When George Harrison invited Eric Clapton to play at a concert in New York during the summer of 1971 to raise funds for Bangladesh, Clapton accepted with one condition. That he would be guaranteed a constant supply of heroin.
For years, Eric Clapton had left the stage, immersing himself in alcohol and drugs. He spent four thousand pounds a month on heroin, which today would amount to approximately forty thousand. Clapton’s time in New York, however, was overshadowed by the anxiety. The quality of the drugs there did not compare to what he had access to in England.
Clapton’s return from New York was a freefall into the abyss of addiction. His friends tried in vain to distance him and his partner, Alice Ormsby-Gore, from drugs. Finally, it was her father who intervened, and Eric Clapton took him up on his offer, moving to Shropshire, to a farm owned by the Ormsby-Gore family. There he was warmly welcomed by Frank, Alice’s younger brother, with whom he immediately formed a bond, making his recovery process smoother. Clapton then distanced himself from heroin and cocaine—though not from alcohol.
It was during this period of well-being that he reconnected with music, composing songs, strumming his guitar in the afternoons, and eventually meeting with his manager, Robert Stigwood, to express his readiness to return to the music scene.
Miami seemed like the ideal place for Eric Clapton.
A city that at the time presented itself as a postcard of paradise. Robert Stigwood had arranged for Clapton an Art Deco style beachfront house in Miami Beach, at 461 Ocean Boulevard. He secured Criteria Studios, and coordinated with a crew of musicians to join him.
Criteria Studios were not unfamiliar to Clapton. It was there that he had previously recorded “Layla,” an experience that made the sessions inspiring and easily touching his artistic vein recording great covers such as “Willie and the Hand Live” and “Steady Rollin’ Man”. The only piece that left him dissatisfied was an unfamiliar song titled “I Shot the Sheriff,” suggested by George Terry, one of the musicians, a song by a singer and his reggae band whom Clapton did not know: Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Clapton loved the song “I Shot the Sheriff,” but felt that the outcome did not do justice to the original version. Nonetheless, due to the persistence of the rest of the crew, “I Shot the Sheriff” became part of the set of songs that would soon comprise Eric Clapton’s new album.
The recording sessions at Criteria Studios lasted for a month, resulting in the album 461 Ocean Boulevard, the cover of which features an image of the Art Deco beachfront house where Clapton resided. 461 Ocean Boulevard marked Clapton’s triumphant return to music, featuring a six-month tour with forty-nine concerts across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The standout track of the album was “I Shot the Sheriff,” selected as the promotional single by the RSO label. Although previously unknown in the mainstream, the song managed to reach number 1 on radio charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
