He may have been labelled as a rock icon for five decades, but Eric Clapton always fancied himself as a bluesman.
Where the early years found him using the blues to add a vintage colour to his modern songwriting, the past two decades saw him looking further back and fully embracing the genre.
The results were a sold-out Dubai Media City Amphitheatre show on Thursday night that boasted a multi-generational set list stretching as far back as the 1930s with covers of artists such as Jimmy Cox and Muddy Waters.
While some were played traditionally, most tracks had the Clapton stamp courtesy of his sizzling fret work on that Stratocaster.
Amiably strolling on stage, Clapton and his six-piece band plugged into a raucous take of Jerry Lynn Williams’s Pretending.
While Clapton’s voice lacked the fire of his 1989 hit cover, the pay-off came in that conquering guitar hook.
With the follow-up, Derek and The Dominos Key to the Highway, Clapton maintained the vintage blues stomp of the 1940s number while adding a gospel flavour courtesy of the two backing vocalist and some lush sounding organs.
Fans rejoiced in his muscular take of Willie Dixon’s Hoochie Coochie Man before the whole crowd got involved in the rollicking take of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ I Shot the Sheriff.
The energy dropped significantly when Clapton swapped the electric guitar for an acoustic.
The gentle five-song suite delivered a few misses, including snooze-inducing takes on Driftin’ Blues by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers and Jimmy Cox’s Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.
It was thankfully rescued towards the end with a killer double of the sensuous Layla and the ubiquitous Tears in Heaven.
For such a deeply personal song, the intimacy was remarkably maintained in a sold-out arena setting. The anguish of the original seemed to make way for a collective healing.
It wasn’t only the songs lending the concert a sense of pathos. In recent interviews Clapton said he wanted to quit big world tours and, in a recent Japanese show, he said it would probably be his last jaunt in the region.
His Thursday night performance may well be the final time we’ll see the legend live in concert.
If that’s the case, it was a fitting send off. Clapton delivered some of the biggest hits while schooling many on a classic genre that continues to endure.
