Justin Johnson: Tears in Heaven (Clapton)

Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916), *Portrait of Violette Heymann* (1910), pastel, Cleveland Museum of Art, Image Source: wikimedia

““Tears in Heaven” is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment of his mother’s friend, on March 20, 1991.” via Epitaph

“Over the last year, I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a fingerstyle cover of ‪@ericclapton‬‘s “Tears in Heaven,” so I wanted to send this out to anyone whose been wanting or needing to hear it. It’s such a sad song lyrically, but I always appreciated how hopeful the music felt… with the melody and arrangement dropping down into minor, only to resolve back into major tones, and lifting up into the major key change for the bridge. I think it’s that tug of war between light and dark that makes blues music so helpful when people are feeling bad, because it reminds them that, no matter what challenges they’re facing, they’re not alone out there.”

JUSTIN JOHNSON

Odilon Redon at wikiwand

Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, ‘Decorative panels’, in Odilon Redon
and Andries Bonger: 36 works from the Van Gogh Museum collection,
Amsterdam 2022 (link broken)