"Pilgrim" is a pop rock song written by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

musicians

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

and

Simon Climie Simon Climie (born 7 April 1957) is an English songwriter/producer and the former lead singer of the UK duo Climie Fisher. Biography Climie was born in London. Beginning his career primarily as a songwriter/session musician, Climie found him ...

. The duo also produced the song, which came about after a

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...

between the two in the late 1990s. The title was recorded for Clapton's 1998

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Pilgrim A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on Pilgrimage, a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the a ...

'' and was released as the fourth and final single of the album. The song was always released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to another single and was accompanied by a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

. It is part of the ''

Lethal Weapon 4 ''Lethal Weapon 4'' is a 1998 American buddy cop action film directed and produced by Richard Donner, and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock, and Jet Li (in his international film debut). It is the fourth insta ...

'' soundtrack.

Writing and composition

The song is written and recorded in the keys

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

and

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

. In 1998, Clapton talked about the composition and writing process on "Pilgrim" a song like "Inside of Me" that was deliberately borrowed from

Curtis Mayfield Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.

as a way for Clapton to say thanks for the inspiration: "I was playing

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and Simon limiewas playing

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and we just created an atmosphere and instantly the words were coming into my head because the mood evoked all of the circumstances that had been happening for the past few years... not judgmental... it states what had had been happening in a very gentle loving way. This was an actual event in my life where people were saying to me 'Look you've got to get out of this. You've got to let go. You've got to move on'. There was an endless vicious circle of make-ups, break-ups, make-ups, and it went on for years and it was going nowhere. It was very painful but I was obsessed with the notion that it would come to fruition if I just stayed there long enough. I'm sure we've all been there – but this time for me it was different. That's another one of the things where I can say that if I just stay there it will come good and it didn't. We used

drum loops In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...

... turned to technology when we ran out of things to do and needed a place to start. We would say something like 'uh, well, um, have you heard the new

Usher Usher may refer to: Several jobs which originally involved directing people and ensuring people are in the correct place: * Usher (occupation) ** Church usher ** Wedding usher, one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony ** Fiel ...

single?' And from there we'd just copy the drum program, dicker with it and play along with it. That's how the song "Pilgrim" was born. We came up with a drum program that was derived from a hit – I can't remember which one – we changed it a little and then wrote the words".

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Music video

A music video was released in 1998 to accompany the single release. The video is still being broadcast on TV networks like

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

and

Much Music Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31, ...

. The music video was also released on the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

to the 1999

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

'' Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilgrim 1998 singles 1998 songs Eric Clapton songs Reprise Records singles Songs written by Eric Clapton Warner Records singles Songs written by Simon Climie