The Fool (also occasionally referred to as Sunny) is a 1964

Gibson SG The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gi ...

guitar, painted for

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 o ...

by the Dutch design collective The Fool, from which the guitar takes its name. One of the world's best-known guitars, it epitomizes the

psychedelic era The Psychedelic era was the time of social, musical and artistic change influenced by psychedelic drugs, occurring from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. The era was defined by the proliferation of LSD and its following influence in the development of p ...

. Clapton used the guitar extensively while playing with

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

and it was an essential element of his famed "woman tone". From the 1970s to early 1980s, the guitar was owned by

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...

, who was often seen playing the instrument in his live performances. He nicknamed the guitar "Sunny", after the Cream song "

Sunshine of Your Love "Sunshine of Your Love" is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock, psychedelia, and pop, it is one of Cream's best known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive ...

History

The Fool, a "psychedelic fantasy", according to Clapton, was the brainchild of who, along with , was a founding member of The Fool design collective. In early 1967, the collective were contacted by

Robert Stigwood Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream (band), Cream, Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions ...

, then manager of Cream, to work on instruments and costumes for the band, which was about to leave

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for their debut tour of the United States. Koger and Posthuma painted Clapton's Gibson SG, a drum kit for

Ginger Baker Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pi ...

, and a Fender Bass VI for

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disband ...

, which he did not like very much and played only on TV performances. The guitar made its debut as Cream played their first show in the United States on 25 March 1967 at the RKO theater on 58th Street,

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, where Cream and

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

played a series of shows headlined by

Mitch Ryder Mitch Ryder (born William Sherille Levise, Jr.; February 26, 1945) is an American musician who has recorded more than 25 albums over more than four decades. Career Ryder formed his first band, Tempest, when he was at Warren High School, and th ...

, Wilson Pickett, and promoted by

Murray the K Murray Kaufman (February 14, 1922 – February 21, 1982), professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential New York City rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. During the early days of Beatlemania, he freque ...

. Clapton used the guitar for most of Cream's recordings after '' Fresh Cream'', particularly on ''

Disraeli Gears ''Disraeli Gears'' is the second studio album by the British rock band Cream. It was released in November 1967 and reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart. Search "Cream" in ''Name of Artist'', and No. 1 on the Swedish and Finnish charts. The alb ...

'', until the band broke up in 1968. After Clapton gave it to George Harrison, it passed to

Jackie Lomax John Richard Lomax (10 May 1944 – 15 September 2013) was an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his association with George Harrison, who produced Lomax's recordings for the Beatles' Apple record label in the late 1 ...

. It then passed to

, who had seen Clapton play it during Cream's show at the RKO Theater and was "mesmerized" by it. According to differing reports, Rundgren reportedly either paid $500 for the guitar, was gifted the guitar, or just retained the guitar after Lomax failed to return to retrieve it, and had various repairs done to it. He had the guitar finished anew and retouched in places, and a portion of the neck and headstock was replaced. Rundgren sold the guitar in 2000 at auction for less than $150,000 to pay off a tax debt, donating 10% to Clapton's Crossroads Centre. The Fool was resold to a private collector a few years later for around $500,000. The Fool has had other work done: some of the control knobs have been replaced and, most notably, the original trapeze-style tailpiece was replaced with a stop-tailpiece. The guitar now has Grover tuners rather than the original Klusons.

Execution

Koger and Postuma sanded Clapton's 1964 SG Standard (not, as is found in various sources, a 1961 model, and not an SG Special) and painted it with oil-based enamel paint in the "gaudy dayglo colours of the day". As Koger explained, "the single thread running through all of my paintings is nostalgia for paradise." The theme of the SG's design is "good versus evil, heaven versus hell, and the power of music in the universe to rise above it all as a force of good". The centrepiece on the face is a

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the ...

holding a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

, surrounded by yellow stars on a celestial blue background ("a Fool hallmark"). The angel's curly hairstyle was inspired by Clapton's hairstyle at the time. Flames come up from the bottom of the guitar (the treble bout with the volume and tone controls) and the bass point has rainbow-coloured arcs. The pick guard contains a landscape with mountains and a red sun on the horizon, a "Dutch miniature" representing paradise. On the back, coloured concentric circles are surrounded by coloured waves. Pictures exist of the guitar with the fretboard painted as well, though Clapton quickly removed this paint as it interfered with his playing of the instrument.

Cultural significance

Clapton's guitar is a key relic of the

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science o ...

fashion and design fad that flourished from the mid-to-late 1960s. This cultural movement featured the work of The Fool design collective prominently. The Fool's signature style featured highly colourful creations often drawing on Indian spiritual culture, among other influences. This trend rapidly gained international recognition, mainly thanks to its adoption by popular bands including

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

, Cream,

The Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

, and

Procol Harum Procol Harum () were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single " A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for ...

. The Fool SG remains a significant and highly valuable guitar and, alongside George Harrison's "Rocky" guitar, it is one of the few original instruments of the British psychedelic music period to have survived relatively intact. Most recently, The Fool was a central exhibit in the "Play It Loud" exhibition co-sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Metropolitan Museum in 2019, where it was exhibited alongside the Jack Bruce Bass VI that had also been painted by Koger and Posthuma.

Woman tone

The Fool is an essential part of what Clapton called the "woman tone", "a sweet sound ... more like the human voice than the guitar". Clapton demonstrated the Woman Tone in a videotaped interview in 1968 included in the BBC movie from their final Royal Albert Hall farewell concerts, using The Fool SG and a

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

amplifier; he said it is accomplished by turning the tone way down and the volume full up, and it is exemplified in the opening and the guitar solo of "

References

External links