Richard Clapton as one of Australia’s foremost singer/songwriters, paved the way for subsequent generations of songwriters to write about the experience of being Australian.
When Richard began his recording career in 1974, Australia was still in the grip of the cultural cringe. He plunged into the “deep water” and legends like Skyhooks and Paul Kelly, Cold Chisel, INXS, Midnight Oil, and hundreds of others, followed in his wake.
Clapton grew up in Sydney in the 1960s before hopping a plane for London, and then later to Germany, where he wrote a first album, Prussian Blue (1973) which was one of the first major Australian “singer-songwriter” albums.
One of the most popular songs from Prussian Blue was I Wanna Be A Survivor. I doubt he imagined then, how true that message would turn out to be. His songs are still omnipresent on the radio to this day; his records charting the political landscape of the nation and the turbulent lives of two generations.
Like Americans Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, Richard Clapton developed a sound based on melodic rock while his lyrics were poetic musings on his state of mind or the state of the nation.
By 1975, when he released his highly acclaimed, No.1 hit Girls On The Avenue, Clapton had set the themes he was to explore for the coming decades. There were frequent escapes to his spiritual second home in Berlin, a haven for music and the arts at the time, to recharge and get a fresh perspective on Australia.
Richard mastered that most difficult of show business acts – the highwire that requires the balance of radio-friendly tunes and candid, from-the-heart, lyrics.
These dichotomies came together on the Goodbye Tiger album which was, at that time, Clapton’s most successful to date. The record was a new highpoint and there was significant international interest in Richard as a recording artist. A period living overseas in Los Angeles brought forth the sophisticated Hearts on the Nightline album in 1979.
Back in Australia in 1980 he released the searing Dark Spaces album, an indictment on the meanness and mendacity that would blow through the 1980s. Ten years after his first release, Richard Clapton was a tribal elder to whom younger artists like Jimmy Barnes, INXS and Cold Chisel turned as a mentor.
INXS asked Clapton to produce their second album, Underneath the Colours, and they became firm friends. They, and Cold Chisel, returned the favour on Clapton’s The Great Escape album with INXS drummer Jon Farriss going on to produce his Glory Road album. Few records of that time captured the roller coaster ride of the late 1980s as well as Glory Road.
These albums brought Clapton’s melodic gifts and his love of electric rock & roll into lockstep.
There were always the words though – no one better documented the 1980s than Richard Clapton. He frequently went to the edge — emotionally, politically, financially — and sent back his incisive postcards.
The result was The House Of Orange, an album which many have wanted Clapton to make for a long time. It is simply some of the finest songs he has written – old and new – recorded with some of the best musicians in Music City. The album features the legendary Dan Dugmore (longtime guitarist with Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Stevie Nicks and so many others), and David La Bruyere from John Mayer’s band, along with a band of Nashville’s finest.
In a career that now spans over 40 years Richard hasn’t passed through life in a luxurious rock star bubble. He has battled and succeeded at every step of the way and come through it intact as one of the world’s most cherished singer/songwriters with his legions of fans. He is a survivor, with a tale to tell.
Now, in 2021 Richard is releasing his first cover album, entitled Music Is Love (1966-1970). A timely homage to the music of peace love & understanding; tunes of the American hippies from the late 1960’s; Richard Clapton’s unique versions of songs recorded by The Byrds, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Band, Lovin’ Spoonful and more, sung as only Richard can.
It is time for these songs to be resurrected lest they and the message they bear is lost for all time, and who better than Australia’s favourite hippie, Richard Clapton!
https://www.richardclapton.com/
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