Eric Clapton – I’ve Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart

A very smooth Eric Clapton song. He had a very clean guitar tone on this single. I bought this album when it was released . The single was released in 1983 and peaked at #18 on the Billboard 100, #83 in the UK, and #17 in Canada.

The song was off of Clapton’s Money and Cigarettes album. The song was written by Troy Seals, Eddie Setser, and Steve Diamond It was produced by the legendary producer Tom Dowds. Dowds produced Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and The Allman Brothers to mention a few.

The difference in this album was that Eric was actually clean and sober for the first time in many years. The 80s was not my favorite Eric Clapton era but he did have some good songs during that stretch.

This certainly is not the “screaming guitars” of Clapton long ago. I know many Clapton fans that did not like it but it fits in with the times and still sounds like an Eric Clapton song only a little smoother than usual.

Clapton has a very addictive personality. Alcohol, heroin, and fly fishing to name a few things. During the eighties when he got clean, he started to fly fish everywhere and any free time he had on tour. It also caused some trouble in his marriage because he seemed to be always fishing.

Eric Clapton: “That first summer of my recovery was one of the most beautiful I can remember, perhaps because I was healthy and clean, and I began to rent some trout-fishing days for myself, mostly on stretches of water in the neighborhood that had been specifically stocked for local fisherman… Fishing is an absorbing pastime and has a Zen quality to it. It’s an ideal pursuit for anyone who wants to think a lot and get things in perspective. It was also a perfect way of getting physically fit again, involving as it does a great deal of walking. I would go out at the crack of dawn and often stay out till nighttime… For once I was actually becoming good at something that had nothing to do with guitar playing or music. For the first time in a long time, I was doing something very normal and fairly mundane, and it was really important to me.”

Eric even made sure that when he was on tour, he was always close to fishing opportunities, often requesting that his manager, Roger Forrester, only book accommodations near fly fishing areas, often spending hours on the water before gigs.

The song regained popularity in 2010 when it was used in the T-Mobile HTC Magic myTouch 3G telephone commercial where Clapton appeared.

I’ve Got A Rock and Roll Heart

I’ve got a feeling we could be serious, girl;
Right at this moment, I could promise you the world.
Before we go crazy, before we explode,
There’s something ’bout me, baby, you got to know,
You got to know.

I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.

Feels like we’re falling into the arms of the night,
So if you’re not ready, don’t be holdin’ me so tight.
I guess there’s nothing left for me to explain
Here’s what you’re gettin’ and I don’t want to change,
I don’t want to change.

I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.

I don’t need to glitter, no Hollywood,
All you got to do is lay it down and you lay it down good.

I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

44 thoughts on “Eric Clapton – I’ve Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart”

  1. Back around this time 83 my buddy from high school was snapping up Clapton albums big time so I heard a lot of this stuff. I always liked that Rainbow concert he did(I think it was called that). So good stuff by EC for sure.
    Fly fishing eh? Thats cool that he took his sobriety serious.

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  3. A very good song that is oft-forgotten. I may be in the minority (probably definitely!) but with exception of the original ‘Layla’, I prefer the laid-back Clapton like this song over his rockin’ out with solos stuff. didn’t know he was a big fisherman. Seems kind of funny, but nothing wrong with it. I saw an interview with Huey Lewis maybe 8 or so years back & that was a major passtime of his too, he bought a ranch in Montana mostly because there was a good ‘trout stream’ in it.

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    2. Now I do love his Cream work…that I do love but I also like Lay Down Sally, Promises, and this one also. When he started to follow Don Williams around…he got into that country rock thing.

      Do you like fishing? I haven’t went in a couple of years.

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      1. Nah, it’s not for me. My dad used to take us at times when I was young, the whole family, we’d fish off a bridge over a river not too far away. I always found it boring and didn’t like dealing with worms either. That said, I can see some appeal – it gets you out in nature, which is nice, gives you a bit of time with your thoughts and I guess if you catch a big enough fish, it can be a nice meal. I’ve gotten to really like fish (as food) in the last decade or so.

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      2. Thats it… it’s not the fishing…it’s getting out with your family, friends, or hell…your dog or whatever. It’s a bonding thing more than anything I think.

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  4. Not a bad song. I can appreciate the allure of fishing. I was crazy for it as a teenager on Holidays and living with my family in Jervis Bay, NSW in my 20’s and 30’s. There are worse things you can be addicted to unless in Clapton’s case it alienates your Missus. Hehe.

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    1. Yea he just has an addictive personaility but better than heroin or alcohol. Matt I miss fishing…I want to go more this year. I haven’t been in a couple of years.

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      2. We have the Cumberland River and Dam around 7 miles from me and when I go to Florida I love deep sea fishing. I haven’t done that since 2016

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    1. Yea I know a lot of Clapton fans who don’t like it…but it’s just an older sounding song…even at that time. I like it more than a lot of his 80s output. I love fishing but haven’t been in a couple of years…I need to correct that this year.

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  7. Forgot about this song. Thanks for bringing it back to me. Seems like EC has been to rehab a few times. Wasn’t he just coming out of rehab when he did 461 Ocean Blvd a decade earlier. I can totally relate to the addictive personality. Today’s society seems to cultivate it for people.

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    1. Yes it does Lisa…I have one also…once I get into something I do it to death. Collecting 60s and 70s things is my achilies heel. When I go to somewhere they ask me what I’m looking for and I say…imagine you are ina teenager’s room in the early 70s…THAT is what I want.

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  8. I got “Slowhand” number of years ago, and thought to myself, you know, you really ought to get his albums from here, and of course, I didn’t. I heard this song a lot when I was on the road, even though it was a year after it came out as a single. Always liked it…

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    1. I will say…my favorite Clapton is the Cream Clapton…oh I wish John he would break out the Gipson more often.
      When he was friends with Don Williams…he started to do Lay Down Sally and Promises…which I like also.

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  9. “I’ve Got a Rock & Roll Heart,” which is the only tune I really know off that album, is great and with its softer sound would have fit nicely on “461 Ocean Boulevard,” an album I really dig, which btw was also produced by Tom Dowd.

    Speaking of Dowd, have you ever watched “Tom Dowd And The Language Of Music”? I would go as far as calling it the best music documentary I’ve seen. He was a fascinating guy!

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    1. Well you have me really interested now…I’ll hunt it down and see it. Thanks Christian that will be cool to see.

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      2. Thanks man I’ll check it out…when you work with Cream, Clapton, The Allman Brothers, and Lynyrd Skynyrd…you are pretty good!

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: Eric Clapton – I’ve Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart – Joe Stilez Music
  11. Pingback: Eric Clapton – I’ve Got a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart – MobsterTiger

    1. Yea I did like this but not compared to his earlier work…but it’s good. In the eighties it seems that record companies brought in a lot of outside writers.

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      1. Indeed. Aerosmith benefitted from outside writers in the 80s as well, on “Permanent Vacation”, but it seemed to act as a catalyst to get them really working (sober this time) again on “Pump”.

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