10 Best Songs Where Hard Rock Bands Went Acoustic

Every single great song that Eric Clapton has ever made usually comes back to the blues. As much as songs like Wonderful Tonight may have been a heartfelt song for his wife Pattie Boyd, his real legendary material came when he was still talking about his forbidden love for her when she was still married to his friend George Harrison. He may have been on better terms with her in the '90s, but those blues never really go away that easy.

After spending the past few years playing the same kind of laid back songs that he loved when he was a kid, Clapton's first turn into Unplugged territory was what gave him a shot in the arm, bringing it back to the days where guitarists didn't even have amplifiers and had to leave all of their imperfections in the mix. That unplugged release may have been considered dad music at the time, but the way he reconfigures Layla may be the greatest deconstructions that a rock star has ever made.

If you go back and listen to the original version of the song cut by Derek and the Dominoes, you can still feel a raw angst in there, as Eric cries out in pain over not being able to be with the love of his life. By removing a lot of the bite from it, there's a lot more sadness poured into this version, as if Eric is pleading to have her ease his troubled mind. There may have been a lot of pent up emotions on the first version, but this is where you end up if you let those emotions get the better of you. You have to move on with your life, but the sting is always there.