See What Love Can Do

See What Love Can Do: Eric Clapton's Gentle Summer Statement

By the summer of 1985, Eric Clapton had already lived through more musical incarnations than most artists manage in a lifetime. From the Yardbirds to Cream to Derek and the Dominos to his long and varied solo career, he had played nearly every genre that the rock tradition offered, and his reputation had survived the excesses of the 1970s to emerge in the early eighties as something more considered: a craftsman of remarkable versatility, working steadily and professionally at the intersection of blues, rock, and pop.

The Behind the Sun Period

The album from which See What Love Can Do came, Behind the Sun, represented a deliberate move toward a more polished, commercial sound. The record was produced by Phil Collins, who had become one of the most in-demand producers in the industry on the strength of his own commercial success, and the Collins aesthetic is audible throughout: crisp drum sounds, clean production, a warmth that sits comfortably on mainstream radio. Clapton the guitar legend was still present, but the context was softer, more oriented toward the adult contemporary audience than toward the blues-rock faithful.

A Song for a Specific Frequency

See What Love Can Do fits the Behind the Sun template exactly. It is a gentle, reflective piece built around the kind of restrained electric guitar work that Clapton had become a master of in this period: never showy, always serving the song, every note placed with the care of someone who knows that you can say as much with what you leave out as with what you put in. The vocal is similarly measured, intimate rather than declamatory, suited to the material's domestic and personal register.

A Brief Chart Appearance

See What Love Can Do debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 29, 1985, entering the chart at 90 before moving to a peak of 89 the following week. The song spent just two weeks on the chart, which makes it one of the briefer appearances in a career full of larger commercial successes. Those numbers are worth noting honestly: not every song by a major artist is destined for the upper reaches, and this one was a quiet album track finding a small but appreciative radio audience rather than a commercially engineered hit.

Clapton in 1985: The Craftsman at Work

What is interesting about See What Love Can Do in retrospect is what it reveals about where Clapton was in his career at this specific moment. He had passed through the period of spectacular achievement and spectacular self-destruction and arrived somewhere more stable: productive, disciplined, committed to a professional standard of craftsmanship that valued serving the song over demonstrating technique. That maturity is audible in the performance, which asks nothing of you except your attention.

The Quiet Side of a Giant

There is a version of Eric Clapton that casual listeners know: the god of the guitar, the Cream, the Layla mythology. See What Love Can Do represents something quite different, the careful, intimate side of a talent that has many rooms. Put it on late in the evening and let the guitar do what it does best in this mode: whisper something you needed to hear.

“See What Love Can Do” — Eric Clapton's singular moment on the 1980s charts.