Tears in Heaven

The song Tears in Heaven was written by Eric Clapton, in collaboration with Will Jennings, in memory of his son Connor who accidentally fell down from a building in 1991. When it was first performed in MTV Unplugged 1992 it became an instant hit. The song was recorded for the movie Rush and Eric Clapton won 3 Grammy Awards for the song.

In the Australian 60 Minutes interview of Eric Clapton, has this to say about the song, “My question was ‘Will I see you again?’ In a sense, it wasn’t even a sad song. It was a song of belief. When it talks about there will be no more tears in heaven, I think it’s a song of optimism, of reunion. What was worrying me was I hope to God we didn’t meet up in some kind of heaven hotel lobby and just walk by one another,” (Tears in Heaven).

As Clapton himself stated, the song is a not a sad song and in fact a song of hope. However, as a listener I find these feelings as the exact opposite of what I feel when listening to the song. The tone of the song itself is melancholic that it is not possible for the person listening to the song not to feel sad about it. When it was first shown in MTV Unplugged, it was a totally different song from the typical classical songs, slow rock, slow pop and ballad songs. It was a genre unto itself that many found it quite refreshing. The melody of the song itself enables the listener to feel, not exactly pain, but an ache due to loss, which Clapton himself must have felt at that time.

At the same time, the simple arrangement of the melody and the slow repetitive rhythm created a sense of inner soft moaning. In other words it was not a shout of sorrow, a wailing of grief but rather the true inner throbbing loss one must definitely feel under such and similar circumstances. 

As for the lines of the song, there was nothing overly dramatic about it. The lines are as simple as the melody and its simplicity is what made it so beautiful. In fact, it was a piece of poetry that did not try to be too creative and brilliant. It was a piece of poetry written, not literally, but from the heart. The lines, “Beyond the door / There's peace I'm sure. /
And I know there'll be no more...  / Tears in heaven”, is one of the best examples of how the simple lines can be a piece of poetry and speaks directly about hope amidst the feeling of loss and grief.

Contrarily, the lines, “Would you know my name / If I saw you in heaven / Will it be the same / If I saw you in heaven” dare to ask the same questions we all ask about losing someone. It speaks of the fears associated with such loss, that the listener does not only understand the feelings of a father losing his son but is also reminded of how transitory human lives are. This reminds him of how it might be possible that when he lost his love one, it is forever.

In both the music and the lyrics, the feeling of loss is so much part of the song. In 2004, Eric Clapton could no longer sing the song, saying that he does not feel the loss anymore. For the listeners of the song, there is indeed that feeling which makes up the essence of the entire song. Despite the fact that Eric Clapton stated that it was a song of hope, of reunion and that it was not a sad song, the listeners could not help but recall their own feelings of loss over something which may be entirely different from Eric Clapton’s loss of a son. At one time or another, all of us have lost someone we love, whether by death or merely by distance or circumstance, and when we listen to the song, we are brought back again to the same feeling of loss and all its accompanying fears.

In 2007 in an article in the Sunday Times, Clapton told of how he realized that the best way of honoring his son is to go through the grief of his death, sober (Clapton). And yet, needless to say, for most of his fans, the song Tears in Heaven was his best way of honoring him.

Works Cited

Clapton Eric. “Tears in heaven”. The Sunday Times. Oct 7, 2007

2 March 2008

<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article2602552.ece>

“Tears in Heaven”. Eric Clapton Portal. Where’s Eric.com. Sept. 3, 2007

2 March 2008

<http://www.whereseric.com/ecfaq/songs/clapton-tears-in-heaven-son-conor.html>