Favourite Clapton Stuff?

NorioDS · 2008-10-15T20:56:00+00:00

OK this has got more to do with the man's singing than his playing. I find his bluesy stuff hard to listen to. It just sounds like his forcing his voice to...

Favourite Clapton Stuff?

Renesongs

I kind of went off Clapton completely post Blind Faith, 1970 to 2004. I rediscovered Clapton after The Crossroad 2004 concert, Cream at the Royal Albert hall 2005, and Crossroad Concert 2007. There is no doubt in my mind that Eric is at this moment one of the greatest blues guitarist in the world. I would say he is even better now than he was in the 60's when he was considered the god of guitar.

AlanRatcliffe

My fave Clapton stuff is the stuff he doesn't play or sing on ?

I've never really seen the attraction...

DaFiz

The Reptile album was pleasant as I just enjoyed a drive to the Strand this morning. With a little help from some friends... (Joe Sample and Billy Preston, Nathan East, Steve Gadd and the Impressions on background vocals)
and I sang along on the drive, but on the return I had my John Mayall collection playing and I just can't help loving the guitaring on Stormy Monday. :yup:

Bob-Dubery

Renesongs wrote: I kind of went off Clapton completely post Blind Faith, 1970 to 2004. I rediscovered Clapton after The Crossroad 2004 concert, Cream at the Royal Albert hall 2005, and Crossroad Concert 2007. There is no doubt in my mind that Eric is at this moment one of the greatest blues guitarist in the world. I would say he is even better now than he was in the 60's when he was considered the god of guitar.

I think it's very much to Clapton's credit that he's played down the "greatest guitarist on earth" label as much as he can. I believe he still works at his playing and has considerable chops (probably, as you say, MORE chops than he had when people were painting "Clapton is God" on walls in London). This would fit in with something I heard him say not so long ago: "I've never said or thought I was the best player on earth, but I do aspire to be the best player or at least a better player." (not an exact quote, but the gist of what he said is there).

Not that I can think of any player in any genre who does go around saying that they're the greatest - though I'd imagine that Clapton has to deal with such questions more often than most.

Wizard

Just finished reading the autobiography.
Great book ... interesting life.
Now it's time to learn about a different musician.

Wizard

He says he got his reputation because the western world discovered blues through his playing and gave him the credit for the whole genre.

Bob-Dubery

Wizard wrote: He says he got his reputation because the western world discovered blues through his playing and gave him the credit for the whole genre.

I'd be surprised if he said that because it's absolutely not the case (and I mean no disrespect to Clapton in saying that).

Clapton emerged out of a whole scene of British players who had discovered and were inspired by the blues. The key sources here are not so much Clapton, but John Mayall and the Yardbirds. Mayall probably got "turned on" to the blues by Alexis Korner.

What is beyond doubt is that in the late 50s, early 60s the blues and the great blues players (Muddy Waters, the Kings, Elmore James etc) were far better known in Britain than in the USA.

Joe Boyd tells a tale of how in the early 60s he was at a Chuck Berry concert in the UK. He saw a familiar shadow in the wings and said, more to himself than anybody else, "That looks like John Lee Hooker". The teenagers standing around overheard and the whole place went crazy - they all knew who John Lee Hooker was, and the only way for Berry to get things under control was to call Hooker on stage to take a bow.

Pink Floyd are named after two rural blues players - Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. An early inspiration to the Stones (and this is very early, before they got even a sniff of a recording contract) was Elmore James.

Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, Jimmy Page, Syd Barret and Jeff Beck (for starters) were contemporaries of Clapton's and would have been familiar with the classic blues canon.

Even a lot of significant acoustic players in the late 50s, early 60s British scene would have had significant inspiration from the Blues - John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, Martin Carthy for starters - with a key figure there being Big Bill Broonzy.

Wizard

Apologies if I misquoted or misled.
Here's what he actually said:

At this point people began to talk about me as if I was some kind of genius, and I heard that someone had written the slogan 'Clapton is God' on the wall of Islington Underground station. Then it began to spring up all over London, like graffiti. I was a bit mystified by this, and part of me ran a mile from it; I didn't really want that kind of notoriety, I knew it would bring some kind of trouble. Another part of me really liked the idea, that what I had been fostering all these years was finally getting some recognition.
The fact is, of course, that through my playing, people were being exposed to another kind of music, which was new to them, and I was getting all the credit for it, as if I had invented the blues.

Bob-Dubery

Wizard wrote:

At this point people began to talk about me as if I was some kind of genius, and I heard that someone had written the slogan 'Clapton is God' on the wall of Islington Underground station. Then it began to spring up all over London, like graffiti. I was a bit mystified by this, and part of me ran a mile from it; I didn't really want that kind of notoriety, I knew it would bring some kind of trouble. Another part of me really liked the idea, that what I had been fostering all these years was finally getting some recognition.
The fact is, of course, that through my playing, people were being exposed to another kind of music, which was new to them, and I was getting all the credit for it, as if I had invented the blues.

I still find that a bit of a stretch. After all, he did aspire to - and got - a gig with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Mayall was running a blues band prior to Clapton famously taking up the position of lead guitarist. IIRC Davy Graham had the job for a while too.

However it's possible that when you and Clapton talk about "people" you mean, quite reasonably, the man and woman in the street, not spotty little anoraks like me ?

It's quite possible that Clapton's increasing reputation as THE hot player pulled in people whose interests were less academic and more driven by fashion.

I still stand by my assertion that the Blues had already made serious in-roads in the UK pre-Clapton, but it could very well be that his reputation expanded audiences.

Blues licks and scales got absorbed into a broader mainstream pretty rapidly, so I'd not be surprised to find that in the early 70s there were people who'd been listening to Blues influenced players (IE just about everybody under the sun) but not been exposed to somebody who was conciously positioning himself as a blues disciple. I remember the thrill I got when a couple of friends and I "discovered" the blues circa 1974 (we thought Freddy King was da man), and then the penny dropping a couple of years later when I realised that most of the players I'd been listening to owed (conciously or not) a substantial stylistic debt to the blues.

I think that as time got by and we started hearing players whose inspiration was Clapton or Peter Green rather than, say, Albert King or Robert Johnson that both players and public didn't realise the links back to the Blues.

Wizard

Your knowledge on these matters is far greater than mine.
I was just quoting a book I'd read.

My personal reading of this is that he was attempting to be humble, not arrogant - he's looking for a reason for his fame other than his playing.

Ironically he does say "I knew it would bring some kind of trouble"
Seems he was prescient in that regard ?

I'm ducking out of this debate now ... perhaps you need to take this up with Eric?
?

Gearhead

+1 on the blues becoming whiter before Clapton arrived.
+1 on the interpretation of Clapton trying to be humble - it must be hard standing in his shoes.

For those who are not so into Clapton between halfway through the seventies and the end of the eighties - neither is he. In the same interview quoted above he states that most of that time he does not even remember and that in retrospect his music was (I don't recall the exact phrase? pretty mediocre.

Bob-Dubery

Wizard wrote: My personal reading of this is that he was attempting to be humble, not arrogant - he's looking for a reason for his fame other than his playing.

He's clearly playing down any suggestions that he invented a new form of music. Which fits with his reaction to the "but you are the world's greatest guitarist" type statements.

Wizard wrote: Ironically he does say "I knew it would bring some kind of trouble"
Seems he was prescient in that regard ?

Dirk

EC was my hero when i started playing guitar. When i listen him now (Live), his solos is not very good, and at some stages he sounds like he doesnt know what to play next. Although i think he plays acoustic very well.

I quite like his vocal on the more softer songs, specially on his unplugged album. The acoustic and piano solo on "Old Love" is my favourite. and yes, sometimes i get tired of him, but he always manages to slip back onto my Ipod. There's just something magical about him that i cant explain.