“This Has Gotta Stop” by Eric Clapton

Most simply put, what Eric Clapton is singing about is being oppressed, and the addressee would be his oppressor. He does not go as far as to identify who or what said addressee is.  But it is very much possible who he is speaking out against is the government. 

And what this song is premised on is what many feel is the unconstitutional authority the government welded during the coronavirus crisis. And we can safely make such an assumption not only based on the wording of the song but also the stance that Clapton took on another single, Stand and Deliver (2020), he released a few months back.

So with that in mind, when he refers to the addressee trying to ‘claim his soul’, we know that he doesn’t likely mean that in a religious sense. Rather he’s speaking more to the concept of his personal freedoms and liberties being eroded, which is a no-no considering that Eric is “used to being free”. 

So the reason why Eric would be ‘thinking of his kids’ in all of this is because he’s worried about a future in which, taking the above into consideration, based on the current trajectory of things the government will be even bigger bullies, if you will, than they are now. And of course what he is saying conclusively on the matter is that “this has got to stop”.

The Long and Short of “This Has Gotta Stop”

So this song which is very similar to Stand and Deliver in disposition though not as direct. And this time around Eric Clapton, being an elder statesman in the game, is not instructing fellow citizens. 

Rather, it’s the government he’s telling to chill out, that “enough is enough” – they’ve already wrecked enough of their own fair share of havoc during the pandemic. 

So if govvie intends to take away more of his freedoms than they already have, then they would “have to come and break down (his) door” to do so, as he perceives something more sinister transpiring in the grand scheme of things and therefore is not going along with the flow.

Summary

All in all, Eric Clapton appears to be speaking out against how the bad policies of government have eroded freedoms and liberties amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facts about “This Has Gotta Stop”

The release date of this track was on 27 August 2021.

“This Has Gotta Stop” is a song which Eric Clapton wrote in addition to serving as vocalist and guitarist, and the producer of the track is Simon Climie. And it was put out by two labels, Bushbranch in collaboration with Surfdog Records.

The music video to this song is an animated affair. And it was reportedly directed by Dave Kaplan alongside another entity called Machine That Eats.

As alluded to earlier, Eric Clapton has been a successful mainstream musician for some time, first jumping on the scene back in the early-1960s. And as of the release of this track, he is a solid 76 years old.