 1930 jazz song “I Want a Little Girl,” recorded by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers among others; John Greer’s 1952 R&B hit “Got You on My Mind”; Ray Charles’ 1955 R&B hit “Come Back Baby”; James Taylor’s 1972 hit “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”; and Stevie Wonder’s 1980 hit “I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It.” The two earliest of these songs are old and obscure enough that Clapton is able to make them his own, and he recasts the Taylor song enough to re-invent it, but remaking songs by Charles and Wonder means competing with them vocally, and as a singer Clapton isn’t up to the challenge. He is assisted by the current five-man version of the Impressions, who do much to shore up his vocal weaknesses, but he still isn’t a disciplined or thoughtful singer. Of course, when that distinctive electric guitar sound kicks in, all is forgiven. Still, Reptile looks like an album that started out to be more ambitious than it ended up being. There may be a song here for each of the artist’s constituencies (and, more important to its commercial impact, for every major radio format except talk and country), but as a whole the album doesn’t add up to the statement Clapton seems to have been hoping to make. (by William Ruhlmann)

Personnel:
Doyle Bramhall II (guitar)
Tim Carmon (keyboards, synthesizer)Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals)
Paulinho da Costa (percussion)
Nathan East (bass)
Andy Fairweather Low (guitar)
Steve Gadd (drums)
Joe Sample (piano)
Paul Waller (drum programming)
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Paul Carrack (keyboards on 01., organ, piano on 10.)
Pino Palladino (bass on 01. + 10.)
Billy Preston (organ on 02., 05. + 13., piano on 06. + 09., harmonica on 14.)
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The Impressions (background vocals on 02. – 05., 07. – 13.)

Tracklist:
01. Reptile (Clapton) 3.26
02. Got You On My Mind (Thomas/Briggs) 4.30
03. Travelin’ Light (Cale) 4.17
04. Believe In Life (Clapton) 5.06
05. Come Back Baby (Charles) 3.55
06. Broken Down (Climie/Morgan) 5.25
07. Find Myself (Clapton) 515
08. I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It (Wonder) 4.49
09. I Want A Little Girl (Mencher/Moll) 2.58
10. Second Nature (Clapton/Climie/Morgan) 4.48
11. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (Taylor) 4.48
12. Modern Girl (Clapton) 4.49
13. Superman Inside (Clapton/Bramhall II/Melvoin) 5:07
14. Son & Sylvia (Clapton) 4.44
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15. Losing Hand (Japanese bonus track) (Stone) 4.18

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