Legendary rock-and-roll guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton is collaborating with Van Morrison on a song called “Stand and Deliver” that is critical of United Kingdom’s laughably stringent COVID lockdowns and their effects on live music. Predictably, liberals on Twitter are seething uncontrollably over the news.
Clapton, the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, told Variety magazine that he chose to collaborate with Morrison on the song after finding the effect of lockdowns on musicians “deeply upsetting.”
“We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover,” Clapton stated.
Morrison, who founded the Save Live Music campaign, said “Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations,” adding, “It is heart-breaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry.”
The attacks on Clapton from unknown verified profiles on Twitter began almost immediately. Buzzwords such as “white supremacist,” stemming from Clapton’s collaboration with Morrison and and off-the-cuff remarks he made onstage in support of British nationalism in 1976, appeared at the vanguard of the outrage machine.
Of course Eric Clapton wrote an anti-lockdown song. He’s a white supremacist.
— Alan Zilberman (@alanzilberman) November 27, 2020
On the one hand, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison are former rock stars.
On the other hand, they're now 75-year-old white guys. https://t.co/n8HmsSx8av
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 27, 2020
I was today years old when I learned that Eric Clapton is a racist piece of shit.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 27, 2020
Y'all can stop tagging me in Eric Clapton is racist tweets. I'm Jamaican, I know just how racist that mother fucker is.
— Leslie Mac (@LeslieMac) November 27, 2020
Van Morrison previously announced the release of three anti-lockdown songs in September, after calling the U.K.’s COVID policies “fascist”:
Van Morrison will soon release three protest songs that slam the coronavirus lockdowns in the UK as being “fascist,” claiming they “enslave” the population.
Van Morrison, the Northern Irish singer behind such hits as “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Gloria,” is set to release the three coronavirus-themed songs over the next couple of weeks, called “No More Lockdown,” “As I Walked Out,” and “Born to Be Free.”
“No More Lockdown” has the strongest messaging of the three. Morrison sings:
No more lockdown / No more government overreach / No more fascist bullies / Disturbing our peace … No more taking of our freedom / And our God-given rights / Pretending it’s for our safety / When it’s really to enslave…
It also slams “celebrities telling us what we’re supposed to feel,” and “Imperial College Scientists making up crooked facts,” with the latter likely being a reference to Professor Neil Ferguson, whose flawed model that claimed there would be hundreds of thousands of deaths in the UK pushed the government into locking down the country. Ferguson was later caught breaking the rules to have an affair with his mistress.
“Stand and Deliver” will be released on December 4, and proceeds will benefit Morrison’s Lockdown Financial Hardship Fund for musicians struggling during lockdown.
