Wonderful Tonight (Complicated Later)

I was born in 1980, and one of the strange things that shaped my teen years was the popularity of MTV Unplugged. The Bruce Springsteen UnPlugged episode was a key moment in the development of musical tastes, but even beyond that, it was hard to avoid some of the bigger episodes of the show. Mariah Carey’s EP sold over 10 million copies, Nirvana’s performance won a Grammy, and Eric Clapton’s became the best-selling live album of all time.

After that episode aired, Clapton had a surge of popularity among younger listeners, and as a result, a number of his earlier hits gained new traction with teens. His 1977 song “Wonderful Tonight” was played at every high school dance I ever attended — and after I graduated, I dated a girl younger than me, so I even had a few extra dances to sample.

With this lovely girl (we’re still friends but I won’t name her on the internet for all the obvious reasons), “Wonderful Tonight” kind of became “our song.” It has plenty of very nice memories attached to it. I own (maybe still own?) Eric Clapton Unplugged on CD and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs on LP. I was never a huge Clapton fan, but certainly I enjoyed his work.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned about the drunken, racist rant Clapton had gone on years before I was born, and the toll it took on his career. He has since apologized for it, but it wasn’t the last time he would get himself wrapped up in reactionary politics. Clapton threw a fit about masking and vaccinations in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and threw his support behind Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential campaign in 2024.

So — Clapton is at minimum a crank and quite possibly a bigot. While he has apologized for his racist past, it’s not a stretch to imagine his thoughts on trans people would be pretty gross. He does the whole “I think there’s problems with the whole system” thing, but posed for pictures with virulently transphobic and generally monstrous Greg Abbott.

I have a knee-jerk negative reaction when Clapton comes up in conversation these days, and I don’t remember the last time I intentionally put on one of his songs. I haven’t gone as far as a full boycott, but it’s largely irrelevant. The last time I actually paid money for anything of his was his 2001 B.B. King collaboration Riding With the King. My lack of support means less than nothing to Clapton or his bottom line.

And, yes, there are a lot of people who would argue I’m taking it all way too seriously, particularly since Clapton has apologized repeatedly for the most egregious of his documented offenses. On the other hand, I find Clapton’s case interesting for that reason. He hasn’t dedicated himself to being a piece of shit in the way people like J.K. Rowling or Adam Baldwin have.

I never particularly liked Harry Potter, so it’s easy to boycott that one. Chuck? It took Zachary Levi’s turn to the dark side for me to fully tune out of that one, even though Baldwin’s character stopped being funny once I realized he probably really does have a portrait of Reagan in his bedroom.

It’s easy to make a strong stand when it’s somebody who is obviously and gleefully terrible. The ethics are a little murkier when the artist isn’t straight-up evil.

I’ve been digitizing my music collection and playing it on “random” using Plexamp (which I highly recommend for those of you hoping to get away from Spotify). What happens when “Wonderful Tonight” comes on? Will I still crack a smile thinking about my high school/college sweetheart and how much her friendship still means to me? Or will I be grossed out that an anti-vax loon is activating something in the back of my brain? Honestly, I don’t know.

Wow, what an unsatisfying ending.