Eric Clapton: This Has Gotta Stop

To provide an insightful take on this music video it'll be a hard task but I promise to be fair, balanced and give the whole possible truth, or at least the way I see it trying to ignore the excessive praise the single got or the amount of negative backlash it got as well.

In divisive times such as ours a protest song like "This Has Gotta Stop" is a hard one to sell. There's no doubt that Eric Clapton is a genius guitarist/composer/singer and there's a whole legacy behind him, as members of super groups such as "The Yardbirds", "Derek and the Dominos", "Blind Faith" and his massive solo career with several singles, videos and concerts through the decades. This newest isn't much of a memorable one, or at least one single the artist will consider important to his career. It's a water divisor with some claiming it's a career ending move and others praising for being a vocal hymn of our times that goes against the norm.

Clapton makes a protest against the COVID-19 vaccination, so here's an anti vax song that is destined to cause some controversy despite its simplicity, catchy ways and the information the artist brings to the table by talking of how wronged the current times are and what the vaccine caused on him - yes, he took it but felt incredibly bad afterwards with many side-effects.

I enjoyed the song, it's nice to see Clapton's back in shape and I truly believe that his freedom of speech is exercised best when he's doing a music about the times we live in rather than many obnoxious speeches and rants we see from politicians and unknowns in the media. He's turning pain into art and that's good and commendable even though he might be contributting to some misinformation and giving voice to the unreasonable in the audience. It's not one of his best moments but it's not a terrible one, far from being the reason why one would destroy his brilliant works just because he's making himself loud and clear against something he doesn't agree; neither it's too good as the YouTube comments section of the video makes out to be. It's just an exercise of his rights and he makes it all too clear and far from being objectionable.

As for the video, it's a nice gathering of animations about brainswashing media, world leaders trying to control the population and a lone soul trying to survive this new environment of sickness and deaths. You can take it as it's shown or go deeper on several levels. The new roaring twenties is a tough decade to live with and we've only just begun in difficult extremes of disease, lousy politics, environmental issues, fake news and the loudest voices on the extremes from left and the right. That's the chaos we live on and that's what Clapton relates in his song that also talks about the negative effects after being vaccinated. His point, his belief.

Definitely not acceptable to some since there's a fight to stop the outbreak and the way to control it, besides the lockdown and isolation at first (of which he was opposed as well) and now the vaccine.

On a final note, does Clapton deserves the backlash or negative reaction he's getting from the crowd, to the point where the man himself has said some personal relationships were broken in between? I don't think so. The cancel culture is trying really hard to cancel him and it's not deserving. His legacy is far more important than this whole debate and that's the real thing that really gotta stop, the reputation killing over one point of view. Sure, he's not helping the cause against the disease but there are far worse people who are doing more damages than just one political/social position as the man is doing. It's a harmless expression, and just ignore the music and the video is enough, even though the video was well made and the song has its minor appeal, the sound at least if the wording is just repetitive.

Well, you be the judge. 8/10.

Clapton's attempt to harm people by going outside his area of expertise and spreading misinformation.

There's going against the norm and then there's actively making things worse by spreading fear and misinformation like this does.

Clapton lied about having ill effects from the COVID-19 vaccine; he was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy in his hands back in 2013 and has had the condition ever since. Here he pretended that this condition was new and caused by COVID-19 vaccination. Google the 2016 Washington Post article where he publicly spoke about it. IMDB prevents including URLs.

Eric Clapton is another celebrity/group jumping on the disgruntled-population bandwagon, along with neo-nazis and other fascists who seek to hijack current popular sentiment to make themselves relevant. His point has no merit and his deluded beliefs do not trump the public good.

Entitled and self-centered, Clapton opposed both the lockdown and vaccination, thus contributing to the spread of the disease and more unnecessary deaths. All that was required was temporary self-isolation, but apparently Clapton thinks caring for others is too much to ask.

On a final note, Clapton deserves the backlash and negative reactions he's getting. Sure, he actively harmed the cause against the disease and others have possibly done worse, but his public reach and influence has caused real harm and probable deaths. It's far from harmless expression.